31 6 The Sooner Magazine June

"Nationality!" said Margarita Nelken. "Nationality! I was born in of German parents. They registered me at birth as a Spanish citizen but I had not registered again on attaining my majority, Notes from a Feminist's travel though I had held a government appoint- ment given only to Spanish citizens. But when the voters of Badajoz elected me to diary: Madrid represent them, there was a great cam- paign against permitting me to take my seat." "And BY MUNA how was the matter settled?" LEE, '12 "Oh, very simply!" laughed Margarita Nelken. "The Cortes voted that I be a citizen, and that's how I became the only person who has acquired citizenship by 1 . Clara Campoamor vote!" 3 . Tall and slender, with dark eyes and "SHE will be busy!" warns the viction reinforced by the bitter experience dark hair, old concierge as he opens a wholly Castilian charm and the elevator door of hard years of struggle. distinction, Victoria Kent has little ob- and pushes the button that sends us jerk- "We cannot hesitate and compromise" vious connection ing upward. She is busy. Clara with her English sur- Campo- she cried. "If the Republic is to endure, name. The remote Britishancestor who be- amor's anteroom and outer office are filled must trust her women!" with waiting queathed it to her, bequeathed nothing clients, men and women. And so votes for women on equal terms apparent to the eye. Spanish From the inner office comes a steady hum of the Span- with men was written into the basic law ish, Victoria Kent sat down beside me of conversation, with a feminine voice, of the new Spain. upon clear, pleasant, and emphatic, the sofa in her office in the ministry audible now of prisons, and talked with me about and again in an energetic phrase. She is 2. Margarita Nelken wo- standing by her Margarita men in her country and mine. desk, not sitting, as one Nelken's apartment looks out "We must have realities!" enters at last, summoned by a pretty sec- over the Paseo de la Castellana, Madrid's was the un- retary with a fashionable derlying theme of her talk. "We have had notebook in her hand. drive, flanked with embassies rhetoric so long!" Clara Campoamor stands during much and great houses, with the shaded prom- She enade down the is director of prisons, this earnest of our talk, moves about, returns. The ef- center where nurses with low-voiced woman, and her work in re- fect is of intensity and force. She is a enormous frilled bonnets like huge white forming the Spanish vivid gillyflowers walk solemnly prison system has person, with dramatic black eye- up and down been news in the headlines of the world. brows above large brown eyes with a level with their small charges. The first gaze. "If I were not sick I woman to be admitted to the Even in repose she gives the im- should not have bar in Spain, Victoria Kent was one of the pression of being on the alert. been here today to see you!" says Mar- lawyers garita Nelken. We who defended the revolutionists Her father was a well known journal- both smile. I have been when they were on trial for their lives. ist, but he died when Clara trying to see her for a week. When not was hardly actually in the She has the popular and official confidence more than a child. She was faced with the Cortes, she is always away to a remarkable degree. necessity of earning a living in a country -lecturing on the purposes and obliga- "You would tions of the Republic to better see what Victoria which made small provision for such ne- voters in the Kent says about it," is a remark one hears cessity then on the part of its women. cities along the coast, in small mountain often. A villages, in the arid upland painful period of struggle ended when towns. "Will Her office is in the ministry of justice, she obtained a position you permit me to finish dictating this let- .as telegrapher and ter first?" a grim building on a noisy cluttered street. journeyed to Saragossa and San Sebastian. she asks. I look at her appre- Her anteroom is filled, ciatively while I wait. Hers is always, with peti- Later she held a position in the ministry an alien, tioners ; old peasant women in dusty of public instruction and fine arts ; later tawny-haired loveliness. Her parents were sandals who have German, I recall. But her room walked from Southern still, as teacher of stenography and type- is wholly Spain with a plea for Victoria Kent to save writing in the State schools. She studied and delightfully Spanish, furnished dis- a son from criminatingly with the prison; women with strained law, was admitted to the bar in 1925, and best of that satis- faces, in fashionable street suits; men of opened her law office in Madrid. fying Spanish folk-art which is so simple all in outline and so rich classes. It is a tense atmosphere, that of Feminist and Revolutionist, she was and subtle in color- Victoria