Arizona republican., 1913-03-07
Suffragists Tell Senate Committee of Alleged Lack of Protection Dur ing Big Parade in Ma tion's Capital
POLICE FORGE
 ROUNDLY SCORED
Charge Is Made That Some of the Officers Were Worse Than the Good Naturcd Drunken Men Who .JoStlcd Women
ASSOCIATED PRESS DIsrArcHl

W -ASltlNGI ioN, NdTCh b. dleS pi indignities and dffronts of the crowds and the indifference and laughing comments of the police were presented today before the senate committee in- vpstgating the alleged lack of prOtec- tion given the great suffrage pageant on Monday Women prominent in na- tional affairs and suffrage councils told of their harrassed progress through surging crowds of men and boys. whom the police they say, made little effort to hold back. The stories as to the general attitude of the police were en- dorsed by Rear Admiral Van Reypen, retired and George F, Bowerman, libra rjan of the Carnegie Library in WasA- ington, who appeared as witness against the police department Miss Julia Lathrop chief of the chii- drens bureau of the department of commerce and labor and one of the marchers. said the few police she saw ! seemed to be merely standing in the front row of the spectators" Other women testified that the marchers were subjected to redicule and buffoon- cry and that the police allowed drunken men to jostle the suffragettes One declared she was more frightened by the action Of the police than by the mob.
 Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton. of War
 ren. Ohio. in charge of the Ohio di- vision of the parade. declared that crowds of -youngish men" sursed in so close that the marcher- could hardly ! walk two abreast; and that good nat ured drunken men" pushed against the marchers' lines without restraint. The police were few and the officers in sight did nothing to protect the pro 1 cession. Congress passed a special act directing the Washington police de- partment to prevent any interference with the suffrage procession" 1 In q statement furnished to the com | mittee at the opening. Major Richard ! Sylvester. superintendent of the po- l lice, declared his department had given l the parade all the protection it could : with the limited number of policemen
 available and that the disorder on the
 streets was due to the breaking of the 1 cables tong the route and the unruly l character of the crowds Bursts of laughter came frequently as the wo- !
 ton said there were some elderly wo- men in the Ohio division and she was
 afraid that the good natured drunken
 men" would fall against them. 50 we all hurried to get past and
 he fell back on Wisconsin or Wyoming or somewhere back there" she said. She also declared the police laughed
 at the scenes and made no effort to help
 Mrs. Agnes NJ Jenks of Concord. x. H., who had her daughter and
 other young girls with her in the New Hampshire division, declared the uni- formed policemen encouraged the crowd to disorder. and she had been
 so alarmed at the conduct of the of ficers that the children were placed
 in the center of the procession.
 "One of the policemen looked as if he were going to take hold of the young girls who were marching with us,' she said We were more fright
 ened by the police than by the crowds"
 Mrs COrnelia Odenheimer of Jessup. Maryland, said she had walked the length of the avenue before the start ing of the parade and that the crowd was then back on the sidewalk Mrs. Abbie Scott Baker of Washington. an
 organizer of the parade declared the
 street had been allowed to become cOngested just before the parade
 started and the lack of advance pro-
 tection made it impossible then to
 clear the avenues.
 Tt was as if we walked into the
 neck of funnel" said Mrs Baker.
 "Onc policeman to whom I appealed
 stood with his arms folded and said, 1 "Oh. the crowd is doing very we'll"
 Mrs. Walter J. Fisher, wife of the
 retiring secretary of the interior, told
 the committee of the anxiety with
 which she watched from the postoffice | building for her daughter to appear | in the parade, as the crowd now and l then surged across the avenue break 1 ing and blocking the progress of the pageant.
 l Miss Elizabeth Brown local teach | CT testified to the coarse buffonery | to which the teachers brigade was | subjected.
 | The crowd pressing against us. l would repeat the alphabet, count to 1 ten and sing Rats. rats, rats as we | marked time," she said.
 | Nerna Hetfield who rode on the | old Liberty Bell" float testified that (Continued on Pace rTUoI