Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-16
CLUBWOMEN OF THE NATION
National League of Woman Voters Plan General Counc
Mee+;no at Sessions of Board This Week-Cub Executives
EXCHANGE Ideas at Federation Board Sessions

/ failures of the electorate seemed to
| Justify skepticism of democracy itself.
This situation was q clear challenge
! to the body of woman voters coming
on the scene in 1920. They could hard
| ly fail to see the role that they might
play However many problems might
| clamor for their attention, the prob
| lem of the electorate itself confronted
! them as underlying all others. Tween
| ty million new voters, with no BAD po-
| IiticaI habits las yeti. coming into the
situation at this juncture suggested
possibilities that the most superficial
could not fail to appreciate.
"All parts of our program fall INTO
place when related to this central need
of democracy. All experience in put
ting it into effect has forced us from
the opportuniSt and the concrete into
the general and fundamental. Expert
ments in the political education of
women are a contribution to the gem
eral field of citizenship training. Get
out the vote campaigns lead us to
the question of why voters do not
vote. and from that to the more in
elusive question of the quality as well
as the quantity of the electorate.
Legislative work inevitably leads back
to the voter, who must provide the
and the vigilance needed to see that
they are enforced.
IAN roads have led us to Rome, to
the central problem of the quality of
the electorate. Some say the league
| is not dramatic enough, that 1t should
| concentrate on a cause But have
we not a cause already? Isn't it
something to contribute to the electo-
rate the kind of voters who can be
trusted to see with clarity and work
with intelligent persistence for all
moral issues? Need we ask for more
dramatic or unified cause than to bet
ter the working of our democracy
or one more profoundly patriotic?'
X X X
TN addition to witnessing the trans
action of business of the first i'm
portance to the national organization
| of the General Federation of Women's
Clubs, the meeting of the board of di-
rectors held at headquarters this past
week offered opportunity for an ex-
change of ideas and experiences
among the representatives of the va
rious State groups which proved to
be one of the most valuable phases of
the three-day session.
DR.. Mariana Bertola, director of
Clubs, who also is president of the
San Francisco group, reported that
public health, with special reference
to child care and maternity care,
leads the long and imposing program
of activity outlined by the federated
clubs of her State.
California has placed around the
child the protection, the assistance,
the efficiency, the vision of every de-
partment of its great federation and
in turn every department is so aug
mented that 1t is helping the child
to have a better environment" said
DR.. Bertola. California club women
are working vigorously toward the
end that there may be children's
ward in very county hospital and a
maternity hospital in every county of
California ands every State of this
union. Because. when a mother goes
down in the Valley of the Shadow of
Death for that child, she is entitled
| to the best that the State can give
| her"
DIR. Bertola has taken an active
part in civic, club and medical circles
of California for many years. She
has been identified with every inn
portant movement for child welfare in
California during the past decade and
| is personally responsible for much of
the accomplishment that has put
California in an enviable place in the
roll of States.
X X X X
THE place of the woman'S club in
= the community as vital factor
commensurate in Importance with the
home, the church or the school was
the subject of a round-table talk by
Miss Emily Louise Plumley, president