The sun., 1917-07-20
SUFFS ACCEPT
PARDON, AS sign
CAUSE is WON
16 Quit WOrkhOuse With
Understanding" Anthony
Resolution Will Pass.
PERSECUTION CHARGED
Forced to Go Barelegged
and Sleep With Negress
Criminals.
WOMEN STILL DEFIANT
Malone Declares He Will Pre-
fer Charges Against Head
of Institution.
WOMEN STILL DEFIANT

WASHINGTON, July ia little hag- !
gard, altogether hungry and very mad"
the sixteen prominent suffrage leaders
sentenced to the District workhouse re-
turned to washington to-day after hav-
ing served not quite forty-eight hours
Of their sixty day terms at Occaquan,
Va
Acting under advices from their coun-
sci, Dudley Field Malone, Collector of
the Port Of New York. the women ac-
cepted pardons preferred by the Presi-
dent this afternoon with the distinct
understanding" as Mrs. ]. A. II. Hop
kins, whose husbands conference with
the President yesterday was largely re-
sponsible for the pardon. expressed it,
that this means our cause is won"
Nearly forty-eight hours spent on
bread and water because, with the ex-
ception OF one dish OF porridge, other
dishes were uneatable at the workhouse.
sleeping In the same dormitory with
eighteen negro women, using the same
toilet facilities without the slightest
privacy, drinking from the same cups
and working shoulder TO shoulder with
them In the sewing room--all these
trials. detailed by the women after their
return, contributed to a story of suffer-
ing which smacked Of persecution in the
ears of those who heard It, Mr. Malone
announced he would prefer charges i'm
mediately against the superintendent Of
the workhouse.
Accepts Alleged Challenge.
"I intend to prefer charges against
supt. Whitaker Immediately" Mr.
Malone told newspaper men. when
these women were gathered ready to
leave Whitaker said that any other
women who came to that institution In
the future as a result Of suffrage troubles
could not expect the consideration they
had received
II accepted this as a threat and shall
treat Il accordingly l don't know of the
slightest consideration that they or their
friends received or that their counsel
received to which they were not fully
entitled.
II shall file charges with the proper
authority and stay here until see them
through"
The action of the President is an
admission declared Mrs. Gardner
"that we were imprisoned for a political
offence and not for blocking the side
walk in front Of the White House"
But weariness of body, pangs OF
hunger and mental anguish had moi
diminished the fighting spirit OF the
pioneer suffrage prisoners of America
Nor would they regard the action of the
President as anything but a pronounced
victory for the cause.
IF the President has sought by par
doning us to create another diversion.
declared Miss Anne Martin. the Nevada
suffrage leader. "he will fail NOTHING
will satisfy us but the passage OF th'
Anthony amendment resolution at thii
session of Congress. We do not accep
a diversion. We would all prefer Il
serve the sixty days sentence rather thar
lose ground gained through our arres
and Imprisonment"
And this sentiment was acclaimed
unanimously by the fifteen other lat'
prisoners, who had gathered at Congress
sional Union headquarters to submit Il
questions from the newspaper men.
Before noon to-day President Wilson
forwarded to the Department of Justic'
the pardons for the women. immedi
ately the Department telegraphed th'
order for their release, supplementint
these instructions by mailing the forma
pardons
supt whitaker received the Telegram
about o'clock. Upon receipt OF tn
telegraphic instructions he called to
gether the women and asked them 1
they would accept a pardon, but ap
parently he did not tell them the pardoi
had been granted. After talking tn
matter over among themselves tn
women refused to commit themselves ol
this point
Shortly afterward, however Mr.. Ma
lone arrived. He interpreted the pardon
as admission by the President that h
did not believe the women guilty Of
punishable offence. He strongly ad
Vised acceptance of the pardons.
The matron Immediately brought ou
their clothes, which they exchanged 70
their prison garb in a room by them
selves. It took them over an hour t
mat k.A -
rendered jewelry worth many thousand
Of dollars, so much that the warde
had sent II to this city for safekeepinl
II will have to be returned to thef
later
Having regained their clothes and bag
gage they embarked for Washington /
nVe automobiles which had been take
down for the purpose. escorted by Nj
Malone, Mr.. Hopkins, ellison oardnt
and other friends.
There was nothing either militar
or formal about the reception given III
women before the Congressional Unio
headquarters in Madison place, 10
yards from the scene Of their arrest.
Friends Embrace Liberated WOme
As each woman reached the pavemer
she was caught In a whirlpool Of en-
braces, passing from one to another
he twoRCore suffrag gsts gathered ther
Some were fearful. but all were smilin
But after the first wave of greetnl
mad subsided the sense OF grievan,
supplied the dominating motif of eaC
little group.
Mr. Malone. explaining the acceptan,
OF the pardons, said tonight:
The pardon Of the President was a
cepted by the defendants az acknow
enRmeat that grave injustice ha
oeen done to sixteen American WON,
IN nhf futF hes.
by the passage OF the Federal amen
meut"
Mrs, Robert II. Walker of Baltlmo
SAID 1T was only on account of Il
Continued on FUth Page.