'CHAIN' BY SUFFRAGISTS.
1,000 Are to Circle White House
and End Picketing Today.
DROP THE JERICHO FEATURE
Ram's Horns Will Not Be Blown During Big Demonstration, Leaders Believing Tactics Out of Place in the
Present Crisis—Union and Wom-
an's Party Combine.
Encircling the White House with a
chain of purple, white and gold, women suffragists will bring to a climax at
3 p. m. today in a two-hour silent
demonstration their siege of President
Wilson on behalf of a Federal suffrage
amendment. About a thousand women,
members of the Congressional Union
for Woman Suffrage and the National
Women's Party, have enlisted to lengthen for the final watch the line of pickets on guard at the White House gates
for the last six weeks, encompassing
the President's comings and goings to
impress him in the last days of his
first term with their determination to
have the ballot.
Not Exactly Like Jericho.
Only in a modified form, however,
will the demonstration follow plans
that had been laid to reproduce the
march of the Israelites around Jericho.
At first it was proposed to circle the
White House seven times, with seven
priests carrying the suffrage ark, and
accompanied by "a long blast of the
ram's horn," the citadel signifying to
suffragists the stronghold of opposition
to the cause of suffrage by Federal
amendment.
Why that method of attack was
abandoned has not been made entirely
clear by the women's leaders, some of
them explaining that the critical international situation would make such a
demonstration appear as bad tactics,
and others hinting that some of those
in the suffrage ranks thought it might
seem to border on the sacriligious.
Outwardly, at least, the President has shown no sign of wavering in his oppo-
sition to a Federal amendment and his
jpreference for suffrage by State enact-
ment.
Won Only Wilson's Smiles.
Daily he has smiled and saluted at
the pickets always encountered, rain or
shine, when the presidential car has
left or entered the White House grounds.
During the first days of the siege,
when bitter January winds tried the
courage of the guards, he sent them an
invitation to come inside. But it was
not accepted, and since then, except for
jthe daily smile and salute, he has not
jshown that he was aware of his state of siege.
Today's demonstration, the most re-
markable perhaps of all those that have
characterized the fight for equal suf-
frage, will be timed to begin three
hours after the official beginning of the
new presidential term.
