Women of Importance

Charles Curtis of Kansas likes to have a discreet and well-trained young woman as his administrative assistant, so last week he appointed Miss Lola M. Williams of Kansas, long his senatorial secretary, to be the first woman to enjoy the majestic title of "Secretary to the President of the United States Senate."

Speaker Nicholas Longworth of the House has long had a woman secretary, able and personable Miss Mildred E. Reeves of the District of Columbia. Her bobbed hair, olive complexion and wine-colored dresses are familiar decorations of the House, where she can generally be seen in a rear seat on the Democratic side watching legislation hawk-eyed. With women in its membership, the House is used to having women on its floor; hence it admitted women secretaries long ago. But not the Senate, where men are statesmen. Women members of the House may tread there. And "grand old" Mrs. Rebecca Ratimer Felton of Georgia, was actually Senator, for one day in 1922, by a southern gentleman-governor's gesture.* But women secretaries have been barred even more rigorously than senators-suspect.

Now Senators will see, tripping politely up to their august rostrum, a slim person in her early 30's, with bright blond hair and a ready smile. Lola Williams got on in the world by cultivating a small potato patch of her own in a corner of the family farm; later by selling newspaper subscriptions. She reached Washington in 1918, a trained secretary looking for a job. The War Department took her in as a clerk until Senator Curtis found her. Now she is queen Secretary of the whole vast capitol.

Another Congressional secretary received a substantial promotion last week, when Representative Fiorello* H. La Guardia of Manhattan took Miss Marie M. Fisher, his secretary for 14 years, unto him as second wife. Congressman O. J. Kvale of Minnesota, a Lutheran minister, performed the service and the marriage was formally announced on the House floor. Two days later Representative La Guardia, swart and peppery, impeached a Federal judge.

*Last week, motoring to Calhoun, Ga., with her grandson, Mrs. Felton, now 94, was flung against the back window of the car when it crashed another. She, the only one hurt, sat calmly while physicians worked on her face for two hours, staunching her wounds and putting in 20 stitches. *"Little Flower" in Italian.