The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1920-04-17
POLITICAL PICKETING
BECOMES EPIDEMIC
Bands OF Women Parade Washington
Streets for All Sorts Of
I.Causes.n

Washington, April 16.-Political
picketing, often of the peaceful sort,
and more often with militant accom-
panists, is running epidemic in Wash
ington again and the thousands Of
tourists who make the national capt
tai their Mecca all year round again
see bands Of women slowly parading
about the streets bearing banners with
wide variety of inscriptions.
Seemingly. every cause which wishes
to impress it's demands, arguments or
protest. oil the powers that be" ulti-
mately adopts the picketing system
which was first introduced In the CAPT.
ta by 4 branch OF tho woman suffra-
G sts about ten years ago. The lat
est to adopt the method are women
.spousing the cause OF Irish freedom
nd there have directed their protests
against the British embassy. Their
campaign has caused somewhat of
furry because it is not without its in
tarnational aspects.
The British embassy, for instance
lis foreign territory; whether the side
walk in front of II is American terri
tory, no one has essayed to decide.
Moreover, there is a federal law which
penalties any person who assaults a
diplomatic representative of friend
ly power. Whether the picketing Of
the embassy is an annoyance to the
British diplomats, and whether an an
noyance is an assault within the tech
nical meaning of the law is an addi-
tional question.
Then there Is involved the question
of preserving the public peace, for dis
.urbances often grow out of the pick
citing. Often, some woman passerby,
expresses her disagreement with the
banners the pickets bear by ripping
them to bits and the pedestrian and
the picket have q scrimmage, with
sometimes regular old fashioned hair
pulling. The police patrol clangs up,
both parties to the quarrel are hustled
lotf to 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 ap-
lparently from ali walks of life. Many
bear evidences of breeding, education
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 a
record for getting arrested jamming
the police court docket and finally
! Having a hunger strike, patterned af.
ter their British sisters, were compos'
ed apparently of women of all classes
Many whose names are nationally
known did picket duty, spent nights in
police station cell and finally did
time in the workhouse. Some of them
II the truth were known, were freed
lby husbands who disapproved OF
their actions. There was more than
one case Of 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 hus
band arrived to take the wife home
over her protests
I With the adoption by Congress OF
the resolution for the woman suffrage
amendment to the constitution, the
suffragists ia'd off, but they had fired
an example in local association OF
negroes who were demanding the dis
missal of man Of their race from the
local school administration. SO the
negro women in emulation picketed
the streets surrounding the school adj
minlstration buildings bearing ban
ners. Their picketing, however. was
intermittent, and the negro 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 Incl
dents of an International flavor when
on the first day, the embassy officials