Evening star., 1941-07-06

the congressional wives decided TO
investigate the possibility OF visiting
Latin American diplomatic missions
here.
When they were assured of a well
come a five-month schedule of week
" trips to the various embassies and
Legations was arranged and 80 men,
bers of the Congressional Ciuo
signed up for the series.
High lights of the tours were talks
on their respective countries by
members of the diplomatic staffs-
usually the ambassadors or minis
ters themselves.
Question and answer periods al
WAYS followed and often the group
was entertained at tea.
When a Latin American diplomat
was unable to receive the women at
his country's embassy or legation.
the lecture went ahead on schedule
at the Pan-American Union. One
of the tours also was devoted to the
Pan-American Union. with DR.. L. S.
Rowe. the director. making talk.
Record of Tours Kept
And Mimeographed.
How the women utilized the infor-
nation obtained during the tours
was an interesting sidelight of the
project.
During the first two seasons
when We were visiting Government
departments and agencies-We made
notes ourselves. but nobody wrote
them up" Mrs. Murdock said.
so last year it was suggested that
members of the party tax themselves
S. each and have a stenographer
so along to keep the record"
Mimeographed reports from the
stenographer'S notes were then pre-
pared and distributed to all the
party, Mrs. Murdock explained, In
many cases the club members sent
the reports on the lectures to their
congressional districts back home
for use in club programs or for other
educational purposes.
In Mrs. Murdock's State, the Ari-
zona Federation plans to have the
reports printed for use Of its af1ll-
ated clubs.
As author OF a column, Wash
ington Life" which appears as
feature in the Sunday Republic OF
Phoenix. Ariz.. Mrs. Murdock also
found her notes of considerable
value in the educational features
she stresses in the column. A good
many Arizona schools use the
column. so the material found its
way into useful channels.
The Congressional Club. Incl
dentally, was the beneficiary OF a
considerable portion of the IS fee
which members paid at the outset
of the tours.
Tours to Be Continued
Next Season. Too.
On several occasions 1t was Diff
cult to obtain help in arranging the
notes to be mimeographed and Mrs.
Mllrdock did lot of the work her
self. AS the fee had been more
than ample to take care Of expenses,
the result was a 5000 surplus which
was turned over to the club for Its
building fund.
Not the least important outcome
of the tour was the promotion OF
personal friendships between con-
gressional wives and the wives OF
Latin American diplomats. Not only
did they meet during the course OF
the series. but a tea at the Congress
, sional Club for the wives of the
ambassadors and ministers who had
been hosts to the group was the con-
cluding feature of the educational
program. :,
Mrs. Murdoch also was interested
in the fact that the list of those
making the tours showed that DEM
ocrats and Republicans were about
evenly divided. representative
Murdock Is a Democrat but his wife
was pleased to note that on several
of the trips the Republican women
present outnumbered the Democrats.
Plans for continuation OF the
tours are being made for next sea-
son, though the group has not yet
decided what points will be visited.