The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1927-04-30
BANQUET ENDS
WOMEN VOTERS
CONVENTION
Clever Speeches and Early
Zero Hour Mark
Function
Ry JEAN ELIOT


A MAN. who said he had only
"A been trained to speak with his
hands'' made the most quotable ad-
dress at the dinner conference Of the
National League OF Women Voters
at the Mayflower Hotel last evening.
This was j. n. Darling t'Ding'),
cartoonist He rescribed the cartoon
as q sugar-coated pill designed to
tickle the palate of the public into
accepting the bitter medicine of
solid information. And beneath the
sugar coating Of his talk. which
kept his hearers in a gale Of
laughter, there was kernel OF gen.
uine wisdom that almost every
speaker who followed had occasion
to refer to something Mr.. Darling
had said.
Voter, Press and Radio
The dinner last night was de.
signed for discussion OF THE Voter,
the Press and the Radio" 1t
stands out in my mind as unique
among banquets, since the formal
program was over by 1880 O'clock,
leaving time for discussion from
the floor and strength among the
guests to PROFOUND questions and
to be interested in the answers.
The first official pronouncement
from a member of the new Fed.
efal Radio Commission was tea-
ture of the dinner ard went On
the air with the other talks. The
speaker was Henry A. Bellows. who
replaced Secretary Hoover, of Com
merce, on the program, he being
detained in the flood area. Mr..
Bellows made q clear, concise and
weil-expressed exposition OF the
Governments point of view Of the
functions Of its youngest agency
and afterward answered pertinent
questions from the floor.
Offers Radio to League
The question, "What may the
radio mean to the voter?" was an
swered by Merlin H. Aylesworth,
president of the National Broad
casting Company. He began by
saying that the effect of the radio
was already in evidence in the
League of Women Voters in the
precision and expedition with which
its program was being run off. And
he worked up to a climax, greeted
with enthusiastic applause, when
he put the facilities of his company
at the disposal of the league for
use in its campaign of political
education, which Is the reason Tor
its existence.
David Lawrence, president OF the
United States Daily, answered mo,
with variations on the theme, to
the question lis the press encourage
ing men and women to enter public
liter Ralph Turner representing
the United Press Associations, spoke
on docs the press give the voter
adequate and sufficiently balanced
information to aid in forming in.
dependent judgments? How do
present.day tendencies in advertiS-
ing and circulation affect this?-I
comment on, his contribution being
reserved because of the difficulty
Of hearing.
A Magnetic Speaker
TO Bruce Bliven. member Of the
editorial board of the New Re-
public, fell an opportunity to ex-
plain something of the scope of
the weekly journals and their in
fluence upon the potential voter.
A magnetic speaker. knowing well
how to point a moral and ,adorn
a tale" he told of how, in spite
of their small circulation, certain
of the weekIies had a wide in
fluence because they helped form
the opinions of those who form
the opinions of others-editors,
teachers, etc. He spoke of the
weekly being the ideal medium for
crusades and for broadcasting the
voice of minorities. He claimed
that the daily newspaper editor
frequently misjudges ther reader,
who actually knows less than he
is credited with but thinks more.
So the weekly endeavors to give
the necessary information. and pre-
sent it understandable, leaving the
reader to do his own thinking.
The question of the voice of the
minority seemed to interest the au-
dience and several questions from
the floor had to do with the Opor-
tunlty the radio might offer for the
expression, of minority opinion. Will
liam b. Wilson, sometime Secretary
OF Labor, propounded one and John
Ryan another. Frederick William
Vile, also speaking from the floor,
put forth the most amusing anecdote
OF the evening. 1t concerned
broadcasting station which would
not stick to its own wave length,
but pirouetted about interfering with
other stations. When reprimanded
the reply was, I'VE are searching
for God, and IL we can't find him
on our own frequency are deter.
mined to try every other"
Miss Katherine Ludington, first
vice president OF the league, was
toastmistress, and presided with
grace, wit. and brevity. Various
members of the board Of directors,
including Miss Belle Sherwin. presi.
INSonnmmn A1arI