Jailed for Freedom

ng a Pr

They dramatized to victory the long suffrage fight in America. The challenge of the picket line roused the government out of its half-century sleep of indifference. It stirred the country to

mild and gentle thing to have done. But at the same time it caused a profound stir. Columns of front page space in all the newspapers of the country gave more or less dispassionate accounts of the main facts. Women carrying banners were sta

ext day and the next and the next, it began to dawn upon th

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ch accompany every departure from the prescribed path. Partisan Democrats frowned. Partisan Republicans chuckled. The rest rem

club across the Park, watching eagerly the "shocking," "shameless" women at the gates of the White House. No wonder these gentlemen found the pickets irritating! This absorbing topic of conversation, we are told, shattered many an otherwise quiet afternoon and broke up many a quiet game. Here were American women before their

em as an example, for they were our neighbors, and the strain on them day by day, as ou

wintry day in the penetrating cold of a Washington winter, knowing that within a sto

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the President," but his protest met with no response whatever from the other members. His oratory fell on indifferent ears. And of course there were always those in Congress who got a vicarious thrill watching women do in their fight what they themselves

led at us it would only afford an opportunity to retort "Very well then, if you do not like us at the gates of your leader; if you do not want us to `insult' the President, end this agitation by taking the matter

. There was no appeal to blood-lust in the women's fight. There were no shining rods of steel. There was no martial music. We were not pledging precious lives and vast billions in o

women stood their

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ugh sleet and snow as well as sunshine, waiting for the President to act. Ab

Pres

t Women Wait

Party's tricolored banners-made a gorgeous spo

ad read about the pickets in her home paper thought it would be "so exciting" to hold a banner for a few minutes. But there were no illusions in the hearts of the women who stood at their posts day in and day out. None of them will tell you that the

eet are like blocks of ice," was a more frequent comment from picket to picket than "Is

o my mind on the picket line. It seemed that anything but standing

ident as he saw the indomitable little

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and anticipated no popular support for it. When he saw their persistence through a cruel winnter his sympathy was touched. He ordered the guards to invite them in for a cup of h

ious thorn in his flesh. His own statements of faith in democracy and the necessity for establishing it .throughout the

day some one stood outside your gates as a quiet r

would call the insistent one all kinds of harsh names.

ouched; faith in you would be shaken a bit. P

d that was the one impo

s from the far corners of the earth passed by the pickets on those days which made history. Thousands read the compell

those who passed was negligible. There

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with admiration, eith

you will get it." . . . This last from a military officer . . . . "It is an outrage that you women should have to stand here and

with the pickets; who attempted to dissuade them from their persistent course. But the serene, good humor and even temper of the women would not allow heated arguments to br

you women get power. We can't save ourselves and we need you . . . . I am 84 years old, and I have watched this fight since I was a young man. Anything I can do to help, I want to do. I am living at the Old Soldiers' Home and I ain't got ma

s came and went. Administration leaders tried to conceal under

les were going on

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ays been uncomplaining when their wife's time was given to suffrage campaigning? Had they not, in short, been good sports about the whole thing? There was only one answer. They had. But it had been proved that all the things that women h

n we have to take risks of

have stood by you all the way up to now, but I object to this. It isn't ladylike, an

et tired laughing at us, they will do something more abou

ve no right to go wi

ght for democracy, as it is likely to d

of c

ay you would respond to your country's call, whether it was a righteous cause or not. Well, I am going to the front to

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, but if you will just put yourself in my pl

n. And women passed by the daily picket line as spectators, not as participants. Occasionally a woman came forward to remonstrate, but more often women were either too shy to advance or so enthusiastic that nothing could restrain them.

every corner of the nation. The Press cartoonists, by their friendly and satirical comments, helped a great deal in popularizing the

known press club in the world,-a dinner at which President Wilson

o-night on the W

a rousin

hold aloft, of co

ickets are we

ny are the chilblains and frost-

night, camp

he White Hou

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ty at the gates came to trea

ckets were five minutes late one day. "We thought perhaps you

uffrage broke into such violent criticism

asked for it. People who had thought a little about suffrage were compelled to think more about it. People who had believed in suffrage

hreatened to commit political suicide by withdrawing their support. But it was easy to see at a glan

siasm. There was a College Day, when women representing 15 American colleges stood on the line; a Teachers' Day, which found the long line represented by almost every state in the Union, and a Patriotic Day, when American flags mingled wit

anniversary saw a

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n took out banners

OR WOMAN SUFFRA

OU BLOCK THE NATIONAL S

OU BEHIND

anot

EDOM. THEY WERE TOLD TO WAIT-THIS WAS THE NEGRO'S

LL THEM TO WAIT-THAT THIS I

te in February brought women wage earners from o

served to remind. the President who said, "You can afford to wait," that the women h

rvor of the memory of the great Susan B. Anthony. Her name is nev

ng special banners made for this occasion. Thousands of men and women streamin

ust advocated self-govern

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e to the policy of the young

