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28 - Suffragette The Militant Fight for Womens Voting Rights by E. Sylvia Pankhurst · Suffragette The Militant Fight for Womens Voting Rights

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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty four of The Suffragette The History of the
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Speaker 1: Women's Militant Suffrage Movement by E. Sylvia Pankhurst. This LibriVox
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Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Twenty four nineteen ten,
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Speaker 1: the general election, the truce the Conciliation Committee, a series
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Speaker 1: of great demonstrations. War is again declared another general election conclusion.
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Speaker 1: With the opening of the new year nineteen ten, whilst
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Speaker 1: many of the women were still in prison, the general
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Speaker 1: election began. The Women's Social and Political Union fought the
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Speaker 1: government in forty constituencies. In almost every one of these contests,
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Speaker 1: the Liberal vote was reduced, and eighteen of the seats
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Speaker 1: which had been held by government representatives at the dissolution
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Speaker 1: were wrested from them. During the election, the Liberal government's
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Speaker 1: absolute majority over all sections of the House had been
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Speaker 1: swept away, and they were now dependent for their existence
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Speaker 1: upon the votes of the Labor and Irish parties. These
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Speaker 1: suffragettes were now advised in many quarters that the militant
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Speaker 1: tactics had forced the government to the point of wishing
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Speaker 1: to gain peace by granting votes to women, but that
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Speaker 1: cabinet ministers were now afraid to do so lest they
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Speaker 1: should seem to have given way to coercion. The contest
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Speaker 1: for supreme power in the new Parliament being over, the
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Speaker 1: women therefore decided to give the re elected government and
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Speaker 1: the parliamentary Supporters of women's suffrage a quiet opportunity to
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Speaker 1: settle the matter between them. On February fourteenth, the WSPU
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Speaker 1: proclaimed a truce, and the Women's Freedom League followed suit.
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Speaker 1: During the past year, more than twenty thousand meetings had
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Speaker 1: been held by the w SPU alone, in addition to
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Speaker 1: the many thousands organized by the other suffrage societies. Now
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Speaker 1: that militancy was to be laid aside, a period of
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Speaker 1: even greater effort in the direction of building up the
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Speaker 1: organization and extending the purely educational work was to be
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Speaker 1: entered upon. Important developments were also to take place within
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Speaker 1: Parliament itself. For many years a Committee of Parliamentary Supporters
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Speaker 1: of Women's Suffrage had existed. This was originally inaugurated on
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Speaker 1: June tenth, eighteen eighty seven, under the influence of Miss
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Speaker 1: Lydia Becker. It was strictly non party, members from all
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Speaker 1: sections of the House having belonged to it during the
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Speaker 1: parliament elected in nineteen hundred six. However, the old committee
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Speaker 1: had been allowed to lapse, the liberal supporters of the
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Speaker 1: question formed a Woman's Suffrage Committee of their own, and
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Speaker 1: abandoning the attempt to secure votes for women and seeking
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Speaker 1: instead to extend the franchise all around. They had put
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Speaker 1: forward mister Jeffrey Howard's reform bill, which had had no
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Speaker 1: chance of being carried. Now, largely owing to the efforts
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Speaker 1: of mister H. N. Brailsford, a conciliation Committee was formed
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Speaker 1: with the object of uniting all sections of opinion favorable
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Speaker 1: to women's enfranchisement, and of coming to a common agreement
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Speaker 1: upon some particular measure. The Earl of Lytton acted as
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Speaker 1: chairman of this committee, and mister Brelsford himself as secretary.
