was very uncomfortable to get there, and I could not get around very much, but I inquired if they were to be stone buildings, and one of the men said: "No; they are just wooden buildings." I said to him: "Are they not going to have an outer coating of cement?" He said: "No; just paint." I think he was a foreigner, but he understood what I said, and seemed to know that the buildings were to be constructed of wood.

I happened to meet Mrs. Fisher. My office, I may say here, is in the Stevens Building, the office of the Illinois Women's Athletic Club. It is a nonpartisan, nonpolitical organization. Democrats and Republicans, Protestants and Catholics, Jews and Gentiles, business women, society women, poor women, and professional women are members of this organization; and Mrs. Fisher, in the elevator, told me that the Women's Press had been appealed to by the Chicago Women's Club and other clubs, and I said: "Why, yes; I was about to call up your office and voice our protest also."

A few days alter I happened to go into a meeting of the Chicago Political Equality League, of which I am a member. This meeting was held on December 28, I think. I am not quite sure about the date, Mr. Chairman. At least it was on a Saturday afternoon, and I happened to have a little leisure, and the women were very much wrought up about this condition, and many of the individuals were signing petitions to protest against the structures at Fort Sheridan, and I understood that Mrs. Fisher had presented a protest.

A few days later Mrs. Fisher called me up and said to me: "You, of course, have been appointed a member of the women's hospital committee. Will you come into our press room and let us talk over this matter?" and we did. After that Mrs. Fisher called me up and asked me if I would join a delegation to Washington to protest. against the wooden inflammable structures that were being erected at Fort Sheridan, and I said I would. After talking it over with my husband, he permitted me to come here to protest. I was the woman, Mr. Chairman, who could not accept Surg. Gen. Ireland's proposition, if you please, to house the Chicago boys in stone buildings. I represent the boys from Illinois and from other States in my official capacity, and for that reason I presented this matter to you.

I wish to substantiate also both Mrs. Stevens and Mrs. Fisher in their statement in regard to the final report of the committee. I presented it to Dr. Keppel. Dr. Keppel assured me that he would deliver it to Secretary of War Baker, and I told him that the Chicago Women's Hospital committee would do all in its power for the comfort of the boys at Fort Sheridan-those who were housed in the stone buildings. A large number of men who are now, some of them, convalescing are in those buildings. I can answer that question because I visited those wards.

I feel that the Surgeon General and his staff have done everything that they could to facilitate matters. I am sure that the administration as a Republican I may say that have done all in their power, and I did not come here in a spirit of criticism. I feel that I want to voice the sentiment of the women I represent, and many are women who are unable to express themselves; they are of foreign birth and are foreign speaking, and somehow we understand them, possibly, better than any other women. But the idea is this, that the

women of Chicago are up in arms; and they are not interested in any other hospital. I am not interested in any other hospital.

Much has been said about the Speedway. I have never seen the Speedway as a hospital.

I wish also to state that I was the woman who discovered the little spring catches, and I tried to raise the window. I was unable to raise it. I remember those catches in my mother's time and my grandmother's time. I can remember a long ways back, and I remember that we had some difficulty in opening these windows, and I have not seen any catches of this kind for over 20 years. I assure you that the landscape is beautiful and the Lake Michigan breezes are fine, but they will not help the boys out there unless those windows are so constructed that they can be raised easily with one hand, because I do know that the boys who are to be housed there-if they are to be housed there, and I hope not-should have at least God's fresh air and sunshine, if nothing else.

I believe these buildings are absolutely impossible as constructed. The very idea of bringing boys suffering from shell shock into those buildings, where they are confronted at once by rows of pails filled with water, and all sorts of safety devices, with a hose cart at the end of the corridor, is enough to freighten anyone.

I was told that smoking was prohibited. Gentlemen, I represent manufacturers and consumers, employers and employees. I am absolutely against prohibitory measures generally. I think men should be so regulated, and women, that they may eat and drink regularly; that they should be permitted-men should be permitted to smokeand I believe that it would be taking away a great comfort from the boys if smoking is prohibited.

Senator HARDWICK. Pardon me, but you are not a very strong prohibitionist?

Mrs. SEVERIN. I am not a prohibitionist; absolutely not. I am against prohibition. I represent the Women's Association of Commerce and I have here an account of the session that was held, which is apropos-interested in several investments for the women; so that not only am I interested in the housing of the boys safely but I am interested in human beings generally.

I do not know that there is anything else. If there are any questions, I will answer them.

Senator HARDWICK. There are one or two questions I would like to ask you. Do you know anything about this thing that Mrs. Fisher spoke about the Department of Justice having officials call on your members?

Mrs. SEVERIN. Yes.

