NAWSA General Correspondence Allen, Viola TELEPHONE 8800 COLUMBUS CABLE ADDRESS TYLIEB NEW YORK OFFICE OF THE LIEBLER CO. CENTURY THEATRE NO. 15 W. 62ND ST., COR. CENTRAL PARK W., NEW YORK New York, July 24, 1913. Mme. Alice Stone Blackwell, Editor The Woman's Journal 585 Boylston St., Boston, Mass. Dear Madam: Herewith I am enclosing you a study of the struggle of the women of England and America are making for Equal Suffrage, by Miss Viola Allen, the noted American actress. This study, as you will notice, has been made in a comparative sense. It is a subject in which Miss Allen is interested, and to which she has recently been paying a great deal of attention. Soon after the close of her theatrical season last spring Miss Allen went to Europe where she remained two months, and has only recently returned. I am sending this article to you thinking that perhaps it might be of interest to your readers. Yours truly, D. W. Haynes Representing Miss Viola Allen. VIOLA ALLEN ON WOMAN SUFFRAGE. Miss Allen Contrasts Causes and Methods of the "Votes for Women" Struggle in England and America after Personal Observation and Study. Since my return from Europe the question oftenest asked me have been "What do they say in England of the 'Votes for Women' movement?" or, "What are they going to do about the Suffragists?" Curiously enough there appears to be much more agitation in America over the tactics of the Militants than in England, for during my stay there a few weeks ago I never heard the matter discussed or even alluded to. The newspapers report what occurs in this connection when necessary merely as a news items, and discuss the destruction of property and other outrages with little or no comment. The policy of the English government from the beginning has been to ignore the question of Equal Suffrage entirely, and it looks as if there might be a generally preconcerted plan on the part of the newspapers, and all others opposed to it, to avoid any recognition of its importance. But it seems to me they reckon without their host, as whatever may be said for or against the "Votes for Women" agitation, the fact remains that it is a very real and vital issue in the world to-day. The difficulty is that as yet the women who want suffrage are in the minority. And why? Because by far the larger percentage of women are shielded, guarded and treated with gentle consideration by their male relatives and the world in general. It is mostly the women bereft of natural protectors, perhaps left with large property responsibilities, or those forced to work equally as hard as men in the struggle for a livelihood, who find the man-made laws unequal for both sexes, and realize the importance of representation. That there are abuses in need of correction in politics and institutions, in schools and factories, and prisons, cannot be doubted, but that these and other necessary reforms will be brought about by equal suffrage, is an affirmation yet to be proven. I do not believe there is a shadow of a doubt that when the majority of the women in America want the vote it will be given them, but it is a very natural thing that most thinking and far-seeing men should be slow to yield to the demand of the minority for a condition which, if made general, would in itself present serious problems, and could but be in the nature of an experiment for years to come. Those fine and serious women at the head of the movement in this country are wise in feeling that the surest and simplest way of obtaining the right to vote is by showing not only a moral but an intellectual fitness for it. And it is small wonder that they should deplore the anarchistic methods of the English militants. It is impossible for us in America to have the faintest sympathy or even patience with the hysterical lawlessness resorted to in England, and the suffering inflicted on innocent persons is doubtless making many enemies for the cause of Universal suffrage. But in fairness be it said that the conditions there are vastly different, and the militant and aggressive attitude of the Suffragist has been largely, if not entirely, the logical outcome of circumstances. . As I understand it, the question of Equal Suffrage was presented to the House of Commons in the proper form and manner prescribed by law, and was treated with utmost contempt, and all subsequent efforts to bring the subject before the House were carefully ignored. Mass-meetings and gatherings, though orderly and peaceable in themselves, were ridiculed by mobs and roughly dispersed by the police, and I was told while in England last May that the leaders and speakers when arrested were thrown indiscriminately into jail, and treated no better than 2. hardened criminals. The Englishman, under ordinary circumstances, is an absolutely engaging person, but deep-rooted in his nature is a rigid, hard-and- fast notion as to the groove in life a woman should occupy, which doubtless accounts for the vigorous measures taken from the start against the Suffragists. But, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," and though we, on this side of the water, can find no excuse for the throwing of bombs, burning of property, or destruction of mail, we must yet be fair enough to acknowledge that the reason, however unjustifiable, lays in the fact that in England women have not the same chance of either making an appeal or of having it seriously considered as we have in America. That the Suffragists themselves have suffered terribly, and are willing to endure to the end for the cause in which they are fighting, must also be allowed, but the pity of it is that in the mind of the world at large they are putting themselves irretrievably in that very category that all their struggle is to avoid, viz: "idiots and insane," and even the harsher apellation, "Criminals." --------------- To the Dramatic Editor: Miss Allen's next letter will deal with present fashions worn by London women, and with theLondon stage. It will be sent to you early in the second week of August. Yours truly, D. W. HAYNES, Representative Viola Allen. Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.