Kent's antechamber; but the ten- working to ing. A hanging in magenta, violet, and build the Republic while she electric blue is the sion relaxes unconsciously when Victoria worked to build her own life. The background for a Kent herself appears for a moment Re- carved oak chest. Charming pottery ani- in the public once established, she has organized mals door, a pale, grave woman with a smile an association of women walk across the mantel. A dark oak of great sweetness, of all parties who table with iron braces and with a quiet word are united for safeguarding "its liberal and gleams with two makes them welcome and promises to see democratic principles centuries of wax. each one ." Margarita Nelken in turn. She is famed for finishes her letter One may disagree with Victoria Kent her eloquence. When and is swiftly the gracious charming host- the Constitution of the Republic was being ess. She on questions of policy; one could never drawn asks about the woman in North doubt her sincerity up, Clara Campoamor and Vic- America ; in South America. and intellectual in- toria Kent clashed on the And what tegrity. She has the practicality of the floor of the are women doing in the Antilles? With Cortes. Both believed in , but Vic- difficulty Spaniard, that realistic race so romanti- toria I focus our conversation on her- cized and falsified Kent believed that the women of self. Will she tell me why her by most foreign com- Spain were not ready for election to mentators. Her first act as director of the vote ; that the Cortes was contested and how she education for republican life should pre- won her seat? prisons was to revise the diet of the pris- cede it. Clara Campoamor answered her oners and see that it was balanced and She makes an expressive gesture with adequate. with all the eloquence of passionate con-, the long slender hand of Her second was to cut down an artist. TURN TO PAGE 326, PLEASE 326 The Sooner Magazine June

who had been privileged to live near this Rev Thomas Cassidy, bishop of the Okla- theless made valuable beautiful contributions to character . I know of no one homa Episcopal churches, and Mr Lind- our civilization and that he is now en- whose ideals of Christian womanhood loff for the new St. John's Episcopal tering a period in which, if given the were higher, more sincere or more help- church which will be ready for occupa- chance, he will accomplish ful . The dignity incomprehen- of her life was con- tion when school opens in September . sibly worthwhile things. I have learned, tagious; unhurried, always poised, she J. H. Fredrickson, Oklahoma City, is the in brief, that the Negro is time for every a gift-bearer had plea, every demand. contractor. rather than a gift-receiver, as we have The community has never been able to The junior church composed of chil- too long considered him. find a substitute for her gentle minis- dren from about four to fourteen years trations." In light of almost insurmountable so- old has increased fifty percent, since cial, political, and industrial handicaps, Miss Ruth Moore, instructor in piano, Lindloff has been here. They shall con- recalled the tremendous progress made by the her student days in King Hall . tinue to meet in the little chapel. The Negro in industry, "I lived there in 1917-'18 and '19," in education, in art Student Forum, a group of university and creative literature, in social and cul- Miss Moore said. "During the war students, which Mr Lindloff introduced they had the tural life, in ethical and moral stand- Students' Army Training this year shall have a meeting place pro- ards, in the past Corps here. The 'war-line' over which few years will always vided them and it is hoped that a student remain for me an inspiring thing. In the boys were not allowed to cross with- center might be added to the church. in out permission literature, I have read the works of such from the military heads the near future. Negro writers as ran along Duffy in front of King Hall. King Countee Cullen, Langs- Hall memories of student life re- ton Hughes, Rudolph Fisher, Burghardt "We had two dances a year then and main although the building itself has the boys DuBois, Alain Locke, James Weldon would have to get permission given place to a greater need that the Johnson, and I from the military heads to cross have developed a great the work might move forward. admiration for them. I have heard Ro- street and come to the dances. land "I'll never forget the night Hayes and Negro choruses sing, some of and I have a high opinion of the men got permission . . .and some of NOTES FROM A FEMINIST'S the colored them man as a creator and interpreter of mu- were there anyway. During the sic. I have dance a few TRAVEL DIARY: MADRID read of the achievements of couples went down to the CONTINUED FROM PAGE 316) the Varsity . . . Ohl My land, Negro in science, in