The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1923-08-28
NATIONS twelve
GREATEST WOMEN
A MOTHER HEADS THE LIST,
COMMITTEE FOUND TASK
EXTREMELY DIFFICULT.

WASHINGTON. - After months
of debate, comparing of views and
study of achievement committee OF
| the National League Of Women Vo-
tiers has agreed upon the II foremost
women of today and has included in
that list the name of Florence Rena
Sabin, of Baltimore, distinguished
anatomist of Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity.
Others in the list are Jane Adams.
philanthropist; Cecilia Beaux, paint
ing; Julia Lathrop, child welfare; An
ma Jump Cannon, astronomy; Louise
Home, music; Carrie Chapman Gait,
politics; M. Carey Thomas, educa-
ton: Anna Botsford Comstock, nat
ural history; Martha Van Rensselaer,,
home economies; Minnie Madden
Fiske, stage, and Edith Wharton, lit
erature.
Request Comes From Chile.
Just a year ago Senorita Manduja-
no, a Chilean delegate to the Pan
American Conference of Women in
Baltimore, asked the National League
of Women Voters, which called the
conference, to give list OF the IL
greatest living American women so
that she might write about them tor
South American women. The request
seemed so simple that nobody thought
of refusing it.
Anybody, off hand certainly could
name Il, or even "a, greatest wo-
men," a league statement today says.
There was not the slightest difficult
ty about it and in an incautious mo-
ment the league, or the league. otfi-
GERS at headquarters, consented to
supply the list.
Choice Is Difficult.
Leagues in all the states were ask
ed to send. in names for consideration,
and they did. Hundreds of lists pour
ed into league headquarters and 1t
was presently seen that while naming
so great American women might be
a simple matter selecting a dozen
only, and those the greatest, needed
the wisdom of Solomon and wider
knowledge than even Solomon pos
sessed of all the fields in which wo-
men are doing great work"
Mrs. Maud Wood Park, president
of the league, speedily decided that
an extra league committee should be
appointed to select the names, Tor she
frankly confessed that she could not
take the responsibility of signing any
list all by herself, or even with the
board of directors of the organization.
A committee was formed by the wo-
mems joint congressional committee
and it is no secret that finding men
and women to serve on it was no easy
matter. Few persons were will
ing to attempt so impossible a task
as selecting the II unquestionably
preeminent women in the United
States. The committee as finally Sc
lected set to work and found in the
first meeting that nobody has ever
adequately defined greatness.
Puts a Mother at Top.
Mrs. Parks own declared convic-
ton is that the greatest woman she
has ever known is a>wonderful moth
er who has dragged fatherless fam
lily out of a cellar to a prosperous
home, and her greatness is not sus-
pected outside the very few persons
who knew her in her direst poverty.
For the most obvious OF reasons
women like that cannot be named,
the league adds. at is humanely i'm
possible to know who the really great
est women in the country are, but the
committee realizing this has finally
decided on a list. 1t presents the
names as the II living American wo-
men who have definitely contributed
most in their several fields to the bet
terment of the void.