When women form themselves into clubs and have rules and meetings, no one can tell what they will do. What did Mrs. Cora B. Thomas, president of the New York City Federation of Women's Clubs, Inc., do? She called up Mrs. Alfred E. Smith, wife of the Democratic presidential nominee, and invited her to be guest of honor at the Federation's luncheon last week. Then she wrote to Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, the wife of the Democratic nominee for Governor of New York, and asked her to make sure that Mrs. Smith had received the invitation. Then she wrote to Mrs. Roosevelt and said: ''Please accept this as an official recall of the invitation."
All this found its way into the newspapers, who asked: "Why was the invitation recalled?" The Federation existed first as a non-partisan organization. In the intensity of this campaign it has developed a pronounced Republican appearance but Mrs. Thomas is a Democrat.
Some members of the Federation wanted to explain. But one old, wise lady, Mrs. Belle de Rivera, Founder and Honorary President of the Federation, made a request. She asked that in honor of her 84 years the incident be considered as closed and that nothing more be said on the subject. She acted just in time; no one made any personal remarks about Katie Smith.
Had any clubwoman done so, Katie Smith would not have cared. She had just come back from New England, where she had gone with Al; and in the course of that stupendous sally, so many women had cheered her that she was now incapable of feeling snubbed.