EQUAL RIGHTS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 27, 1 February 1913, Page 10

EQUAL RIGHTS

FOR IMPRISONED SUFFRAGETTES. AMERICAN VIEWS. It tho Butihli Go\ eminent has decided upon a Ict-llicni-btaivo policy tor imprisoned tsiittra.getl.es, as learned by one London correspondent, it has decided widely (says Iho New York World). Militant suffragism in that country long since ceased to bo a. joke. It is no joke to laid the postal tcrvicc and destroy tho mail with, acids. It is far Ironi a joke- to throw hatchete at public iiffit-iaLs. It would bo even less of a joke if by strange chance a. woman's a-ini of btones oi' hatchets shouid prove ei'fecti\ c. But to imprison such offenders and then let them out for refusal to eat or foi* pining under forcible feeding has become \ery much of a joke. It will have to end if the jokeless part of this feminine fanaticism in to bo brought to an end. The criminal law can know no cc.i to be effective, and that liberty given to the 'man prisoner to eat the food provided or starve should be insisted upon equally, and all tho more for the woman who seeks a prison cell for equality's sake. Tho English suffragette complains bitterly that women, idiote, and criminals should be classified a» electoral incompetents (writes the Argonaut). Her latest device to prove her political capacity is to bum immense numbers ol private letters by setting fire to the contents of the etreet-corner boxes, but, according to recent reports, the public remains stubbornly unconvinced in spite of so conclusive a demonstration of dignity and intelligence. Now perhaps it would be almost too harsh to express a hope that the letter-burning' suffragette will eventually get justice. Justice is tho last thing that charity will hope for onjone, but none tho less these latest exploits may produce a change in public feeling so far as the odious classification df women, idiott, and criminals is concerned. That is to say. the English public may come to the conclusion tha f . tho enfranchised idiol and the enfranchised criminal would be insignificant evils in comparison with the enfrancliised suffragette.