The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, May 2, 1921, Page 8

News of Women’s Nonpartisan Clubs How to Organize a Club Spring Is the Time to Spread Work to Next . Township, Says National Manager This is the first of a series of short articles on organ- ization work by Miss Gregg. Other articles will follow in the next issues of the Leader. Watch for them. BY KATE L. GREGG National Manager Women’s Nonpartisan Clubs HE other day a club secretary wrote to me asking for a book on organization work. I did not have the book, nor did I know where one could be procured. But I knew why that club asked for the book. They wanted to organize the rest of the county. And for the benefit of all clubs which have such a fine purpose in mind, I have set down what I believe are the fundamentals in organizing our Women’s Nonpartisan clubs. The easiest way to organize the next township, or any township, is to get in touch with the leading League men and women in that neigh- borhood and have them arrange a meet- ing for you in the schoolhouse, the com- munity hall, or in the home of one of the Leaguers, a meeting to which the entire community can be invited, for the pur- pose of forming a Women’s Nonparti- san club. There the purpose of the clubs can be explained, there the his- tory of our clubs can be set forth, there all the Leaguers can come to see that the women’s club is the bulwark of our "movement, the vital force that holds the battleline and fights when other forces, discouraged, fall away. The organizers from the organized township can tell what the club has ac- complished in their community, promi- ~nent Leaguers can be called on to tell what they think such a club can do in this particular district, and last of all the application blanks can be passed out for the women to sign. "HOUSE-TO-HOUSE CANVASS TO GET MORE MEMBERS After the members have. signed up, you can help them elect their officers— a president, vice president and a secre- tary-treasurer. If you are a good or- ganizer you will have talked over with and by the people, and they stuck together and they won out against oppression. They did not win in a day, or a week, or a year. But eight long years of fighting, struggling, united effort did it. Now I would like to ask—what is the matter to- day? We, the descendants of those staunch, loyal forefathers have lost our grand government they worked so loyally for. Big Biz and Wall street run our government today. Today we have a govern- ment of monopolies that are profiteering by the labor of the masses of the people. ‘What are we going to do about it? Stick to- gether as one man for a government of, for and by the people and we will win it back. Don’t tell me it can’t be done. It can, if we’ll stick we’ll win. Our leader, A. C. Townley, has unfurled the banner in North Dakota. Don’t you see it? It waves in the breeze and its folds will reach all over the United States. Such disgraceful conduct as Barton county, Kan., is resorting to reminds one of an unruly child. We must not heed such things. They are only a part of the obstacles in our path. Now.let us win back the government our forefathers won for us, a government of, for and by the people. Let’s stick and we’ll win. MRS. JOSEPH NICKLAS. Brandon, N. D. Two Young Leaguers and Their Pets the prominent Leaguers the necessity " for the new club’s electing the most ac- tive and progressive women in the com- munity to the offices in the club. At this time arrangements should be made for the next meeting of the club, and here, too, arrangements can be made for the house-to-house canvass that will result in a larger club. Many clubs are organized from the first by the house-to-house canvass, but that, I believe, is a difficult and expensive way to do what may be done far more easily by the.school- house meeting. The house-to-house work should be a last resort, rather than a first means of getting the club together. What IS Wrong Today? Editor Nonpartisan Leader: I would like to add my encouragement to the loyal workers for the Nonpartisan league. I will' have to ask .a few questions and will give my answers to them and ask any reader who differs with me to give his opin- ion to the Leader as I am doing. What was the trouhle with the 18 colonies in George Washington’s time? The answer is, I be- lieve, they were oppressed by the mother country. Why? Because their experience had taught them their rights were being trampled on and their fu- ture welfare as a people and as a country was in danger. So they called a meeting and decided they would have to begin to do business for themselves and in a businesslike way. They chose their leader, George Washington. I think if we could have been to that meeting we would have heard him say to the people, “We must stand together as one man. United we stand, divided we fall.” - The result the world knows—they founded a government of, for prove it. Poison Propaganda Editor Nonpartisan Leader: Seeing the article, “Propaganda in Schools,” in the April 4 issue of ~ the Leader suggested to me that I send you this article from the Youth’s Companion. I was thor- oughly disgusted with the thought that all our papers are under the control of interests that do - not want to face conditions fairly and honestly. Meridian, Idaho. MRS. G. A. KOGER. The Youth’s Companion article attempts to poison the minds of its child readers, blaming the Nonpar- tisan league, by innuendo, for the failure of North Dakota banks. As Leaguers know banks have failed in nearly every state, due to depressed prices of farm products. The situation has been somewhat worse in North Dakota, partly on account of drouth and partly because the federal reserve banks loaned less money to North Dakota banks, per capita, than to other states.