"GOOD ANGEL" OF VIENNA LAUDED BY JANE ADDAMS; IS PRESIDENT'S MOTHER
CHICAGO SUFFRAGE WORKER RETURNS FROM TOUR OF EUROPEAN COUNTRIES; PLEASED WITH PROGRESS OF WOMEN OF AUSTRIA; FRAU [HAINISCH] RECEIVES GREAT PRAISE
CHICAGO, Oct. 11. -- "Vigorous and alert at the age of 82, Frau [Marianne Hainisch], mother of the president of the Austrian republic is known as the good angel of Vienna," says Miss Jane Addams of Hull House, who has just returned from a trip to Europe.
"I fell in love with her at first sight," she said.
"Frau [Hainisch], in a way, is the dean of women in Vienna," declared Miss Addams, "because for decades she has been the [recognized] head of the suffrage movement there. Through her wide circle of foreign friends she has done as much as any other living person to alleviate the post-war suffering in that unhappy city. She has made several trips to Chicago and is well known to woman leaders here."
MRS. BACON ADDS TRIBUTE.
"Although the leading lady of her land, Frau [Hainisch] does not own an automobile. Such vehicles in Vienna are left to profiteers and foreigners," added Mrs. Charles S. Bacon, another Chicago friend of Frau [Hainisch]. "She does her charity work on foot. It is remarkable for a woman of her age to tramp the streets of Vienna in midwinter.
"With money collected from domestic sources she has just opened a series of community parlors where indigent women of the middle classes may come to keep warm during the long winter afternoons and evenings. For months she has supervised the operations of a soup kitchen for starving professors. Her home in the Rochusgasse is reputed to be one of the largest [centers] of [organized] charity in Vienna. As local agent of the American committee for the adoption of Austrian children, she is actively connected with American relief."
The appeal issued by this dauntless old woman to American women reads as follows:
"Women of America, we implore your help. It is hard for me to beg, but what have I not had to do during these care-laden years of war? As long as we women cannot prevent the slaughter of war we must do what we can to mitigate its consequences."
TRIP WAS SATISFACTORY.
Miss Addams was delighted with the results of her observation trip to Europe. She visited France, Italy, Austria and other central European countries, in order to see what progress had been made by the suffrage movement since the armistice. The change in some instances she said was startling.
In Austria up to the moment of the collapse of the Hapsburg dynasty it was forbidden to think or speak of the woman-suffrage movement as a political affair. There were no parades, processions, mass meetings or public speeches. If suffragists wished to work at all they had to do it through the medium of social gatherings. Now in 1921, three years after the flight of the emperor, there are three woman deputies in the Austrian upper house and a score in the lower house, besides a large deputation in the Vienna city council.
Miss Addams attended a suffrage congress in Vienna in the month of July, 1921. The woman delegates were enthusiastically received and entertained by the officials of the Austrian republic. They lunched in the old palace of the Hapsburgs.
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