Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-03-02

quarters and told us that we must not
carry out any more banners. When
we answered, This il a well-considered
policy which we have adopted; and we
can not tell you on the spur Of the
moment that We will not do this thing
merely because you give this com
mand, he said. II will give you until
nine O'Clock tomorrow morning. Call
me up at my Office and tell me what
yoI are gong 10 do. Are your supris-
ed that the next morning we called up
Major Pullman and said TO him:
Major Pullman, we are going out
with our banners And sc went
Lucy Burns and Katherine Morey
went 10 the White House, and when
they arrived there. spread out be
tween them the banner with the in
scrlption, We shall gbt for the things
we have always carried nearest our
hearts, for democracy and 50 on.
For fear that the police might not
recognize this iaudable sentiment, we
carefully Inscribed on the bottom,
President wills n war message to
Congress, April 2. 1917" This should
have been perfectly quoting the
morning But Miss Burns and Miss
Morey had been there only about
two minutes when there was a police
woman standing beside them, saying,
i place you under arrest.
They answered, az we had agreed
they should, thinking that here was a
question which was absolutely un-
answerable, On what charge do you
arrest us?' And the answer came
back, On the charge Of obstructing
traffic Major Pullman apparently
had been at work over night. He
had been finding out just as we had
found out that there is no law against
carrying n banner: he had found out
just as We had known always that you
cannot arrest person for peacefully
picketing. But on the charge Of OBJ
structing traffic a few days later six
women were sentenced 10 three days
in the District Jail.
On the 18th of July a splendid group
of women, twelve Of them, walked
out with their banner. Governments
derive their Just powers from the
consent of the governed And while
Speaker Clark back Of the White
House on the Ellipse, was making
those ringing speeches which are al
NAYS made on the 4th OF July about
liberty and the government vi the
people, quoting the Declaration Dl In
dependencc. the women vino bore
quotation from the Declaration OF
Independence iii front oi the White
House were arrested and also sen
fenced to three days in jail.
Then the l4th of July rolled around.
and on that day they were celebrating
in Washington the Fall Of the BaStille.
At the same time those celebrations
were going on, sixteen women went
out OF our headquarters with banners
that read. Liberty, Equality, Fra
tcrnlty the slogan Of the French
Revolution. Those women were SEN
fenced to sixty days in the workhouse
at Occoquan.
suppose we all recognize that poor
Judge Aiullownv was not responsible
for this. Major Pullman, too, was not
responsible for the sentence which was
pronounced on that day. We recog-
nized back of it all, back Of the arrests
and back OF the sentences, the author
itv OF the administration
After three days the women sen
fenced to sixty days we're pardoned
by the President Women who were
arrested at the gates about the middle
OF August were sentenced to thirty
days at Occoquan. We never knew
exactly how many days we would
receive when we went out with
banner. because the policy Of the
administration varied constantly.
The women who carried banners the
18th Of September received sixty days.
Then came the time when Alice
Paul went out, carrying the banner