—THE EDITOR. FLOWER GROWING “Growing Annual Flowering Plants” is illus- trated in a new bulletin that will be of particular interest to the housewife who likes a flower garden. It can be obtained without charge by writing the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. b PAGE EIGHT THE FARM WOMAN’S PAGE Sheep make dandy pets, these two Leaguers say, and send their pictures to Some people might think the picture at the left was intended for Mary and her lamb. It isn’t. This picture is Miss Inez Holt of Voltaire, N. D., and “Billy Buckshot.” The young buckaroo at the right is Fred Slenes of Al- berton, Mont., and he calls his pet his “Billy sheep that can’t be got.” He says in a letter: “I sure would love to put him in Harding’s parlor. I wonder who would stay, Harding or Billy? He sure would make him hunt the high spots.” From which we judge that Fred isn’t a very enthusiastic Republican. Letters From % Live Workers Educate and Organize Progressive Leaders Agree on “Next Step” Program for Enfranchised Women There is a surprising unanimity of opinion among think- ing women as to what they must do next, as is shown by the following letters. The leading article this week on “Now that women have the ballot, what shall they do next?” is by a Washington (D. C.) woman who is well acquainted with the dodges used by professjunal politicians to put off demands for progressive legislation. BY MARGARET WINFIELD STEWART :INE hears a great deal of the specific *| reforms on which women should con- centrate the energy which has been released by the adoption of the woman suffrage amendment. Arguments are - advanced that women’s organizations should apply themselves to perfection and enforce- ment of the pure food laws, to questions of child labor, minimum wage laws, etc. It seems to me that for many years to come the essential thing is a broad campaign of political education of women, leaving details for the future. Lobbies and propa- ganda for specific laws can easily be manipulated or dissipated by professional politicians while the mass of women supposed to be supporting them have so little comprehension of the work they have in hand. - “Women’s legislation” can easily be made to come out of the hopper in the form of such frivolous con- cessions as the ‘Idaho law exempting women from the requirement of procuring a license to fish, or when really serious proposals are made such as the California law giving wives equal rights with hus- bands in their community property they will again be defeated on referendum if referred to women having no intelligent understanding of the sig- nificance of what they do, The real value of woman suffrage lies in the fact that women are not and probably will never become slaves of party but without some other medium to stabilize their vote the vast ma- jority will vote on the whim of the mo- ment. If women’s clubs and organizations of all kinds for three or four years would concentrate on an education of their mem- bership in a broad understanding of political issues that would make women politically ceeded in making farmers of the North- west politically conscious they would then be a power worth reckoning with. Must Use Ballot The following statements are by lead- ers in Women’s Nonpartisan club work in the Northwest: ‘Women must use the ballot. It makes no difference what our views on woman suffrage may have been. That fight is a thing of the past. The ballot is ours and with it has come duty and re- sponsibility. The man who cares so lit- tle for the welfare of his home and family or the future of his country that he will not take the trou- ble to vote is a mighty poor citizen. Do women think we will be regarded in any different light ? If we are to vote intelligently we must study the issues of the day. The Women’s Nonpartisan clubs offer us the opportunity for this work. Renville, Minn. MRS. HAROLD BAKER. Learn to use the ballot intelligently. Men are not ready yet to accept women as equals politically and there is some justice in this attitude, because heretofore women have not taken an equal interest in politics. Now it becomes their duty to familiar- ize themselves with the forms of city, county, state and national government, Women are expected to purify politics and so must learn to be tolerant and unbiased in judgment and to eliminate the personal from the political qualifications of candidates. Women can not know too much about parliamentary procedure. I recom- mended a short course in parliamentary law for part of the program of all Women’s Nonpartisan clubs. . MRS. ELIZABETH V. KENNEDY. Butte, Mont. Learn how to use the ballot intelli enfi . This i the chief purpose of our W A4 ryd clubs,- We take as our motto, “Investigate.” Become thoroughly familiar with our form. of conscious as the Nonpartisan league has suc-- omen’s Nonpartisan &