Suffragists -- United States; Women -- Suffrage -- United States
What a disconcerting attitude to take! Miss Paul sat down as quietly
and unexpectedly as she had arisen. The judge moved uneasily in his
chair. The gentle way in which it was said was disarming. Would the
judge hold them in contempt? He had not time to think. His part of the
comedy he had expected to run smoothly, and here was this defiant
little woman calmly stating that we were not subject to the court, and
that we would therefore have nothing to do with the proceedings. The
murmurs had grown to a babel of conversation. A sharp rap of the gavel
restored order and permitted Judge Mullowny to say: “Unfortunately, I
am here to support the laws that are made by Congress, and, of course,
I am bound by those laws; and you are bound by them as long as you live
in this country, notwithstanding the fact that you do not recognize the
law.”
Everybody strained his ears for the sentence. The Administration had
threatened to “get” the leader. Would they dare?
Another pause!
“I shall suspend sentence for the time being,” came solemnly from the
judge.
Was it that they did not dare confine Miss Paul? Were they beginning
actually to perceive the real strength of the movement and the protest
that would be aroused if she were imprisoned? Again we thought perhaps
this marked the end of the jailing of women.
But though the pickets were released on suspended sentences, there was
no indication of any purpose on the part of the Administration of
acting on the amendment. Two groups, some of those on suspended
sentence, others first offenders, again marched to the White House
gates. The following motto:
THE TIME HAS COME TO CONQUER OR SUBMIT; FOR US THERE CAN BE BUT ONE
CHOICE-WE HAVE MADE IT.
a quotation from the President’s second Liberty Loan appeal, was
carried by Miss Paul.
Dr. Caroline E. Spencer of Colorado carried:
RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY IS OBEDIENCE TO GOD.
All were brought to trial again.
The trial of Miss Paul’s group ran as follows:
MR. HART (Prosecuting Attorney for the Government): Sergeant Lee, were
you on Pennsylvania Avenue near the White House Saturday afternoon?
SERGEANT LEE: I was.
MR. HART: At what time?
LEE: About 4:35 in the afternoon.
HART: Tell the court what you saw.
LEE: A little after half-past four, when the department clerks were all
going home out Pennsylvania Avenue, I saw four suffragettes coming down
Madison Place, cross the Avenue and continue on Pennsylvania Avenue to
the gate of the White House, where they divided two on the right and
two on the left side of the gate.
HART: What did you do?
LEE: I made my way through the crowd that was surrounding them and told
the ladies they were violating the law by standing at the gates, and
wouldn’t they please move on?
HART: Did they move on?
LEE: They did not; and they didn’t answer either.
HART: What did you do then?
LEE: I placed them under arrest.
HART: What did you do then?
LEE: I asked the crowd to move on.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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