National Council

College women and colored women, trained nurses and Jewesses, married ladies with their maiden names and Mormon ladies without; needleworkers, peace workers, young Christian women workers, women voters, women mutual-improvers, Christian temperance women, clubwomen, business women, professional women, housewives, "home girls" and a few common everyday women--representatives, in short, of the 34 women's organizations for which the National Council of Women aims to be a guide and interpreter, met last week in Manhattan. President Valeria H. Parker, a doctor of medicine, sex-hygienist and flood relief worker, presided over them all and was reelected.

It was an anniversary meeting--the 80th anniversary of U. S. women's first effort to get the vote;* the 40th anniversary of the National Council of Women.

President Parker, looking back, claimed for the Council more or less credit in the following U. S. social and political developments: votes for women, abolition of legally segregated prostitution, the U. S. Children's Bureau (Department of Labor), juvenile courts, dress reform, Prohibition.

Looking forward, President Parker cried:

"Never in the history of our country has race and religious prejudice and corruption in public office been more evident.

"The institution of monogamous marriage is being attacked.

"The need of training for parenthood and homebuilding is evidenced in our divorce courts.

"Law observance is ignored by many.

"The U.S. Children's Bureau with its pitifully small appropriation for its great work is being attacked.

"Surely, united discussion of these and other common problems might bring enlightenment through Council facilities. . . .

"From simple notes combined, great harmonies are made!"

Excerpts from other speeches and published interviews:

Fooled. "We are finding that women can be fooled as well as men. Suffrage was opposed by the moneyed interests because they thought women would favor humanitarian legislation. That was before the time people realized the power of concerted propaganda. . . . Now we are victims, with men, of the insidious influences of the capitalistic element."-- Alice Stone Blackwell, daughter of Lucy Stone but no Lucy Stone Leaguer (to preserve maiden-names).

Housewife. ". . . It is still every woman's ideal to have a five-room cottage in the country, thank goodness. . . . Women must be taught not to poke loaves of bread with their fingers or squeeze dill pickles." --President Mrs. Franklin W. Fritchey* of the National Housewives Alliance.

The Truth. "We must not be afraid of the truth although I must admit it is a bit disturbing. . . .

"I have recently read that some one has discovered a letter of Thomas Jefferson, in which he related that the reason the Declaration of Independence was accepted was not because the committee liked it all so well, but because the hall where they were assembled was opposite a stable, and the delegates, being elegant gentlemen attired in long silk stockings just like those women wear today, were much annoyed by the gadflies biting their legs. Hence they adjourned quickly. Well, now I never heard that Thomas Jefferson was a jokester, but if he wrote that letter seriously, all I have to say is 'God bless the gadflies.'--Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt.

* At the Women's Rights Convention, Seneca Falls, N. Y.

*The Fritcheys live in Maryland. So did Barbara Frietchie. The Fritcheys named their daughter Barbara Fritchey.