Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-17

of our party life, that the widening
of feminine influence in our politics
goes organically forward without much
notice from the non-political observers
who concentrate their gaze on famous
woman officeholders as upon stars in
a movie. 1t is not, in politics, the
feminine stars that are changing the
The change is getting gradually and
almost silently consummated by the
masses Of women who, little by little
and more and more, are subjectlng
American party organizations Gust as
they subjected American mining camps)
to the appellate If not the originative,
Judgment of the home.
Women never made mining camps
They made them better. That is the
mass truth, when all the entertaining
stories about exceptional men and wom-
en- have been told to the finish. 1t is
again so in politics.
Service Rendered in Politics.
The transformation of mining camp
into a home town. while giving 1t wom-
en-, gives it (happly) real ones, not
mythical ones. Woman suffrage, in
cidentally bust most Importantly, is per-
forming a similar service for the poll
tics of issues as well as for the politics
of organizations and of offices. At the
county meeting the deliberations which
I have sketchily narrated, vote was
taken on wet" and dry" Speeches
leading up to 1t had been painstakingly
made-on both sides of the question
by controversial and protracted male
speakers. The outcome of the vote at
the end of the evening was oVerwhelm-
ingly wet, with actually larger pro-
portion of the women voting that way
than the men. The community was
wet--its experience with prohibition
had been unfortunate. Regulated sa-
looms had given way, simply, to unregu-
lated speakeasies.
Gone-or at any rate, fast going
are the intimidating and perverting
cancellations: THE women are for
the League; "the women are against
the Navy; "the women are dry; 1.-The
women are for a Federal department
of education" Woman suffrage has
demonstrated the otherwise absolutely
unadmitted fact that some women are
and some women are not. The propa-
ganda of a one-sided feministic menace
is undermined and is falling. 1t is from
this point of view that a sweet but
realistic and very Southern and very
conservative lady has sagely assured
me: well, anyway. woman suffrage
is better than what we had before it
woman agitation"
Over against these benefits of wom-
an suffrage, which seem to me clear
today and destined to be clearer and
clearer tomorrow, place defect which
I hope will some day be removed.
hope that some day woman political
workers will be more insistent upon
genuine outstanding recognition Of
their fellow women OF proved service
to their parties.
Source of Election Wisdom.
Three of the eight "gentlewomen" of
the House of representatives. MI.
Speaker Longworth calls the lot OF
them-I do not have the felicity OF
knowing. The remaining five, as
have thoroughly learned from actual
practical comparisons, can give a po-
litical reporter as much solid, shrewd
election wisdom as he can CLEAN from
any five of their men colleagues. The
three RuthS" and Florence Kahn and
Edith Nourse Rogers need not be called
able "for women" They are wholly
equal to men in penetration OF the
actualities of politics. Let it be granted
that men continue to be the main in
ventors of issues, good and bad. My
theme at this point Is not issues, but
practical electoral operations. In that
Ilelu ItlTOllRIlOub NOliiiNAy NOhltA
are abundantly showing high skill
and sometimes genius-aS undeniable
as that of any of their men competitors
The recognition they are receiving at
the top is tardy pass over the touted
little lists of women who are in city
councils and in State Legislatures and
at the heads Of bureaus and OF sub
bureaus in the Federal Government at
Washington. am more impressed by
the fact that, for the most part in the
supreme management of the national
committees of our parties it is still
expected that women shall. as it were,
be a busy altar guild and do plenty OF
chores without being admitted to the
truly operative inward deliberations OF
the vestry.
Women. instead of being too agrees
sive on behalf of their sex, have turned
out TO be, think, too meek. At the
end of 10 years of Woman's suffrage
/ should say in final comment upon
it that it has given to practical politics
much benefit from the revealed judg-
ments and the revealed determinations
of women in mass but not yet as much
benefit as is possible from the individ-
49, +"lents of women in special indi-
vldual instances of supreme ability,