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i THE ADVANCING SUFFRAGE CAUSE. '
I It is undeniable that Saturday's \ parade of the woman suffragists impressed all who beheld it./ Not that it was a great parade in the sense of numbers, for New York has beheld many fifteen, or twenty times the size. Nor did it haye the picturesqueness which has made of the London suffrage demonstra-i tions such wonderful pageants, armies ¦ with Banners, of which it has been writ-, ten that they were like mediaeval festi-' vals, "vivid with simple grandeur, alive with, ancient dignity." But the same ; earnestness actuated the New York women who personified their protest on Saturday. How they would be received, most of them did not know; To New York's credit be it said that the crowds were as respectfully silent or as friendly to the women marchers as the great London throngs who went to scoff and jeer and found it impossible to do so, because of the impressiveness of the scene   and    t.hfi nnwfir  nf t.lia anneal in
the cause itself. ,And Saturday's marchers, we are sure, felt elated and inspired by the privilege of displaying their devotion to the cause under their veteran leaders,
In the years to come, if there are still years of battling for the suffragists, this parade will, we hope, become one of the features of the city's life. The numbers, the color, and. the picturesqueness will be added, in time and with experience, while the democratic features will not disappear. For tfye significance of Saturday's demonstration was double. Not only did it i recall to the beholders the ctknplete entrance of women into industrial life and economic activities whereby they come into competition with men fortified by the special privilege of the ballot, but it was essentially a democratic parade in that women of great wealth and women .wage earners and those in the whole range between were brought together by the in-! npiration of a common idea—the exten-
sion  of  the  right   of   self-governmentTI Those  persons  read   amiss   the   signs I of   the   times    and    of   history   who believe   that   a   movement    with   this i purpose can be ignored or hooted down: It   has- the   irresistible   power   of   a glacier, however slowly it may seem to move at times.   But, so far as the woman   suffrage   cause   is   concerned,   its progress nowadays is marvellously fast, for those whose recollections of it antedate the militant movement in England.^ Not only has another State lately been won,   but   in   four others the question is to be submitted to the people in November next.   In several others outside oŁ the conservative East, notably South :j Dakota, the battle was lost in. the Legislature only by the narrowest of mar-' gins, and everywhere the agitation for it goes on unceasingly.  Unless it be Socialism, there is no other radical political doctrine so warmly and widely discussed to-day, and, like Socialism, wo-man suffrage wins many of its triumphs