dramatics, in yes, it was the expenses by consolidating prisons and painting, and I have come Corner then. There wasn't any place to realize that abolishing those that were insanitary or he has a powerful intellect and distinct else to go; it was the only shop we had. superfluous Well, they . The good of the prisoner ability as an artist. went down in couples and and the good of the state; efficiency and coming back the guard stopped some of Accompanying this cultural advance, economy: the dual purpose motivates her I have seen new conceptions them, sent the men back to the bar- official life. develop as racks and let the girls go home alone. to the worth of the Negro among those "Will you tell the women of the United who are well-informed "One of the funniest things that hap- States for me how . I have seen ad- touched and surprised miration where before there was pened, it was funny to us then, was the I was by their generous enthusiasm when only in- time a Spanish professor difference or scorn. The better news- paid a friendly I was named to office?" she asked me. "It papers call and, backing out of the house in overwhelmed and magazines, in the wake of me to receive so many mes- this cultural advance, polite continental fashion, landed on the sages of congratulation and good wishes have sought to lawn." mold public opinion toward a better un- from the United States. Tell them," she derstanding of The way the two houses were put added, with the sudden warm smile which the Negro, and among together caused any one who was not erases the weariness the educated classes there has been a from her face, "that tendency toward familiar with the entrances to think they gave me a sense of friendship and liberalism in the treat- there were steps where there companionship ment of the Negro, an acceptance of him weren't, which has made your on his intrinsic Miss Moore explained. Even professors country seem very close to mine." merits. are likely to err once in awhile. This new attitude has come about be- It was hoped that a similar house cause of a new appreciation of the Negro's might be built for men, but as time went worth. Outstanding individuals have THE QUEST FOR proved that we no longer can on, more sorority houses and dormitories UNDERSTANDING consider were built and eventually King Hall the Negro as a superstitious, ignorant, was (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 308) given over to men. It was so occupied lustful degenerate who must have the up to the time of its razing ing-that such a state of affairs is un- fear of the lord and the white man put this spring. just, unchristian, into "Original plans were to undesirable-has been him. There has been a new tend- build a quad- one stage in my quest for understanding. ency to judge the Negro rangle," Mr Lindloff said. "The con- in the light of The other stage, equally important, is the best of the race rather than the worse, crete structure was to have been one of another unit of it." sort. It is that the Negro is as heretofore. Even the poor whites on not, as it gratifies the Nordics to Southern Others were to be added think, farms and those transplanted later until an inferior species but a man with great to the cities are no longer flabbergasted the four groups of connected buildings abilities, highly desirable with a court in the qualities, and when they hear a Negro lawyer, preach- center made a com- strengths, which if given an outlet, will er, physician, or teacher. plete quadrangle. Due to lack of funds do much for the improvement of our Such has been my prosaic quest for this project has been temporarily American civilization. abandoned and with the understanding. I presume that my his- gift from un- This latter point of view was gradually tory can be duplicated designated legacies in the east, either a by thousands of developed in the course of time, chiefly other people throughout the country who student center or a church could be built. through reading and Mr Lindloff explained. through conversa- have learned not only to look charitably tions with high-minded men and wo- upon the black man but to admire him Since Mr Lindloff's arrival in 1930, men who had achieved their goal in the as well . If such can more seating space in happen to us, large- the little St. John's quest for understanding. I have learned ly without conscious educational efforts Episcopal chapel was provided, but even that in Africa the Negro has a long heri- on the part of other people, that did not accommodate why cannot the congrega- tage of high civilization, that though well-planned educational methods suc- tion. Thereupon plans were worked out transplanted in the alien soil of America ceed for other by Charles A. people? Why cannot Popkin, Tulsa, architect; and forced into slavery, he has never- well-intentioned people who may be in-