The Washington times., 1913-03-04
SUFFRAGE LEADERS
CRlTICISE SFIMSON
Blame Major Sylvester for ieeacy Of Some Police, But
Say War Department Should Have Provided Proper
Military Escort - e..

Miller Il am accustomed to proceed in
aSeAreful manner IN matters of business.
/; and have no edispositiQn 50 score any
one for the yfrfghtful condition shown
ssssavens s, during sss passsns g tas as
! many -interyiews with Major Sylvester,
the Cpuinissioners,g eSecrftary ofWar
and the Presidept. Certainly, the. show
ing of.fnefficieney in pr9tsctton aftert the
promise made by the officials was pitt
able President Taft promised to have
guard of honor for US if the Commits
sioners would express their desire for
protection. The letter was sent 70. the
Secretary of War by the CemmissioneEs
a. letter from the Commissioners say
ing that they had forwarded it toltne
Secretary of War-and 1T apparently
was ignored. -s
Secretary Stimson said he had never
seen the letter, Apparently. IT was taken
UP by Assistant Secretary Oliver, and
the escort of troops refused After this.
the Secretary promised that we Shoniq
be provided with a guard of troops and
yet this was not furnished until it was
to Fort Myer, when 1 understand the
troops were ordered ITO get here at
once
cept for the ineffciency of his men, /
suppose that he. was responsible for
them, but mainly it is at the door of
Secretary Stimson to account for mas
promise of protection, and then with
; hold this until conditions had become
! SO bad that they were scarcely described
by the word, vile
Commodore w. s. Moore expressed
himself forcibly on the treatment given
many women in the pageant. Mrs. caro-,
G. Moore, chairman Of the homemakers'
for the safety of some. children she had
on her float.
lone of these children was the grand
daughter OF General Mosby," she said.
One of the young women on the
homemakers' fioat was the butt of
ribald remarks by men dressed as mill
tiamen. Some of these invaded our
fioat aud made remarks too vile to tbe
repeated.
|, Aside from the fact that we had been
guaranteed the use of Pennsylvania
avenue and were entitled to decent con.
sideration, whether the men favored
woman suffrage or were. most ardent
'antis, seems aside from the question.
L would not, have believed that sHp-
posedly decent young men would insult
the young women of the city in the
way these fellows did. It was a dis
grace. to their manhood, and more espe-
cially to the uniform which they wore.
AT times these men walked up TO the
horses and struck them. Marchers near
us we're compelled to walk in single file
and could move only with difficulty.
have heard nothing since the pageant
but condemnation for the lack of pro-
lection during the pageant. and the con-
duct of the men who lined the route: of
the parade" &
Commodore Moore said the conduct
OF people along the route Of the parade
waz disgusting. and thathe felt II could
have been stopped with adequate police
protection. . ~ =
1t was declared at suffrage headquar-
ters today that steps would be taken
at once for investigation Of the conduct
OF the police, and that an effort would
Sumson had not provideA 3he troope,
asked for In time and in sufficient num-i
bers to prevent what was characterized
"as disgraceful exhibitions" The num-
bers Of some thirty officers of the police
force have been taken, 1t was said, and
would be disclosed in due time.