New-York tribune., 1922-09-30
Declare Threat to Walk
Out If Hearst Won OPP
Grated as Club Over
the p arty Leaders
Opinions Divided
Over Wet Plank
Platform Accepted With
out Dissent, However;
To Ask No Offices
By Emma Bugbee

o. nhCoSE, sept. ZS.--lC was Worl-
ans victory. There was as much re-
joicing among the women delegates to
the Democratic State Convention to-
night as If they and they alone had
influenced the decision of Murphy as to
the best candidate. Down in their
hearts they undoubtedly knew that they
alone could not have effected the vic
tory for Alfred E. Smith, but they also
knew that their unfinching determine
tion to defeat Hearst had been a de-
|termining factor.
The women yielded double-headed
threat. They pictured two-act trag-
edy. They pictured to the sensitive
imaginations Of the party leaders a
scene in which woman after woman,
leader Of the women vorers of her
county, picked up her handbag and her
bundle Of newspapers and silently, stoI-
idly walked down the long aisles of the
Syracuse Arena, out Of the convention
and out Of the party. 1t would have
been dramatic sight and not pretty
one For the party's pride.
The second act of the tragedy was
located in the State of New York and
the time wgs Election Day, 1922. There
we're more than few women in this
scene. They were numbered by the
thousands, women who could not vote
for Hearst, no matter how loyal their
belies in Democratic principles. They
would be not only officials and women
OF influence up state. those who are
,con1paratiyely free from the domina-
tion Of the Tammany organization, but
women OF New York City itself, women
who would say little in public but in
the secrecy Of the ballot box would
refuse to vote for Hearst.
Says Woman Vote Can't Be Delivered
Tho woman vote is an uncertain and
complicated thing. 1t can never be de-
livered wholesale, no matter what the
issues or who the candidate may be,
but 1t was made evident at this SYRIA.
euse convention that there are some
things the woman voter will not stand
for-some things at least that the poll
ticians do not dare ask the women
voters to stand for.
The ultimaturn Of the fifty upstate
women county leaders duly reached
Room 2a2 last night
Four or five women leaders (nct all
from up state, though the majority
were those who have been active in the
demand for SMITH waited for the re-
sponse. Their plans were made. If
necessary they were ready to order q
retreat from the convention this morn
Ing. In this they were to be led by
wealthy and influential upstate county
leader, whose family position is such
that no reprisal would ever touch her.
1t would not be necessary.
r. was only necessary tO see the
change In their faces this morning to
know that their battle was won.
Women who had scuttled through the
halls with 8 worried look or had
adopted the pose Of serenity and con-
tidence as part Of the battle, these
women were smiling openly this morn
ing and chatting freely with every
body.
But it was when all the suspense
was ove-when the hotel was filled
with huge headlines that "Hearst quits
depth Of the wonaen's emotions was
revealed,
They stopped being politicians and
became schoolgirls again.
5ubilant as Schoolgirls
"Isn.s il perfectly gorseous2" .r, 4
could have kissed the newsboy." "I'm
eGiye roe en- Al Smith hutton---bless
his hearth "I'm just tickled pink
oh, oh, oh:'
And this is what the leader Of o Man
haitian Assembly District said:
81 tell you I'd have walked wight out
OF that convention. Yes, would, even
il was read out Of tho party. Say
what you will, the wcinan did It. The
women have got mere backbone than
any. group OF men that ever get to-
getner."
There were smiles on the faces of
others, smiles and apologies fer their
failure to speak ons
"She's an .officeholder. Don't ssg her
for statement" her frisnds wouiG de-
fend her, and then they wooll ba og in
@ corner, smiling and squeezing enc
niother's hands.
Miss Harriet Nay Mills, chairman Of
tcouBnnsa en- asxi raas)