Evening star., 1928-04-01
Continued from First Page.)

lead all the rest There may be some
moral to this. but 1t does not come
Immediately to mind wyoming, for
instance, which was the first of the
Union to recognize equal suffrage rights,
back In 1859. has but one woman lcgis-
lator. Connecticut. which opposed
woman suffrage to the last ditch, has Is.
-
Politics is a hard school. To succeed
one must begin at the bottom and work
up. What member OF Congress for in
stance. cannot remember the time when
he was an assistant prosecuting attor-
ney? Few men have been able to
plunge into politics and land In Con-
RreSs Immediately without spending a
good part of their lives as minnows,
learning and taking orders from the
big fiSh. So II Is interesting TO find
that while there have been eight
women elected to Congress in the last
decade. two women elected as Gov
ernors OF States. scores OF them elected
to the State Legislatures the majority
OF the women In elective offices are
found In the counties and municipaii-
ties, where they are learning the political
game In Its simpler forms and are. no
doubt, preparing themselves for the
heavier responsibilities OF higher ONCE.
When these women attain higher Office
they will be more skilled in the intri-
cacies of politics than those women
who have preceded them, as 1t were. In
one bound Women now have made
more inroads into county Offices than
In any other branch of government.
according to the League of Women
Voters. A woman, Miss Annie Matthews,
is serving her second term as registrar
OF New York County, while Mrs. e. w.
Bemis is the only woman commission
er of the well known Cook County.
Illinois Fifty-two of the So counties In
Colorado have woman superintendents
OF schools; In Idaho 80 of the ~ coun-
ties have woman superintendents, and
the same ratio Is found TO prevail In
| Minnesota. Montana. Wyoming. WASH
ington, Wisconsin and New Mexico.
The positions OF county treasurer,
county clerk. county register Of deeds
are found TO attract many women
Illinois has woman coroner and four
States have woman shertffs. There are
three In Kansas. one In Ohio. two In
South Dakota and three In Wisconsin.
In Wisconsin a statutory provision pro-
hibits a sheriff from succeeding him.
self The three woman sherifIs In Wis
consln were elected TO succeed their
popular husbands. and Immediately
upon election appointed their hus-
bands deputy sheriffS. BY this system
family can retain the proud Office of
sheriff for generations without n break.
A woman. Mrs. Bertha X. Landes. is
the mayor Of Seattle, Wash. She leads,
In the importance of her Office. list of
Al least 10 other communities which
have elected woman mayors. Mrs.
John r. Pratt. who has gotten her
name In the papers more than once
| lately. In serving her second term as
a member Of the board of aldermen
of New York City. Mrs. Anna L. Smith
In the commissioner OF public welfare
The cities oi Cleveland, Ohio: Cam
bridge, Mass: Portland. Me. Des
Moines Iowa: New Haven, Conn. and
Columbia Heights. Mimi. are among
the cities that have woman members of
their city councils. The positions OF
city clerk. city treasurer, commissioner
OF accounts and membership on char
ter commissions are being held In large
numbers by women, In one State,
Minnesota. 1919 per cent more women
were serving In the municipal field In
1927 than In 1926.
Judge Florence e. Allen of the Su-
DTeme Court Of Ohio holds the highest
judicial position ever held by woman.
Several women are municipal Judges,
one of them being Judge Mary O'Toole
OF Washington. and many women are
Judges OF Juvenile courts. another posi-
tion that In Washington is filled by a
woman, Judge Katherine Sellers. In
many States women are serving as
assistants To the State attorneys gem
eral and as assistant United States at
t0fneys A few years ago police
woman was an unknown quantity. To-
day there are ieR cities and towns
without one 10 Ave polieewomen. and
nearly all Of the large cities have estab~
lished women's bureaus.
Such sketchy survey AS this one
gives general, II not complete and
accurate, view Of women In public
ONCE, II In perhaps enightening for
the simple reason that women In pub
lie once were unknown few years
/ ago, But one may wonder what the
result would be II computation were
made Of all the public offlees In the
United States and from II drawn an
estimate 0f the percentage of these
public offices filled by women. This
percentage would be small Perhaps Il
would be smaller than the part taken
by women az voters In the last national
conventions,
Simon Mtehelet, Washington At.
l0rney. has written n pamphlet for dis
tributinn by The National Get -Out-the. .
Vote Club 10 show that women had
only 10 per cent voice In the national
party conventions Of 1924. In the
Republican national convention nj
Cleveland In 1924 the delegates cast
100 votes. OF which women cast III
thus taking the short end Of a I0~to~i /
voting ratio The Democrats In the
rase Of 20 States multiplied the four
delegates NJ large TO eight per State,
| each delegate casting one~half vote.
| This method added a large number OF
women 10 the delegations, but the
actual number of votes they east was
| iiDia. or only Ola more votes than the
w0nan delegates nj the Republican eon~
| Venti0n Neither party gave woman
place on the platform and resolutions
committees In tha Republican com