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Speaker 1: Its members consisted of twenty five Liberals, seventeen Conservatives, six
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Speaker 1: Irish Nationalists and six members of the Labor Party. In
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Speaker 1: discussing the terms of the bill to be adopted, the
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Speaker 1: unionist members urged that it should be moderate, whilst the
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Speaker 1: liberals insisted that it must give no loophole for increasing
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Speaker 1: the possibilities of plural voting or adding to the power
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Speaker 1: of the propertied classes. Though the majority of the women
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Speaker 1: who attend the English universities do so as a preparation
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Speaker 1: for earning their livelihood. The liberals did not wish to
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Speaker 1: see the franchise for university graduates, which is exercised by men,
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Speaker 1: extended to women, because, as they said, the poorest women
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Speaker 1: do not graduate. For similar reasons, they opposed the granting
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Speaker 1: of votes to women under the joint household qualification, which
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Speaker 1: applies only to houses rented at twenty pounds a year,
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Speaker 1: and upwards, under the lodger franchise, which applies only to
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Speaker 1: those who pay at least four shillings a week for
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Speaker 1: an unfurnished room, and under the ownership franchise. To overcome
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Speaker 1: the objections of the self styled Democrats, the old Women's
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Speaker 1: Enfranchisement Bill, which would have given bare justice to women
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Speaker 1: by extending the parliamentary vote to them on equal terms
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Speaker 1: with men, was therefore abandoned, and a measure was drafted
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Speaker 1: on the lines of the existing municipal franchise, of which
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Speaker 1: the basis is occupation, and under which there is no
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Speaker 1: qualification for owners, lodgers or graduates. Local government was the
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Speaker 1: earliest form of government in this country. It has been
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Speaker 1: the most persistent and staple government from the center was
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Speaker 1: of later growth than has many times been interrupted. The
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Speaker 1: municipal franchise as it exists today is chiefly dependent on
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Speaker 1: the Municipal Corporations Acts of eighteen thirty five and eighteen
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Speaker 1: thirty nine. Before the passing of the first of these acts,
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Speaker 1: women possessed and exercised equal voting rights with men in
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Speaker 1: regard to matters of local government. But the Act of
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Speaker 1: eighteen thirty five deprived them of these rights in all
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Speaker 1: towns incorporated under it. In eighteen six, however, women suffrage
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Speaker 1: societies demanding the admission of women to both national and
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Speaker 1: local franchises sprang into being, and when the Municipal Corporations
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Speaker 1: Act of eighteen sixty nine was before Parliament, mister Jacob
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Speaker 1: Bright succeeded in carrying an amendment to restore to women
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Speaker 1: the rights of which the Act of eighteen thirty five
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Speaker 1: had deprived them. It was a liberal government that framed
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Speaker 1: and carried the Municipal Corporations Act of eighteen sixty nine,
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Speaker 1: and that government accepted the amendment to extend its provisions
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Speaker 1: to women. There was no suggestion then, nor has any since,
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Speaker 1: been made, that that franchise, when exercised either by men
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Speaker 1: or women, is undemocratic when applied to municipal purposes. Therefore,
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Speaker 1: following the lines of the existing municipal franchise, the Conciliation
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Speaker 1: Committee proposed to extend the parliamentary vote to women householders
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Speaker 1: and to women occupiers of business premises paying ten pounds
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Speaker 1: a year and upwards. It was estimated that ninety five
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Speaker 1: percent of the women who would be enfranchised under this
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Speaker 1: Conciliation Bill would be householders. To the householder franchise, no
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Speaker 1: monetary qualification whatsoever is attached, and everyone who inhabits even
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Speaker 1: a single room over which he or she has full
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Speaker 1: control is counted as a householder. As soon as this
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Speaker 1: bill had been decided upon by the members of Parliament
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Speaker 1: who formed the Conciliation Committee, it was submitted to the
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Speaker 1: various suffrage and other women's organizations with a request to
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Speaker 1: adopt it. Many of the societies, including the militants, at
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Speaker 1: first demurred on the ground that though the number of
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Speaker 1: women enfranchised would not differ greatly, the principle of equality
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Speaker 1: between men and women which the Women's Enfranchisement Bill had
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Speaker 1: laid down, would be sacrificed by the new measure. Mister
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Speaker 1: Brelsford and others urged, however, that the Conciliation Bill was
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Speaker 1: the only one to which the various sections in the
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Speaker 1: House who supported women's suffrage would agree. They also pointed
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Speaker 1: out that as the women whom it was proposed to
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Speaker 1: enfranchise were already upon the municipal register, difficulty would be
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Speaker 1: experienced in adding the lists of their names to the
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Speaker 1: parliamentary register also before the next general election, even should
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Speaker 1: this take place within the year. Therefore, on condition that
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Speaker 1: it should be passed during the session, all the various
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Speaker 1: women's organizations worked wholeheartedly for the measure. On June eighteenth,
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Speaker 1: the WSPU organized in support of the Conciliation Bill a
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Speaker 1: greater procession of women than had ever yet been held,
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Speaker 1: in which joined numbers of organizations, both national and international,
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Speaker 1: headed by a company of six hundred and seventeen women
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Speaker 1: in white dresses carrying long, gleaming silver staves tipped with
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Speaker 1: broad arrows, each representing an imprisonment. The massed ranks with
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Speaker 1: their gay banners, took more than an hour and a
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Speaker 1: half to pass a given point. The Great Albert Hall
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Speaker 1: was able to contain but a section of the processionists.
