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

frage, but it was contrived by male zeal
and properly bore the name not of any
woman but of Mr. Wesley L. Jones
Not one of the eight women in the
Federal House of Representatives can
for moment aspire to equal the pro-
libitory ardency of such male MEM
as Mr.. Louis G. Cramton. The vets
among those eight women are deter
mined vets, and the drys among them
are for the most part fairly indetermi-
nate and unbelligerent "drys." Nobody
can look at the dry cause in the Con-
gress and fail to perceive that the fan
ming of its fame there is still done
supremely and dominantly by the men,
Chief Value of Woman Suffrage.
That cause nevertheless precisely illus
trateS the value which / have made
bold to urge as the chief value of wom-
an suffrage-the breaking down of
Fictitious barriers between the courses
OF thought OF the sexes and the min
Cling OF those courses in channels die
tated not by supposed seX-confiict but
by the noted needs of a locality or of
party or of general social group.
The county committee meeting to
which l alluded some moments ago was
normal illustration of the working OF
this process. There could be observed
in it. as in thousands of similar meet
ialgs in any given current year nowadays,
IN all parts Of the country, the new de-
velopments which both enlarge the in
duene OF women and strip 1t of mytho-
logical assumptions.
The scenic surroundings of the meet
ing were vast improvement upon
those which in the purely masculine
days gone by had always-within my
ecollection-inspired the committees
labors. There was little or no resort,
for instance, to neighboring bars for
refreshment of eloquence. The bars
we're abundantly adjacent, and were
buslly engaged in speaking easily even
in the midst of the hush-hush of sup
posed prohibitory extinction. They were
not speaking at all, however, to the
gentlemen who were occupied in being
the meetings. managers or--for that
matter-tO the gentlemen who were on
the floor of the hall we're occupied in be-
ing at their incest and best to the LADY
cCmmitteeWomen" from their precincts
The atmosphere was one of gallant,
even If eXhaus tive, decorum.
1t also was one of nobly attempted
argumentatiye performance Gone were
the intellectually painless methods of
| the heroic age. when from the sawdusty
/ floor a simultaneously inebriated bah
BILE would cut short the chairmans eff
forts TO read his proposed contribution
to the eternal principles OF the APP
preaching county convention, and when
the unsolicited approval of the meeting
would instantly follow his exordium of
/ Gentlemen" with definite cries of
We're with you, Joe" The remainder
| of the evening could then be devoted
to the playing of pinocnle.
Burly Methods Employed.
Those burly and brisk methods of
! arriving at a discovery of party opinion
] had been discarded in favor of pro-
| 'onged calculations of all points in
/ golved in disputed local party policies
/ Most of the calculations, as is usual
| In such meetings i'm so far as they have
come under nv wandering Journalistic
eye, were by the men. The most at
! tentive listening-as is also, l have no.
ticed usual-Was by the women. Al
the end of the evening deliberate votes
were taken and the views of the elect
ed representatives Of the rank-and-fil
voters of that party in that county were
genuinely ascertained.
1t Is in such gatherings, at all leyeli