Maryland women's news. [volume], January 15, 1921, Page 334, Image 6

About Maryland women's news. [volume] ([Baltimore, Md.]) 1920-19??

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334
Washington, D. C.
ALL these years the Woman Citizen has been telling what both men
and women think of Congress. Turn about is fair play, and the
Woman Citizen stands for fair play. Therefore, this week we are open
ing our columns to tell our readers what Congress thinks of the League
of Women Voters.
It is safe to assume that Congress is doing more thinking than ever
this year about those other representatives of the people in Washington,
the lobbyists.
There is the big woman’s lobby, as represented by the League of
Women Voters and the national organizations of women united in the
joint congressional committee for welfare legislation. There is an
agricultural lobby of greater magnitude than the farmers have ever
before enlisted. There are the usual big lobbies for commercial and
industrial organizations.
Just so long as lobbies honestly speak for the people, as people, they
serve a useful end. For instance, when farmers go to state their needs
to Congress they are well within their rights. It is when and if expert
lobbyists who would not know growing alfalfa from turnip tops under
take to speak for the farmers that the first danger creeps in.
There is a story going the rounds of the correspondents in Washing
ton of one of the well-known commercial lobbyists who recently boasted
to a famous correspondent that his organization had long ago read the
fear of reprisals into the farmers and stock growers so that they were
perforce compelled to ask for the very legislation which the commercial
organization wanted and which was against the best interests of the
farmers and stock growers.
“Now the women are after us, but we’ll leave them lying by the road
side, too,” the man exclaimed exultantly.
“Are you a married man?” asked the correspondent.
“No; what’s that go to do with it?” demanded the other.
“It’s got a great deal to do with it. I’ve got a wife, and I can tell
you when women want a thing they never let up until they get it.”
The women have no disposition to let up on the legislation they want
and they are going after it in systematic manner.
Those who have seen Maud Wood Park, in action before have unfor
gettable memories of the pertinacity, the thoroughness, the absolute hon
esty in weighing results with which she has worked day and night over
her lobby. With that driving force of hers she spurred the suffragists
on to victory for the Federal amendment. And today she is putting
the same kind of work on the legislative program of the National League
of Women Voters.
How do the representatives of the older organization feel about being
asked to co-operate with a new group such as the league, I asked many
of these women, and the answers were all alike. Perhaps the best sum
mary of the situation was that of Miss Hafford of the General Federation
of Women’s Clubs.
“We don’t feel that we are working under any organization or any
woman,” she said. “We are all working together, and Miss Parks has
made us feel to a remarkable degree the spirit of working with her.”
It is these women who are going up “on the hill’” every day to ask
Congress to vote for the bills which the League of Women Voters has
endorsed.
What does Congress think of them?
Here are a dozen opinions taken in a cross-section survey of the
Senate Office Building, including both Republicans and Democrats, both
recognized progressives and standpatters:
Senator Sheppard of Texas: “There is a distinct woman’s interest
just as there is a manufacturers’ interest, or a farmers’ interest, or a
cotton growers’ interest. In a republic any interest must assert itself in
order to be heard at all. Like all the other interests, women should draw
from the membership of all parties. They need not fear in speaking as
women, rather than as partisans, that they will over-emphasize the sex
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division. There will always be other interests and objectors to drown
the voice of the women.”
Senator Smoot of Utah: “There are great difficulties in the path of
a non-partisan organization. It is better to work from within the parties.”
Senator Capper of Kansas: “I think it well to have the direct effect
of women identified with party interests, but it is good to have non
partisan supplementary efforts. Keep up your petitions and letters and
telegrams. They tell me that Senators don’t read them, but I say they do.”
Senator Henderson of Nevada: “The nation is governed by parties.
Officials are elected by parties, and on main lines they must so divide.
But much of the legislation is not partisan, and I believe in voting for
what is good irrespective of whether it is proposed by a Democrat or a
Republican. I hope that in the new Congress the criticism from the
Democratic side will be constructive and not merely obstructive.”
Senator Curtis of Kansas: “Women should study the parties and
their policies, because otherwise they may make a mistake on a small
question which will defeat a big issue their party desires. Supplemental
to their party work they may find their big women’s organizations useful
to work through as clearing-houses.”
Senator McKellar of Tennessee: “While! I do not mean to intimate
that all Tennessee women voted the Democratic ticket, still I do know
that the Democratic men who helped them put through ratification in the
State would have been beaten by a far greater number than they were if
the women had not aided them. lam glad to see the women coming
to Washington to ask for legislation. I believe that such measures as
those advocated by the League of Women Voters are not partisan, and
that they should receive the support of men and women of all parties,
although I am glad that they are included in the Democratic platform.”
Senator Ball of Delaware: “I am especially glad to have the women
coming to Washington for good legislation because it answers the objec
tion made to suffrage that the better women would not take an interest
in politics. At least 90 per cent, of those of my own State have already
demonstrated their interest.”
Senator Poindexter of Washington: “I think it very desirable that
the women of the country, through their various organizations, should
make known to Congress and to the public any well-considered and
thoroughly prepared proposals they may have as to legislation in the
special interest of women. However, this term seems to be more or less
contradictory as, of course, what is in the interest of the women is also
in the interest of the entire community, and vice versa. It cannot be
said that women are interested alone in what immediately and specifically
affects women alone, and the same thing would apply to men, children, or
any other considerable element in the population.”
Senator Ransdell of Louisiana: “A non-partisan organization of
women to help good legislation is a fine thing.”
Mr. Mondell of Wyoming, Republican leader in the House: “Many
of the bills in which women are especially and particularly interested are
not political in their significance, and it is, therefore, fitting that women
should ask for their passage in a non-political way as well as making an
appeal as partisans to the members of their own parties.”
Mr. Towner of Iowa: “I always welcome information as to how
the people desire me to vote. I believe that with lobbies the general
sentiment of Congress is that when you agree with what they want they
are fine; when you disagree, they are a nuisance.”
Mr. Tinkham of Massachusetts (who was opposed to the Federal
Suff 1 age Amendment) : Welfare bills which are not party measures
should not wear party clothes. lam glad to see a non-partisan group
of women supporting them.” Marjorie Shuler.
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