Jailed for Freedom

an Wor

wn "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" to the White House gates. It is the middle of a hot afternoon. A thin line of curious spectators is seen in the park oppos

ced under arrest. Her place is taken by another. She is taken. A

what they termed "orders from higher up." An occasional hoot from a small boy served to make the mood of the hostile ones a bit gayer. But for the most part an intense silence fell upon the watchers, as they saw not only younger wom

ime most of the wom

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re not interested in helping the panting policeman count them over and

ease tell which off

o not intend to be a

abandon their attem

of the arrestees and

pearance

rt of St. James. But I must say they are not very much alike," was the cheery co

e cannot make the throng "sit down." In fact every one who has anything to do with the pickets perspires

sinister-eyed bailiff. And a silence.

s strain their ears to hear the pitiful pleas of these unfortunates, most of

you were not qua

hono'. We wuz jes singi

testify to the fact that you were making a great

rd, formerly America's ambassador to Great Britain, an

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honor' we wuz jes sin

hat were y

"Why, hy

smiles c

nd against Lottie. Hymns or no hymns he could not sleep. The judge

it go

orning. Sixteen women come inside the railing which s

he government to prov

do

e can best represent ourselves," we announce. Mis

r stereotyped, false and illiterate testimony. The judge helps them over the hard places

in front of it, and a pavement, and a hundred other overwhelming facts. The pathetic clerk shakes his dusty frame and slinks off the stand. The prosecuting attorney now

briefly in her o

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is placed squarely at the door of the Administration, and i

representative of the government, the President of the United States, for a redress of grievances;

rsecution has always advanced the cause of justice. The right of American women to work for democracy must be maintained . . . . We would hinder, not he

f any offence, not even of infringing a police regulation. We know full well that we stand here because the President of the United Sta

an making such a statement here in

nt is the guilty one an

ct," shouts the Gov

t through Congress at this session. More than 200 votes in the House and more than 50 in the Senate are pledged to thi

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asure it will pass as a piece

father who believed in democracy and who belonged to the Democratic Party. By inheritance and connection I am a Democrat, and to a Democratic President I went with my appeal . . . . What a spe

e at the White House gate was under the constitutional right of petitioning the government for freedom or for any other cause.

right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government.' I shall continue to plead for the political liberty of American women-and espec

t round on round of applause comes from the intent audience, whenever a defiant note is struck by the prisoners, and in spite of the sharp ra

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he nobility and gentle quality of the prisoners at the bar; all conspire to make the charge a

ice must

cutive Committee of the National Woman's party, and the wife

e were arrested because we were obstructin

hat these arrests are purely political and that the charge of an unlawful assemblage and of obstructing traffic is a political subterfuge. Even should I be sent to jail which, I could

the Court knows also," I said, "that President Wilson and his Administration are responsible for our being

re appointed by President Wilson. We know that you, your Honor, were appointed to the bench by President Wilson, and tha

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hout the policy having been decide

must be the shame of our nation before the world when it becomes known that here we throw women into jail who love liberty and attempt to peacefully petition the President for it? These women are nearly all descended from revolutionary ancestors

en the ardor of the women. Where sixteen of us face your judgment to-day there will

o days. The packed court-room fat in a te

udley Field Malone, then Collector of the Port of New York, Amos Pinchot, liberal leader, John A. H. Hopkins, then liberal-progressive leader in New Jersey who had turned his organization to the support of the Presiden

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adjournment. "This is monstrous." . . . "Never have I seen

ver dare se

istrict building, where the District Commissioners sit. He returned to pron

ators. We would not of course pay the unjust fin

confreres had imagined women would accept with equanimity so drastic a sentence. It was now their time to be shocked. Here were "ladies"-that was perfectly clear-"ladies" of un

se to the payment of a fine imposed for an offense of which we are not guilty." We filed into

techism: "Were you ever in prison before?-Age- birthplace-father-mother-religi

ertain distrust, comes to our corridor to "turn us over" t

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ed in the District of C

terrors of the workhouse, filing through crowds at the station, driven on by our "keeper," who resembles Simon Legree, with his long stick and his pushing and shoving to hurry us along. The crowd

He guards very anxiously his "dangerous criminals" lest they try to leap out of the train to freedom! We chat a little

tation in what seems to us a wilderness. It is a deserted country. Even the

ter of lights twinkled beyond the last hill, and we knew that we were coming to our temporary summer residence. I can still se

. Warden Whittaker consulted with the hard-faced matron, Mrs. Herndon, who

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gs, letters, eye-glasses, traveling bags containing toilet ne

ule of silence. Prisoners are punished for speaking to one another at table. They cannot even whisper, much less smile or laugh. They must be co

it for we are tired and hungry, but no one of us is able to

ine of cots ! Then we stand, weary to the point of fainting, waiting the next ordeal. This seemed to

which is offered to us and rejected. We dare not risk the soap used by so many prisoners. Naked, we return from the bath to receive our allotment of coarse, hideous prison clothes, the outer garments of which consist of a bulky mother-hubbard wrapper, of bluish gray ticking and a heavy apron of the same di

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d to dress? It is long

room. Lined up against its wall, we might any other time have bantered about the possibility of being shot, b

er meanwhile in whispered conversation. There are short, unc

igh more when you go out than when you came in. You will be allowed to write one letter a month-to your family. Of course we open

wer. We looked

s next morning were full of the "comfort" and "luxury" of our surroundings. The "delicious" f

their color, but how terrible to know that, the institution had gone out of its way to bring these prisoners from their own wing to the white wing in an attempt to

