Arizona republican., 1909-12-05
Why the English Women Fiqht.

The cdDleS relate that q young Eng fish woman of previously good char acter and reputation was / convicted the other day of smashing the win dows of a store in Manchester and was sentenced to two months inn prisonment at hard labor She frank ly told the court that she committed the misdemeanor solely for the pur- pose of drawing public attention to the woman's suffrage movement
 That this young woman, and hun- dreds of others like her, are not only willing to suffer imprisonment. but actually court opportunity to go to prison. perform hard prison labor and endure the revolting associations of prison life, together with the attend ant circumstance of broken health, is a development in sociology which is bound to arrest the attention of the world. And this is why the martyr dom is sought
 That the frenzied cry, Votes for Women," which has disturbed every political meeting in England lately and which will disturb the meetings of both political parties during the cam paign just begun for a new parlia- ment, has back of it something more than the academic suffrage argu- ments with which we are familiar in this country, would have to be taken for granted, even if we knew nothing of the facts. For it is not reasonable to suppose that normal women, pos sessing at least the average refine ment, would stand so much hardship merely for the purpose of gaining the right to cast a ballot with men. And that this remarkable movement is not essentially for the abstract right to vote. but has for it's primary aims the accomplishment of reforms which the English women believe nothing but their own votes will bring about, is made clear by Elizabeth Robins in the December Everybody's
 In answer to the questions why nurses. artists, librarians, teachers, and professional women of all sorts, give up congenial work and certain incomes to labor twice as hard on half pay for suffrage; why well-bred girls and women sell suffrage papers in the streets. exposing themselves to the 'scant civility" of the police and the horse play of rowdies"; why they accept the alienation of many of their men friends; why they are subscrib- ing more than s25O,OOO year to the cause; why hundreds of them have gone to jail-why, in short. the Eng fish women want, the vote-Mrs. Rob- ins says it is because of ''women's dis cOvery of the futility of hoping to ef- ting at the roots of evil" Here are some of the injustices of the English laws as set forth by Mrs. Robins:
 "A man can not only will his prop erty away from his wife and leave her penniless-he can even will his property away from his children and leave them penniless, charges upon a penniless widow.
 In the absence of a will or settle ment, a woman. married or single, can inherit land only if she has nei- ther father nor brother living In the case of the death of son or daughter the mother inherits nothing from either. The whole of their property even if it has come from the mothers family, goes to the father, or to the fathers next of kin.
 Tn that home in which woman is told she is to rule as queen she has not only no control over any portion of the means of livelihood (unless she owns or earns it herself), or even the material contents of her house-she has no legal right in or control over her own children, unless (significant exception) they are born out of we'd lock. She cannot, even if she is a widow, appoint a guardian to act for them after her death, if her husband has already appointed one.'
 These are some of the reasons, ac- cording to Mrs. Robins, which have enlisted the educated women in the cause of suffrage. As to the causes which have brought the working women to the point of revolt. they are, broadly speaking. found in the new industrial conditions which have forced so many thousands of women to leave home and enter into compe- tition with men in the various walks of life.
 Thousands of women. outside the 1 textile trades. are working for star Vation wage. Sweated labor is not l only permitted. but is even encour- aged by the government; and thou | sands of women workers are forced | into the ranks of the unemployed. | The government, in the person of it's