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Speaker 1: No place for women's suffrage had been obtained in the
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Speaker 1: private member's ballot. The Conciliation Bill had been drafted in
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Speaker 1: the hope that the Government would provide time for its
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Speaker 1: discre scushion, and five days after the Great Procession, the
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Speaker 1: Prime Minister, in reply to an influentially signed petition of
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Speaker 1: members of Parliament, promised to give facilities for the second
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Speaker 1: reading of the bill. At the same time, he stated
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Speaker 1: that he could not provide an early date for this,
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Speaker 1: but just as the militant forces were preparing for action,
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Speaker 1: he agreed to fix Monday and Tuesday July the eleventh
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Speaker 1: and twelfth for the discussion of the bill. The object
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Speaker 1: of the Conciliation Bill's promoters was, of course, not merely
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Speaker 1: to secure the passage of the second reading by a
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Speaker 1: substantial majority, but also that it should be sent for
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Speaker 1: discussion to one of the standing committees instead of being
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Speaker 1: referred to a committee of the whole House, because if
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Speaker 1: the latter course were pursued, no further progress could be
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Speaker 1: made unless the Government were prepared to provide more time.
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Speaker 1: As usual, the attitude of the government was anxiously awaited.
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Speaker 1: It was rumored that mister Lloyd George would speak in
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Speaker 1: opposition to the bill, but those who believed his professions
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Speaker 1: of friendship for the woman's cause hoped against hope that
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Speaker 1: he would not do so. Mister Winston Churchill had been
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Speaker 1: several times in conference with the officials of the Conciliation Committee,
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Speaker 1: and had expressed sympathy with their object They counted confidently
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Speaker 1: upon his help. It is true that some days before
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Speaker 1: the debate they had received a letter from him criticizing
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Speaker 1: the terms of the bill, but they still regarded him
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Speaker 1: as a friend to the measure. Nevertheless, early in the
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Speaker 1: second day's debate he rose to make a bitter and
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Speaker 1: uncompromising attack upon it. He began by seeking to prove
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Speaker 1: that the grievance of excluding women from the franchise was
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Speaker 1: greatly exaggerated, that they did not suffer any legislative disability
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Speaker 1: therefrom and that neither the mass of the women themselves
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Speaker 1: nor of the male electorate desired the enfranchisement of women.
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Speaker 1: He went on to speak vaguely of the danger of
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Speaker 1: creating a vast body of privileged and dependent voters who
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Speaker 1: might be manipulated maneuvered in this division or in that. Then,
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Speaker 1: having elaborately striven to build up a case against the
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Speaker 1: granting of votes to women on any terms. He proceeded
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Speaker 1: with an air of considerable magnanimity to admit that a
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Speaker 1: slight grievance existed because all women were disfranchised. He was
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Speaker 1: of the opinion that this grievance could only be redressed
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Speaker 1: in one or two ways, either by giving the vote
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Speaker 1: to some of the best women of all classes, or
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Speaker 1: by giving the vote to every woman. The former method
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Speaker 1: he described as the first way, and he said, I
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Speaker 1: always hoped the Conciliation Committee would travel along that road,
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Speaker 1: in particularizing his favorite method of proceeding by means of
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Speaker 1: his proposed special franchises. He admitted that no doubt these
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Speaker 1: would be disrespectfully called fancy franchises, and explained that they
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Speaker 1: would give the vote to a comparatively small number of
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Speaker 1: women of all classes on considerations of property, earning capacity,
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Speaker 1: or education. These special franchises would, he said, be fairly
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Speaker 1: balanced one against the other, so as not on the
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Speaker 1: whole to give an undue advantage to the property vote
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Speaker 1: as against the wage earning vote that he said, would
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Speaker 1: not be a democratic proposal. It would provide for the
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Speaker 1: representation of the sex through the strongest, most capable, and
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Speaker 1: most responsible women in every class, and that would meet
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Speaker 1: the main grievance in my humble judgment. Thus, the loudly
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Speaker 1: professing Democrat, mister Churchill proposed to enfranchise only those women
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Speaker 1: whom the members of the Conciliation Committee, in the earnest
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Speaker 1: and patient effort to comply with mister Asquith's proviso that
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Speaker 1: their bill must be democratic, had gradually weeded out. They
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Speaker 1: had excluded the property owners as such in favor of
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Speaker 1: their poorer sisters, the graduates because only the comfortably circumstance
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Speaker 1: can go to college, and the lodgers because the majority
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Speaker 1: of women wage earners, to the shame of our country,
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Speaker 1: cannot afford to pay for shilling a week for their rooms.
