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5,000 Women March, Beset By Crowds

Creator: n/a
Date: March 4, 1913
Publication: The New York Times
Source: Available at selected libraries

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Gen. Jones was passing Tenth Street when a man broke through the crowd and threw a handful of flowers in her path. He was Major J. M. Shindel, Judge Advocate of the Fourth Brigade, Pennsylvania National Guard of Lebanon, Penn.

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"Nothing is too good for you," shouted the enthusiastic Major.

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Confusion, cheers, and jeers were the order of the day until the tired marchers disbanded. For a distance of a few blocks near the end the women marched without trouble, for a squad of the Fifteenth Cavalry rode to their assistance. A band of boy scouts also did good service. Just before the Army of the Hudson was disbanded Col. Ida Craft received a gold medal given by the women of Overlea, Md.

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Women Appeal to Wilson.

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Leaders of the women suffragists were much incensed because the police did not make sufficient provision for holding in restraint the great throngs which hemmed in the paraders. At a meeting held at Memorial Continental Hall the police of the District were denounced. A resolution was adopted calling for a Congressional investigation and asking Mr. Wilson to look into what the suffragists called "a disgraceful affair." A number of Senators and Representatives, some of whom took part in the parade, to-night promised that there should be a thorough inquiry.

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Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, addressing the meeting, expressed her indignation over the way women had been treated at the National capital. The parade, she said, had exceeded the proudest expectations of its promoters. Dr. Shaw said that she had marched in suffragist parades in London, in New York, and in California, but she had never seen such a disgraceful exhibition as that of to-day. She demanded that some way should be found of punishing whoever was responsible for mismanagement.

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The procession, it was charged, had not gone a block before it had to halt. Crowds, the women said, had gathered about Mrs. Burleson and her aids, and drunken men had attempted to climb upon the floats. Insults and jibes were shouted at women marchers, and for more than an hour confusion reigned. The police, the women say, did practically nothing, and finally soldiers and marines formed a voluntary escort to clear the way.

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Mrs. Genevieve Stone, wife of Representative Stone of Illinois, said that a policeman had insulted her. This policeman, she said, shouted: "If my wife were where you are I'd break her head."

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Oswald Garrison Villard, editor of The New York Evening Post, who marched in the men's section, introduced the resolution which demanded that a Congressional investigation be held. A copy of the resolution is to be given to President Wilson as soon as possible after he takes office.

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Miss Helen Keller, the noted deaf and blind girl, was so exhausted and unnerved by her experience in attempting to reach a grand stand, where she was to have been a guest of honor, that she was unable to speak later at Continental Hall.

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At one time at the height of the disorder Miss Inez Milholland helped to restrain the spectators by riding her horse into the crowd. A group of hoodlums gathered in front of a reviewing stand, in which sat Mrs. Taft and Miss Helen Taft and a half dozen guests from the White House. They kept up a running fire of comment. Apparently no effort was made to remove them, and the White House party left before the procession had passed.

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