New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-10-21
Audience of 300 Women at
Dinner of Triumph Spell
bound at MiIitant'S
Personality.
SHE APPEALS AS IDEALIST
English Suffragette, in Quiet
Manner and Low Voice,
Recites Story of Her
Suffering in Fight for
Right to Vote.

Suferlng IN Flght Tor
Right to Vote.
For more than an hour last night
Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst held an
American audience spellbound with
the intensity OF her personality In
speech before three hundred women
at the dinner OF the Women's Political
Union at the Aldine Club in celebration
! Of her release from Ellis Island. AS
| Mrs. Harriet Stanton Blatch explained.
the dinner was planned originally to
welcome her Then, when she was held
at Ellis Island. the plan was to hold 1t
as a protest. but with her release 1t was
+ named all over again as a dinner OF
triumph
! But whatever the character OF the
occasion. the overshadowing point Of it
all was Mrs. Pankhurst's personal
power-not the power Of the 1amboyant
agitator melting her sex to riot and
acts OF violence. but the quiet, intense
!
suffered for her cause and made others
feel and suffer with her. as in low.
at times scarcely audible, voice. emo
tion- compelling. but not herself over
powered by emotion, she related her
simple story.
Listeners in Tears at Times.
| u,ko Ii.,onor. .a, a. tip,aa uith tear
dmmed eyes as she spoke. then
breaking into groans and Kisses for
Asquith and McKenna as she told OF
the sufferings she had undergone at
their hands. Never once did Mrs.
Pankhurst's voice break or rise above
:hat low, quiet manner of recital.
There is no Parliament sitting in
England now." she said. explaining why
her enemies at home had not wished
her to be permitted to come 10 the
United States. There is no great con-
gress Of doctors from all over the world.
| and so they have gone back 10 the
practices Of the cat and mouse act
and to forcible feeding. They didn't
! want me 10 COillt 10 hihciiNo anu NS''
| about IT,
But I have the right to come. |
have the right that all oppressed people
have to go TO other nations and ask for
their sympathy. In your own hour OF
trial BENJAMIN Franklin went TO France
TO ask for sympathy.
Have / not the right, as woman
fighting a desperate struggle. to come
to other women all over the world and
say that our struggle is your struggle?
It is for that sympathy that l have
come to the United States
There is a freemasonry among
women, and two words is enough 10
make them understand our miltancy.
/ want to say TO those who doubt our
methods, i never for a moment ques-
ton the wisdom Of the way you are
fighting your fight. You have your own
problems to meet and we have ours.
l don't apologize for our militant
methods.
1.-The happiest moment OF my life was
when / decided with my daughters We
had to win by revolutionary methods.
Rather | would apologize that it took
us so long to see the light. We are
proud to be militants."
Why She Became Militant.
The most effective part of Mrs.
-ankhurst's story, for it was story
|
told Of how she became militant.
"The case that / think was the turn
ing point In my life." she said, was
when a Judge Of the Assizes was Sit
ting In my home town on the case Of
a young girl, held for the murder of
her illegitimate child. He sat all day
on the case, and then went out that
night. The next day came. There
was no Judge. The court waited, into
the afternoon, and still there was no
Judge. Then the rumor began to creep
around that he was dead-that he had
died that night in shameful resort.
when in later years | was before
another Judge myself and in pleading
my cause tried to explain why ! had
become a militant. why we women
wanted a voice in choosing the men
who should sit in judgment on the lives
Of others, the judge interrupted me.
He did not get the drift of what / was
trying TO tell, but finally / reached the
point of telling the story OF that other
fudge. After / told 1t, he rebuked me
for a grave breach Of decorum. 1t was
not until / was later released on license
after my hunger strike thai / learned
that the Judge whom l told of dying
was a near relative of the judge who
sentenced me TO three years penal SER
vitude."
In speaking of her release from Ellis
Island Mrs. Pankhurst said that some
times things happen that make us be-
gin to fear that the struggles Of our
forefathers had been in vain. but what
has happened in the last two days re-
stores our confidence" She continued:
There was a meeting of our band in
England to-day. A strange procession
Laa -. IA.