The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-25
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFO RMATION BUREAU
BY FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington. ID. c.
SUFFERING sUFFRAGETTEs.
\ Comedy in Two Acts and a Dead
SILENCE.

! Washington. oct. 25.-Once, more
all is peaceful on the River Occoquan-
Upon the eighteen representatives of
American militant feminisrn which
are incarcerated therein has fallen
strange and unnatural quietude. Su-
perintendent Whitaker has been re-
turned to his post; Mr.. Alonzo
Fweedale, the temporary incumbent.
departing with the remark that he
would no have the job at twenty
thousand a year
The above paragraph is punctuated
with n knock on wood. It may be
| that before this reaches the compoS-
| ing room another blow for the free
DOM of woman will be struck at Oc-
coquan. and its peaceful woods and
tempted hills will echo the sounds of
riot, while the murderers, pick-pockets
and house breakers. who are the
regular and usual occupants of the
/ workhouse wish ardently that they
were back in a quiet life Of crime.
PicI<eting the White House
} The imprisonment, in the District
( workhOuse. of the suffra gettes who
attempted to picket the White House
has attracted the attention of the
whole country. In the first place,
these young women are among the
Z first political prisoners sentenced in
attention. They occupy exactly the
: same relation to the government as
1 the anarchists which Russia used to
send to Siberia before that country
was set aside as a permanent resi-
dence for the ex-czar. In the second
place, all of these young women are
! intelligent, goOd-looking and of social
prominence. When one of them ut
! ters a scream of irritation, it is
| echoed in the best circles in America,
/ and all the leading New York papers
carry headlines about it. If another
finds pebble in her oatmeal, or has
a bad egg for breakfast, the quivers
, or her rage are felt from coast to
coast Every detail of this suffragette
! drama has been told at great length
! the battles before the White House
gate; the arrest of the fashionable
young feminists; their rage against
the treatment received at Occoquan;
! the demand for an investigation; the
( removal of the superintendent-an of
| these things are exceedingly well
known. The only thing the public
does not know is the merits of the
case. Is Occoquan really a little ST
IBERIA, where prisoners are tortured
and starved, or is it. not?
Practical and Constructive Work.
Large dormitories We're built din
/ ing rooms, barns, blacksmith shops,
a home for the superintendent, and
/ many other structures. The land was
a practical farmer. He stocked the
place with cattle, hogs and chickens.
He gave every prisoner a job, and
made him do it. The place produced
most of its own food, and a large
amount of brick for constructive
work in the district besides.
Mr.. Whitaker is not a sentimental
list. He did not form little republic
and give his prisoners a vote. He
| formed an absolute monarchy with
1 himself
bolts or bars about the place; but
the man who ran away was chased
| with hounds, caught ind placed in
solitary confinement.
Whatever Mr.. Whittaker's methods
may be, he has Potten good results.
/ His prisoners almost invariably leave
the workhouse in much better health
than they reached it by reason of the
| outdoor labor on the farm which they
are compelled to Go, the regular liv-
ing and the well ventilated sleeping
quarters. A number of men addicted
to drugs and liquor have been cured
of their weaknesses by a term in the
! workhouse The man who behaves
| himself and does his own work is no
worse off than are many industrial
! and farm laborers, and much better
off than some. on the other hand,
those who attempt rebellion or escape
are dealt with suInmariIy
Refined and Intellectual Prisoners.
Women prisoners are kept sepa-
| rately of course. and are engaged in
| sewing and similar occupations The
| general atmosphere of Occoquan was
that Of great Ieisurely country
estate.
Into this place, considered by ex-
perts who have visited it an ideal one
for the confinement of petty Grim
mails were introduced a large number
of women of the most refined, high
strung, energetic and intellectual type
in America. Here surely was the ma
terial of drama. The dullest man
might have anticipated that some
thing would happen. superintendent
Whitaker, who had reformed muir
derers and made them into reliable
prison guards, cured addicts crazed
by morphine, and bluffed armed
thugs into submission by sheer force
Of will. looked once at his latest batch
OF prisoners and turned away a sad
dened man.
The trouble soon began. Exactly
what happened, owing to the failure
of the investigation to find anyone to
investigate, will never be known.
Some of the suffra gettes said they did
mt get enough to eat, and others did
not like the quality of the food. The
climax of the clash seems to have
been reached after Superintendent
Whitaker had been temporarily re-
moved, and Alonzo Tweedale, the dis
trict auditor, temporarily put in his
place. One of the young women was
/ i'll, and the management aspired to
remove her in an automobile to a hos
pitaL She protested against this, on
the ground that she did not know
where she was going to be taken. An
! other one of the suffra getteS made a
dash for the phone. with the idea of
summoning help from town. The
stewardess explained that prisoners
were not allowed to use the phone in
discriminatory, and intercepted her.
Occurred then battle over the phone
in which the stewardess was reinforc-
ed by a large number of colored wo-
men.
Exactly what the merits of this bat
tie were remain among the mysteries.
3 1t seems to be a WELL established fact
that one of the suffragists was re-