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Speaker 1: These three classes, the women who own property, those who
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Speaker 1: have graduated at college, and those who are in comparatively
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Speaker 1: high wages, were surely those whom mister Churchill had intended
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Speaker 1: to indicate. The women had agreed to their exclusion because,
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Speaker 1: as compared with the householders, their numbers were small. This
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Speaker 1: was the very reason for which mister Churchill had selected
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Speaker 1: them for inclusion, For he described the Conciliation Bill as
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Speaker 1: an enormous addition to the franchise, though it would only
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Speaker 1: enfranchise one million women as against seven million men. He
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Speaker 1: went on to attack the terms of the Conciliation Bill,
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Speaker 1: describing it as anti democrat and declaring that it gave
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Speaker 1: representation to property as against persons. The more I study
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Speaker 1: the bill, he said, the more astonished I am that
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Speaker 1: such a large number of respected members of Parliament should
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Speaker 1: have found it possible to put their names to it.
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Speaker 1: He complained that the bulk of married women would not
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Speaker 1: be able to qualify, but that a man who owned
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Speaker 1: a house and stable would be able to qualify his
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Speaker 1: wife for the former and himself for the latter, as
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Speaker 1: though that would not also be the case under his
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Speaker 1: own proposed fancy franchises. He asserted that the young, inexperienced
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Speaker 1: girl of twenty one would be enfranchise under the Conciliation Bill,
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Speaker 1: whilst the woman who keeps by her labor an invalid
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Speaker 1: husband and his family would get no vote. Yet in
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Speaker 1: practice we all know that girls of twenty one are
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Speaker 1: not usually qualified either as householders or occupiers, and injustice
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Speaker 1: and let us hope, in its practice also the woman
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Speaker 1: who works to maintain her husband and family is counted
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Speaker 1: as the responsible householder and would vote instead of the husband,
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Speaker 1: she maintains. He ended with a final appeal to members
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Speaker 1: to vote against the bill, saying that a vote on
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Speaker 1: the second reading of this bill was equivalent to that
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Speaker 1: on the third reading of any other, and that those
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Speaker 1: who cast their votes for it should be able to say,
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Speaker 1: I want this bill passed into law this session, regardless
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Speaker 1: of all other consequences. I want it as it is,
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Speaker 1: and I want it now. Mister Asquith spoke against the
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Speaker 1: principle of women's enfranchisemen in general, and against a conciliation
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Speaker 1: bill in particular. He began by saying that a franchise
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Speaker 1: measure ought not to be sent to a standing committee,
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Speaker 1: but to one of the whole. He declared also that
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Speaker 1: his conditions that proof must be shown that the majority
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Speaker 1: of the women desired any proposed measures for their enfranchisement,
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Speaker 1: and that the measure should be democratic in its character,
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Speaker 1: had not been complied with. Towards the end of the debate,
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Speaker 1: mister Lloyd George also threw the weight of his influence
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Speaker 1: into the scale against the bill. He stated that he
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Speaker 1: agreed with every word, both relevant and irrelevant, that had
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Speaker 1: been uttered by mister Churchill. Nevertheless, he refrained from depreciating
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Speaker 1: the abstract principle of woman's suffrage, as the Home Secretary
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Speaker 1: had done, and directed his attack wholly against the terms
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Speaker 1: of the bill. In defiance of the fact, he persistently
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Speaker 1: declared that the Conciliation Committee which had drafted the bill
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Speaker 1: was a committee of women meeting outside the house, and
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Speaker 1: that they had come to the House saying not merely
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Speaker 1: must you vote for women's suffrage, but you must vote
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Speaker 1: for the particular form upon which we agree, and we
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Speaker 1: will not even allow you to deliberate upon any other form.
