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Show ji Housewife Tilts Against Tammany - " . , ' - , 'v' ' '' ' 4 ' - - - -' , ; ') r 1 K ""f&. v , . ..-:itai:W'- "- 7 '. Alderman Hulli Pratt is By VIP.G7N7.Y SWA IX I XEA Service Writer, i NEW YORK, Jan. .1 A new David goes after Goliath ! This time the wieliler of the stone sling is Hulli Prnlt. New York's lone woman uhlermnn, and the giant adversary is no less lhau Tammany ilself. One of three ltepublicans pilled ' against 2 Tammany men in the New York Council of Alderman, Kulh Pratt is making Ihe fur fly in ; Gotham political circles by such ' i:li attack on Tammany's house-t house-t keeping as that doughty autocrat J fehlom lias met before. 1 -he donoum-os Tammany policies. ipiestions Tammany's budget. She ilrlves into Tammany's books nnd holds nil Ihe debts and bills for public inspection. Applies Housekeeping Methods Long years of houseekeoping in her own magnificent establishment in Easl Sixty-first street, willi a millionaire's household budget have trained Mrs. Prall: In matters financial. fin-ancial. She scans the books of Now York's treasury and puis her linger on I lie waste just ns though she were correcting u butcher's bill. 1 She makes a loud appeal for old Father Knickerbocker to pull up his purse strings, exactly as she might S admonish her cook against extravagance. extra-vagance. "Why shouldn't women make good public officials, wliere money Is concerned'.'" she asks. "The housewife's time is largely given up to mailers of household economy, of gelling (he most of her husband's money. '"InWcud of being less apt. at figures. I Ihink women are holler ii.alheinaticisians than men. generally gener-ally speaking." And yet, (here is no fiueslion of I'cinininisin in Mrs. Pratt's fight in Hie council. "7 don't believe in making mak-ing Issues out of sex,' she says. 'I regard pie us human beings, not " ns male and female. "1 never worked for woman suffrage, suf-frage, hut I have always voted since il was granleil. There are many stumbling blocks ahead of women c in politic.-!, and 7 am willing to ad-, mil them. Should Start al HoKotu t "For i thing, women are asking loo high rewards for their early poliiieal efforts. Xo woman has any rigid lo seek high office before she 1 lias held low ones.'1 Mrs. Pratt practices what she preaches. It is known Jhat she squelched all efforts lo noniinale I her for Congress, saying: "1 inn not ready. I want a little job. Give me an alderman's job, nnd I'll win my spurs. Xothing can be lower than an alderman." She laughs a bit at that. "The saddest spectacle in the woman wo-man movement is the woman who takes a job as a tool. 'Ma' Ferguson Fergu-son in Texas set the cause of women wo-men hack fifteen or twenty years, I earnestly believe. "Another unpnrdonnblo sin among women office seekers is the use of pull' or sex discritninal ion to gain their ends. As long as they use these methods, men will doubt their ability, and above all. their ethk-s. "There's another thing. Women till a good deal perhaps not intentionally, inten-tionally, hut only in the sense that they make huge statements they cannot hack" up with the facts. She "Talked Turkey" "That is why. when tne half nil-, lion liudgef. was promised for Xew York. I made no protest until 7 had thoroughly examined the voluminous volumin-ous hooks showing wliere the money was to go. ns well as those which explained the finances of last. year. "For two weeks 7 crammed like a college girl on those books, missing meals and sleep in order to he ready to talk 'cold turkey' when the question ques-tion came up." Another cardinal mistake of women wo-men politicians, in Mrs. Pratt's opinion, is a habit of nagging. "Many women, given an office, ci-nnot resist the opporl unity to talk all the time, because they know they have the men full; where I hev must listen." The Soik'iO a year which Mrs. Prajt earns ns alderman is the first money she ever made. Well-esley Well-esley graduate, wife of n millionaire, million-aire, and member of Ihe smart set. her entrance into politics is probably prob-ably as nearly altruistic ns any public pub-lic work could he. "In spile of Ihe fact that I spend all my $51 KM on my job for the city. 7 get a great kick out of I he checks," she says. "I think I know the value of money fairly well, through my own home' management and the rearing of five children. They call me 'the Lady from the Silk Sleeking Dis trict.' hut no working woman couhl be more earnestly opposed to wasre of money than I am. "I can't attack it by vote in the aldermen's council, for I am one against many. But 7 run talk long and loudly, ami that's where a wo-man wo-man politician has the inside track." |
