New-York tribune., 1921-06-05
By Nathaniel PETER
CANTON. Chima, May (.

~ on bound feet. If you should
so to the Provincial Assembly
any of these days you will see delega
tions of young women buttonholing
Assemblymen and, if the Assemblymen
are recalcitrant, shaking threatening
fists under their noses. They want the
vote.
Righteousness is in the atmosphere.
The city itself is capital Of the prov
ince which is in rebellion against the
national government. And rebellions,
once started, do not always stop where
their makers intended them to stop for
their own comfort. The spirit knows
no sex, even in China. The Cantonese
women have begun to assert them
selves, too.
went yesterday to session Of the
Provincial Assembly. SON the calendar
for the day was consideration of the
new election law, and I was told the
women were planning q demonstration
for clause enfrachising them.
Long before the session was to begin
women of all ages were gathering
around the jerry built, pseudo-foreign
structure, set in onetime lotus-lake
There were schoolgirls in long lines,
marshaled by their teachers. There
were women in their thirties and for
ties. teachers, doctors, nurses and just
wives and mothers. There were some
who declared their emancipation from
head to foot, having bobbed the hair.
A dramatic touch was lent by few
who walked stifiy on feet that had
been bound in childhood, and unbound
years later as protest of freedom.
Hundreds of Women Add
Only Element of Suspense
The session was as slow in getting
started as legislative sessions are ev-
erywhere in the world, and as dull when
it had started But the hundreds of
women massed row on row in the gal
leries made tingle of suspense es-
pecially for the sole male in the gal
leries and the sole human of white
skin in the whole building-myself
After the proceedings had droned
along for nearly two hours there was
Fl motion to adjourn. Instantly five
women appeared in doorway at the
back OF the rostrum. One of them
went up to the speaker and whispered,
IN electric silence hanging over the
saJ,e house She was asking permis-
.ser. to address the Assembly. The
spsaker shook his head and motioned
o &: to leave.
81 tn that the five women rushed to
,Ae front of the rostrum and with
,hsii cries summoned their cohorts
iogr ward. A torrent was let loose
tlso. There was rush for the stairs,
and uomen came tumbling. in through
ali the doors. In few seconds the
.,f1y of the hall was tangle Of
screaming women. Most Of the Assem-
blymen, discreet in their valor, took to
their heels. few Of the more intrepid
tried to stem the rush. They were
spilled over unceremoniously.
The suffragists had their say. In
small groups they conducted shrill de-
bates with any male that ventured op-
position, or merely made their stump
speeches to the atmosphere at large.
Passionate, Intense, mercurial women
of southern cline, they screamed
their grievances increasingly for more
than an hour. There is something awe
ing in the sight of any Chinese in a
passion getting out his "chee," as
they say. This was volcanic and
frightening.
| watched the scene from the vantage
point of the Speakers chair. young
woman with some knowledge OF English
came up to enlighten me. She was one
of the suffrage leaders, the wife of g
director of one of the short provincial
railways. An advocate Of employment
for women on the same plane as man
she had recently compelled her hus,
band to put women ticket sellers and
ticket takers on the railway, thus pro
viding a stock gibe for male scoffers
Women Want To Be Free
Like American Sisterhood
"These men want US to be jus
slaves, like our mothers" she said
"They are the 'old heads They thinl
it can be like the olden times. The.
want that a woman should only cool
and wash and take care of the children
But we want to have the rights JUS
like the men. We want to be free, a
the American women always hay
been"
did not dispute the implications il
the last sentence. An American in thes
parts soon learns to meet the probler
of dispelling illusions about America
life without dampening ardor or hurt
ing feelings. He evades it with silence
China cannot be real republic unit
it is completely free from graft an
corruption, as America has alway
been," Chinese student once told me
The demonstration in the Assembl
hall was followed by parade to tn
yanens of DR.. Sun Yat-sen, presiden
of the revolutionary southern govern
ment, and Chen Chung ming, provincia
governor. i followed. 1t was not tn
procession | wanted to see, but the al
tjtude of the onlookers
There was much that was illumina