Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-03-27
SUFFRAG|STS PREDICT
GREAT POWER IN 1916
Militant Methods in England
Defended by Mrs. Basil
Hanbury.

A prediction that by 1916 woman vot-
ers will hold the balance of power in
the presidential election, and praise for
the work of the militant suffragists
in Great Britain, marked a largely at
tended suffrage meeting at Rauschers
yesterday afternoon. Mrs. Huntington
Wilson, wife of former Assistant Secre-
tary of State Wilson, presided at the
meeting, and addresses were made by
Mrs. Mary Beard of New York and
Mrs. Basil Hamburg, sister of Lord Will
loughby Brook.
Mrs. Hanbury, who is not a militant
herself. said that Mrs. Pankhurst and
the other English militants deserve
great credit for making woman suffrage
live issue. and for forcing people all
over the world to think about the
question. She regretted that the mill
tants have taken up arson, and said:
I'VE hope this terrible campaign will
soon end, and that no more lives will
be lost
Cause Grows Stronger.
Mrs. Beard wife of the professor of
political economy of Columbia Univer-
sity, and former editor of a suffrage
paper, declared that by 1916 women
will control at least 100 electoral votes,
and possibly as many as $50. With
such strength. she said. the great par
ties can no longer afford TO ignore
woman suffrage. The cause is already
strong in both the Senate and House,
she said. and is constantly growing
stronger.
That votes for women" is only just
and that women need the vote to con-
troll their own futures and the futures
of their children was the principal ar
gunent advanced by Mrs. Hanbury Eng
llsh women are accused unjustly of be-
Ing historical and of having desire for
notoriety, she said. The get into the
limelight only because they feel it to be
their very painful duty. she continued
Reciting the history of the recent
Votes for women campaign in Great
Britain, Mrs. Hamburg said that Prime
Minister Asquith has made several prom
ises which the militants believe he has
not kept. Sentences imposed on the wom-
en- arrested were unjustly severe, she said.
They have been treated like common
felons, although the English law requires
that people accused of disorder for e po-
litical cause shall be treated better than
people accused of disorder for any other
cause. This is the reason the women re-
fused to eat food given them, she said.
"Asquith is continually talking about
what he will do the next session. Mrs.
Hanbury continued. Under these con-
ditions don't you think there is some ex-
cuSe for the milltantS?"
Charges Unfair Treatment.
Mrs. Beard said American women owe
Mrs. Pankhurst and her militants debt
of gratitude for forcing consideration
of the suffrage question. Militantism is
not needed in the United States. however
she said. although ii the government
should be as unfair as the English gov
eminent has been it might even become
necessary in the United States.
Mrs. Beard said that few men now
realize that il was only a comparatively
short time ago that ordinary men in
America got the right Of suffrage There
was bloodshed in Rhode Island, and agi-
tation in other states, she said.
The plans OF the suffragists here to
press on President Wilson and on Con-
gress pleas for a constitutional amend
ment.f for nationwide suffrage were ex-
planned by Mrs. Beard. She said that
the federal amendment is necessary be-
cause 1t is practically impossible to
amend the constitutions of some of the
states. The argument that states rights
| interfere with the federal amendment
does not hold, she said, in face of the
action of Congress in passing the direct
election of senators and income tax
amendments recently.
Mrs. Beard read from speeches of
President Wilson, saying he stands for
the same things as do the suffragists.
Woman suffrage is the basic thing to-
day, she said, and the tariff and such
things can go hand in hand with it.