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Speaker 1: He said that this was a position which no oh
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Speaker 1: self respecting legislature could possibly accept. Yet the government had
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Speaker 1: all the parliamentary year at their disposal to introduce what
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Speaker 1: measures they chose, and for years and years the women
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Speaker 1: had been calling upon them to formulate a woman's suffrage
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Speaker 1: measure of their own. It had been urged. He said
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Speaker 1: that this bill was better than none at all. Why
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Speaker 1: should that be the alternative, he asked, But when a
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Speaker 1: member called out, what is the other, he answered evasively, well,
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Speaker 1: I cannot say for the moment, but allow me. I
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Speaker 1: am trying to concentrate for the sake of others who
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Speaker 1: desire to follow me in this debate. Later, he said,
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Speaker 1: if the promoters of this bill say that they regard
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Speaker 1: the second reading merely as an affirmation of the principle
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Speaker 1: of woman's suffrage, and if they promise that when they
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Speaker 1: reintroduce the bill it will be in a form which
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Speaker 1: will enable the House of Commons to move any amendment,
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Speaker 1: either for restriction or for extension, I shall be happy
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Speaker 1: to vote for this bill. Will the government give time,
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Speaker 1: asked mister Rock, a Liberal member, But the only answer
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Speaker 1: was that is a question for the Prime Minister. Mister Snowdon,
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Speaker 1: winding up the debate for the promoters of the bill,
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Speaker 1: replied to mister Lloyd George's challenge. He said, we will
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Speaker 1: withdraw this bill if the right Honorable Gentleman on behalf
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Speaker 1: of the Government or the Prime Minister himself, will undertake
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Speaker 1: to give to this House the opportunity of discussing and
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Speaker 1: carrying through its various stages another form of franchise bill.
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Speaker 1: If we cannot get that, then we shall prosecute this bill.
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Speaker 1: Mister Lloyd George and the other members of the government
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Speaker 1: sat silent. They well knew the difficulties under which the
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Speaker 1: Conciliation Committee labored, and they knew too that the women
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Speaker 1: were striving at great costs and sacrifice to obtain for
16:40
Speaker 1: their sex the largest possible measure of representation. But with
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Speaker 1: the power to speedily bring the matter to a satisfactory conclusion,
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Speaker 1: they preferred to hamper the efforts of both with obstructive criticism.
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Speaker 1: As mister Snowdon aptly put it, it would pass the
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Speaker 1: wit of man to put that principle into a bill
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Speaker 1: which we meet with the approval of the Chancellor of
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Speaker 1: the Exchequer and the Home Secretary. Mister Balfour, mister Haldane
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Speaker 1: and mister Runsman were amongst those who spoke in support
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Speaker 1: of the bill, but the two ministers urged that it
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Speaker 1: should not be allowed to pass to one of the
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Speaker 1: standing committees. After thirty nine speeches had been delivered, the
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Speaker 1: division was taken. The second reading was then found to
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Speaker 1: have been carried by two hundred ninety nine votes to
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Speaker 1: one hundred ninety, giving a favorable majority of one hundred nine,
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Speaker 1: a majority larger than that caste during the Parliament for
17:32
Speaker 1: any measure, and even for the government's vaunted budget and
17:34
Speaker 1: House of Lords resolutions. A division was next taken on
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Speaker 1: a resolution to refer the bill to a committee of
17:41
Speaker 1: the whole House. The anti suffragists in the hope of
17:44
Speaker 1: shelving the bill, those who feared to anger the government,
17:47
Speaker 1: and those who genuinely believed that so important a measure
17:51
Speaker 1: should be considered by the whole House in each of
17:53
Speaker 1: its stages combined to carry this resolution by three hundred
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Speaker 1: twenty votes to one hundred seventy five. The The question
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Speaker 1: was now whether the government would allow the few days
18:02
Speaker 1: necessary for the committee and other final stages. Practically all
18:07
Speaker 1: other important legislative work was hanging fire because of the
18:10
Speaker 1: deadlock in regard to the House of Lords controversy. The
18:14
Speaker 1: Conference between the leaders of the Conservative and Liberal parties,
18:17
Speaker 1: which after King Edward's death, had been set up to
18:19
Speaker 1: discuss this matter, was still sitting, and until its deliberations
18:23
Speaker 1: were at end, no progress towards a settlement would be made. Therefore,
18:27
Speaker 1: for the moment, Parliament had plenty of time on its hands,
18:30
Speaker 1: and urgent pressure was brought upon the government to give
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Speaker 1: out of this abundance to the Women's Bill. On July seventeen,
18:37
Speaker 1: the Men's Political Union for Women's suffrage. The Men's League
18:40
Speaker 1: for Women's Suffrage and the Conciliation Committee held a joint
18:43
Speaker 1: meeting in Hyde Park in support of the bill on
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Speaker 1: July twenty third, the anniversary of the day in eighteen
18:49
Speaker 1: sixty seven on which the pulling down of the Hyde
18:52
Speaker 1: Park railings won the vote for the working men in
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Speaker 1: the towns. The Women's Social and Political Union held another
18:57
Speaker 1: great demonstration there for which a space of half a
19:00
Speaker 1: square mile was specially cleared. There were forty platforms, many
19:05
Speaker 1: societies co operated, and two fine processions, one from the
19:09
Speaker 1: east and the other from the west, marched to the meeting.
