The Washington herald., 1921-05-13
DEFENDS SUGGESTIONS FOR
PROTECTING WOMEN.

To the Editor. The Washington Herald:
In an article over my signature
of recent date in The Herald 1 said
, in paragraph /: "A license to al
low women to have the means of
protecting themselves" Paragraph
2 said: II feel that every woman
should have something harder than
words to ward off men who have
evil intentions toward them"
Paragraph 5: IF she was pre-
pared to defend herself a little more
drastically. she would be less an
noyed." Paragraph S: Il firmly be-
lieve that every woman should have
some forceful means of defending
herself"
quote these statements to en-
! tighten Mr.. Alfred Jacobs, who
writes in this mornings Herald
and seems to think that "protec-
tion" means shooting" and kill
ing" II he had read Preside mt
Harding's address at Newport News
to the navy he would understand
the difference between being pro-
tected in being prepared to defend
rather than being unprepared and
being forced to submit to all in
dignitics as we had to do in the
early days of the war. II Germany
knew that if she got fresh that we
would soon conquer her, do you
think that she would have made us
fight? | think not.
Mr.. Jacobs says: The pastime of
shooting mere man is taking hold
of the gentle sex Why
should the Rev. Mr.. Martin wish
to encourage it," II Mr.. Jacobs
will read my article of recent date
in The Herald against Clara Smith
Hamon and that preacher C?) who
ran off with one of his choir MEM
bers in New Jersey he would un-
derstand my position with regard
to this very thing. This is also
called to the attention of Mr.. r.
Elvard SaGer in this mornings is
sue
My previous article answers his
completely. He asks why did he
not intervene?" I may state that
it was humiliating for most re-
spectacle white woman to appeal
to the moral support of two COL
ored men to protect her from being
annoyed by a man of her own race.
These men answered their call. and
she treated them as men because
they were ready and willing to come
to her assistance when the same
was desired. She spoke Of the fact
that there was pretty colored
girl sitting in the square and these
two men paid no attention to her.
We hear the cry OF criminal as
sault ever and anon. 1t was this
very thing that caused the Wash
ington riot. Grant for arguments
sake that there are assaults: would
there be as many Gf any) if every
fiend knew that an ill-approach to
woman would mean a personal in
jury. or scratch or mark that
would he a positive Identification
when he was ultimately appre-
hended?
Mr.. Jacobs further states That
woman can always get protection.
whether right or wrong" Does he
pot know that a Mrs. Mann was
recently murdered near Chevy
Chase? If she had had protection.
would not she be alive today? Mr..
Sager finally states that women
have an infinitely more potent de-
fense in demeanor and personal ap-
pearance. Few men are so low OF
base that they can look into the
eyes of an innocent and protesting
woman and dare do violence"
I defy him to defend this state
ment with regards to the much
heralded and heinous crime of as
sault. by a certain group of men
against a certain group of women
in a certain section of our country.
l defy him! If what he says is true,
then what OF the daily news? This
being the case, is there such a
thing as criminal assault.
In closing I wish to make this
statement. the which I defy any
body In Washington to deny. .viz.:
That the dominant race has always
degraded the women of the subject
race, and this to a moro or less ex-
tent has been the cause OF their
fall. The Spanish were left dark
skinned by their conQuerors, the