Iron Jawed Angels Page #7

She said that, in prison or out,

American women are not free.

No talking.

It's warm in here. Can we open a window?

Get to work.

Can't you see she looks faint?

I'm only asking that you open a window.

Matron, my needle broke.

May I have another?

That's better, isn't it?

Put her in solitary.

You...

clean that up.

I'll have to report this to the warden.

I'm entitled to clean water

and an empty slop bucket.

I'm a lawyer, not a magician, Miss Vernon.

If Whitaker says no one in solitary

can see counsel...

no one sees counsel.

It's a new prison. He has the run of

the place until their paperwork's in order.

I need a judge who's not on a string.

We can't have a martyr on our hands.

Get on your feet!

What are you doing?

Okay.

I'm Dr. White, Alice.

The District Commissioner

asked me to speak with you.

Do you know where you are?

District prison hospital.

The mental ward.

You refuse to eat.

Can you tell me why?

The hunger strike was a tradition

in old Ireland.

You starve yourself on someone's doorstep

until restitution is made...

and justice is done.

It doesn't sound like

a very effective method.

A stinking corpse on your doorstep?

What will the neighbors say?

So you stand on the President's doorstep.

He's treated you very badly, hasn't he?

It's the law that treats women badly.

But you picket President Wilson.

He's the one who put you here.

We picket the office of the presidency.

It has nothing to do with Mr. Wilson...

and everything to do

with the position he holds.

But he's responsible

for your treatment here.

I believe I was sent here

by a district commissioner.

You call yourself a suffragist.

Yes.

Tell me about your cause.

Just talk freely.

Explain yourself.

Do you understand the question?

You asked me to explain myself.

I just wonder what needs to be explained.

It should be very clear.

Look into your own heart.

I swear to you, mine's no different.

You want a place

in the trades and professions...

where you can earn your bread.

So do I.

You want some means of self-expression...

some way of satisfying

your own personal ambitions.

So do I.

You want a voice in the government

under which you live.

So do I.

What is there to explain?

She shows no signs of persecution mania

or delusion.

I concur with Dr. Hickling.

There is no medical basis for a diagnosis.

You don't feel

she needs to be permanently hospitalized?

For her own safety. She's suicidal.

You said so in your report.

The prison doctor said so.

I said she was prepared to starve to death

in order to further her cause.

Okay, I'm not a doc,

but that sure sounds unhealthy to me.

"Give me liberty, or give me death."

Patrick Henry, an American hero.

Apples and oranges.

In oranges and women...

courage is often mistaken for insanity.

Eyes front!

Hunger strike?

I was standing

By my window

On a cold and cloudy day

Quiet!

When I saw that

Hearse come rolling

For to carry my mother away

Will the circle

Quiet!

Be unbroken

Get her out of here.

By and by, Lord, by and by

There's a better home a-waiting

In the sky, Lord, in the sky

Lord, I told that undertaker

"Undertaker, please drive slow

"For that body you are hauling

"Lord, I hate to see her go"

Will the circle

Be unbroken

By and by, Lord, by and by

There's a better home a-waiting

In the sky, Lord, in the sky

I will follow

Close behind her

Try to hold up and be brave

But I could not

Hide my sorrow

When they laid her in the grave

Will the circle

Be unbroken

By and by, Lord, by and by

There's a better home a-waiting

In the sky, Lord, in the sky

Where is she? Tell me where she is.

Tell me!

If you do anything to hurt that girl...

You do anything...

Mrs. Leighton!

Sit here, Mrs. Leighton.

Senator, you need to stay where you are.

She's ill.

Has she seen a doctor?

She's not ill, sir. She refuses to eat.

Maybe you can persuade her.

I'd like to be alone with my wife.

Only monitored visits. Those are the rules.

Sorry, no exceptions.

How are the girls?

- I want you to come home.

- No physical contact with the prisoner.

I'll speak to President Wilson.

- He can issue a pardon.

- For what?

I haven't broken any laws.

The girls keep asking for you.

If Rebecca can't sleep,

just sit beside her and pat her head.

Sometimes I do that.

They are the only reason I am here.

I'm sorry.

I know.

That's all the time we have.

- New York has voted to enfranchise women.

- Carrie...

I've never pressed you

for a federal amendment, Mr. President.

New York. That's 232 presidential electors.

- We're at war.

- Then call it a war measure.

- Congress will never pass it.

- Lf you support it, they will.

I'm sorry.

You've been very patient, I know.

Be patient a little longer.

I was put in a straitjacket

and taken to the psychopathic ward.

I could not see my family or friends.

Counsel was denied me.

I saw no other prisoners

and heard nothing of them.

I could see no papers.

Today I was force-fed for the third time.

I refused to open my mouth.

My left nostril, throat,

and muscles of my neck are very sore.

I vomit continuously during the process.

These women are not political prisoners.

Are you saying force-feeding

is a medical procedure?

Why can't these women see their lawyers?

We have no such thing in this country.

Are there doctors present

for this procedure?

The President has ordered

many investigations.

And no abuse has been disclosed.

Who ordered the force-feeding?

Let's not waste time with pleasantries.

I'll be blunt, may I?

The foreign press will pick this up.

Tell the President

that he can look like a damned fool...

or he can deal me in.

Now, sir.

This war could not have been fought

by America...

if it had not been for the services of women.

You're being released.

We have made partners of the women

in this war.

Let her be.

Shall we admit them only to a partnership...

of suffering, sacrifice, and toil...

and not a partnership of privilege and right?

I know the magic it will work

in their thoughts and spirits...

if you give this thing to them.

That is mere justice.

We shall need their moral sense...

to preserve what is right

and fine and worthy...

in our system of life.

Be assured, the voices of the radicals

who agitate and disrupt...

have no influence here today.

Got him.

The task of woman...

lies at the very heart of the war.

And I know how much stronger

that heart will beat...

if you do this just thing...

and show our women that you trust them...

as much as you, in fact, depend on them.

We shall deserve to be distrusted...

if we do not enfranchise them...

with the fullest possible enfranchisement...

as it is now certain

the other great free nations...

will enfranchise them.

Have I said that

the passage of this amendment...

is a vitally necessary war measure?

And do you need further proof?

Congress doesn't make it a law.

Thirty-six states have to agree,

and then they put it in the Constitution.

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