The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1914-01-08
militant women suffragists. IT occu-

pies a column and is conspicuously
displayed The total is about $4,000.
The Times is fair enough to say. how
ever, that the evidence is not strong
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. 1T seems to be a law of po-
litical evolution" quoted militant suf-
fragist in her own behalf, that no
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 ac-
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 a time
from prison offenders who are i'll or
go on a hunger strike and then per
mits their rearrest, has been substi-
forcible feeding was carried on. Abe
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
| m a
kind of tacit Endorsement or indiffer-
ence. This brutal severity, shown in
a number of cases, by the police au-
thorities has also tended to unite the
discordant elements that favor wom-
ans suffrage into one somewhat bar
monious whole. On the platform or
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
| ly to fit the offense. Narrating what
was done only few months ago, an ar
dent suffragist said that minor breach
es of law, such as waving flags and
making speeches in the Hobbies Of the
houses of parliament, were treated
M
the part of men had often been. A SEN
tence of three months Imprisonment
as an ordinary offender was passed in
one case against a 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 Cat-and-Mouse Act.
Militants Small In Number.
The militant suffragists, first organ.
lied into a 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 suffragists
constitute but handful of the advo.
Gates of the franchise for women.
They get 30 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 suf-
fragists. There are scores of other
women's organizations formed with
the same general purpose. The Ma
tional British Weman's Temperance
union, the National Union Of Women
Workers (the largest women's 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 a woman's suffrage bill.
ireland for Woman's Suffrage.
Ireland, with characteristic tempera-
ment, next to home rule, has given
largest time to discussion of woman'a
suffrage. The Irish Nationalist gen.
orally favor 1t and the Ulster Orange
men have included in their so-called
provisional government scheme the
franchise for women on the basis of
register for local government pur-
poses. On the contrary, 1t was an Irish
preacher who, having described Jeze-
bel as a type of the modern woman
suffragist said that she painted her
face, tied her head and looked out OF
the window at Jehu, "and, would you
believe it, the hussy was nigh on six
ty wears old"