Suffragists -- United States; Women -- Suffrage -- United States
The Commissioners are requested to send us a written reply so that we
may be sure this protest has reached them.
Signed by,
MARY WINSOR, LUCY BRANHAM, ERNESTINE HARA, HILDA BLUMBERG, MAUD MALONE,
PAULINE F. ADAMS, ELEANOR. A. CALNAN, EDITH AINGE, ANNIE ARNEIL,
DOROTHY J. BARTLETT, MARGARET FOTHERINGHAM.
The Commissioners’ only answer to this was a hasty transfer of the
signers and the leader, Miss Burns, to the District Jail, where they
were put in solitary confinement. The women were not only refused the
privileges asked but were denied some of the usual privileges allowed
to ordinary criminals.
Generous publicity was given to these reasonable demands, and a
surprisingly wide-spread protest followed the official denial of them.
Scores of committees went to the District Commissioners. Telegrams
backing up the women’s demand again poured in upon all responsible
administrators, from President Wilson down. Not even foreign diplomats
escaped protest or appeal.
Miss Vera Samarodin sent to the Russian Ambassador the following
touching letter, concerning her sister, which is translated from the
Russian:—
The Russian Ambassador,
Washington, D.C.
Excellency:
I am appealing to you to help a young Russian girl imprisoned in the
workhouse near Washington. Her name is Nina Samarodin. I have just come
from one of the two monthly visits I am allowed to make her, as a
member of her family.
The severity and cruelty of the treatment she is receiving at Occoquan
are so much greater than she would have to suffer in Russia for the
simple political offense she is accused of having committed that I hope
you will be able to intercede with the officials of this country for
her.
Her offense, aside from the fact that she infringed no law nor
disturbed the peace, had only a political aim, and was proved to be
political by the words of the judge who sentenced her, for he declared
that because of the innocent inscription on her banner he would make
her sentence light.
Since her imprisonment she has been forced to wear the dress of a
criminal, which she would not in Russia; she has had to eat only the
coarse and unpalatable food served the criminal inmates, and has not
been allowed, as she would in Russia, to have other food brought to
her; nor has she, as she would be there been under the daily care of a
physician. She is not permitted to write letters, nor to have free
access to books and other implements of study. Nina Samarodin has
visibly lost in weight and strength since her imprisonment, and she has
a constant headache from hunger.
Her motive in holding the banner by the White House, I feel, cannot but
appeal to you, Excellency, for she says it was the knowledge that her
family were fighting in Russia in this great war for democracy, and
that she was cut off from serving with them that made her desire to do
what she could to help the women of this nation achieve the freedom her
own people have.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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