Woman's work in municipalities

by Mary Ritter Beard

Charlotte Rumbold was the executive secretary of the St. Louis Pageant and Masque which attracted national interest, and Mrs. Ernest Kroeger, the active chairman, with an Executive Committee composed of men and women. Indeed, this pageant was suggested by Miss Rumbold, Secretary of the Public Recreation Committee, as a fitting way to celebrate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of St. Louis. Every agency of the municipal government coöperated to make it a success. “If we play together, we will work together,” was the slogan adopted, the whole object being the development of community spirit and not the commercial advantage of merchants and business men generally. The 7,500 performers were drawn from all walks of life, the idea being to instill democracy into St. Louis affairs, even the funds being democratically raised. Other cities were asked to send official heraldic envoys and general civic pride was to be augmented by a conference of mayors during the celebration. No other pageant has had the big democratic community vision of the St. Louis enterprise or has called for such large scale planning.

Fourth of July

The Safe and Sane Fourth of July has been greatly promoted by women. Independence Day has been until within five years or so, and is still in most places, a thoroughly male day. It has been a day on which the deeds of men have been exploited without conveying the slightest hint that women have helped to build the nation. Histories of the American people have regularly consigned women to a line or two and women have a real grievance there. Their protest against the day, however, has not been due to omission in the speeches of orators, but rather to the wanton destruction of life and property which unregulated celebrations induce. Promiscuous use of fireworks was the object of their organized attack.

Safe Fourths of July are rapidly becoming possible. When the work that women have done in communities, the states and the nation is equally recognized with that done by men, the Fourth of July will be a saner and more patriotic day still. Thus the country’s past and its future will be interpreted in a way that will appeal more directly to all the people and arouse in girls as well as in boys a desire for coöperation in citizenship.

Many women’s clubs have within recent years placed the Safe and Sane Fourth on their list of demands and objects for which to work. The Municipal Bureau of the University of Wisconsin has compiled a list of all the municipal ordinances regarding explosives on the Fourth of July and we venture to claim that in every case where one has been secured the advocacy of women has been at least as pronounced as that of men.

Restriction without substitution, however, is usually idle, as we know very well at last. In advocating ordinances of a restrictive nature, therefore, women have not been unmindful of the need of directing pent-up feelings accustomed to noisy and dangerous exuberance on the Fourth. Pageants, processions, municipally managed fireworks and musical festivals are some of the ways in which substitutions have been provided for dangerous celebrations.

Much stimulus has been given to the Safe and Sane Fourth propaganda by those social workers whose interests extend largely to our newcomers from the nations of the world. If to them patriotism expresses itself merely in Independence Day bandages and noise and drunkenness, American civilization affords little inspiration. Any movement therefore which has as its goal an historical explanation of the founding and growth of the nation and the development of our ideals, and which typifies our hope of ultimate democracy, is sane as well as safe. The participation of foreign elements, now being assimilated into our national life, has added to the richness and interest of Fourth of July pageants. Last year in New York forty-two nations were represented in native costumes; Chicago also had a great parade of her nations with floats showing the parts played by various nations in our war for independence. The entertainment in Jackson Park, Chicago, consisting of music, folk dances, drills, games, tableaux and pageants was under the direction of the Chicago women’s clubs. Baltimore had a wonderful naval pageant.

The leadership by women in this general movement was recently described in The American City. “The part which women have taken in creating a sentiment for a safe and sane Fourth and in providing acceptable entertainment is very important. The pioneer work of Mrs. Isaac L. Rice, president of the Society for the Suppression of Unnecessary Noise, New York City, for this object, is well-known. Her pamphlet on a ‘Safe and Sane Fourth’ (published by the Russell Sage Foundation) gives letters from governors, mayors, fire chiefs, commissioners of health, heads of police departments and presidents of Colleges, endorsing the movement.

“The Committee on Independence Day Celebrations of the Art Department of the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs has issued a pamphlet giving suggestions for the management of an Independence Day celebration and material for pageantry taken from New Jersey history. The suggestions for management are detailed and practical for other states than New Jersey and include the formation of an Independence Day Association and the work of sixteen different committees. The chairman of the committee last year was Mrs. Wallace J. Pfleger.... The Department of Child Hygiene of the Russell Sage Foundation reprints this pamphlet and publishes an excellent set on the same general subject.”

Those who study this movement find that women have contributed largely to practical programs and plans and have been indispensable factors in developing the imaginative features and carrying them into execution. The American Pageantry Board, recently organized in Boston under the auspices of the Twentieth Century Club, composed of men and women, has recognized woman’s place in this work by choosing Lotta A. Clark as executive secretary.