SPIRIT, BUT FROM PUREST PATRIOTISM FOR THE HIGHEST GOOD OF EVERY CITIZEN, FOR T

LIANT VICTORIES, BUT A CONSISTENT NATIONAL POLICY BASED UPON THE PRINCIPLE T

ITS PEOPLE IS OF FAR MORE VITAL CONSEQUENCE T

families. For the first time in history the troops of the Confederacy had crossed the Potomac and taken possession of the capital city. The streets were line

ngle veteran had failed to pay his respects to the pickets. They came and c

eyes came to say, "I've done sentinel

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e the strength and the courage to keep it u

o one of the pickets and said, "I say,

ey wasn't believing me and I wasn't sure, but as soon as I saw you girls coming with your flags, to stand here, I said, `This must be the White House. This

hed with, "You are brave girls. You are bound to get h

such a crisis. Some additional demonstration of power and force must be made before the President's inauguration and before the excitement of our

ional Union in suffrage states made up of women voters, convened in Washington and decided unanimously to u

the activities of the new organization: Chairman of the

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artin, Nevada; secret

iss Gertrude Crocker

Burns, Mrs. O. H. P

York; Mrs. Gilson G

ton, D. C.; Mrs. Will

Mrs. Florence Bayard

nd; Mrs. J. A. H. Hop

ylvania, and Miss Dor

and delegates who sought an interview with the President. The purpose of the interview was to carry to him the resoluti

so. He also said he appreciated the rare tenacity shown by our women. Surely "now" he would be convinced! No more worrying persistence would be needed ! The

tually

is always impressive to see a thousand people march, but the impression was imperishable when these thousand women marched in rain-soaked garments, hands bare, gloves roughly

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rs the women circled the White House-the rain never ceasing for an instant- hoping to the last moment that

wo bands whose men managed to continue their spirited music in spite of the driving rain led the march playing "Forward Be Our Watchword"; "The Battle Hymn of t

ait for liberty?" She was followed by Miss Beulah Amidon of North Dakota, who carried the banner that the belov

ers as marchers. The Washington force had been augmented by a Baltimore contingent and squads of plainclothes men. On every fifty feet of curb around the entire

head of the line and so heard first hand what passed between t

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esent some importan

of the Uni

o keep the gates

Surely the President does not mea

my only ord

nued on to the secon

d. Before we could

o stood at the gates

in here; the g

l States in the Union who have come all the way to Was

ders,

ight of the women struggling in the wind and rain to keep their banners intact. Miss Martin, Mrs. William Kent of California, Mrs. Florence Bayard Hilles of Delaware, Miss Mary Patterson of Ohio, niece of John C. Patterson of Dayton, Mrs

ent's Secretary asking him to tell the Pres

do that

resident, merely announcing to him that we are here, so

sitated. Finally h

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en and what the answer was-he quietly confided to us that he had been reprimanded for even attempting to bring them in and informed us that the cards were still in his pocket. "I have orders to answer no questio

, did not strike us as the proper place to l

rance used for?"

ot something you'd like to leave,

seeking safety for our mes

e gate where Mrs. Wilson's cloth

Wilson's clothes and other packages," so we returned to the last locked gate to ask

d the rain fell harder and as the afternoon

-were as energetic as the young girls of 20. What was this immediate hardshi

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ignities heaped upon them. It was impossible to believe that in democratic

riously out of the grounds, and through the gates down Pennsylvania Avenue, that the w

banner-bearers on march. President and Mrs. Wilson looked straight

n if reasons had been offered-and they were not-genuine reasons why the President could not see them, it would n

ves. Even something as thin as diplomacy on the part of President Wilson might have saved

to President Wilson. In a letter to the National Woman's Party, acknowledging the receipt of them, he

gh. We must not only continue on duty at hi

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