Club Life

In Washington, D. C, is the Congressional Club, composed of women of the Congressional set. Wives of Congressmen have always been ipso facto eligible for membership, have even been urged to join when they showed lack of initiative. But last week, Mrs. Albert H. Vestal, wife of the Indiana Representative, offered an amendment to the club's constitution which, if passed at a general meeting on Feb. 6, will make it possible for the club's members to thwart the election of women whose right to belong has hitherto been unquestioned. The amendment provides that the candidate must be indorsed by one or more members from her home state, must be approved by an Executive Committee of officers.

No explanation was offered. None seemed likely to be offered. But shrewd observers remembered that in the next Congress Oscar De Priest will sit as Representative from the First District, Chicago. Naturally he will bring Mrs. Jessie Williams De Priest with him to Washington. The shrewd observers recalled that Mr. & Mrs. De Priest are Negroes--he being the only black man to sit in either house of Congress since Negro Representative Henry White of Tarboro, N. C. (1897-1901).