The Blackfoot optimist. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1907-1918, 1914-05-14

pico CO1umu anu IL COnSplcuOOSly
displayed. The total is about $3.50, 900.
The Times is fair enough to say, how.
ever, that the evidence is not strons
in all the cases reported.
But why militant suffragists, who
seem to be peculiar to Great Britain .
TO attract attention, says one; to force
the government to consider our de.
mands, says another; to gain money
and notoriety for few leaders, says
third. ut seems to be a law of DO.
!itical evolution" quoted militant sui.
fragist in her own behalf, that nc
great advance in human freedom can
be gained except after the display Of
some kind of violence. We are only
adopting the methods Of men to &C
complish our ends" :
Helped by Brutal Treatment.
Militancy has been met, in many In.
stances, by brutality. The Cat-and.
Mouse Act, which releases for q time
from prison offenders who are i'll or
60 on a hunger strike and then per.
mits their rearrest. has been substi.
tuted for the barbarity with which
forcible feeding was carried on. The
unnecessary severity with which some
policemen dealt with some jealous or
fanatical women caused public opin
ion, which had been almost unanimous
in condemning militancy-the revolu.
tionary rather than the constitutional
method of propaganda-to change for
a time, II not to actual approval, to .
kind Of tacit Endorsement or indiifer.
ence. This brutal severity. shown in
Q number Of cases. by the police au.
thorities has also tended to unite the
discordant elements that favor WON
ans suffrage into one somewhat har.
monious whole. On the platform Of .
large hall In the West end Of London
the other evening were in vocal har.
mony speakers representing all phases
OF the movement. from the militant
who threw rocks, to the lady who only
wrote letters to the newspapers-and
for reasons Of domestic tranquility
wrote them anonymously. Severity
had the usual effect or creating sym
pAthy for the person punished and Less
opposition to the cause. Recently the
severity has been lessened and the
punishment has been made more near
" to At the onense. Narrating what
was done only few months ago, an ar
dent suffragist said that minor breach
es Of law, such AZ waving flags and
making speeches In the lobbies Of the
houses Of parliament, were treated
more severely than serious crime on
the part of men had often been. A sen.
tence Of three months imprisonment
as an ordinary offender was passed in
one case against young girl who had
done nothing except to decline to be
bound over to keep the peace, which
she was prepared to swear she had
not broken. The turning Of the hose
upon suffrage prisoner in her cell on
a midwinter night is another example
This has been, fortunately for all con
cerned, changed for the better by the
more recent administration of the
much-reviled CLEARINGHOUSE Act.
MiIitants Small In Number.
The militant suffragists, first organ
lied into society ten years ago, are
now divided into two or more inharmo
NOUS groups. Their work is largely
associated in the public mind with the
names of the Pankhursts, mother and
daughter The militant sufsragists
constitute but handful of the advo
Gates of the franchise for women
They get 80 per cent of the public at.
tention but they are in number and
Importance scarcely one per cent. The
National union, which advocates con.
stitutional methods, includes or rep
resents the greater part of the SUI
fragists. There are scores of other
women's organizations formed with
the same general purpose. The Ma
tional British Woman's Temperance
union, the National Union of Women
Workers (the largest womens union)
the Association of University Women
Teachers. the Society of Registered
Nurses. the Women's Cooperative
guild (the only organized body repre-
senting the married working -women)
are some of the numerous societies
that favor woman's suffrage. The
town councils of Liverpool, Manches.
ter, Sheffield, Birmingham. Leeds
Bradford, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin,
and Cork are among the 200 town
councils which have petitioned parlia.
ment to pass woman's suffrage bill
Ireland for Woman's Suffrage.
Ireland, with characteristic tempera,
ment, next to- homo rule, has given
largest time to discussion of woman.
suffrage. The Irish Nationalists gen
orally favor it and the Ulster Orange
men have included in their so-called
provisional government scheme the
franchise for women on the basis o.
register for local government pur
poses. On the contrary, it was an Irisl
preacher who HAVING doccr;hod lone