The Washington times., 1913-04-04
MRS. PANKHURST'S SENTENCE.

There is little doubt that the sentence of thre
years penal servitude imposed on Mrs. Emmelin
PankhuIst has brought the suffrage movement in Eng
land to a crisis What will be the result?
1t is not safe to jump at answer. 1t is safe
to survey, however casually the development of hu
man liberty individual rights, and see if there is an,
thing in the past that will point the future with res
sonable certitude.
Here is conversation recently overheard in
gathering of Washington women. One was a sui
fragist, the other an anti:
Anti don't see how you can sympathze wit
the methods of the British militants
Suffragist: My dear, let's not talk about tina
I'm interested just now in the D. A. r. and wan
you to tel! me something about it. | see you hav
your badge on. t..
Anti: Yes; you know, had greatgreat-grand
father in the Boston tea party. ''--'-
Suffragist: Indeed and, of course, you're prou
of it?
Anti: Certainly am
Suffragist: What did tine tea party do?
Anti: Threw cargo Of tea into the harbor, a
protest against being compelled to pay iaxes on
that they had nc. voice in levying or spending
Sufragist: My DEAR if you'll tell me the es
sential difference between destroying cargo of tea
in protest against the unjust rule of communt
that measured everything in terms of property, AM
smashing windows in protest against the same sor
of rule by the same community, I'll be satisfied
Needless to say, the descendant of the Boston te
party took a continuance.
1t depends on the point of view, and often in
deed, on tine point of time. 1t is of the commones
knowledge, that the milestones in the long strugg
for Anglo-Saxon liberty, whether on this continen
or across the water, from the Great Charter down
Votes for Women, have been marked by forcibl
demonstration against established institutions. Th
Charter had to be wrested from John, by method
not altogether polite or always considerate of tn
precious rights of property. In the reform move
ment of the last century, and throughout the charts
agitation, riot, pillage, and destruction of proper
were the means employed most effectively to forc'
attention of the constituted authorities to the de
mands of the people for great extension of th
franchise and redress of other wrongs The sam'
sort of means have been employed at every junctur
n the struggle for extension of the franchise in Grea
Britain; manhood suffrage came through the SAM
travail that is marking the fight for citizen suf
frage. Your typical Britisher, like your typica
American can be shocked into an awakening whel
he sees that human rights are determined to asser
themselves as superior to property rights.
1t is not so many years since John Burns led
mob of English workingmen from Tower Hill dow
into Fleet street and the Strand, where they, toe
smashed windows. Then they looted shops and tool
tine bread they needed and their families needed. The
had no right to do it; their only was hunger
and tnat is excuse at all, in the tory British j
American view. John Burns was sentenced to si
months in ja-gaol, we believe they were still call
ing it-on almost exactly the same charge now main
tanned against Mrs. Pankhurst. But today Joh
Burns is an honored, distinguished, and powerful
member of the British cabinet chairman of the hom
government board. In due time the effgy of tn
mob leader and gao-bird will take its place in tn
Abbey wnere it will rub elbows with the statues o
ether heroes of British history that guard the sane,
uary of royalty. Perhaps il will be placed where
may look down upon the tombs of the Stuarts, an
also on the gray slab that marks the place where
Cromwell's bones were buried The next genera
ton in Britain is apt TO see its Cromwells and it
Burnses in pretty correct perspective. We Amerl
Cans have that faculty, too; Jonn Brown, Wendell
Phillips, and William Lloyd Garrison have come int
their own Mrs Pankhurst's statue will stand in tn
Abbey through the centuries; the judge who impose
the three-year sentence to Jail could hardly hav
taken surer course to guarantee her that honor
at the hands of the next generation"
Before we make up minds that the Britis
mllltantS are all "lolls' udt uiey are running Wel
cause let US think on these things Let us be sur
that our vision is not foreshortened; that we hav
read understandingy the story of the rise of Anglo
Saxon institutions and the development of civic lib
ery, through a never-endng series of protests, re
volts revolutions, that we look back them seen
the merest incidents on the upward highway.
And then, too, if il was necessary to send Mrs
Pankhurst to jail why not send with her those tor
members of parliament who sought to incite Protest
ant Ulster to revolt in order to kill the homerul
bill? That question has been asked and pressed hom
by the British women with vigor that is not goin
tc let it b forsottes. -----------