The day book. [volume], October 18, 1913, LAST EDITION, Image 2

About The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
York harbor now!" says Mrs. Robins. Zhc sJould try to realize and to ap
preciate to the full what Mrs. Pankhurst means to us all everywhere.
"Mrs. Pankhurst's motive for militancy may be misunderstood by us
working people of America, but certainly her sincerity, her great passion,
in her cause is not misunderstood by us.
"The people who have continually to fight the high-cost-of-living, to
fight even tle onslaught ofawful poverty itself set against them by trusts
and capitalism, know she is in earnest about something!"
"Why?" I asked. 6 ' s
"Why? u
"Because she goes to prison!
"The folks whose lives are lived in places where someone is always
trying to escape going to prison cannot be told that anyone who fights, al
though she knows that fight means i
prison, is not in earnest terribly in
earnest! For these people know
prison is no joke!
"So these people among whom are
all the women working in trades in
America, do not doubt Mrs. Pank
hurst; they- simply wonder why Mrs.
Pankhurst, the founder of the suf
fraget movement, is militant.
"Is there really a legitimate reason
for Mrs. Pankhurst to burn buildings,
to attack the-police and to break win
dows a reason that you yourself can
sympathize with?" I asked.
"Oh, yes,. yes," Mrs. Robins cried.
"She has to be militant!"
"Why?"
"To focus public attention! To
make every man and woman so con
scious of her demands that each One
must answer for himself whether or
not he believes in the vote for wo
men! Why, if she hadn't done as she
has public indifference, the most en
gulfing thing in the world, would long
ago have overwhelmed all thoughts
of woman suffrage.
"Mrs. Pankhurst is not a fanatic
simply on the vote. She doesn't over
estimate the value of the ballot itself.
"To this great prophet, this Moses
of the mothers of earth, the vote is
properly understood.
"She knows it is just a symbol a
symbol -by the light of which woman
all women will finally become
conscious that they are absolutely
the mothers of the race and as such
are responsible for the race and
therefore must have control of the
things of women's work!"
"And what are those things as' the
pioneers of the women's movement
see them?"
"Oh, many things not just the
home any longer for woman is now
fully out in the world, working side
by side with man. Woman is a real
factor now in the world of economics
and sociology. But she has not
found the adjustment she needs but
she is demanding it, still rather
vaguely, perhaps, but always more
and more consciously and clearly.
- "Woman is going to discover her
personality and hr personality is go
ing to impress the world the world
which knows practically nothing of
it now.
"The workers the women work
ers of the world must govern them
selves! They must control the gov
ernment of the workshops in which
they work, making their own rules
and regulations, designing the domi
nating influences of their environ
ments." "Do you meanyou favor social
ism?" "Not at all! But I do mean that if
any employer makes 5 per cent on his
investment, it is plenty. The workers
can no longer be slaves of any few
men. They must be independent in
dividuals with their own say-so. And
I'll tell you why!
"Women, in the process of modern
civilization, have practically lost their
creative power the one thing that
makes personality, that makes one,
,. .. k. ,&.&. ...f '- .