New-York tribune., 1911-12-11
MRS. BLATCH ON R0WD|ES
Holds Mayor Gaynor Partly to
Blame for RuffianiSm.
SUFFRAGE WOULD END EVIL
Speaker Once Knocked Down by
Football in Street, and Names
Other OutrageS.

Twenty or more suffrag gettes discussed
"Rowdyism in American Cities over tea
cups yesterday afternoon in room occu-
pied by the Women's Political Union, al
No. IS East 18th street. Mrs Harriet
Stanton Blatch, who might write a book
sons day on wall Street Men I Have
Met" was the principal speaker. Without
mincing words. she related lot OF incl
dents of lawlessness that she had observed
among Cornell University students. called
no the treatment that Mrs. Pankhurst re-
ceived at Harvard and touched up" the
picture with some incriminating references
10 the Tess educated boys IN Wall Street -
WHY, all fair-minded travellers would
tell you." she said. that there is nothing
like il in all Europe"
Looking around for the cause o 1t ALL
Mrs. Blatch found that the race assimila-
ton process" going on in America was
partly responsible. and from what she has
heard about the way some New York City
public schools we're conducted she thought
she had discovered another reason. But
the most scandalous contributing cause
OF them all was the attitude Of Mayor
Cavnor. who. she declared, had written TO
q New York boy not long ago that he
would instruct the police 10 give great
big wink" when they saw boys playing
ball in the streets.
why. ladies', I was knocked down once
in the street by a football kicked by q
twenty-yesr-old boy Think of II! True, the
one who kicked the ball didn't hit me by
design: but. dear me, one can never tell
where a bali will goi Not long ago
woman carrying a baby IN the street was
struck by batted ball and knocked down.
The ball came so close to the babys head
that IL bent the little vizor OF its.t met
Every Monday we read in the papers OF
rovdies arrested in the streetcars and IN
the elevated and subway trains.
Now. what did we hear a few months
ago when the boy who couldn't play ball
i'm the street wrote to the Mayor What
was the Mayors reply? II was one OF
dwelling emotion. He was so profoundly
sympathetic for the boys, and he was so
deyoutly sorry that they had been stopped
from playing ball In the streets, and he
would tell the policemen to give a great
big wink at such doings hereafter
MY dear ladies'" continued Mrs. Blatch.
"I affirm that Mayor Gaynors attitude
helped 10 train those boys in the school OF
lawlessness. If Mayor Gaynor had been
knocked down In the street, as / was. or II
he had lost the sight of an eye from bat
ted ba aseball, as a woman that know did,
no might have taken a different view OF
such a situation.
Gilbert Parker, the English novelist. has
reluctantly said in an interview that, al
though. we have a less bitter industrial
situation confronting Us than England has
,ya are more given to lawlessness. lie spoke
Of the Mcnamara dynamiting. but he did
not allude 10 that. but TO that deed of chiv-
alrous American men-that tarring and
reathering act recently perperated out
West"
Mrs. Blatch went on TO say that Ameri-
can men and women-parents In the ma
ioritv OF cases-are guilty Of moral lesion
In that they thems selves glory In their atti-
tuds. which is one Of wilful unconcern TO
matters OF good government and private
conduct Then she went on 20 point out
rho superiority Of English women 70 their
American sisters In this respect. and end
ga in an eloquent plea for woman suffrage.
which she said was the only solution OF
a national evil. American men. she SAID
are generally interested In things that in
forest woman. and II tn men are TO be IN
terested at all it's got 10 hp because OF the
women.
Refore she sat down Mrs Blatch pleaded
f,, moro Fairgrounds. They are great fac
,,r. IN solving the problem ot rowdyism.
.he said. They ought to be on the roofs OF
,uhlic buildings, courthouses churches and
railroad stations, she insisted. She said
Tho civ ought never TO have permitted the
p.nnsvlvania Railroad 90 waste almost an
a,tira block Of uncovered space over the en-
,,,pcs 10 lis Hudson River tunnel just
u.ast Of the seventh avenue terminal be-
c.,,sa the crowded West Side needed that
wasted room for Fairgrounds.