The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-02-29
GRACE BEFORE
 IuAWLESSNESS

Were it not fraught with the peril that always attends crooked think ing, there would be something in tensely comic in the solemn asseVer- ations of the militant school of wom- an suffragists concerning the way In which they went about their work of stone-th throwing and other violence in London as a means of coercing the government into forwarding their cause. ''The mtldest-mannered man that ever cut a throat" would have been interested to read the statement
 of an American sympathizer, made at
 a meeting in New York and thus re- ported in the Evening Post of Jan uary :.
 and the demonstration planned, it
 came as a reverent. prayerful, and deeply thoughtful resolve. There
 was nothing impulsive about it. It was all planned most carefully and deliberately. and there ran through it a deep spiritual note. Before the
 demonstration many of the churches
 were opened that the women might
 Pethick Lawrence, in the van of the
 deputation, wore an ancient Roman
 crucifiX with the mother and child
 by the side of the cross, as symbol and devoted to women and children
 To which Mrs. Pankhurst, leader of
 this wing of the suffrasists. added
 this pathetic touch to the picture of amateur martyrdom:
 We wanted to do it with salf-re- straint. Self-restraint has always been one of our first rules-never lose your temper, even when met with in-
 suits Stones are a time hon.
 ored political weapon. You must realize that this is a civil war. Men consider war the justification for
 the taking of human life and the de- struction of property. We have not taken life and we have damaged property only to an insignificant ex-
 tent"
 The last sentences show that the speaker has not, after all the logic of her convictions, for civil war; is not a matter merely of stone-throwing, howling down speakers and other dis order. Granted the sincerity of these ladies, 1t all reminds one of the spoiled child in the nursery who thinks that the only way to get a thing is by does not give an aspect of sanctity to his stamping and screaming. If this sort of thing Is to continue, let us have a revision of che book of com mon prayer with a collect to be recit- ed before a personal assault upon prime minister "coIlect to precede the planting of a bomb among inno- cent working men," etc
 Now, the question of whether won- en should have the suffrage-which we are not discussing here-is a very diherent one from the question wheth- CT all measures to obtain 1t are jus tihable or ezpedient- To parade, to speak in public, to carry banners, and to advocate cause through the press and by printed circulars, are methods em ployed by all parties and factions. If sometimes the advocates of woman suffrage within the bounds of order have exceeded the bounds of delicacy, 1t must be remembered that in the public forum questions of taste must be subordinated to questions of right. But when 1t comes to a violation of such fundamental rights of others as that Of fraP hiV hV the inter ruption of meetings, or to such vio- fence as the "suffragette" wing of the the movement has shown in London, 1t is time for sober minded American women to consider the drift and i'm ffuence of such a policy not only upon the cause itself, but upon popular sentiment in a country already crim- finally tolerant of law1yssness.
 It may seem to many a hard saying, but we fail to see any difference in principle between the claim of Mrs. she advocates and practices are jus tif1ed by the fact that she is engaged in a holy war and that of McNamara that his murderous violence was in defense of a sacred cause. Each would tell you that there Is other way" But where shall the appeal to violence end? There are hundred burning causes, many enlisting the conviction of noble men and women, many others the fanaticism of the half-mad; are these to be advanced only DIV the uIlSnGdLnSQ SNOFd. Is the torch of wisdom to become the inverted torch of anarchy? In this day of general and growing desire for sane and peaceful adjustments of international differences, Is the great god Mars to become, after all, our tutelary divinity?
 It must be remembered that in the opinion of a vast number of voters this question Is one of large expedien- cy. There are two schools of philoS- ophy, or, rather, two attitudes of mind
 which chiefly determine the progress of the world. one holding that the other is best, the other that the best | is right. Either principle would be
 satisfactory in practice could we all
 ways be sure, in one case, of what is
 right, and, in the other, of what is | best. AS things stand in a complex ! state of affairs, these schools repre-
 sent two kinds of moral and intellec- | tual bias, two methods of approach to | public questions by conscientious peo- pie. In the main, whether the fran | chise is to be largely extended to wo-
 men beyond the six states in which ! they now possess it will depend upon
 the conviction that it works well, and | that the good to the nation thus to be
 had is not had at the sacrifice of d
 much greater good to men, to women,
 and to society This conviction is
 not to be forced by threats Or violence i t-indeed what the cause has already
 gained has been through no such
 means-and it will not be promoted
 by the feeling that women are willing
 to sacrifice law and order to their own | ends. The labor unions have gained | in public opinion by their disavowal Of | the public acts of the McNamaraS; will the American suffragists disavow | the acts of the stone throwers of Lon | don?
 l We have listened in vain for such | Q, disavowal. We believe that many
 American sufnragists at heart are out 1 of sympathy with such a policy, and | hold with 'fthe party of reason" in England, which is represented by the | outspoken protest against Vfo' ence
 recently made in New York by an Englishwoman, Mrs. Ashton Jonson,
 who believes that such a policy is
 wrong in principle and that it is not 1 effective in commenting the cause to ! the judgment of those who are con-
 sidering the expediency of adding a
 new complication to the electorate. So | long Mrs. PanIzhurst is apparently 1 in good and regular standing in the
 American party, and so long as, with out publis protest fram any of its | rr,a 1Ear.e n a