The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-01-29
Nazi Ban on
Women Will.
Fail in End.
Hitler Theory Upset by
Recently Ended Life
of Frau Heyl.
JAN. %. 1ssz=
BY GRETTA PALMER,
Times special Writer

NEW YORK, Jan. 2e.-There are
~ some forms OF achievement
which bring you immortelles and
laurel Vreaths and a permanent
foot Of marble in the hall Of fame
Other accOmplishments-such as
advancing the cause of women's
emancipation - become part and
parcel OF the world you leave be-
Id you. so Jnat the thankless
generations who profit BY your ef-
forts give no thought 10 the pioneer
who made their freedom possible.
Only once in a while does some
one have occasion to look up the
yeIlowing, brittle clippings in the
newspaper reference departments,
which record the life Of some half
forgotten feminist.
Knew Expresses Intimately
In such clippings is preserved the
story Of Frau HedWig Heyl, who
died last week at the age Of 80. Frau
Heyi was the friend Of two en-
presses Of Germany. She was the
organizer Of the Lyceum clubs OF
that country. She was instrumental
in helping the German population
to work out a healthful Diet dur
ing the years OF the English block
ade. But she did more than that.
In 1904, the clippings tell you, she
headed the International WOmen's
Congress, held in Berlin-and 1904
was a year in which it took courage
to espouse the WOman'S cause.
In 1906 she organized an exhibit
ton of Woman in Her Home and
OccupatiOnal Life" in Berlin, which
won wide attention from the some
what skeptical editors of the time.
Headed Dye Business
Since her husbands death, in 1869,
you see, she had been the sole head
of the dye works he left her and
had instituted reforms in the way
of Fairgrounds and gardens for the
workers children which should have
demonstrated for all time that the
German woman was capable OF
more than kinder, kirche, kueche.
There is pathOs in such clippings
as these, in which the fugitive
words of a woman. told to a forgot
ten writer. are preserved after she
has died. There is an additional
tragedy involved in this case, for so
much of the ground gained by Frau
Heyl's gallant efforts seems in Nazi
Germany TO have been lost.
The entire philosophy OF the Hit
Ter movement entails a refusal to
recognize the achievements Of such
women as Frau Heyl. It's basic
policy is a denial of the proven fact
that women can do such things as
she accomplished The avowed aim
of the Nazi party is the reputation
OF such dynamic lives as hers. Why?
Because she was a woman.
Burden of Proof on Men
It is an argument which has pre-
vailed too long for a reasonable
race.
As long as wOman's capacity to do
a mans work" still was a mere
pOtentiality the scoffers might hope
to suppress her. They can not do
it now. The burden of proof has
passed from the feministS to the
opposite camp; they have to prove
to us our inferOrity before, in COM
mon justice. they can deny our right
to compete.
Such a career as Frau Heyrs re-
mains a lasting answer to the
enemies of women's freedom. Per-
haps the German wives will be sent
back TO the kitchen and kept there
for awhile Perhaps the Nazi lead
ers will make their little girls for
get for a time that women ever
dared to emerge from their homes
and compete on equal terms with
men-and do it competently, too.
Facts Will Endure
But they can not suppress re-
corded fact. Even if no busts are
made of her. even if no statues are
unveiled. the accomplishments of
Frau Heyl for German womanhood
still will go on.
For some day an inquisitive Ger
man woman is going to look through
the muSty files of old newspapers
and learn that a German woman
once achieved the things which she
is taught that no woman can ever do.
And that girl is going to gain
courage to go out into the world
and do them againl