^oo 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



25,000 ■ members, making an organised army 

 in California of nearly 50,000 women co- 

 operating in civic study and in an effort 

 to secure legislation which shall place the 

 State at the forefront of the movement for 

 human justice. 



The article gives some interesting 

 facts with regard to the things these 

 women's organisations have done. At 

 San Francisco, when a civic centre be- 

 came desirable and a bond issue was de- 

 cided upon, the Mayor left the presen- 

 tation of the matter to the people in the 

 hands of the New Era League, whose 

 President, Mrs. Coffin, cleverly secured 

 for it such effective publicity that at the 

 special election the citizens voted for the 

 bond issue by the overwhelming vote of 

 45,000 to 4000. At this same election, 

 too, the League brought the election 

 authorities to book. 



In all San Francisco — a city of nearly 

 half a million population — there was but one 

 registration place. This booth was in the 

 City Hall, in the down-town section of the 

 city, where not only women, but even many 

 men found it extremely inconvenient, not to 

 say unpleasant, to go; for San Francisco is a 

 city that spreads) over miles and miles of 

 territory. 



The New Era League put the matter 

 squarely up to the authorities. " Where are 

 vou going to locate your new registration 

 booths?" asked Mrs. Coffin. 



"Where am I going to put them?" re- 

 peated the astonished official. " There aren't 

 going to be any more." 



" The law of California," said Mrs. Coffin. 

 " distinctly says that it is the business of 

 the registration board to facilitate registra- 



tion. You don't want me to advertise that 

 fact that vou have not done your legal dutv, 

 do you?"' 



The official began to see a great light. " T 

 have no appropriation to equip other 

 booths," he replied. 



" Is lack of money your sole reason for 

 not providing additional registration 

 booths?" asked Mrs. Coffin. 



"Yes," said the official. 



"Very well," said Mrs. Coffin. "We'll 

 furnish the booths if you will furnish the 

 clerical force." 



The official had to say "Yes." but he 

 quickly added a condition that he thought 

 would dispose of Mrs. Coffin. " You must 

 have your booths ready by ten o'clock to- 

 morrow morning," he said. 



" I will," said Mrs. Coffin, though she 

 had no idea how she was to do it. 



But by ten o'clock the next morning she 

 had her rooms ready. 



The San Francisco centre of the Civic 

 League started a registration campaign, 

 and the registration of women jumped 

 from 1200 to 25,000. At Los Angeles 

 the Women's Progressive League in 

 twenty-seven registration days enrolled 

 83,284 women as voters. The Woman's 

 City Club of Los Angeles gathers every 

 Monday for luncheon, and at every 

 luncheon some speaker of note talks 

 upon an important civic topic. And as 

 illustrating the scope of their work, on 

 one occasion 500 women of various civic 

 clubs of Los Angeles went twenty miles 

 in special trolley cars to inspect the 

 harbour development work at the port, 

 San Pedro. And the women are in dead 

 earnest. 



THE GROWTH OF SOCIALISM IN ARGENTINE. 



In Die Neue Zeii, the German Social- 

 ist weekly of Stuttgart, Kornelia Thies- 

 sen, of Buenos Aires, seeks to show 

 that, in spite of circumstances supposed 

 to be unfavourable to the development 

 of Socialism, that movement has made 

 a vigorous start in Argentine, and is 

 there based on economic evil of like 

 character to those which have given rise 

 to the agitation in other countries. He 

 begins by citing, for the purpose of re- 

 futing them, the views of Ferri, who, 

 upon a visit to Argentine two years 

 ago, declared, on the basis of what is 

 known as " the economic interpretation 

 of history," that Socialism has no 

 raison d'etre in Argentine. 



Argentine, said Ferri, is still only a 

 market for European and North Ameri- 

 can industry. 



The proletariat is a product of the steam 

 engine. And only with the proletariat, the 

 industrial wage-earner, does Socialism make 

 its appearance. New Zealand and Australia 

 are the best proof of this truth. There is 

 no industrialism in those countries. They 

 have, consequently, only a Labour Party, no 

 Socialist one. The Socialist party in Argen- 

 tine is. therefore, a Labour party in the 

 economic part of its programme, and a' 

 Radical party in politics. 



There is some truth, says Thiessen, 

 in Fern's contention, but it is not the 

 whole truth. It is not true that the 

 proletariat is the product of the steam 