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Speaker 1: The older suffragists had also demonstrated in Trafalgar Square, but
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Speaker 1: on the very day of the w s p u's
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Speaker 1: big Hyde Park meeting, the Prime Minister wrote to Lord
19:21
Speaker 1: Lytton refusing to allow any further time for the bill
19:24
Speaker 1: that session. But Parliament was to meet again in the autumn.
19:28
Speaker 1: It was still hoped that the Government might concede the
19:31
Speaker 1: time then. Resolutions urging them to do so were sent
19:35
Speaker 1: in from numbers of popularly elected bodies, including the corporations
19:38
Speaker 1: of Manchester, Liverpool, Bradford, Nottingham, Glasgow, Dundee, Dublin, Cork and
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Speaker 1: thirty others. There were signs that the truce of the militants,
19:49
Speaker 1: which had lasted for nine months, would soon be at
19:52
Speaker 1: an end. This time it was men friends to the
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Speaker 1: cause who gave the first warning. On October seventeenth, young
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Speaker 1: mister vic To Duval, now secretary of the Men's Political
20:02
Speaker 1: Union for Women's Suffrage, was arrested for seizing mister Lloyd
20:06
Speaker 1: George by the lapel of his coat and rebuking him
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Speaker 1: for his hostility to the Woman's Bill. As he passed
20:11
Speaker 1: into the city temple where he was to speak. Mister
20:14
Speaker 1: George Jacobs, an elderly man, saw that the police were
20:17
Speaker 1: treating Duval roughly and called out to them, do not
20:20
Speaker 1: hurt him. He was also arrested, and both men were
20:23
Speaker 1: imprisoned for a week. Mister Lloyd George had been speaking
20:27
Speaker 1: against the Conciliation Bill in Wales, and numbers of Welsh
20:31
Speaker 1: women liberals plainly showed their disapproval of his action. The
20:35
Speaker 1: women constituents of several other Cabinet ministers were pressing to
20:38
Speaker 1: be received in deputation, and in view of the general election,
20:42
Speaker 1: they could scarcely be denied. On October twenty seventh, mister
20:46
Speaker 1: Asquith consented to see the women of East Fife. He
20:49
Speaker 1: told them that facilities could not be granted before the
20:52
Speaker 1: close of the year, and even when asked what of
20:54
Speaker 1: next year, he merely answered, wait and see. Other ministers
20:59
Speaker 1: seconded him. They were all agreed in refusing to allow
21:02
Speaker 1: the bill to pass into law that year. Therefore, at
21:07
Speaker 1: a great meeting in the Albert Hall on November tenth,
21:09
Speaker 1: the truce broke war was once more declared. Missus Pankhurst
21:15
Speaker 1: announced that another deputation would march to the House of
21:17
Speaker 1: Commons to carry a petition to the Prime Minister. She
21:21
Speaker 1: herself would lead the deputation. If I were to go alone,
21:25
Speaker 1: she said, still I would go. But at that hundreds
21:29
Speaker 1: of women's voices cried out from all parts of the hall.
21:32
Speaker 1: Missus Pankhurst, I will go with you, I will go,
21:35
Speaker 1: I will go. Then Missus Pethick Laurence called for funds
21:39
Speaker 1: for the campaign, and nine thousand pounds was immediately subscribed.
