Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1922-03-14
A Lady Among the Lords.

Thus does the feminist movement
carry another stronghold of long
entrenched masculine privilege" as
serts the Norfolk Firginian- Pilot.
commenting upon the action of the
house of lords committee on priVil-
eyes in granting Viscountess Rhond-
do seat among the peers. tri-
umph, which, in the opinion OF the
New York Globe. "is chiefly inter-
esting as the ultimate achievement of
the feminist movement" since the
viscountess will become a member
of one of the most ornamental and
least useful legislative bodies in the
world"
Further discounting the practical
advantage of Nisoountess Rhondda's
achievement, the Chicago Journal
calls attention to the possibility that
.one of these days there won't be
SIT in; and there is at least an even
chance that such day will come
before the gifted daughter Of the food
controller has a successor or COM
panion of her own sex. AT al
most any moment some issue may rise
that will range the nation on one side
and the peerage on the other, and ~hen
that happens the hereditary legislators
will have to go. The Briton may love
a lord. but not enough to stand much
interference from him." BADLY as
i'they have been denied time and again
in the last fifteen years or so. the old
notions of the peerage of England
were given the worst wrench they
ever received" when the viscountesS
was admitted, thinks the Reno Ga
zette.
The effect of this innovation in the
house of lords will be seen in a far
larger representation of women in
the apper house of parliament than
is ever likely to be had in commons"
prophesies the Richmond News-Lead-
err, since las the new theory of sue
cesson is extended, it is quite likely
that the heiresses of peers in prac-
TIERS seats, in default of direct male
issue" "Only few years ago no
body could have foreseen that the
rules which in exceptional cases al
low women to inherit titles would in
1922 give the house of lords a much
larger feminine membership than any
other of the leading legislative bodies
of the world can show" states the
New York Herald. assuming that
other peeresses entitled to admission
under the decision affecting Wis
selves of the privilege. The Boston
Transcript thinks that although the
new member of lords is the repre-
sentative and presumably pro-
tagonist of the privileges Of birth"
new and picturesque touch to the
proceedings of that body. especially
if she is followed by other ladies who
are similarly eligible" That 1.-The
tory conservatism of the house Of
lords is in for a shaking up. probably
marked the entrance Of Lady Astor
into the lower house of parliament"
ia the belief of the Wilkes-Barre
Record. with the crippling of it's
powers the house of lords has lost
much of it's prestige, says the Pitts
burgh Chronicle-Teiegraph, put with
nathy with progressive legislation it
nav Obtain a new lease of life. The
onenine of it's doors to women is GER
tainly in line with the spirit of the
times"
N.n, WYE world. at is all the doing
Of the daughter Of hard-headed old
Welsh mine owner, raised to the
neeraee during the war, who had
backed David Lloyd George in his
early days when he made his first
political appearance a.
!of welsh nationalism. Lady Rhondda
promises to be neither , fhro moist abb Of
the neers who make up its numerous
membership" ''If she proves as cap
able in the lords as she has been in
business management. TINS mrs. Wom-
in modern ,e th tm anc aeoald house. ns
whose mending or ending Is again
campaign topic tim in P efsss Sriti Bis.
patch. .'She is woman OF uncom-
an. an3x o attended, sid to po shs
great business in coal. ships ana
steel Inherited from her father. but
has found time to head the Women's
[ Industrial League, to edit maya
llzine, and to take hand in welfare
movements, especially those relating
to woman workers. She ts good
speaker, and she does not mince her
words. The house Of lords VIII be
aware that Lady Rhondda IL present."
thinks the New York Tribune
All of which sets some papers 70
musi4g upon the frsti woman sena :