Candidate Izetta

In Washington one evening less than ten years ago, a member of the U. S. Congress, wearied from his labors, went to the theatre. He was William G. Brown, Jr., Representative from West Virginia. In the play, which was presented for his divertisement, there was a well-known actress--Izetta Jewell, who had played as leading woman for Otis Skinner (see Page 15), James K. Hackett, and other stage notables. He was pleased with her.

He met, he wooed, he married her.

Little more than a year later, on March 9, 1916, Congressman Brown died. His widow, with her little daughter June, returned to West Virginia.

In the Fall of 1918 there was a major serving in the A. E. F. in France. His name was Davis Elkins, son of Stephen B. Elkins, late Republican Senator from West Virginia. While he was abroad, the people of his state elected him as one of their Senators.

Now he is returned and sits with his colleagues in the Senate. But his term expires in March, 1925, and he does not desire to succeed himself. The result is that aspirants of both parties are scrambling for his seat. On the Democratic side, Izetta Jewell Brown is one of the aspirants.

What of Mrs. Brown? Is she simply a retired actress? No, indeed. She left the stage to take a husband. But when she lost a husband she did not leave an active life in politics and the world of affairs. She runs three farms. She keeps pedigreed milch cows. She directs the State Wool Pool. She works for the American Farm Bureau Federation. She works for the Democratic Party.

Her gifts as a politician were recognized in 1920. She went to the Democratic Convention in San Francisco and seconded the nomination of John W. Davis for the Presidential nomination. She did it in a way that would have been a credit to an acknowledged master of politics, and she did it like a woman and an actress. She advanced to speak, clothed entirely in white, red roses blooming on her corsage.

She began in the approved fashion, by telling a story: A little boy re turned from Sunday School. His mother doubted the surety of his learn ing. So she questioned him. Yes, God had made the world in seven days, and then made man, and man went to sleep in a garden. And while man was asleep, God took man's brains and made woman.

Cheers and laughter. The band commenced to play Oh, You Beautiful Doll. The lady politician continued.

She referred to the recent Republican fiasco (the nomination of the "unknown" Senator Harding). The comment of the country, she declared was: "Well, they might have done worse." Then gazing directly at her hearers, she proclaimed: "Nominate Mr. Davis and the comment that will ring through out the land will be 'Well, they couldn't have done better.'"

Mr. Davis was not nominated. But Izetta Jewell Brown went on tour, speaking for James M. Cox, and Franklin D. Roosevelt--another proof of her qualifications as a politician.