Evening star., 1935-06-09
OutWell-KnOWn Folk
In Books, Art, Politics
Lady Nancy Astor Talked of For British
Cabinet Post-Mrs Norton's
New Portrait.
By ROBERT CRAWFORD.


Lady Nancy Astors home town,
Richmond. Va. is very much pleased
and somewhat excited over the ru-
mor-and with some show of fourlda-
tion-that the Virginia-born member
of the British House of Commons
will succeed Lord Halifax in the new
cabinet as minister of education. If
she should, things would go with
whiz-bang for she has a movin'
spirit and is no respecter of persons
when it comes to speaking her mind,
whether on politics, religion or tenn
peranCe-She is strong advocate OF
the last. She has thrown many a
flrebrand into the House of Com
mons, and the Staid Britishers still
raise their eyebrows when her lady
ship hurls forth one of her choice
bits of caustic wit. Being good look
ing, she can get away with lot
of things that a less charmngly en-
dowed woman would fail in. On the
hustings she is a sort of a Sarah
Jennings. Queen Anne's chum and
erbiter, who made things hum in
the seventeenth and eighteenth CEN
tllries
England was far in advance of
America in recognizing women in
cabinet positions. for the Right Hon
orable Margaret Bondfield, minister
of labor. preceded Nine. Secretary
Perkins by four years. Lady Nancy,
always referred to Miss Bondfleld as
ministries of labor
Scholarship was never one of Lady
Astors strong points, but if she is
made minister of education, chill
drens welfare, in which she is vitally
interested. will receive an impetus.
Down in Richmond, they would not
think of her as a lamp of learning
for her friends remember her more
vividly as romping with her brothers
and spinning down the streets of the
town in a little four wheel wagon
terrifying pedestrians who feared fol
their shins 1t is also recalled by the
dear old ladies of the town that Nancy
was always on the frcnt seat and did
the guiding Maybe that is something
in child psychology.
It seems rather remarkable that as
an American family the Astors we're
strictly commercial and took no in
terest in public affairs. and yet there
are now six members of the family
or connections, sitting in the British
Parliament.
One must not look a gift horse in
The mouth-page Chief Justice Lore
Chancellor Jeffreys-but it's a fact
that the portrait of Representative
Mary Theresa Norton. now on exhibit
ticn in the little theater of down.
town department store, is bit dis
appointing, as it's not half az good
locking as the lady from New Jersey,
and lacks not only much of her
charm but the very alert manner
and dynamic personality that in2-
presses one on seeing her in the
House or at a committee meeting
The gentleman member who thinks
women are not so effective as COM
nlittee chairmen had better look to
his own laurels. as he has found a
foeman worthy his steel. and up in
her bailiWick they will tell him that
Representative Norton asks no favors
on the plea of sex and stands on a
basis of equality in all that she does
In her public life.
1t is understood that the portrait
Is the gift of the citizens OF the
District and is intended for the Dis
trict of Columbia committee room
at the Capitol. 1t is in recognition
of her untiring work for the welfare
of the voteleSs inhabitants OF the
National Capital, with whom she
seems to be in sympathy. and whose
unfortunate plight she perhaps
understands.
AS the portrait is displayed in the
little theater, Mrs. Norton sits in
solitary state at the end of the long
room with most unsympathetic sur
roundings-which would be trying to
portrait by Van Dyke or a Sir
Joshua Reynolds. She is seated at a
desk or table with bill H. R. 7499
before her: her very pretty hands are
too waxy looking. The artist, Mrs
Elaine Hartley Levine. has done some
charming likenesses. lately shown here
To those who loved the late Jane
Addams, the biography by Winifred
E. Wise is particularly grateful at this
time. 1t seems just a day or two
ago that Miss Addams was in Wash
ington being showered with well-de-
served honors and taking it all SO
simply and gracefully. Both men
and women loved her and it is said
that her counsel was as much sought
by the former as the latter. At the
big dinner here when some one would
pay her an especially touching COM
pliment. a questioning look would fit
across her face as if she doubted she
could be the person meant.
This latest biography of one of the
worlds great women. Jane Addams
of Hull House" reveals a knowing
sympathy and understanding of her
life and work. There is nothing par
ticularly new to be told-how could
there be in the life of a woman who
traversed the paths of human want
suffering and disappointment, only tc
arrive at the conclusion that there
was good in everything and that tc
serve ones fellow men was the highes
Christian virtue?
Miss Ellen GlasgoW's book shell
would be more than feet long judg.
ing from list of her favorite book!
recently published. She must have al