July 22, 1914
HUNGER STRIKERS ARE ADJUDGED INSANE
AND ARE COMMITTED TO ASYLUM BY NEW YORK AUTHORITIES
NEW YORK. July 22.— England found a way of dealing with
hunger striking suffragettes by the "cat and mouse act," but New York
officials have done the Britons one better. This was revealed today when it
became known that Jane Est. an I. W. W. agitator, who was sent to Blackwell island
in June for disturbing a church meeting-, had been committed, to Matteawan asylum
because of her refusal to eat.
The case of Rebecca Edelson, now on a hunger strike at the
Island, will be handled in the same way unless she alters her attitude. Miss
Katherine Davis. commissioner of correction will give the I. W. W. agitator an
opportunity to do so, but if she continues her refusal to eat or drink she will
also be sent to Matteawan, where she will be forcibly fed as an insane person.
