Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-02

IN SHAPING our social, educational
and civic structure the leadership
must be taken by women.
Let the burden of adjustment OF
American industry and commerce to
meet the modern needs rest largely on the
shoulders of the men.
we women, as mothers. and now as part
ners in the electorate want to assume the re-
sponsibiiity of giving to the community that
touch of life which we are under oplgaClohS
to give as homemakers to the family lfe
NO do not mean that women are not to
: become part and parcel of the business worlo'
il they want to, and if they are fitted for as
Stunning such a place. Certainly that Is Vner
privilege and their right.
But the majority of American women are
stiA home women instead of business women
d They are housekeepers and homemakers. Nine
ty-eight per cent of clubwomen are home Wonl-
en- not business women. Let them assume the
duty of doing community housekeeping. Just
as they allow no dirty corners in their houses
let them see that there are no dirty corners
in their communities no disgraceful back alleys
and dirty back yards.
LAS they see that their houses have modern
plumbing and heating and lighting, let them
see that their communities are well organized,
let them see that there are no sections OF their
cities with antiquated sanitation methods. Let
them see to it that homes having no running
water and sewer facilities are eliminated. AS
they assure lovely homes for their families, let
them assure at least healthful and sanitary
homes for everybody in their communities"
THESE are the sentiments of Mrs. John F.
Sippel personally, and they represent the
policies which are to be pursued during her
regime as president OF the General Federation
of Women's Clubs. They seem to constitute
Just the right sort of policy for Mrs. Sppei TO
have-just the sort of thing you would expect
of her, for essentially Mrs. Sippel is the mother
woman.
There is gentleness in her face, set off by
its grazing hair which makes a great many
people tell her that she reminds them of their
mothers. 1t is the mother-face, Softened and
nodded by sympathy and understanding of the
problems of her child and her grandchild.
She is a descendant of one of the earliest
of the Maryland settlers and she did her first
club work for the Daughters of the American
Revolution. Then she became interested in
the problems of rural women and served on
the Agricultural Commission of the State of
Maryland. At last she found the work best to
her taste and talents in the General Fedora
ton OF Women's Clubs in guarding and guild
ing the American home and the American
community.
Now she holds the reins to direct the actvi-
ties of more than 100000 women, not only
in America, but i'm other parts of the world
1.-The federation is a general federation, not
a national American federation" Mrs Sip
pei explained There are 60-odd clubs in 16
tralia in Japan, China. Austria. England, Ger
many France and Czechoslovakia, now affiliated
with the thousands of American clubs in
organization
There are so many things in the field of
public welfare that we home women espe-
ciaiIy qualified to do because of our house,
keeping and homemaking experience For in
stance at the present time, many large manu-
facturers moving their plants away from
the congested districts of our large cities into
the smaller towns and country districts for
business and humanitarian reasons. Their
taxes will be smaller in the rural areas, and
they will be able to build the right type of
buildings for their plants because of increased
space.
1T is up to the women in the communities
to which these plants are coming to see that
the newcomers will have the right sort of hous-
ing that there will be libraries, schools and
churches and recreatonal centers. They owe
q duty to their town, which must suddenly
expand rapidly to double or triple its size, to
see that there will be some definite plan for its
growth that the streets will be made wide
enough, that parks and Fairgrounds will be
provided for, that proper schools will be built
and that proper sewage facilities will be PLAN
ned and installed. The men will undoubtedly
DO carrying the weight OF the burden of the
business end of the work and the expansion.
Il Is up to the women to get the new big vision