The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, October 6, 1919, Page 8

® L4 # R A FERRY b - Women Are Organizing in Minnesota . How the Auxiliary of the Nonpartisan League Was Brought to the Gopher . - State, by th‘e Woman Who Did It Bl : The writer of this article is responsible for bringing the Women’s auxiliary to the Nonpartisan league to Minnesota. How she did it and the hopes that she holds out for the future work of the organization, is_told in this article. Miss Schwartz lives at Eagle Bend, Minn. BY TENA SCHWARTZ HILE waiting for the. election returns last June it was brought home to me how very helpless the women of Minnesota were, with not a voice in the making of the laws of our great free nation. I wished more than ever that the time would soon be here when the women could do more for their great cause—the fight of the Non- partisan league for better days for all humanity. And when I read about the women of North Da- kota organizing themselves into the Auxiliary I was glad, for now, I thought, we can help. It seemed that at last we were coming into our own, we could almost see the day ahead when we would have the right to vote, that right which has always belonged to us as women of a free nation. But the time was long waiting for the women of* North Dakota to come over into our state and get us started. - So after a while I got tired of waiting any longer. I wanted to get in line with the women out there, so I wrote to Miss Amy Ed- munds, secretary of the Auxiliary in North Dakota, asking what we could do. I received a letter say- ing that the Auxiliary at present was being organ- i i%.ized in North Dakota only, but that it would be only a matter of time before it would' come into Minnesota and we would be remembered. But that did not satisfy me. I wanted to get to work and I sent in a dollar for membership in the Auxiliary for one year, being the first woman in Minnesota to join. I received a nice letter of appreciation and the right to form a club. I was delighted to b this, for I knew if we could get one club started they could never stop us, for we could get every Miss Tena Schwartz of Eagle Bend, Minn., organ- izer of Club No. 1, Minnesota, of the Women’s auxiliary of the Nonpartisan league. farmer’s wife to join before they could put the damper on our work. The first 10 women I saw were at a little Equity picnic and they all joined. Only five had the nec- essary dollar with them, but this did not bother us, for it takes only five to form a club, so I sent in the five names with the membership fees and Min- nesota Club No. 1 was organized August 30. My first five women are proud that they are the ones who helped me form the first club,. so I will give their names. Some day they will have their pic- tures taken. - They are: Mrs. August Schwartz, Mrs. John Deitel, Mrs. Henry Stork and the Misses Josephine and Katherine Nuland. S September 10, at a League picnic, I took in 20 womeh. Many more wanted to join, but again they did not have the money with the(gn. So, only- 10 days old, our club has 29 paid members, with two of the first 10 still to pay, and we are growing stronger every- day. . Some women at the picnic-had never heard any- thing about the Auxiliary. It was new to them, so they wanted to talk it over with their husbands, _ but with the exception of a very few they all joined. Most of the women are waiting for just such a movement. They want to help the men in this great hour of crisis. When the women of Minne- sota awake from their long dream and find that they stand equal with the men, they will want to be organized into a great body of women that can help get the things we need most, not stand alone in an unorganized state, for as such they would be . a detriment to the cause they hold dear, as they would pull all ways but the right way. So I say, women of Minnesota, get together; let us do our part in need as well as in thought. Let us help the men; they have won the battle half way, let us help win the other half; let us push this movement and we will have an enrollment in the Auxiliary that will make other states sit up and take notice. = . “All Dressed Up and No Place to Go™ - OIld Parties, as Now The writer of this article is president of the Ohio States Suffrage association. Mrs. Upton has long been a_fighter for equal rights for women, but she sees clearly that neither® of the old parties, as they are organized today, is fit to welcome the new voters. 9. BY HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON ,]HE women of the United States franchisement. @ The national amendment will undoubtedly be ratified by 36 states before the election of 1920. Now that women are ready the question is, where will they go? They have no political inheritance. They have ‘con- sidered themselves Republicans of -Democrats be- cause their fathers or husbands are, but distinctly NOT from any love of the party -itself. will they go? .The new women voters are shocked at the high cost of living; they know what the trouble is. They know that the men at the head of the great trusts are grinding the people. The Sherman anti- trust law was enacted to prevent combination, but it was only enforced on local milk dealers and other helpless groups. Why is this? Because men who " are ordinarily brave are not pelitically brave. The powerful corporations contribute vast sums to the treasuries of the political parties. No politician has the courage 'to jeopardize his political party and so he votes to “investigate” and that is .the end of it. : 3y 3 / Women care for their families. Women are say- ing: “If the political parties as now constituted - can not be divorced from beef and steel without dying, then let them die.” Let us get a new party, one that is not afraid. : When men open their state caMpaiZgns they have . bands and fireworks, and sometimes a little lady falling from a balloon with a parachute—to en- thuse the voters. The new voters demand, not are on the eve of political en- - ~sored and the lips of men They are mot partisan.. . sons-and prayed and hoped. Where - "bills. which their supporters Al e el S B Tt SN e oo e o s e e L R bands and fireworks but lower prices, and the po- litical party which realizes this will be the suc- cessful party of the near future. y Again, 'women are unalterably opposed to war. They said little about it in 1917 because they were: powerless and because, in this great land of liberty, not only was the press cen- sealed, but people were chlo- roformed lest they should think. . Women were silent ob- servers. - They could not help themselves; they sent their ‘When women had no power th-y could only weep, but this is now a day.for action, not for tears. * Thé new woman voter is all dressed up and nowhere to go. The question is: “Is any one wise enough to prepare a place for her?” b ] Progressives everywhere are hoping that the paower of the women’s ballots will serve to stop the plan for setting up a Prussian military system in the United States. Congress " is now working quietly on two are now jockeying for favor- able action. A5 One ' is- the Chamberlain- -Kahn bill, which was bitterly opposed by the Na- tional Guard association recently. Under its.terms every boy of 18 in the United States would have 18 months of training in either the army or navy, - and besides be subject to draft to fill up the army and navy ranks. - After the boys had completed ' . PAGE EIGHT MRS. HARRIET T. UPTON Organized, Offer No Hope to New Women Voters, Says Ohio Suffrage President their training, the army or navy would be empow- ered to reach into the training camp and select enough boys to bring their own numbers up to standard. These lads would be.chosen by lottery and would have to serve seven years in either branch, like any enlisted man. Or, in other words, the war-time conscription act would be a per- manent. peace-time policy in the United States. The other is the-general staff bill and is supported by Secre- tary of War éBaker. It provides for a standing army of 576,000 men, backed by a huge military caste of officers, headed by six lieutenant -generals, 382 major generals and 88 brigadier gen- erals. ; These bills would not only. en- act int6 our laws the permanent draft acts, but would furnish an excuse for continuing the gag’ laws. Both bills provide the " training camps as a feeding place for the regular army, and both ' provide that in case of war the draft law will go into effect aufo- cmatically. ' ! Much of the strength in the fight against the militaristic plans are coming from the women who are organized into suffrage as- sociations. Tt There is every prospect that. t}lg militarist fight will. be a factor in the next po- litical campaign. Despite the attitude of some of. thg veterans’ associations in favor of the plan for universal military training, other veterans’ or- ganizations, notably the World War Veterans, op- - bose compulsory: military. service in this country. ©