Suffragists -- United States; Women -- Suffrage -- United States
I cite this experience of mine because it was typical. Every one who
went through the country telling the story had similar experiences at
this time. Indignation was swift and hot. Our mass meetings everywhere
became meetings of protest during the entire campaign.
And resolutions of protest which always went immediately by wire from
such meetings to the President, his cabinet and to his leaders in
Congress, of course created increasing uneasiness in Democratic
circles.
On August 15th the pickets again attempted to take their posts on the
line.
On this day one lettered banner and fifty purple, white and gold flags
were destroyed by a mob led by sailors in uniform. Alice Paul was
knocked down three times by a sailor in uniform and dragged the width
of the White House sidewalk in his frenzied attempt to tear off leer
suffrage sash.
Miss Katharine Morey of Boston was also knocked to the pavement by a
sailor, who took her flag and then darted off into the crowd. Miss
Elizabeth Stuyvesant was struck by a soldier in uniform and her blouse
torn from her body. Miss Maud Jamison of Virginia was knocked down and
dragged along the sidewalk. Miss Beulah Amidon of North Dakota was
knocked down by a sailor.
In the midst of these riotous scenes, a well-known Washington
correspondent was emerging from the White House, after an interview
with the President. Dr. Cart’ Grayson, the President’s physician,
accompanying him to the door, advised:
“You had better go out the side entrance. Those damned women are in the
front.”
In spite of this advice the correspondent made his exit through the
same gate by which he had entered, and just in time to ward off an
attack by a sailor on one of the frailest girls in the group.
The Administration, in its desperation, ordered the police to
lawlessness. On August 16th, fifty policemen led the mob in attacking
the women. Hands were bruised and arms twisted lit’ police officers and
plainclothes men. Two civilians who tried to rescue the women from the
attacks of the police were arrested. The police fell upon these young
women with more brutality even than the mobs they had before
encouraged. Twenty-five lettered banners and 123 Party flags were
destroyed by mobs and police on this afternoon.
As the crowd grew more dense, the police temporarily retired from the
attack. When their activities had summoned a sufficiently large and
infuriated mob, they would rest. And so the passions of the mob
continued unchecked upon these irrepressible women, and from day to day
the Administration gave its orders.
Finding that riots and mob attacks had not terrorized the pickets, the
Administration decided again to arrest the women in the hope of ending
the agitation. Having lost public sympathy through workhouse sentences,
having won it back by pardoning the women, the Administration felt it
could afford to risk losing it again, or rather felt that it had
supplied itself with an appropriate amount of stage-setting.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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