The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1913-11-14
WOMEN GIVE
$I4 10 TO AID
MILITANT CAUSE

aEA - AAHW ~AA - - q
Hartford, Nov. -sympathizers
: contributed s1,4O0 at Hartford last
: night, to assist the cause of militant
suffrage in England. Mrs. Pankhurst
said:
THE conditions surrounding wom-
!. enkind in England are SO extraordin-
airy as to Us almost unbelievable fifty
4 years hence,'' said the speaker. lit
is the law there that the sentence for
criminal assault a girl under Is
4 years of age is but two years at the
| most. Few men ever serve that time.
| AS a result we have terrible cases of
| infanticide and of girl mothers tried
for child murder and sentenced to
| death.
Our working women have an av-
erage wage of less than 50 a week
not minimum but average, and thous-
| ands of our working women support
others. A girl is manageable after
| she is ~ years old and in the courts
Of our country wife has neither right
/ to her husbands property, nor any
| voice in the upbringing of her chill
dren. Our divorce law is scandalous,
a stigma to women and an invitation
to immortality on the part of our 4nar-
ried men. The high judge Of our di-
vorce court recently said, The wisest
: woman is she who turns her head
away from moral 1apses Of her hus-
band
THE moral health of our nation and
the political subsection of women go
hand in hand. You must make wom-
en- of equal value with men to save
| the race
She continued:
Men, we have first of all to con-
vince you that we women are hui
man. she said. IF you believe this,
1T should not be hard to get you
to treat US as you treat yourselves.
want to prove that what may have
seemed to you as a sense1ess break
ing of letters and harrassing annoy
ing of letters and aharrassing annoy
ance of comfortable business men, is
the only course left to us. All other
means of gaining the vote in England
have been tried.
Suppose you men had a grievance
and your Legislature refused to aid
you. Your problem would be simple,
that or electing a new Legfsla ture. We
have no vote. In Ireland today we
are having a revolution against that
home rule which Ireland has gain
ed, after a long struggle, and Sir Ed
ward Carson at the head of his CO.
horts in the north of Ireland is glory
ing in his Iaw1essness, melting men
to rebellion, and under his instructions
mems clubs are drilling, arning and
preparing for war. Sir Edward is
preaching revolution and advocating
the shedding of blood. He has got
been arrested, tried or sentenced
have been making the same kind of
speeches that he is making with the
exception that I do not and will new
er advocate the destruction of human
life.
''On one hand, Sir Edward, a char
tered Hberttne, free, on the other, me,
woman, arrested, tried and sentenc-
ed to long term of Imprisonment.
Taxation without representation, gov
eminent for the .nP0n1a nv ne
pie and of the people is for male con-
sumption only.
'All laws in England must be back
ed by the government, that is, the
cabinet. We must bring enough pres |
sure on the cabinet, make suffrage |
question of prime Importance which |
they will not dare leave unsolved We |
must make it politically expedient to |
give English women the vote. 1t is |
an old saying that you cannot rouse a |
Britisher unless you touch his pocket
and we plan to get the vote by making
the men of ENGLAND uncomfortable.
We break windows to bring our cause
before the attention of the men who |
own them. We destroy the putting
green's Of golf links to make the great
class of weakenders realize that there
are other things besides an eighteen
hole course. We want to punish all
classes of Englishmen until they go I
to the government and say these wo-
men are destroying our business and
our pleasure. For goodness sakes
give them what they want
This is the course we are pursuing
we can't make omelets without
eggs. We advocate the de-
struction of property, for it can be
built again, but we do not advocate
the destruction Of human life, because
It can not be replaced. We have
workers in every class in England and
except for a few Of the leaders we
cannot be punished because we are not
Known. Ordinarily law will not stop
is, and special laws have failed It
s futile for a man to oppose woman
n this fight. Government does not
est on force, but on consent And
We refuse to be governed as we now
ire.
1T is only people of desperate need,
Who adopt the terrible means of the
hunger strike" You refuse food until
you are at deaths door and rather
han have you die on their hands !
he authorities let you go. Then came
he horrible torture of forcibIe feed
ng. It is one thing to feed an insane
'erson in this way and another to |
orce food down the throat of a wo-
nan who resists with every nerve and | ,
Ibre of her body. Even this proved I
90 weak a measure, and a special
aw was passed that women who were
dangerously near death could be re-
eased, to be rearrested when their
ealth was in some measure regain
d. This matters nothing, nothing n
n earth nor in heaven can stop de-
ermined women. Either we must have
he vote or we will die. Most civil
1ars are won by the sacrifice Of 9TH
RS. We are winning ours by sacrinc-
1g ourselves.
I'VE have succeeded. We have
made the question of suffrage so i'm
ortant that every statesman in Eng ]
and comedies it must have an early
nd definite settlement. eW are near
he end
larry HODGKINS, SPORTING
MAN KuIC uIAlcrIr