Read Online Young Orson: The Years of Luck and Genius on the Path to Citizen Kane by Patrick McGilligan - Free Book Online
Authors: Patrick McGilligan
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overlapped. Yet owing in large part to Beatrice Welles’s growing activism, increasingly sharp distinctions began to divide the two groups of women, along ideological as well as generational lines.
The Woman’s Club, led by the early settler families of Kenosha, the wives of the ruling class, prided itself on lofty lectures and artistic presentations. So did the Unitarian Church, which hosted similar recitals, travel lectures, and talks on art and poetry and music. Under Reverend Florence Buck, however, the Kenosha Unitarians increasingly adopted the view that poverty was immoral; that child labor and abuse, tuberculosis, and consumption were among the social ills disproportionately suffered by the underprivileged in society. From the pulpit, Florence Buck was quite capable of linking the teachings of the Bible to a stern critique of U.S. militarism abroad, and of adding her own reflections to the ideas of urban muckraker Jacob Riis; after Riis spoke in Kenosha, for example, she gave a Sunday sermon on “The Struggle of a Working Girl.” For many Kenosha Unitarians, their religious credo of joining their faith to action evolved naturally into a progressive political philosophy.
Although the Woman’s Club was more conservative-minded, its members did align with the Unitarian Church on many community issues touching on children, family, or education. When Beatrice Welles and the Woman’s Alliance launched a drive to raise money for new playgrounds for the city’s less prosperous neighborhoods, for instance, the older clubwomen took up the cause alongside younger Unitarians. Together the two women’s groups pursued initiatives to stamp out child neglect, upgrade school buildings, and improve city beaches. The Club and the Alliance cohosted the opening-day ceremony for a new bathhouse at Washington Island, ferrying hundreds of children to the island, with peanuts and candy for every child.
The older clubwomen and younger Unitarians also found a common adversary in longtime Kenosha mayor Matthias J. Scholey, a Democrat who stubbornly opposed additional government funding for public education. Mayor Scholey vowed to veto any legislation that authorized financing for new school buildings, the rebuilding of old ones, or the repairing of rural schools—often the most inadequate, with pupils of all ages herded together in small rooms. Scholey also opposed adding nurses to school staffs, decrying the extra costs, and he regarded the notion of sending four-year-olds to kindergarten as experimental foolery wafted in from Chicago like the stench of sewage. (At the time, public school was not required for city children under seven.)
Scholey also scorned the idea of open-air schools, another of Beatrice’s pet causes. An avid hiker, swimmer, and physical culture enthusiast, Orson’s mother was in the forefront of the local open-air campaign, which had roots in England but was spreading fast across the United States. Open-air enthusiasts believed that physically weak or sickly children from the poorest families would benefit from special public schools with open windows and outdoor classes. The daily schedule would incorporate fresh air and sunshine, periods of physical activity and rest, and a nutritious diet. Beatrice coaxed many Unitarians and some Woman’s Club members into signing petitions and holding fund-raisers for open-air education.
Mayor Scholey’s intransigence on public education gave a special urgency to the city’s biennial school board elections, which were always heavily contested. Women still did not enjoy full suffrage in Wisconsin, but as mothers they were granted the right to vote for school board commissioners in Kenosha and elsewhere. In 1909, a new state law was adopted, for the first time also allowing women to run for office as members of local school boards. Beatrice Welles and her friends in both the Unitarian Church and the Woman’s Club, young and older mothers alike, set their sights on
The Woman’s Club, led by the early settler families of Kenosha, the wives of the ruling class, prided itself on lofty lectures and artistic presentations. So did the Unitarian Church, which hosted similar recitals, travel lectures, and talks on art and poetry and music. Under Reverend Florence Buck, however, the Kenosha Unitarians increasingly adopted the view that poverty was immoral; that child labor and abuse, tuberculosis, and consumption were among the social ills disproportionately suffered by the underprivileged in society. From the pulpit, Florence Buck was quite capable of linking the teachings of the Bible to a stern critique of U.S. militarism abroad, and of adding her own reflections to the ideas of urban muckraker Jacob Riis; after Riis spoke in Kenosha, for example, she gave a Sunday sermon on “The Struggle of a Working Girl.” For many Kenosha Unitarians, their religious credo of joining their faith to action evolved naturally into a progressive political philosophy.
Although the Woman’s Club was more conservative-minded, its members did align with the Unitarian Church on many community issues touching on children, family, or education. When Beatrice Welles and the Woman’s Alliance launched a drive to raise money for new playgrounds for the city’s less prosperous neighborhoods, for instance, the older clubwomen took up the cause alongside younger Unitarians. Together the two women’s groups pursued initiatives to stamp out child neglect, upgrade school buildings, and improve city beaches. The Club and the Alliance cohosted the opening-day ceremony for a new bathhouse at Washington Island, ferrying hundreds of children to the island, with peanuts and candy for every child.
The older clubwomen and younger Unitarians also found a common adversary in longtime Kenosha mayor Matthias J. Scholey, a Democrat who stubbornly opposed additional government funding for public education. Mayor Scholey vowed to veto any legislation that authorized financing for new school buildings, the rebuilding of old ones, or the repairing of rural schools—often the most inadequate, with pupils of all ages herded together in small rooms. Scholey also opposed adding nurses to school staffs, decrying the extra costs, and he regarded the notion of sending four-year-olds to kindergarten as experimental foolery wafted in from Chicago like the stench of sewage. (At the time, public school was not required for city children under seven.)
Scholey also scorned the idea of open-air schools, another of Beatrice’s pet causes. An avid hiker, swimmer, and physical culture enthusiast, Orson’s mother was in the forefront of the local open-air campaign, which had roots in England but was spreading fast across the United States. Open-air enthusiasts believed that physically weak or sickly children from the poorest families would benefit from special public schools with open windows and outdoor classes. The daily schedule would incorporate fresh air and sunshine, periods of physical activity and rest, and a nutritious diet. Beatrice coaxed many Unitarians and some Woman’s Club members into signing petitions and holding fund-raisers for open-air education.
Mayor Scholey’s intransigence on public education gave a special urgency to the city’s biennial school board elections, which were always heavily contested. Women still did not enjoy full suffrage in Wisconsin, but as mothers they were granted the right to vote for school board commissioners in Kenosha and elsewhere. In 1909, a new state law was adopted, for the first time also allowing women to run for office as members of local school boards. Beatrice Welles and her friends in both the Unitarian Church and the Woman’s Club, young and older mothers alike, set their sights on
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