Facts About Philadelphia.
The Women’s League For Good Government. Facts About Philadelphia. Philadelphia: The Committee on Public Information of the Women’s League For Good Government, n.d.
8vo.; gray wrappers, stapled; light edgewear; else fine.
First edition. Published in the early 1900’s by The Women’s League for Good Government, a philanthropic society founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Facts About Philadelphia was distributed in an attempt to shed light on issues such as health, child welfare, political and moral conditions, economy, and municipal responsibilities. In her introduction, titled “The Conspiracy of Silence,” Margaretta Morris Scott, Chairman of the Committee on Public Information, poignantly expresses the citizens of Philadelphia’s growing intolerance with the city’s mismanagement and the League’s attempt to educate citizens, which led to the writing of this booklet:
If Philadelphians had known the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about their city, they would long ago have broken away from easy tolerance of things as they are. But there has been a quiet glossing over of the facts, which has amounted practically to a conspiracy of silence…Silence is due, in the first place, to fear of financial loss, or loss of employment. This gags city employees, such as policemen, city officials, and, of course, public school teachers. But even prominent businessmen, who seem to have no direct connection with politics, do not escape this fear. They know well the subtle methods of financial retaliation, which the members of our controlling contractor-gangs have ready for those who come out against them openly. There is safety in silence. We have had silence.
An important, pre-suffrage example of the very women began to influence civic and political discourse.
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