Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-12-14

clde what questions shall bC submitted
to the electorate for their decision. and
what questions shall be withheld from
the people and never submitted TO them
for their Judgment In other words, these
men decide what the two parties shall
quarrel about and upon what subjects
they shall agree.
There are two questions which they
have never allowed TO come In any way
before the electorate Of the United King
dom. one is the question OF foreign
policy and the other is the question OF
woman suffrage. So long as they stand
together In agreement. they can keep
these two questions forever from being
decided by the electorate. The autocrats
VI these two parties are desperately afraid
OF woman suffrage. They know that men
have learned to play the political game.
and they are exceedingly anxious to avoid
the complications that might result "
women entered the political arena and
began to put principle before party in-
terest. For over so, years they have
showed Under the women's agitation. The
political newspapers are in their hands
and are ready to do their bidding, and
unless an agitation is carried on through
out the country OF a nature to make Gov"
ernment difficult, they will persist in their
safe and comfortable policy Of excluding
woman suffrage from the political arena
altogether.
that the militant movement Is directed.
1t is the only expedent left to woman
by which they can put pressure upon the
Government When II Is realized that II
every man and woman in England were
converted to the principle the movement
would not necessarily be any nearer 10
attainment than II was so years ago. then
1t can be understood why 1t is that con-
stitutional agitation provides no hope
whatever of the attainment by women
OF their acknowledgment.
MEN AS MILITANTs.
Everything that can be done in the
way OF constitutional agitation has been
done and all records in educational and
political propaganda have been broken.
The only political result OF the agitation
is a sequence of Parliamentary tricks and
betrayals, which, in the words of Lord
Robert Cecil. "would have driven men to
insurrection." Ministers OF the present
cabinet have not failed TO remind women
that 1t was never by constitutional agita-
tion that men in the past won their vote.
Sir Herbert Gladstone, speaking in a
franchise debate in Parliament said
political dynamics are far more import
ant than political argument. Men have
learned their lesson and know the neces-
sity for establishing that force majeure'
which actuates and arms a Government
for effective work. This is the task be-
fore the supporters of this great move
ment." Women have been jeered at by
Lord Haldane for their policy of pin
pricks" and have been advised to adopt
"sterner measures" They have been
taunted by John Burns with Scratch
ing at the door which men forced open"
They were told by Mr.. Hobhouse. in
Bristol in 1912. that in the case of the
suffrage demand there has not been the
kind of public sentimental uprising which
accounted for the Nottingham Castle in
1882 or the Hyde Park Railings in 1867"
L should like my American readers 10
understand that Nottingham Castle was
burnt to the ground in 1882 and that the
Hyde Park Railings were torn up in 1867
in connection with mems agitation for
the franchise. The advice to go and do
likewise was given to women by a MEM
ber OF the present Cabinet before u single |
act of destruction had been committed |
by the woman's militant movement.
Historical precedent political necessity;
and the closing OF every other avenue are |
the sole causes OF militancy in England, |
and until this is understood the move |
ment cannot be rightly apprehended by |
the American public. The strength of |
militancy lies entirely in the justice of |
the cause behind II. But for that 1t |
would have stamped out long ago. Warm |
congratulations to the American women |
that they have not been forced into these |
methods OF agitation.
No one I'm the world hates militancy |
half so much as those upon whom the /
suffering, inconceivable in its weight and |
intensity, Falls. 1 mean the militants |
themselves. Theirs has been a long and |
awful martyrdom OF which gllmpses can |
be obtained in Lady Constance Lytton's |
book. prison and Prisoners" One day |
1t will be universally recognized that they |
have been crucified for new redemption /
OF humanity. To them belongs the re-
nown of having carried on new kind OF |
civil war for liberty, a war in which no |
human being. except the soldiers of lib |
erty themselves, has ever been injured |
in limb or life, When they are dead they |
win be honored. But today they are mis-
judged even by those of their own sex /
in America for whom. as for all woman /
hood, they have suffered unspeakable |
tribulation. 1 say deliberately, that those |
who misjudge them, unless they do so in |
unavoidable, inexcusable ignorance, are |
not worthy OF them, and that those who |
deny them shame their own honor.
Rather let American women, while |
thanking their good fortune that there Is |
no need to adopt similar political meth |
DDS here later fire from their devotion |
and put into their campaign for winning |
the vote Of constitutional agitation in |
Pennsylvania and other States the same |
conviction amounting 10 religious faith. |
the same political acumen, the same cac-
rihce, the same courage and the same |
self-regardless devotion, In that case |
their victory is assured, "When a great |
moral issue is at stake" said Garibaldi |
30 years ago. victory never vet failed |
ha Az -. huH