Filly years after they Won the ballot,

.__let's look at the record of washinglon's

 

By IVAN L. JONES

IFTY years ago Washington State was groan-
ing under the usual thundering oratory and
rolling bandwagons that comprise an election

campaign, with one historic difference?women
were about to cast their vote for
the first time. . a
The 19th Amendment to the Con- 
stitution, granting suffrage to 
women, did not become the law of
the land until August 26, 1920. 1
Earlier, however, six Western states 
-~Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, 
California and Washington?mad let .. 
women vote in elections.
\Vashington suffragettes, after a
long struggle dating back to 1854,
had won the right to vote in 1910.   
This fall, 50 years later, the ques- BERTH
tion was asked: How big an influ-? LANDES
ence are women in politics today? As many differ?
ent answers were received as persons asked.

NE Seattle woman, considered among the most
astute politically in the area, was outspoken.

Mrs. Kenneth M. McCaffree, president of the
League of Women Voters of Seattle, said women
have made considerable progreSS since gaining the
right to vote, but still have a long way to go. 

?Women, as a voting power and as candidates
themselves, COULD be a major influence in poli-
tics," said the league president, ?but they do not

"use the prerogative won for them 50 years ago.

"The great majority of women just don't bother
to study the issues. They do not WOrk to improve
their political awareness?~1eaving, in most cases,
?politics? to the men. .

?Women are more active in politics today than
ever before," said Mrs. McCaffree, "but, on the
whole, women still are playing a passive role, while
men are the prime movers.?

The suffragettes had an idealistic attitude, Mrs.
McCaffree pointed out. They envisaged three par-
ties: The Republicans, the Democrats and the
\Nomen. .

With tongue in cheek, Mrs. McCaffree allowed
that perhaps things are better the way they are.

?The men would be out of luck if women took
the initiative. There are more eligible women vot-
ers now than men!?

July 1, 1959, there were 55,026,000 Women of
voting age in the United States, and only 51,882,000
men.

HE record shows that women have traveled a

long way sinCe winning the right to cast their

ballots equally with men. Nationally, they have

served in every level of elective and appointive of-

fice, with three exceptions-the presidency, the
vice presidency and the Supreme Court.

There havebeen women cabinet officers. judges. 

ambassadors, governors and other key officials of
federal, state and local governments.

In Congress, there now are 16 women represent?
atives and one woman senator. This is out of a
total of 537 solons serving at our nation?s capital.

\Vashington State has 13 women holding seats
in the House of Representatives in Olympia. Wash-
ington has no woman state senator.

Our state?s first and, at present. only congress-
woman is Mrs. Catherine May of Yakima. Mrs.
May, a Republican, served three terms as a state
legislator before she was elected to Congress in
1958.

Present women state representatives include
Mrs. Gladys Kirk, Seattle, 36th District; Mrs. Eva

Anderson. Chelan, 12th District: Mrs. Frances. 

?Swayze, Tacoma, 26th?District; Miss Ella Wintlel',
Vancouver, 49th District; Mrs. Joseph E. Hurley,
Spokane, 3rd District; Mrs. Frances H. Morgan,
Bremerton, 23rd District, 

Others are, Mrs. Eplon, Spokane, 4th

 

District; Mrs. Mildred Henry, White Salmon. 17th
District; Mrs. Marian C. Gleason,?Tacoma, 27th
District; Mrs. Jeanette Testu, Seattle, 34th District;
Miss Ann T. O?Donnell, Seattle, 37th District, and
Mrs. Vivien Twidwell, Aberdeen, let District.

NOTHER prominent woman political figure in
Washington State is Mrs. JuliaButler Hansen
of.Cathlamet, Wahkiakum County, state represen-

?tative from the 18th District. Mrs. Hansen has the
longest record of service of any woman state rep?_

resenta?tive west Of the Mississippi. She is now in
her 22nd year.

Today, Mrs. Hansen is a candidate for repre-
sentative to Congress in the 3rd District. 

Mrs. Neal Tourtellotte, Seattle, is serving her
fourth term as the state's Republican national com-
mitteewoman. She has held the nationally signifi?
cant post since 1948. In addition, she was one of
the organizers of Pro America, national organiza-
tion of Republican women, in 1931.

