Mrs. L. C. French "Roasts"
Women Who Give Time to
Pink Teas.
"Who is to blame for the 26 square
miles of city territory Which is a white
elephant on the hands of the tax-payers
and the commissioners? Not the commissioners themselves, tout we, the peo-
ple who take no interest in municipal
affairs.."
This statement was made by Mrs.
L. C. French at the meeting of the
Good Citizenship class on Thursday afternoon at the Lawson McGhee library.
This class is making a study of "Municipal Government."
"Women are the leisure class. They
have time to make a proper study of
the needs of the city. If the women
who rush around to pink teas would devote half of the time they waste doing
that, in making a study of what things
are needed in the municipal government, things would be far better off,"
declared Mrs. French.
"We need a change in the charter,
the mayor ought to be the financial
agent of the city, and a woman should
be a member of the commission, to look
after the cleaning of the streets, the
general sanitary conditions and the
public buildings," the speaker stated
also.
At the last meeting of the class held
on December 17, Dean Malcolm McDermott
said that it was up to the newly
enfranchised women to change the order of things since men had made such
a failure of governing.
Women's place in the new political
order is in the cities where they live.
Advice and helpful criticism is needed
to improve conditions, not severe roast-
ings from a biased point of view. This
is advocated as a step toward reform,
according to Mrs. French.
Mrs. French said further that she
was opposed to the recall movement because it is the fault of the citizens who
refuse to do their part in the conscientious choosing of the officials.
It is hoped that a large number of
women of Knoxville will attend these
meetings every Thursday afternoon at
3 o'clock at the library for matters
of vital importance to the women of
the city and state are discussed with a
view to remedying some of the defects
of the present system.
