The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-01-24
BY ANNIE G. FORFEIT.
Press Chairman, of the Connecticut
 Branch, National Women's Party.

The hunger strike adopted by the suffragists as soon as they enter jail is not intended as an expedient for getting out of jail before the end of their terms. It does have this effect when the terms are long. But it does not affect the length of the imprisonment when the sen tences are five days-the length of sentence apparently decided upon for all suffrage prisoners during the present burst of persecution.
 The Suffragists go on hunger strike as a protest against being treated as common criminals. In all civilized countries, including even Russia under the former au- tocracy, with the exception of the United States, it is recognized that the man or woman who breaks the law in order to try 10 alter the form of government under which he or she is living is not on the same moral level as the lief or the prostitute. Revolution is not crime. If a revolution succeeds, it is hailed as progress and the leaders are re- garded as heroes. If it fails, the leaders will suffer. They are i'm prisoned to act as a warning that it i4 a dangerous matter to disturb tho settled government. Gut at the same time it is recognized that their motives differed from those of the man who robs a bank or the murderer who kills either for re- venge or from greed?
 Political prisoners are usually kept apart from the ordinary crim- inal prisoners. They are treated with certain degree of courtesy and respect by their jailers which are not accorded to the ordinary prisoner. They are usually allowed access to their friends, and almost always are permitted writing ma terials books and other things by means of which they can pass way the time. Many notable books have been written in jail by men and women shut up because they have attempted abortive revolutions, or have tried in vain to secure the al- iteration of laws and constitutional restrictions. Such prisoners are usually allowed their own food, if they choose to have it sent to them or to spend their own money to pro- cure it, and they are usually al- lowed to wear their own clothing. Their chief suffering is from the mere fact of imprisonment, and as the object of the Government is not to make them suffer that would be useless cruelty, neither tending to their reformation nor to the fu- ture safety of the state - but only to keep them safely immured; there is no reason why there should be any persecution added to this great inconvenience.
 There is no reasonable excuse for adding to the Imprisonment in fiiCted on the suffrag gists, the many annoyances and petty crueltes which they now have to undergo. Il would be di icuIt for any peToIo- gist to justif the treatment that ,,rs. Bennett describes in her ac- count of the days spent In the Dis trict jail. No one now jusu- ffes imprisonment or cruelty on the mere basis of served him right The law of revenge Is not a law
 
 has right to adopt. Punishment has only two tustffcations-ref nation of the offender and protec ton of the public from a repetition of the o"cnse.
 Take the first object of punish ment reformation of the offend CT. How was the term in the Dis trict jail in Washington likely tc reform Mrs. Bennett? To answer that 1t would be necessary first tt show that she needed that society should reform her. To reform hel in this case wolld be to take ou democracy and freedom tha spurred her to make her protest I would be to break her spirit an( make her a subnlssive-or discon tented slave. Is this a reformatioI that would be desirable? Do Amer jeans want the mothers of the fu ture Eeneraton-and Mrs. Bonnet has three children who would cer tainly be affected by any such chang, in her haracter-reduced in spiri as well as in political status t slavery? Would the Americans a Chateau Thierry have shown tn proud courage which all the worl' is app'auding if they had been tn sons of slave-spiritod mothers?
 But even granting that the au thorities in Washington reall, wished to reform Mrs. Bonnet into a woman who would cease t, ask for political freedom, and wouli give the powers that now exist n further trouble, did they adopt punishment that was likely to ef feet their object? Five days Q dirty, vermin infected hole, with out fresh air and with women O the lowest type as her companions compelled to listen to language S vile and so obscene that it wouI have been impossible for her t imagine that any human bein could sink so low as to use it! I this a suitable means 10 the en in view? AS a matter of fact. nc only did 1t, not break Mrs. Bennett spirit, but she came out of jail wit a fiery indignation against the pres ent order of society and a determt nation to have q hand in changfn it that could hardly have been kin