Mr. PATTERSON. The Methodist Episcopal Church.

Mr. HAMMER. I don't know much about the police regulations concerning theaters-my activities have been confined to other linesbut I have heard-I hear some things that aren't true and some that are and I don't know whether you can give me the information that I am seeking or not-you haven't had time to investigate and ascertain it, probably-but I have heard that the Mutual Theater is now confining its operations exclusively to men, and that women are not admitted to the theater as patrons of it. Do you know anything about that?

Mr. PATTERSON. I understand that that is the latest action, sir.

Mr. HAMMER. Does that meet with the approval of this civilized community, a moral community, that plays should be played in the city, especially in the capital of the United States, with the approval of the police authorities so indecent that women and children can not attend the plays? Is there any moral purpose or scientific or historical value connected with the plays that makes them of such interest that even though they are so indecent that ladies and children can not be permitted to attend them, they should yet be shown? I think that ought to be brought to the attention of the authorities and that the authorities should suppress such plays when they are so vulgar that they can not be attended by ladies and children, unless they are for a historical or scientific purpose in the study of science or something else. I can not see any reason why they should not be suppressed.

Mr. BLANTON. When the gentleman says "science," does he mean "anatomy"?

Mr. HAMMER. They claim that these things are for a scientific purpose sometimes.

Mr. RATHBONE. Are there any further questions of the witness? Mr. HAMMER. You said something about "contemptible." What was it that you called contemptible?

Mr. PATTERSON. I said "contemptible kind of shows."

Mr. HAMMER. I don't know what the law provides or what it permits, but there ought to be a woman on the board to inspect these pictures along with the men. I don't think they ought to debar women entirely. There ought to be women and men both to pass upon whether shows are proper shows to be shown in the city.

Mr. BLANTON. Don't you find photographs daily in the press which are as bad as what we condemn in the theaters?

Mr. PATTERSON. There is one on the front page in a Washington newspaper that certainly displays advertising not altogether proper. That is my personal opinion.

Mr. BLANTON. Does your organization approve of these nude pictures that you see in the papers every day?

Mr. PATTERSON. We do not.

Mr. BLANTON. Especially in the Sunday edition?

Mr. PATTERSON. We do not think it is a good thing.

Mr. BLANTON. You have not asked this committee to take any action concerning them. What is the use of closing up these indecent shows when the same kind of pictures appear in the press for all of our children to see daily?

Mr. PATTERSON. The law stipulates certain limits and requirements-I am not exactly sure about that-about showing certain

parts of the body. I think the torso must be covered. They pass the law that way. For instance, you have these bathing beauties and such as that and they pass by. Then you have the post-office regulations permitting them to pass as mail. We have been engaged in trying to have the Post Office Department bar those pictures from interstate commerce and transportation-those nude pictures and so on, of which there is a large circulation.

Mr. RATHBONE. Is there any further question?

All right, I will call on Miss Lusby.

STATEMENT OF MISS CLAIRE L. LUSBY, DIRECTOR OF LEGISLATION, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA WOMAN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION

Miss LUSBY. I am the director of legislation of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of the District of Columbia.

I come here to favor the principles of this bill. We indorsed the principles of the bill before it was in definite form before Congress. We did not go into the details, but we did stand for a legal status for the women's bureau. As to the details, we thought we would leave those to the committee to thrash out. The point of the legal status of the women's bureau, we thought, is really necessary.

I would like to file a statement here from the national president, Mrs. Ella A. Boole, relative to this, and ask that it receive your consideration.

Mr. RATHBONE. It will be received.

Mr. BLANTON. Your organization is how old?

Miss LUSBY. Fifty-two years old.

Mr. BLANTON. It has chapters in every State in the Union, hasn't it?

Miss LUSBY. It has. We are organized in most every county in every State.

Mr. BLANTON. Your organization is the parent mother of what is generally known as the Anti-Saloon League of America?

Miss LUSBY. We think we are, and they call us so, too.

I might say that our national organization has nearly 750,000 women, paid-up membership, where they pay every year, besides our honorary membership.

Mr. BLANTON. You have branches in every town and county in our districts back home, haven't you?

Miss LUSBY. Yes, sir; and they receive our legislative news once a week.

Mr. BLANTON. Do they vote?

Miss LUSBY. They certainly do, all except those in the District of Columbia. We have about 1,650 women in the District of Columbia who are vitally interested in this bill.

Mr. BLANTON. At home do they vote just like they preach and talk here? When they want a bill passed, do they vote for such matters at home?

Miss LUSBY. I should think that all the Members of Congress would know for themselves that they do vote as they preach.

Mr. RATHBONE. May I ask you this question? I would like to get the general viewpoint of such a woman as yourself and your organi

zations. If I don't get this exactly right I wish you would correct me, please. Is this the general character of your general attitude and spirit toward this particular piece of legislation: That, inasmuch as this is the National capital, the bill in question possesses more than ordinary importance and interest for the rest of the country and that it is important to give a certain dignity and a certain stability to work of this character and work in general by women for women and girls that it perhaps does not now possess as compared. with other branches of the law and the administration of justice and that you think it will be helpful to other States and communities to give this additional dignity and stability-this particular bureau here in Washington? Is that a fair and correct statement of your viewpoint in regard to this matter?

Miss LUSBY. With the women of the country? Yes. But we felt when we were out for District prohibition-the District women felt that instead of being a model for the country to copy, we pretty nearly had to wait until the folks back home wanted it and made you men down here give it to us.

Mr. RATHBONE. I was not speaking so much about a model, but it establishes a certain precedent which might have its influence, doesn't it?

Miss LUSBY. Yes; it does.

Mr. BLANTON. If your 750,000 women back home make up their minds to do something with us men, we usually vote your way before we quit, don't we?