Senator HARDWICK. And inquiring what you are doing down here? Mrs. SEVERIN. Yes.

Senator HARDWICK. What do you know about that?

Mrs. SEVERIN. A gentleman called at my home a number of times, stating that he represented the War Department. I was not in my residence. I was at my office.

Senator HARDWICK. Do you remember his name?

Mrs. SEVERIN. Mr. Raymond, or Railin. He said that he represented the Department of Justice. He waited for me. I made an appointment with him in my office, and he, so to say, "put me on the

carpet." He asked many impertinent questions, and I finally thought I asked him if he was a reporter, and he said, "I have been on the newspapers, but I am representing the War Department, and this is my credentials," and he did show-I did not have my glasses with me at that particular moment, but I could see "War Depart

ment."

Senator HARDWICK. What was his name, Ray or Raymond, you say?

Mrs. SEVERIN. He wrote his name down on a piece of paper so that I could remember it. His address was 216 East Ohio Street. Senator HARDWICK. Washington?

Mrs. SEVERIN. Chicago, Ill. His name is either Raymond or something on that order.

Mr. ADCOCK. He is the officer in the central headquarters of the War Department.

Mrs. SEVERIN. He seemed to have an idea that possibly I had an ulterior motive. He was in my office, as I say, and these dodgers were lying about, and I drew his attention to this paragraph [indicating], and he seemed to be satisfied that possibly I was a decent, reputable citizen, and had a right to an opinion. That is a reprint from the Chicago Herald. I suppose those are my credentials.

Senator HARDWICK. Yes. You can put that in the record with your statement, if you desire to.

Mrs. SEVERIN. He was courteous.

(The extract referred to is here printed in the record, as follows:)

[From Chicago Sunday Herald, Aug. 5, 1917.[

A WILLING WORKER FOR HUMANITY WHOSE REWARD HAS BEEN THE JOY OF SERVICE.

[By Jessie Ozias Donahue.]

To prove the fallacy of the statement that money is the inducement which prompts one to great efforts, one has but to cite the personal endeavor of a host of women workers of the present day. Chicago women have the reputation for doing things and doing them well. It has yet to be said they do them only for compensation.

Men enter politics and receive remuneration commensurate with their efforts. In all public affairs men-the majority of men-expect to be paid for their work, for the reason, doubtless, that they have families dependent upon them. The time is drawing near when women, too, will be regarded as providers, and then naturally will come about the wage plan for services rendered, but at present one looks aghast at the woman who admits that she profits by her efforts at election time, or who gains a livelihood through the medium of charity work.

Woman somehow is expected to work for nothing-it is traditional-and we have something vast to overcome in our old-fashioned vision before we can calmly grant the right of salary to the unprofessional woman worker.

Mrs. William Severin, of Rogers Park, is one of Chicago's women who does things for the glory of it-the need of it, and the satisfaction derived from the accomplishment of something worth while is all the reward she values.

No salary or any remuneration whatsoever during her years of service has been received by Mrs. Severin. Yet she has held posts of honor in the Wabansia Relief Society, Wicker Park Woman's Club, Esther Falkenstein Settlement, St. Mary's of Nazareth Hospital, Seventh District Illinois Federation of Women's Clubs, Edgewater Drama Study Class, Illinois Colony Club, National Ship of States, Woman's Association of Commerce, Woman's Trade Union League of Cook County Clubs, Woman's Protective Association, Illinois Republican Woman's League, Rogers Park Day Nursery, and the Republican Woman's Association of Illinois.

*

Of this latter organization, which she founded, she is now president, and has lately been appointed, at the request of Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, Chicago suffrage speaker for the New York suffrage campaign. At the recent convention of business women, held at the Congress hotel, she was appointed chairman of the national advisory council of the newly organized Women's Association of Commerce of the United States of America.

All this without salary or perquisites. What man would do it? And yet, she, a Chicago woman, able to handle big problems in civic and community work, is not enfranchised. She, like other Illinois women, has not equal rights with men, has no voice in the Government other than partial suffrage in that she can vote for President, and, although she worked successfully for the election of Gov. Frank O. Lowden, was unable to cast her vote for him.

This inconsistency on the part of the Government Mrs. Severin declares is hard to bear. She therefore has added one more bit to her everincreasing tower of duties and during September will make a 10-day tour of New York State, speaking in behalf of the Susan B. Anthony amendment and the immediate enfranchisement of the women of the United States.

Americanization will be her theme, and she will carry her message into the rural districts as well as the cities. She will talk to the masses, will address the foreign-born citizens and will look for the same results in the East which have been accorded her efforts in the Western States.