21:44
Speaker 1: The autumn session lasted but a few days, for on
21:47
Speaker 1: November eighteenth, mister Asquith announced that Parliament would be dissolved
21:50
Speaker 1: on November twenty eighth, and that a general election would
21:53
Speaker 1: take place. Even whilst he spoke, the women, four hundred
21:57
Speaker 1: fifty of them, divided into companies of lefe less than
22:00
Speaker 1: twelve to keep within the law, were marching from the
22:03
Speaker 1: Caxton Hall and Clemens In Missus Pankhurst, Doctor Garrett Anderson,
22:08
Speaker 1: founder of Girton College and one of the medical women pioneers,
22:11
Speaker 1: now over seventy years of age, Missus Hartha Ayton, the scientist,
22:15
Speaker 1: Missus Cobden Sanderson, and Miss Nelligan and Missus Brackenbury, both
22:19
Speaker 1: of whom had reached the great age of seventy eight,
22:22
Speaker 1: were among the first little band. They soon learned that
22:25
Speaker 1: the Prime Minister had refused to see them. Some of
22:28
Speaker 1: their number were hurled back into the crowd. The remainder
22:32
Speaker 1: were kept standing on the porch four hours, with the
22:34
Speaker 1: shut door before them and a surging crowd behind. The
22:38
Speaker 1: companies of women who came after were torn apart, fell
22:42
Speaker 1: to the ground, struck again and again, bruised and battered,
22:46
Speaker 1: and tossed hither and thither with a violence that perhaps
22:48
Speaker 1: excelled anything that had gone before. One hundred and fifteen
22:52
Speaker 1: women and four men were eventually arrested, but the full
22:56
Speaker 1: story of that day's happenings belongs to another, and let
22:59
Speaker 1: us hope to the last chapter of this long fight. Meanwhile,
23:03
Speaker 1: the Prime Minister forgot to reply to mister Keir Hardy's
23:06
Speaker 1: question as to the fate of the Conciliation Bill. Lord
23:10
Speaker 1: Balcarres then moved a resolution which was practically a vote
23:13
Speaker 1: of censure upon the Government for their treatment of the women.
23:16
Speaker 1: Fifty two members voted for it, but it was lost. Eventually,
23:20
Speaker 1: mister Lloyd George said the Prime Minister would make a
23:22
Speaker 1: statement on the following Tuesday. Tuesday saw the Woman's Parliament
23:27
Speaker 1: again in session and the women waiting eagerly for the news.
23:31
Speaker 1: Mister Asquith said, the Government will, if they are still
23:35
Speaker 1: in power, give facilities in the next parliament for effectively
23:39
Speaker 1: proceeding with a bill which is so framed as to
23:41
Speaker 1: admit a free amendment. He refused, however, to promise that
23:46
Speaker 1: this should be done during the first year of the
23:47
Speaker 1: new parliament. Facilities for the Conciliation Bill had been asked for.
23:53
Speaker 1: The reply that facilities would be given to a bill
23:55
Speaker 1: so framed as to admit a free amendment was too
23:58
Speaker 1: vague to please the women, but the refusal to grant
24:01
Speaker 1: an opportunity for passing a suffrage bill into law during
24:04
Speaker 1: the first year of parliament was more serious. The parliament
24:08
Speaker 1: now to be dissolved had lasted less than a year.
24:11
Speaker 1: Who could insure a longer life for its successor? Mister
24:14
Speaker 1: Asquith had given the women scant reason to trust any
24:17
Speaker 1: vague promises of his. Therefore, Missus Pankhurst announced to the women,
24:23
Speaker 1: I am going to Downing Street, come along all of you,
24:27
Speaker 1: and the women went. The police, however, gradually beat them back,
24:31
Speaker 1: and over a hundred arrests were made. On Wednesday, there
24:35
Speaker 1: were eighteen further arrests and twenty nine more on Thursday.
24:39
Speaker 1: Many of the women were discharged, but seventy five received
24:42
Speaker 1: sentences of imprisonment, varying from fourteen days to one month.
