Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-02-22
AS ONE WOMAN SEES IT
Women Voters, q Little Puzzled at
First, Are Quietly Learning The
Political Game and. Mean to
Play lt-How the Fac.
tlons Line up
BY SARAH ID, LOWRIE

| by SANAh -. LONhlE
| THERE are certain opinions that people
L take second hand and make the fashion
Temporarily by repeating , them: They ,..r are
conspicuous, but not practical.
One Of these oft.quoted opinions is
Women have been very disappointing in
their influence on politics.
suffrage workers surely, who always said
that women would not vote. Not to the
politicians. who did not wish them to vote.
Not to the League Of Women Voters, which
prestige to any party without knowing just
what they were backing. Not to the reform
parties. who begged them to cut out the old
party system and patiently and after many
defeats help form new party.
warning them to be careful. The Repub.
| licans urged that they vote a straight ticket
without cutting: the Democrats urged that
| they vote n straight ticket without cutting;
the reform parties urged that they cut in
lessly; the League Of Women Voters begged
them to hear all sides and then vote with
| the best side.
| Tn FACT, the text preached from was
caution and the sermon fell upon very
willing cars. for the women were willing
enough to have been laughed at for wanting
the vote and for trying to get 1t. but they
felt 1t point of honor to be neither political
Jokes nor political martyrs once they had the
| franchise. They wished TO be politically
powerful. and they knew that that would
| take long while and could not come at
the first nor the second nor the third eec-
| tion. They were and are content to feel
| their way, to learn the ropes, to stand and
observe, to cautiously acquire the necessary
| data.
So It came about that women who in the
disfranchised days were rather conspicuous
runners for the reform organizations
are no longer spending their political feel
ings lavishly in public. Even to the most
experienced Of them politically the situation
seems much more complex and the factors
less comprehensive than when they we're
vote-free.
II they had rushed in last autumn as
| they ala for suffrage once upon time they
would have been disappointing politically
they would have been very alarming. They
might have temporarily done" for the ma
chine. but they would have quite tragically
done for themselves.
| Let no one suppose the new voters are
standing still waiting for orders. They are
drilling In little squads oil over the country
These little squads are training the leaders
| eventually when the leaders are fully dcvcl-
oped they will lcnd-and not until then.
WHAT happened in this city is perhaps
w case in point. There were three
| train for caders-the suffrage and reform
| party women. the War Committees and
Red Cross and Liberty Loan women. and
| the ward leaders and division leaders rea-
tlons and friends.
The suffrage women, many of them. were
absorbed by the League Of Woman Voters,
| the reform party women Joined the Voters
League. while the War Committee women,
many of them, were actually appointed to
positions Of nominal Importance in both the
RpnublCan DomOrrntir
Meanwhile the friends of the division and
| ward leaders grew active and even asscrtive
as having on the whole the best right
on the ground Of being able to deliver the
| the bosses table.
| BY the end Of the first year the net result
| to all three types was for the suffrage
| workers and many Of the reform party
| workers feeling that it was best to get
into n real party without waiting for new
one to be evolved; for the War Committee
women, who were now party committee
women, nominally at all events. that it was
best to be less nominal and more effective
numerically. and for the women patterned
on the ward boss type that it was time they
were recognized nomnally as we'll as used
| pacatingy.
So by November of last year there loomed
threc recognized groups of political women.
known best by the women about whom they
gathered for the purposes of organization.
TNf1ERE was the party women group,
L Democrats and Republicans. Those
who were Republicans, yet neither for
Moore nor Ware. Penrose nor Sproul, called
themselves non fractional Republicans They
were not appointed, they held no office NOM
| inal or sub rosa under any factional
| leader Their desire was to learn what
| there was TO learn In order to be political
State and county. These women gathered
under the chairmanship, of Mrs. George
| 1orimer in what was called the Republican
Womans Club Of Pennsylyania.
Then there was the Republican State
burton's leadership which comprised all the
| vice chnirmcn Of the counties of the Repub-
| lican State Committee. These women hold
office and very high Office in the Republican
State Committee. They serve until No
If they are TO serve for the next year. They
sit on the State Committee that considers
the nominees for the primary elections and
they have vote In county party affairs and
q consequent leadership of kind in the
| State.
There were two local groups, one nom.
| inally recognized by the Republican machine
under Mrs. Dobson Altemus and the other
| actually recognized by the Republican ma
chine under Mrs. Harmon.
Mrs. Harmon had also club which
| proved effective in the Ware wards and
| which was nomnally at least State club.
| The name was somewhat like the name of
| the one Of which Mrs. Lorimer was chair
| man and it was presumed, therefore, that
| it must be war to the knife between
them, belief Mrs. Harmon seems TO have
| fostered for some reason. perhaps under
| mistaken notion that the more general Re.
| publican organization was designed to rival
her purely Ware machine club But MS the
more general Republican organization is to
| educate the voter and to work for n proprcs
sivcly intelligent, rather than factional or
local. propaganda Its whole scheme of organ
izaton is quite different from the ward
organization Of the club that Mrs. Harmon
has so ably and efficiently welded for the
Ware interests. No doubt the two 3rganizo.
tions will work without friction since their
| activities are different