Demanding the Ballot

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 6, 1913

Demanding the Ballot

The failure of the woman suffrage bill to pass the British Parliament has been a cause of bitter disappointment to the advocates of equal suffrage, and the more militant of these have declared war against those held responsible for the failure of the measure. For some time they have been pouring destructive acids into the mail-boxes, destroying in that way a great amount of mail. While these tactics are kept up, some of the English suffragists have taken a step farther, and have begun to set fire to buildings and make use of dynamite in the same work of destruction. David Lloyd-George, chancellor of the exchequer, whose residence has been destroyed by this means, is now warned to have a bodyguard for personal protection from the militant suffragettes. Near Newcastle, England, the suffragettes have cut down telegraph-lines, seriously interrupting communication. These militant methods in England are turning many against the equal suffrage movement. American equal suffragists are appealing to their British cousins to abandon the program of destruction because of its bad effect upon the movement in America. The United States Congress is now being besieged by the advocates of votes for women, and it is reported that favorable impressions are being made upon the national lawmakers. Recently a number of women in the interests of that movement tramped from New York City to Albany to present their cause before Governor Sulzer, and at this writing another company is marching from Trenton, N. J., to Washington City, to win sympathy for that movement. On arrival at the capital, they will join with hundreds of other equal suffragists in a parade on March 3. With continued activity along these lines, both England and America are threatened with, not a civil war, but a domestic war, which seems certain to add to the turmoil of the world, the perplexity of men and nations. It is certain that if the larger portion of the advocates of that movement should sanction the methods of Mrs. Pankhurst, literal war would be the inevitable result.