The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-05

! l and a leader of the cause of woman suffrage in England, as she told to" night the story of the fight of the suffragists in her native country. Mrs Snowden was the principal speaker at the mass meeting, which was presided over by Mrs. Carrie Chap man Catt, chairman of the Interurban l Woman Suffrage Council. and at which Dr.. Charles F. Aked, pastor of the | Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, and Rabbi Stephen Wise were the other | speakers.
 Mrs. Snowden, in telling of the pie ture the newspapers would draw of | the doings of the suffragettes in Eng land displayed a keen sense of humor. pr. Aked in the course of his ad- dress. scored both of the leading American political parties and de- clared he did not know which was the worst.
 "one Is different oRly in its att tempts to be worse than the other" said he. What sort of condition can it be that brings justices of your Su- preme Court and your District Attor- ney to grovel before retired rum seller and chief of the Srammany wig wam?"
 pr. Aked's reference to the recent dinner to Richard Croker and his declaration that the birth of new impulse ls needed in American politics, won applause.
 Prominent women leaders of New York society occupied many of the boxes tonight, Mrs. Clarence Mackay being one of the organizers of the meeting.
 Mrs. Snowdens simply-toId story of the suffrage movement in Great Britain held h CT hearers in closest at- .tention. She declared that despite the fact that some of the papers would picture the suffragettes as altogether and hopelessly disreputable," they were asking for nothing new in Great Brit ain.
 Tt was only in 1882 that the British women were legally disqualified from full exercise of the right of suffrage" she said. Even now they may vote for every governing and administrative body in the Kingdom with the excep- tion ot Parliament. It is the right to vote for members of Parliament that they seek"
 Mrs. Snowden explained the differ ence between the old suffrage society in Great Britain and the new suffra- gIst organization. One Of the chief functions of the new society, she de- clared, is to advertise the movement.
 we have got to keep the subject alIve," she said. Apathy Is our fo; IloL OppOcltlOHs IL lS Tn duNSTllslnB the movement that you, perhaps, have heard most of us, but don't imagine hatw omen ooptrI irgae gforonGn that women are going to prison for the cause; that they are risking their lives at public meetings for the fun of the thing. It is no fun to spend three months in a lonely, cold, English cell. It is no fun to be kicked like a football down three or four flights of stairs. I have seen pale little women struggling with great brutes of men, feeling that their own little dignities were nothing compared to the dig nifty of a lofty principle and a mighty cause.
 You women of America live under a greater enlightenment. If Ameri- can women were treated the way some English women have been. there would be lynchings In this country No in- suit that you could imagine has been too vile to be offered to English wo- men asking for votes-insults which I cannot repeat"
 Mrs. Snowden urged the American women to join with their English sis- ters in the fight for the right of bal lot.