Mrs. Zelma Reeves Morrison of Spokane, who
Was named 1959 Democratic woman of the year, is
the Democratic national committewoman. She re-
cently replaced Mrs. Alice Hogan West of Pasco.

Mrs. Morrison is the daughter of Belle Reeves,
of Wenatchee, a holder of an important ?first? in
Washington political history.

Mrs. Reeves, former secretary of state, who
died in office in 1948, was the first woman to serve
as acting governor.

Several times in Mrs. Reeves? ten-year term as
secretary of state, she acted as governor when
both the governor and lieutenant governor were
out of the state.

RS. Reeves' political career began in 1922,
when she w0n as a sticker candidate for
state representative from the 12th District. She
served in eight sessions before becoming secretary
of state in 1938. In 1944, Mrs. Reeves, a Democrat.
received the largest vote ever cast for a candidate
for public office in the state up to that time.
Another Seattle woman prominent in politics
today is Mrs. Andrew Williams, Jr., one of the co-
chairrnen heading the Independent Women of
Nixon?Lodge Committee, a national organization.
Mrs. Williams, a granddaughter of President Theo?
dore Roosevelt, delivered a seconding?speech for
Richard Nixon at the 1960 Republican national con-
vention.
Mrs. Williams also is Republican state commit-
teewoman for King County.

OOKING back again a few years, some grand

personalities emerged upon the state political
scene as a result of women's sufferage.?

First woman elected to a state-wide office in

JOSEPHINE CORLISS 7
PRESTON

 

4 THE SEATTLE TIMES, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1960

 

    

  

Must 1.). i .
MRS. KENNETH M. MRS. ANDREW
WILLIAMS, JR.

Washington was Mrs. Josephine Corliss Preston of
Vashon island. She was elected state superintend-
ent of public instructioa in 1912. She served in that
capacity continuously 16 years.

Another Washington woman, Pearl A. Wana?
maker of Seattle, gained national recognition while
serving as state superintendent of public instruc-
tion from 1940 through 1956.

Mrs. Wanamaker entered public life on the state-

'level in 1928 when she Was elected to the House of

Representatives. She served in the House until her
election in 1936 to the State Senate.

Washington?s first woman state senatOr was
Miss Reba Hum, from Spokane. Miss Hurn charmed
voters with her avowed resolution not to make any
speeches on the Senate floor. She was elected in
1922.

The honor of being the first woman to serve as
a state representative was shared by Mrs. Frances
C. Axtell of Seattle and Mrs. Nena Jolidon Croaka
of Tacoma. Both were elected in 1912.

RS. REAH M. WHITEHEAD, first woman

judge in Seattle, caused a stir throughout the
country when she ran for the office of justice 04?
the peace in 1914. She was elected-and held the
position 27 years!

The woman judge also set an example. When
she resigned in 1941 because of ill health, her spot
was taken by another woman attorney, Mrs. Evan?
geline Starr, who still holds the office.

Lady Willie Forbus, a Seattle attorney, was an
assistant attomey-general f0r the state from 1940
until she was elected to the state senate in 1942.
She served through 1946, becoming well-known as
a political figure in the state.

Perhaps the most colorful woman politically sue
cessful in Seattle was Mrs. Bertha K. Landes. Mrs.
Landes achieved national recognition in 1926, when
she was elected Seattle?s first (and, to date, only)
woman mayor.

Mrs. Landes first entered politics as a member
of the City Council in 1922, serving twoterms. She
stepped from the Council to the mayor's office on
one of the most unusual platform planks ever used
by a politician. She supported a charter that would
abolish the office of mayor, replacing it with a
city manager. If she won the election. Mrs. Landes
would be out of a job.

Mrs. Landes was elected mayOr, but many of
the same women who voted for her apparently
voted against the charter. The position failed by 2
narrow margin. Seattle had elected a woman mayor

and intended to keep her.

RS. Landes, who died in 1943, was an ardent

feminist, battling for women's rights, testify

ing at prohibition hearings, and fighting vice, evil

and corruption wherever she could find it in her
beloved city. 

The woman mayor?s administration proved prC-'

gressive and efficient. C. T. Conover, 98-year?old

Seattle pioneer and historian, has written in his
column for The Times that Seattle was a far better
city after Mrs. Landes? term of office.

?She did a notably clean, housewifey job as
mayor," said Conover. .

And a Cemmendation no man in politics
ever can hope to receive.