Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-02-28
PARLIAMENT COMEDY
Suffragette Riots and Ridicu-
IOuS Bills.
"GERRYING" THE CHILDREN
Recipe for Saving Time by Turning
the Clock Back.
ANOTHER LITTLE WAR COMING
Florence Nightingale, in Her
Eighty-Eighth Year, to Receive
Freedom of City of London.
ecial Correspondence Of The Star.

Special Correspondence Of The Star.
LONDON. February 10. 1905
| This has been a nerve-wrecking week
for British politicians. for not only has
there been much contentious business OF
hand. but the suffragettes have been on
the warpath again. with a furniture van
|. various hackney cabs and sundry mega
phones as the accessories with which to
| attack the house of commons. One work
ing woman carried valor further by put
| ting her head down and charging the
policeman in front after the manner OF
an enraged goat. but most of the ladies'
though suffragettes, had too much respect
for their headgear to emulate her ex-
| ample. Sixty of them have gone to pris-
on. and the magistrates have been as
| sured sixty times ''as soon as we are re-
leased we will come to see you again."
A steady-going lawyer. Mr.. Stranger, h.
| c., who represents North Kensington in
tends to try to pacify them. for he has
prepared a woman'S enfranchiSement bill
| 1t is brief and to the point. 1t proposes
| that in all acts of parliament relating to
! the qualification and registration of voters
"men" shall embrace "Women'-in legal
sense. of coursa-and that woman (of
property shall not be disqualified by rea-
| a parliamentary voter. do not think 1t
| will become law. for the violent tactics OF
| the suffragettes are alternating sympathy,
| though they are certainly attracting pub
| lie attention.
"Gerrying" the Children.
Two other bills merit brief notice. One
| is a bill to protect children. 1t is a
thoroughgoing measure. introduced by
the under secretary of the home office,
Mr. Herbert Samuel. and it unites all the
measures dealing with the care of child
life already in operation. with the addi-
ton of the prohibition of cigarette smok-
ing by boys and the sale of intoxicants to
children of tender years. Children S
courts are to be provided in London. after
the plan of those in America. so as to
save the children from. contact with the
ordinary police courts. where hardened
criminals are dealt with. The bill will
be adopted. and I understand that it is
to be followed by reform Of the indus
trial and reformatory schools. which are
to be made institutions for retaining
and improving the characters of the erring
youngsters. The old sinners are we'll
nigh past praying for. Parliament is
starting with the young while there is
yet time to save them.
A more amusing bill embodies Mr.. Rob-
ert Pearce's scheme for increasing the
hours of daylight. Mr.. Pearce is liberal
member for Leek and is convinced that IL
we put the clock back We can utilize all
the hours of daylight to greater advan-
tage. The astronomer royal declares
that it is simply legislation for late risers,
designed to make them think that they
are getting up earlier than they really are.
The defect of all mechanical schemes fol-
extending daylight or increasing the hour.
of daylight work is that every one knows
that they artificial. Under Mr.
Pearce's plan man who rose at o'clock
in the summer would be really getting III
at 4:4O, but then he would know this. and
If he were disinclined to rise he would
simply say that it was only twenty min
utes to ). and go to sleep again. The
house laughed about the bill. and Mr..
Pearce crowned the joke by talking SO
be taken. so the bill falls out of the pro-
gram of the session.