Evening star., 1935-08-11
BY ROBERT CRAWFORD.

CNA"EO OhDs
To wear or not to wear hat on
the floor of the House was the mo-
mentous problem that presented itself
to Mrs. Caroline O'Day of New York
when she first came to Congress.
On the opening of the seventy
fourth session she entered the ma
tional halls of legislation, cool, col
lected, elegant, in her hat and i'm
maculate white gloves, not realizing
that she was doing anything unusual.
She did not know that it simply was
not done 1t might be all right for
woman members of the British House
Of Commons to wear hats-perhaps
because the men do, but not even a
member elect, here.
Glancing shyly around, she saw
woman members were hatless, and 1t
was then she asked her first question
which by the way was not addressed
to the SPEAKER of the House-and
this is where she loves to tell the
story about Representative Florence
Kahn and the gloves: First she
asked Representative Norton of New
Jersey about the amenities of wear
ing hats in the chamber. Mrs. Nor
ton said she had not thought about
it. but there was, she imagined some
unwritten law relative to women not
wearing hats when on the floor of
the House. as she had never seen one
with her hat on.
It was then that she asked the
opinion of Mrs. Kahn, who has been
a kind of mentor for new woman
members; the lady from California,
with her usual quick repartee came
back with the answer that she did
not know about the hat, but as to
those elegant white gloves, what the
woman members of Congress needed
was bare fists.
Since 192l-maybe before-when
Representative ODay became asso-
ciate chairman of the New York
Democratic State Committee, down to
the time when she entered Congress,
she has been written up and down
and across until it seems there could
be nothing more to tell. She has
been good copy because of her per-
sonality, her background, her outlook
on the world and because since a very
young woman she has done worth
while things. She has conceived plans
for the betterment of society and has
had the courage to carry them
through, sometimes against great
odds.
The entire country has been told
that the Representative at Large
from New York, has delightfully."- eX-
pressive, human blue eyes; long taper
ing f1ngers-you know she studied art
for some time in Paris and Munich
that she wears sWanky frocks, most
ly black and white; that she is a
Georgia Cracker by birth and New
Yorker by adoption. But what i'm
presses one most in talking to her is
her honest belief in whatever she ad-
vocates and above all her fairness in
giving credit where deserved.
When Mrs ODay was asked about
her bill-the only one she has in
troduced in Congress-for the repa-
triation of native-born women who
have lost their citizenship by marriage
to an alien, and for other purposes,
she frankly said had it not been for
the assistance of one of her fellow
Representatives she could not have
carried it through at this her first
session.
She has been so busy all these
years trying to help women and little
children to better and more comfort
able lives; she has met so many
charming, interesting people in all
parts of the world in which she has
lived or Travelled that she had not
thought of running for Congress un-
Til she was made to think she could
perhaps crown her life-work by help
ing to get through legislation that
would really make practical all that
she had hoped and worked for.
Mrs. O'Day is no ingenue for she
knows politics-what it all means
but she does think it a privilege to
come to Congress. There are bills
affecting labor, child welfare and i'm
migration; the slum dweller, the
sweat-shop worker, the undernour-
ished children and the overworked
factory girls. She has had years of
practical experience in work that has
to do with all legislation of that kind
and it is her earnest wish to throw
her influence where it will do the
most good.
In the old House Office Building
~nere Mrs. O'Day has her suite of
ofhces the open-door policy evidently
prevails, for on entering the outer
room she can be seen sitting at her
desk in the private Office. No frilly-
looking stenog or important look
ing young man comes forward to
ask what she or he can do for you.
but you walk right in. There NAV
De a lifting of the eyebrows as one
approaches the desk and a sort of
who In the d are you, but every-
thing is instantly made easy and one
Is presented to the Representative
private secretary-another precedent
broken. In the higher registers Mrs.
O'Day's voice is very much like Mrs,
Roosevelt's-maybe propinquity, for
their friendship has lasted through
the years and there is a deep affection