First Time

The handful of Representatives who attended one of the House's perfunctory meetings last week stopped their mumblings to listen, for a change, to what Clerk of the House William Tyler Page was reading from the rostrum in his clear rapid voice, which usually rings out over the Representatives' heads as though it (or they) had nothing to do with the case The Clerk was reading a letter from jovial rubicund Speaker Nicholas Longworth, who was prolonging his vacation (in Cincinnati). The letter designated Mr. Longworth's substitute, the Speaker Pro Tem. When Clerk Page stopped reading, up came the Representatives' hands to clap as loudly as they could for a slim, smiling little lady in neat black who stepped briskly to the chair--Mrs. Edith Nourse Rogers, daughter of a cotton miller, widow of a Congressman, Red Cross nurse in the War, thrice-elected Representative of Lowell, Mass.

The session lasted only four minutes. It consisted only of a prayer and an adjourning gavel tap. It was, however, the first time in history a woman ever presided over the U. S. House of Representatives.*

*Congresswomen have, however, sometimes presided over sessions of the Committee of the Whole, the House's working lineup.