The Daily News. MONDAY, JUNE 23, 1913. MISTAKEN ZEAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 19, 23 June 1913, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, JUNE 23, 1913. MISTAKEN ZEAL.

The case of the unfortunate bid Hewitt. who met with a curious accident at Ascot during the running of the Gold Cup in an access of mistaken zeal, is another illustration of the evil that may be wrought by bad example. It is not quite clear yet whether the misguided youth was mentally competent or whether he was in truth an ardent suffragist, though it really Beems as if there is little to distinguish between the two propositions. In any event, it requires a considerable amount of fortitudo to stand up in front of a field of galloping racehorses and attempt to stay them as Joshua stayed the sun on Ajalon, or as j Canute sought to turn back the waves upon the seashore. Unfortunately, nowadays miracles, save scientific ones, are few and far between, and, reduced to plain English, all that this boy scored from his curious obsession was, if not his death, at least maiming for life, whilst at the same time he jeopardised the lives of a number of men and of valuable horses, who are innocent of all complicity in the suffragette movement, and who probably do not know the value of a vote from, that of Up-to-Date seed potatoes. The incident, of course, was due purely to suggestion, and, dead as she is, Miss Davison will have another crime to answer for before her Maker. The position at Home appears to have grown more than serious. Every public man, apparently, whatever his polities or whatever his professions, goes daily in fear of outrage, and no public function is safe from the dangerous and hysterical interference of the suffragettes. It is a j form of guerilla civil warfare that will have to be stopped by the most extreme measures. The suffragettes have for a long time past been treated with the \ utmost kindliness and forbearance by the j law, but this cannot go on for ever. The moment that one of theni is arrested I for unseemly breach of the law, she j appeals at once to the chivalry of man- | kind to womanhood, and takes refuge ; behind her sex. But if anarchy is to prevail, this appeal must not be allowed to stand. Women undoubtedly have a right to an equality of franchise with man, argued upon "both theoretical and practical lines, but the militant suffragettes are doing much at present at Home to destroy this axiom of political economy. Already these madly-obsessed women have set back their cause by many years, and we have the testimony of a prominent leader of the movement in America ji to the effect that the campaign for a", universal suffrage in the States has suffered more from the action of the suffragettes in Great Britain" "than from any other opposition. We can quite believe this, for there is no sane explanation of the blows they have aimed right and left at both friend and foe alike. Instead of adopting constitutional methods to secure a reform to which they are undoubtedly entitled, they are simply running a criminal amok against society. No great reform has ever been won by such methods, and while there arc thousands of right-thinking men and women who approve of their object, there can be | none outside their own ranks who approve of their methods. Fortunately, their ranks are limited, for they do not in any sense reflect the spirit of the ' women of Great Britain, or even those who are anxious for the reform demanded. It is the empty vessels that make the grctest sound. In the meantime it has grown apparent that the Government can' no longer afford to adopt a policy of reconciliation or forbearance. If these women are criminals they must be treated as criminals, and no cowardly policy of sheltering behind their sex must he allowed to weigh with ithe law courts. It must be pay or play, and the sooner the leaders of the present disgraceful campaign are placed safely under lock and key the better for the country. This snake in the garden I politic must be killed and not scotched.