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avatory, and in the streak of bright light which shot across the center of the room, startled heads could be seen bobbing up in

umiliation all may win freedom? Will they believe that through our imprisonment their slavery will be lift

g news, that immediately after sentence had been pronounced by the Court, Dudley Field Malone had gone direct to the White House to protest to the President. His protest was delivered with heat. The President sai

direct talk to the President. Again the President was "shocked." No wonder! Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins had been the President's dinner guests not very long before, celeb

e interview, Mr

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replied that in view of the seriousness of the present situation the o

e White House to leave his hot

se the sympathy of thousands. Even people who did not approve of picketing the White House said, "A

omen by any means had approved this method of agitation. But the government's action had done more than we had been able to do for them. It had made

seem a little more respectable than the Administration's han

n line for t

t. We were unable to drink the greasy black cof

ng negress, barely out of her teens, as s

, white and gold bann

e Ho

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y so! What d

eld banners at the Wh

lson to give

got sixty d

send us to the workhouse for asking for the vote. You know wome

e, right near the White House. You's alright. I hopes yo' git it, fo' women certainly do nee

an' ef yo' haven't got a place yet, becaus' yo' ain' got a cent to ren' one with, he says, `Come with me, I'll fin' yo' a home,' an' hustles yo' off to the p'lice sta

er prisoner, who in spite of an unfortunate life

she cried out desperately, `Don't send me down there, Judge! If you do, I'll kill myself!'

s the appointee of the President. It was the task of such a man t

he "regulars" was

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time to time, to talk to our fe

se we had on wer' took off us an' we were giv' these old patched ones. We wuz told th

e us all wince. But the government's calculation aroused our hot indignation.

ing our story to the inmates. "You know you will be thrashed if you say anything more about the Preside

one of the girls confided to us that such outrages happened

e just last week and put her in the `booby

she do?"

crapping in the blackberry patch a

as lunch time, and though we were all hungry we dreaded going to the silence and the food in that gray dining room wi

vit of Mrs. B

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seemed as though needless energy was being s

to get away from here," said one of t

, for after all these women were no

to get away and they turned bloodhounds after them

iting for the fortyfive minutes before bedtime to pass. The sight of two negro girl prisoners combing out each other's lice and dressing their kinky hair in such a way as to discourage permanently a return of the vermin

e numberless "pedigrees" is to be taken. One

ther or mothe

drunkard, chronic o

chew or use tob

ed or

ngl

any ch

on

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gion do yo

isti

ou profess?" in a h

prehend. "Do you mean

?' I am a

o avail. She wr

is not accurate.

at least I t

polite," she retorte

to the se

isonment without any of these essentials found us depressed and worried over our unsanitary condition. We plead also for t

the presence of Superintendent Whittaker. He seemed war

rumor that you may b

m?" ask

We are innocent women. There

what you would do if the

ept it," came the ready

nd! I have not yet received information of a pardon

was brief. We wer

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ime which we had never committed. We said so with som

. You are obliged t

te action from the government was the subject of our conversation. Evidently it had not been strong

er returned

You are free to go as soon as you have taken

ger appeals in our ears, telling us of their drastic sentences for trifling offenses and of the cruel punishments. It was hard to resist

rived to assist us in getting on our way, Superintendent Whittaker, in an almost unbelievable rage, said, "Now that you women are going away, I have something to say and I want to

General had its amusing aspect. My comrades shared th

r arrest, I was hav

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te casually a gentleman introduced me

unts quietly but efficiently with a hoodlum who was attempting to trip the women up on their march, the chief law officer of the United States contributed this important suggest

. Grego

what a woman does look ridiculou

police have to assault these or any other women

great surprise, cam

looked to me

ory, did it ever occur to you that it might make t

anner of one who is sure of hi

," continued the gentleman, while the Attorn

o to jail. It is all prearranged, you unders

fficer of the lan

A. H. Hopkins carried a picket banner

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." A curious crowd, as large as had collected on those days when the police arrested women for "obstructing traffic

sumed and no arrests f

Mr. Jones said, however, that he was too busy to make a report; .that he wanted to make a particularly brilliant one, one that would "be a contribution

at out of a total membership of twenty-one men on his committee, twelve were Democrats, two-thirds of whom were opp

nd such would be acted on by the House. The President, not having designated woman suffrage and national prohibition so far as war measures, the judiciary committee up to this time has not felt warranted under the caucus rule, in reporting

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n suffrage comes within

on which women had gone to jail-that the Presid

the Republicans seized the opportunity legitimately to e

Mann in the House at an earlier date, to discharge the Suffrage Committee for failing to

. There is nothing that this country could do which would strengthen it mor

on and that it was our bounden duty to make the report to the Senate . . . . I asked him if he would not call a meeting of the Co

the Chairman that a meeting of the Committee would be calle

excuses which meant nothing, and which only further aro

North Dakota, Repu

lics a

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rted? The Senator, who is chairman of the committee, I suppose, knows as well as I do that the people of the en

man Jones consent to call the Committee together to consider r

hington, another Rep

ttee,

consistently talk democracy while disfranchising the better half of our citizenship-1 may not approve of the action of the women picketing

to call the committee together because of some influe

ollis of New Hampshire,

such a way that some who are ardently in favor of woman suffrage believe that t

ed at this point, but S

e country upon the action and would give undue weight to wh

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ur picketing had stimulated action in Congress, and that what

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