The Militant Suffragettes
By Editor
WE have said very little upon this subject, but it is certainly a matter which is troubling England. There seems to be a sort of mania that has possessed a class of women in England that are otherwise considered refined, learned, and well-meaning women. They have asked in years past for the right of suffrage, and it has been refused. They feel that they have been scorned; and Shakespeare, who may have known militants in his day, says that hell has no “fury like a woman scorned,” and it looks like it with the militant suffragettes. One of the latest of their plans is a wholesale arson plot. Scotland Yard detectives, it is reported under date of July 6, discovered an arson plot in which the suffragettes had planned simultaneously to set a large number of fires in various districts of London. Various quantities of combustibles had been stored at different points throughout the city, and the plot was so well arranged that a tremendous damage would have been the result. At a given hour, at a date which has not been learned definitely, these fires were to be set, some of them in the main business section and some in what is known as the fire zone. The police have discovered thousands of tubes of phosphorus, quantities of fire-lighters, large stores of chemicals,—all of which were to be used in this arson campaign. Every indication was that the women had received expert advice in their use; and it was further learned that they had approached French aviators with the proposal that they fly over London and drop bombs on the principal buildings, the bombs to be supplied by the militant suffragettes. The air men, however, refused, and informed the British authorities. One suffragette is said to have replied, “O, very well, we will learn to fly our own aeroplanes, and then you will see what will happen.” Now some may look upon all of this as heroic. There are some who may count Miss Davison a martyr to her cause. We suppose she was in a way, but the cause was anything but noble. It certainly demanded no such sacrifice of life, or reputation, or property. There are thousands of good women in England who do not feel that they are in any wise enslaved because they do not have the right to vote. There were thousands and millions of men who were denied the suffrage for years. It came, and it came in a peaceable way. Just the other day Illinois surprised everybody by voting woman suffrage, but Chicago was not menaced; nor were any fires set, nor was the legislature mobbed, nor was the governor assaulted. If ever a state was justified in taking rigid, decided measures for crushing out a species of rebellion or mania, it seems as if England is in suppressing the militant suffragettes. If the government could take some of the old castles in England, with their spacious grounds walled in, give the militants plenty of provisions and the necessities of life, and shut them all up in there, it seems as if that would be a relief to the people; and when any very decided, active sympathizers were manifest, admit them to a visit with the suffragettes for indeterminate time. One physician has said that the race is rapidly going insane. Certainly the militant suffrage movement in England is doing its best to demonstrate the truthfulness of his remark.