Evening star., 1927-04-19
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

washington is invaded-not to say
infested-this week by women, and
the situation is so extraordinary that
it must be put into the Background
of Events" Yet hoW audacious yen-
ture 1t is to undertake to put thou
sands of ladies into the 'background'
of anything when of course they be-
long in the foreground 1t is tempta-
tion to change the heading and revert
to the former head: "In Today's Spot
light" Qf ye have tact, prepare to
use it nowD
The occasion of most of the vista
ton of the fair sex"---as they We're
dubbed when they stood aloof on ped
estals under glass cones-ds the annual
congress of the Daughters of the
American Revolution, represented by
some 1000 delegates and alternates,
from every State and territorial pos
session of the United States. With a
membership now of 10000 and per-
sistent growth averaging 1000 a
month, the d. A. r. is without peer
Or peeress--in the whole world, 1t
concentrates the highest type of
patriotic Americanism, and is power
for the preservation of loyalty to the
ideals of the men and women who
founded the Nation. Contrast its spirit
with that of any of the subyerslve
organizations which truly infest the
land! Contrast its feminine vigor with
-tTact, come forthD
\ y
1t Is easy for a man to gain the
Grand Gordon of the Legion OF Honor.
All that he needs Is to be born French
and do something great and extraor-
dinary. But for a woman to be ac-
\ NJ
Daughters she must begin with her
great-great- at-grandparents-if not pre-
ceding generations-and so regulate
the ancestral line that not one pro-
genitor has ever sung "God Save the
King" She may be lineal descend
ant of Betsy Ross or Patrick Henry,
but with one drop of Tory blood adul-
terating her Americanism it's all of.
Time was when narrow, ignorant
men scoffed at this Oriental worship
of ancestors, as il 1t were mere affec-
tation. yet men have learned that the
racehorse which despises ancestry is
last at the pole. In the meanwhile
the dreams Of the founders OF the
d. A. R.--the original dreamers that
they would live in marble halls
have been outgrown, as well as the
marble palace they erected, so that
now they are planning to build
greater" and say to their souls,
"Soul, take your ease, for we have
much membership and unlimited spirit
laid up" But every one of them is
Martha encountered with response
bilities.
When It became obvious that this
overwhelming of Washington by wom-
en- must be handled today the idea
seemed quite simple. Don't most men
know all about women? The Library
of Congress produced so-called
Guide Book to Women" written by
Mr.. James James, and so it seemed
that an automatic typewriter was all
that was needed for the column. A
few tragic hours of study of that
guide book resulted only in an eXcla-
nation of that classic phrase, Home.
James" when it ended in reading, on
mage 54, "Women's most important
work in life, with the exception of
washing up, is to acquire a husband"
Home, james, Has not the ID. A.
R.-bless 'en-got two husbands-the
Sons of the Revolution and the Sons
of the American Revolution--and yet
a dozen such organizations of sons of
guns could not wipe the dishes OF the
Daughters.
Why, men made tea just once, and
though it boiled over and was bitter,
thew have not yet got through talking
about 1t in Boston or Kalamazoo.
That's the sort of "Injuns" men are!
X X
The day has passed when educated
folks scoffed at the importance Of
heredity. This statement is both
fundamental" and scientific. Mendel
and Burbank have proved the rules
OF heredity. who's Who in America"
and the international Blue Book"
demonstrate it.
There is a thesis written by Dean