24:47
Speaker 1: Then came the general election, and again the suffragettees strenuously
24:51
Speaker 1: opposed the government. In almost every constituency fought by them,
24:55
Speaker 1: the Liberal vote was reduced. A notable instance was that
24:59
Speaker 1: of Cardiff, where a Liberal majority of fifteen hundred fifty
25:02
Speaker 1: five was converted into a Conservative majority of two hundred
25:05
Speaker 1: ninety nine. Here, the eight hundred members of the Women's
25:09
Speaker 1: Liberal Association abstained from working for their party because its candidate,
25:13
Speaker 1: Sir Clarendon Hyde, was opposed to votes for women. The
25:17
Speaker 1: end of the election saw the Liberal government still in power.
25:22
Speaker 1: During the year, the women's suffrage societies had all grown largely.
25:26
Speaker 1: The Women's Social and Political Union Salied Staff now stands
25:29
Speaker 1: at one hundred ten persons. Its central offices at Clements
25:33
Speaker 1: Inn occupy twenty three rooms and a shop in thirteen
25:36
Speaker 1: rooms have also been taken for the Women's Press at
25:39
Speaker 1: one hundred fifty six sharing cross Road. There are also
25:43
Speaker 1: one hundred five local centers of the union. The income
25:47
Speaker 1: of the central organization of the w s p U
25:49
Speaker 1: during nineteen ten was thirty four thousand, five hundred pounds,
25:53
Speaker 1: excluding nine thousand pounds made by the Woman's Press and
25:57
Speaker 1: many thousands collected by the local unions. The twenty thousand
26:01
Speaker 1: pound campaign fund is now complete. The conciliation Bill has
26:05
Speaker 1: been again introduced again. Its scope and title have been
26:09
Speaker 1: modified to please the Democrats. Its text now is every
26:15
Speaker 1: woman possessed of a household qualification within the meaning of
26:18
Speaker 1: the Representation of the People Act eighteen eighty four shall
26:22
Speaker 1: be entitled to be registered as a voter and when
26:25
Speaker 1: registered to vote for the country or borough in which
26:27
Speaker 1: the qualifying premises are situate. For the purposes of this Act,
26:31
Speaker 1: a woman shall not be disqualified by marriage from being
26:34
Speaker 1: registered as a voter, provided that a husband and wife
26:37
Speaker 1: shall not both be registered as voters in the same
26:40
Speaker 1: parliamentary borough or county division. In reply to a deputation
26:45
Speaker 1: of women who waited upon him in October nineteen ten,
26:48
Speaker 1: mister Burrell said, I am strongly of opinion that in
26:51
Speaker 1: the course of next year facilities must be given for
26:54
Speaker 1: the bill. You are perfectly right, he added, in feeling
26:58
Speaker 1: irritated and annoyed at the delay that has taken place,
27:01
Speaker 1: and in insisting on a date for parliament reaction. Mister
27:05
Speaker 1: Asquith's promise is that facilities for a woman's suffrage measure
27:08
Speaker 1: will be granted during this Parliament. Such statements as these
27:12
Speaker 1: must now be held as binding, and the long standing
27:15
Speaker 1: government veto of this question must be withdrawn. So the
27:19
Speaker 1: gallant struggle for a great reform draws to its close,
27:23
Speaker 1: full of stern fighting and bitter hardship. As it has been,
27:26
Speaker 1: it has brought much to the women of our time.
27:28
Speaker 1: A courage, a self reliance, a comradeship, and above all
27:33
Speaker 1: a spiritual growth, a conscious dwelling in company with the ideal,
27:37
Speaker 1: which has tended to strip the littleness from life, and
27:40
Speaker 1: to give to it the character of an heroic mission.
27:44
Speaker 1: May we prize and cherish the great selfless spirit that
27:47
Speaker 1: has been engendered, and applying it to the purposes of
27:50
Speaker 1: our government, the nation's housekeeping, the management of our collective affairs.
27:55
Speaker 1: May we, men and women, together not in antagonism, but
27:59
Speaker 1: in comradeship, strive on till we have built up a
28:02
Speaker 1: better civilization than any that the world has known. For Surely,
28:07
Speaker 1: just as those children are fortunate to have two parents,
28:10
Speaker 1: a mother and a father to care for them, so
28:12
Speaker 1: is the nation fortunate that has its mothers and its fathers,
28:16
Speaker 1: its brothers and its sisters working together for the common good.
28:21
Speaker 1: End of Chapter twenty four, end of The Suffragette, The
28:25
Speaker 1: History of the Women's Militant Suffrage Movement by e Sylvia Pankhurst,
28:30
Speaker 1: recorded by Celne Massour