New-York tribune., 1920-06-09
Women Picket
Convention to
Speed Suffrage
More Than Fifty Members
of Woman's Party Stand
in Line With Banners
Outside Chicago Coliseum
No Disorder or Arrests
Emblems of Purple and
Gold Make Silent Protest
Over Ratification Delay
From q Staf Correspondsnt


CHICAGO, June s.-Pickets Of the
National Womans party stood in line
patiently holding their banners of pro-
test in front of the Coliseum this
morning when the Republican National
Convention opened. They had heard
that the Chicago police had an order
to clear the sidewalks at II o'clock.
Consequently the pickets expected ar
rest. But nothing happened. When
the session was adjourned they were
still standing unmolested, except for
the glare and heat of early afternoon
sun.
Their banners of purple and gold
made a silent protest against the delay
in ratification of the Federal suffrage
amendment.
More than fifty women stood in the
line of protest throughout the first
session of the convention. Occasionally
new recruits came from the party S
headquarters, in a little phonograph
shop, across the street.
Alice Paul, chairman of the Woman s
party, was experimenting the order of
the banner holding. Bare headed, she
went up and down the line, occasion
ally relieving a tired picket and putting
fresh one into the line.
Likened to a Reception
''It has been like the receiving line
at reception" she said at the end of
the first session of the day. every
woman here has been shaking hands
and finding old acquaintances among
persons attending the convention.
Practically every one we have talked
with believes that the thirty sixth
state will ratify soon.
"I believe this demonstration to-day
will contribute toward the removal of
obstruction to suffrage. Until that end
is reached and the women of the coun-
try are finally and completely enfran-
chised we will continue to protest
against what we believe is Republican
indifference to woman suffrage, and to
insist upon party pressure in the Re-
publican states of Connecticut and YER
mont"
When asked whether the silent and
orderly picketing of to-day would con-
liu uc WIL!IOut USChilUS CI ulOle iuiilldIlC l.
demonstration, Miss Paul said:
.'The form of our protest during the
convention and afterward will depend
upon circumstances. We shall use
whatever we think the more effective
and powerful means of protest"
Among the women taking part in the
picketing to-day were: Mrs. Abby Scott
Baker, Miss Doris Stevens, Mrs. Law
renee Lewis, Miss Edith Ainge, Miss
Ella Riegel and Mrs. S. O. Havemeyer.
Woman's Party Issues Statement
The Woman's party issued state
ment to-day explaining their picketing
of the convention and demanding that
women be enfranchised in time to vote
in the 1920 elections. The statement
was:
Women hold the Republican party
responsible for the ratification of the
suffrage amendment in time for the
1920 elections
because:
"The Republican party is in control
In a majority of the states.
"Women would be enfranchised at
this moment if the Republican Legis-
lature of Delaware had not refused the
thirty-siXth ratification.
"The Republican Governors of Con.
necticut and Vermont. by refusing to
call special sessions, are denying their
legislatures, believed favorable to suf-
frage, the right to act on this meas.
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