Miss LUSBY. You generally do. We have a way; we get around you. We have such a system in our organization. It is the best organized

Mr. BLANTON. The best in the world?

Miss LUSBY. Group of women-it has the best organized association of women in this country. It isn't any time at all before we can have the word down to the humblest woman in our ranks, what we want to have done. All we have to do is to send out 48 telegrams to the different State presidents and in two minutes they have it down to the towns and the counties, and they send the word down to the members.

Mr. BLANTON. Isn't is a fact that your organization never stands behind an unworthy proposition? It is only propositions that are worthy that your organization stands for?

Miss LUSBY. Not all of those do we stand behind. Our legislative program has been to stand for measures that pertain directly to the enforcement of prohibition; and we do believe that we are not out of line when we stand for this bill because we believe that a woman's bureau is a great agency on the part of law enforcement. That is why we have come here to-day.

Mr. BLANTON. Would there be any objection to my putting into the record this letter to our chairman, dated to-day, from the manager of the Florence Crittenton Home, approving this bill?

Mr. RATHBONE. Certainly not.

Mr. BLANTON. I would like to have it read into the record.

Mr. RATHBONE. There is certainly no objection.

(The paper referred to is as follows:)

Hon. HENRY R. RATHBONE,

Chairman Subcommittee on Police and Firemen,

MARCH 11, 1926.

Committee on the District of Columbia.

MY DEAR MR. RATHBONE: At a regular meeting of the board of managers of the Florence Crittenton Home, Washington, D. C., the bill H. R. 7848 was read aloud and, after discussion, was unanimously approved.

The work of the Florence Crittenton Home is such that we are in touch with the work of the woman's bureau.

Very truly yours,

GERTRUDE CRANE, Member of the Board.

Mr. RATHBONE. I will state that I have received quite a number of communications, and that I thought it was our purpose and intention to take the matter up with the committee and see if they wish to have all of them or some of them incorporated into the record.

Mr. BLANTON. I think they all ought to be put into the hearings where they are from organizations here in Washington.

Mr. RATHBONE. I thought we would take that up as a general proposition, not separately.

Mr. BLANTON. I ask the chairman if he expects to have the hearings printed?

Mr. RATHBONE. We have not decided yet, but I think we will probably have them printed.

Mr. BLANTON. They ought to be printed.

Mr. GIBSON. You have received a statement of indorsement from the citizens' advisory council?

Mr. RATHBONE. That has been received.

Mr. GIBSON. And from the National Parents and Teachers' Association?

Mr. RATHBONE. That has been received.

A motion has been made that all the communications received by the chairman be incorporated in the record and that the reports of the hearings be printed.

(The motion was carried.)

STATEMENT OF MRS. ARTHUR C. WATKINS, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY NATIONAL CONGRESS OF PARENTS AND TEACHERS, WASHINGTON, D. C.

Mrs. WATKINS. I am the executive secretary of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers. The national congress at our annual convention held at Austin, Tex., in May, 1925, at which representatives of 43 States were present, passed unanimously the following

resolution:

Passed at the annual convention held in Austin, Tex., May, 1925, at which representatives of 43 States were present.

Police women:

Whereas the qualified police woman is one of the effective agencies in the protection of young people in public places and in the prevention of delinquency: Be it

Resolved, That the National Congress of Parents and Teachers hereby indorses and calls upon the United States Congress to enact into law at its next session Senate bill 4308 or a bill providing for similar standards of service which will make permanent the women's bureau of the Metropolitan police

department, which has for seven years rendered excellent service in the Nation's capital city.

At the executive committee meeting held in Washington at its session on February 23 this year the following motion was made and carried. Eight States were voting and five States entered the discussion:

It was moved and carried that the executive committee send to Senator Capper, Congressman Zihlman, and Congressman Gibson a statement that this committee desires the passage of the women's bureau bill in the Metropolitan police department of the District of Columbia-House bill 7848, Senate bill 7150.

I was asked by our national legislative chairman to read this communication:

Mr. RATHBONE. Your organization, I take it, attaches rather a special importance to placing this bill upon a permanent basis and giving it a certain dignity by law that it does not possess now affecting the entire country?

Mrs. WATKINS. It does.

Mr. RATHBONE. That is my idea.

Mrs. WATKINS. Yes.

Mr. BLANTON. While only 45 States were represented in your last national convention, this Parents and Teachers' Association has branches in every State in the Union, doesn't it?

Mrs. WATKINS. We have no State branch in the State of Nevada, but we have 48 State organizations, including the District of Columbia. We just recently organized a State branch in Hawaii, the first of our territorial branches.

Mr. BLANTON. In the State of Texas there are 252 counties.
Mrs. WATKINS. Yes.

Mr. BLANTON. I don't know of any county in the State of Texas, however sparsely settled it is, that does not have your organization

in it.

Mrs. WATKINS. No. We are very strong in Texas.

Mr. BLANTON. Referring to what you read about mothers not being able to control the activities of their own daughters on account of the automobile, and so on. It is a fact that a young girl could leave her home over in Cumberland, Md., or in Richmond, Va., to go to some entertainment and be in Washington, D. C., the next morning? Mrs. WATKINS. Yes.

Mr. BLANTON. Her mother would have no way in the world to know where she was or to stop her?

Mrs. WATKINS. No.

Mr. BLANTON. In such instances we depend upon the police bureaus-that is, the policewomen-getting in contact with them and getting them back to their mothers?

Mrs. WATKINS. Yes.

Mr. BLANTON. So it is a very important feature.

Mrs. WATKINS. It seems to me so; yes.

Mr. HAMMER. Did I understand you to read something a moment ago that referred to children?

Mrs. WATKINS. I don't think you heard me read a resolution about children. I will read over again what I read.

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