POLITICAL NOTES: Errand

“Slowly, one by one, the barriers have been lowered . . . countless fields . . . time immemorial . . . wife … mother . . . the more women become identified with the affairs of business, the higher we may expect standards of conduct to rise.”

There was a burst of applause, the applause that always follows this speech, no matter where delivered, or by whom. This time the deliverer was Governess Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming. The occasion was the opening of a new Gimbel Brothers department store, in Philadelphia. Three generations of the Messrs. Gimbel and their wives applauded. “The store,” Governess Ross said, “is a tribute to womankind.” It is also, of course, a place for a woman’s money.

The Governess went back to Wyoming. The nation’s last glimpse of her as an official was probably to be this kindly errand for the potent tribe of Gimbel. She retires in January in favor of Frank E. Emerson, who defeated her by some 1,000 votes.