Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-04-22
pICKETING AGAIN
 POPULAR AROUND
 NATIONAL CAPITAL.
Many Delicate Matters Are Involved in Ac-
 tiOnS

] Washington, April 21.-- Political i ipicketng, often of the peaceful sort
 and more often with militant accom- paniments, is running epidemic in Washington again and the thousands 1 of tourists who make the national capital their Mecca all year round,
 again see bands of women slowly pa
 rading about the streets bearing ban ners with a wide variety of inscrip- tions.
 Seemingly, every cause which wishes to impress it's demands, ar- guments or protests on 'the powers that be" ultimately adops the picket ing systems which was first intro- duced in the capital by branch of the woman suffragists about ten years ago. The latest to adopt the method are women espousing the cause of Irish freedom and they have directed their protests against the British embassy. Their cam paign has caused somewhat of a fur " because it is not without it's inter- national aspects.
 The British embassy, for instance,
 is foreign territory; whether the sidewalk in front of it is American territory. no one has essayed to de- eide Moreover, there is federal law which penalizes any person who assaults" diplomatic representa- tive of friendly power. Whether the picketing of the embassy is an annoyance to the British diplomats, and whether an annoyance is an as sault within the technical meaning of the law is an additional question.
 Then there is involved the question of preserving the public peace. for disturbances often grow out of the picketing. Often, some woman pas serhy, expresses her disagreement with the banners the pickets bear by ripping them to bits and the pedes- trian and the picket have q scrim- mage, with sometimes regular old fashioned hair-pullings. The police patrol clangs up, both parties to the quarrel are hustled off to the station house Relief pickets immediately arrive. The police court gets another case.
 The personnel of the picketing for ces furnishes an interesting study in human nature. They are women an parently from all walks oI life. Many bear evidences of breeding. ed ucation and social position. Others are women who appear to be of the opposite types. Every picketing campaign brings out new charges that many pickets are "hired" for the work by others who are willing to provide substitutes and do not wish to picket in the streets in all sorts of weather.
 The suffrage pickets who made 8 record for getting arrested, tanning the police court docket and finally having a hunger strike, patterned af- ter their British sisters, were com posed apparently of women. of all classes. Many whose names are na- tionally known did picket duty, and spent nights in police station cell and finally did time in the work house. Some of them if the truth were known, were freed by husbands who disapproved of their actions. There was more than one case of a husband promising the authorities he would undertake the responsibility of making his wife 'be good" and more cases of stormy scenes at the workhouse when the husband arrived to take the wife home over her pro- tests.
 With the adoption by congress of the resolution for the woman sui frage amendment to the constitution. the suffragists laid off, but they had fired an example in a local associa- ton of negroes who were demanding the dismiss of man of their race from the local school administration. So the negro women in emulation picketed the streets surrounding the school administration building bear ing banners. Their picket'ng. how ever, was intermittent, and the ne. gro educator to whom they objected still holds his job.
 British humor all but broke up the picketing of the British embassy. with it's possibilities of disagreeable incidents of an international flavor. when on the first day, the embassy officials sent out an invited the pick cts in to afternoon tea. It probably was temptation, for a cold, raw wind was sweeping the city, but the leaders pulled stern faces and declin- ed the invitation.
 The embassy is on Connecticut ave- nue in the heart of the downtown business and residence district not far from Dupont circle. The neigh borhood might be compared to Fifth avenue in New York in the fifties.
 Thousands of shoppers, tourists