Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-01-06
VOTE FOR DISTRICT.
ONE Of CHIEF AIMS.
OF WOMEN'S UNIT
Education Favorite Weapon
Of League Organized in
May, 1921.

Inc VOtclcsS 0lStIlCt VI SO4AiDAn
League of Women Voters is compare
lively young, but so are women in po-
litical life. Organized on May rs,
1921, as a branch of the National
League of Women Voters, the local
women have tried for 10 years to break
the manacles Of disfranchisement in
the District.
After the passage Of the suffrage
amendment in 1920, it was realized
that many women needed instruction
in how to vote. A national election
was imminent, in which 20,000,000
women would be voting for the first
time. It was then the National League
of Women Voters came into existence,
largely as an educational organization
to teach the newly enfranchised wonl-
en- the lessons of citizenship, bring
home to them their responsibilities as
citizens and teach them how to in
form themselves on public questions.
Purposes Outlined.
Believing an awakened womanhood
will educate itself politically, the
league has endeavored to enlighten
and inspire the individual woman citi-
zen, has never ceased informing women
that the responsibility is theirs and
has tried TO make them realize that the
ballot Is an fundamentally through
which efficiency in government may
be assured
The word "voteless," both in the
name of the organization and in the
title of the monthly bulletin of the
group, The Voice of the Voteless," is
intended to call attention Of the en-
franchised citizens of the United
States to the disfranchised condition
Of the District.
For years the league together with
the Citizens Joint Committee on Ma
tional Representation, has struggled
for congressional action on the consti-
tutional amendment that would give
the right to District residents to vote
In national elections and to have rep
resentation in both houses Of Con-
gress. This fight is being handled by
the Committee on Government and Its
Operation, headed by Mrs. Charles
Weston.
Concerted Action Sought.
Recently Miss Marguerite Wells, ma
tional president, made an appeal to
the State leagues to undertake the
getting of the State Legislatures to
memorabilia the Congress to submit
the proposed District amendment to
the Legislatures for ratification. Cali
fornia has responded and will under
take to get the desired action in the
next session of its Legislature.
Holding national representation as
vital American privilege to which
every citizen is in equity entitled the
league points out that the District Is
more populous than eight States. pays
more national taxes than "a States
and more than nine States combined
and sent more soldiers to war than
seven States. The voteleSS women
further show the population Of voting
age in the District exceeds that of 10
of the States and that the District is
the only capital in the world without
the same representation as other
cities.
The various departments Of the
Voteless District of Columbia League
of Women Voters are continually busy
studying problems Of the moment.
The Committee on Government and
Economic Welfare. under Mrs. William
Kittle, is now studying unemployment
insurance and giving careful exam
ination to the proposals of President
Roosevelt for social security. This
committee also will work in Congress
to secure passage of new eight-hour
law for woman workers, which was
drafted by the group with the aid of
legal experts.
Investigate Nursery Schools.
The department on government and
education. headed by Mrs. Dudley
Wilson Willard, is attempting to find
out whether the nursery schools in the
District, which have developed through
the cooperation Of the F. E. r. A.
with the School Board, should become
an integral part Of the school system
when the emergency situation is over.
To have them so would require the
elimination from the District appro-
priations bill of stipulation against
the use Of school funds for the instruc-
ton of children under S years.
After two years of intensive study
on the problems of juvenile delin-
quency in the District, the depart
ment of government and child well
fare, under Mrs Jesse Adkins. has
drafted bill in cooperation with the
United States Children's Bureau that
would substitute for the present Juve-
nile Court law, which provides for
criminal procedure in juvenile cases,
the more modern and almost univer-
sally accepted chancery procedure.
Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Friedman
and her Committee on Government
and Legal Status Of Women works
relentlessly to remove legal discrimi-
nation against women, while the de-
partment on government and inter-
national cooperation, headed by Mrs
Henry Chalmers, has been making a
study of the new nationalism" to
discover its effects on trade, interna-
tional agreements and good will.
Present Officers.
Responsible for the success of the
present administration is Mrs. Rich
ard Hogue, who heads the local group
together with Mrs. Adkins, first vice
president; Mrs. Gardner Jackson, Sec
ond vice president; Mrs Alice Colbert
Sheldon, recording secretary; Mrs.
Edna L. Johnston, corresponding Sec
rotary. and Mrs. Albert H. Putney,
treasurer. The directors for this
year are Mrs Basil Manly and Mrs.
Lyman B. Swormsted. Directors for
1886 are Mrs. Edward p. Costigan and
Miss Fay Bentley.
Some of the prominent women in
the league include Mrs. Franklin
Delano Roosevelt, Mrs. Gertrude Nc
MILAN, Mrs. Costigan, Mrs. Charles
McNary, Mrs. Ben McKelway Miss
Katherine Lenroot, Miss Mary Ander-
son, Mrs. Adkins, Mrs. Henry Grafton
Doyle, DR.. Louise Stanley, Mrs. A. j.
McKelway and Mrs. Burton K.
Wheeler.
Women who have presided over the
league in the past are Miss Harlean
James, Mrs. Laura G. Williams, Miss
Elizabeth Eastman, Mrs. George A.
Kicker, Mrs. Albert H. Putney, Mrs.
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