She has also enrolled as a speaker for the Illinois division, National Council of Defense, under Mrs. Kellogg Fairbank, and will do her bit in the way of woman's war work as consciously as she has entered the field of politicals and suffrage.

For 20 years Mrs. Severin has been a tireless worker in the suffrage cause as for the welfare of humanity. In September, 1914, she led a delegation of 21 women in the convention at Peoria and worked under Mrs. Grace Wilbur Trout, president of the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association, for the indorsement of suffrage in our State.

During the time she served as president of the seventh district, Illinois Federation of Women's Clubs, she saw the great need of the ballot for women in investigating State and county institutions. She succeeded in winning the respect and confidence of the powers at that time in her welfare work, and through her efforts improvements were made in many of the institutions under surveillance.

In 1911 she was elected chairman of the civil-service department of the Illinois Federation of Women's Clubs, where she made her great fight for merit and efficiency as against spoils politics. She organized the first social club in Chicago for charitable purposes in 1892. This organization still exists. She was chairman of the first public card party ever given in the city the following year, proceeds of which went to supply linens for St. Elizabeths Hospital.

Mrs. Severin was among the first to advocate moving-picture shows in churches and schools as a means of higher education, believing them to be within the reach of all and confident in their adaptability to any desired subject.

Movements Mrs. Severin favors are those for colonizing the feeble-minded and against too strict censorship of moving pictures. In a word, is an advanced thinker with the courage of her convictions. She is confident the citizens of Illinois will rally to the support of the constitutional convention and looks for the passage of the Susan B. Anthony amendment as a war measure by the present Congress.

Faith in the men at the helm Mrs. Severin has, but she demands recognition for her sex, believing that municipal housekeeping, like the domestic task, can be more ably handled by means of partnership than by bachelor-hall methods. The CHAIRMAN. What was his idea in talking to you from the War Department?

Mrs. SEVERIN. He wanted to know who paid my expenses to Washington, and I told him that I had the supreme satisfaction, for the first time in my life, of having my expenses paid by the women's press; that I had campaigned, and politically; and I had never been feed, and I had never had a campaign fund; I had never been compensated, but I hoped that some day I would, when women received a vote generally, so that they would have a voice in the selection of their candidates.

I wish to say at this moment that I resigned as president of the Twenty-fifth Ward Women's Republican Club because I had no voice in the selection of the candidates I voted for. I am nonpartisan now— locally. [Laughter.] Are there any other question?

Senator HARDWICK. I have been very much interested in this. Can you tell me what he said? He asked you about who paid your expenses?

Mrs. SEVERIN. Yes.

Senator HARDWICK. Is there anything else that he asked you, this agent of the department?

Mrs. SEVERIN. I did not think it was anything very complimentary to me to have the Department of Justice asking these questions through this agency. I hoped that I would have a reply from Secretary of War Baker.

Senator HARDWICK. Did he say anything to you, this man, about the Speedway project?

Mrs. SEVERIN. He asked me if I was interested in the Speedway. Senator HARDWICK. He did?

Mrs. SEVERIN. I said I was; that we had automobile races there, and before that when we had horse races.

Senator HARDWICK. But as to a hospital project, you were not?
Mrs. SEVERIN. No; absolutely no.

Senator HARDWICK. His idea seemed to be that you might be making this trip in the interests of the Speedway project?

Mrs. SEVERIN. I do not know what his idea was.

Senator HARDWICK. Was that the impression he made on your mind?

Mrs. SEVERIN. Yes.

Senator HARDWICK. And you told him that was utterly out of the question?

Mrs. SEVERIN. I told him so, and I thought he was convinced. Senator HARDWICK. So that you did not have any more visitations? Mrs. SEVERIN. I said that Mrs. Fred R. Hunt was interviewed. In fact, she told me so, and that she was called up-no; Mrs. De Witt C. Garrison was interviewed, and Mrs. Hunt was called up-I am not quite sure.

Senator HARDWICK. By this same gentleman?

Mrs. SEVERIN. I do not know. From the War Department. I can not swear to it, whether she was interviewed or not, Mr. Chairman, and I do not want to say anything that I can not back up. Senator HARDWICK. Do you know Mr. Hines?

Mrs. SEVERIN. No, sir: I do not."

Senator HARDWICK. Has he anything to do with your activities in this organization?

Mrs. SEVERIN. No, sir. I have never met Mr. Hines; I do not know Mrs. Hines; I have not seen the Speedway hospital. I have had the confidence and the respect of the people of the city of Chicago and of Illinois.

I wish to say that my father built the first immigrant house on the West Market in 1852, and during my young life I have heard many stories about the Chicago fire, and my father opened his doors and took the people in and housed them without remuneration, and the stories of that time were impressed on my young mind; and the