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19 - 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 fifteen, Part three of The Suffragette. The History of
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  Speaker 1: the Woman's Militant Suffrage Movement by E Sylvia Pankhurst. Part three.
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  Speaker 1: She began by declaring that these proceedings had been taken
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  Speaker 1: out of malice and for vexation, and in order to
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  Speaker 1: lay in an illegitimate way a political enemy. In proof
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  Speaker 1: of this, she said, at the attitude of the government
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  Speaker 1: towards the present Woman's movement from its very beginning three
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  Speaker 1: years before. She drew attention to the fact which had
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  Speaker 1: been sworn to in the witness box, that mister Horace
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  Speaker 1: Smith had allowed himself to be coerced by the government
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  Speaker 1: into settling in conjunction with them, whether a certain lady
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  Speaker 1: charged in connection with this agitation was guilty, and even
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  Speaker 1: the term of imprisonment which was to be inflicted upon
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  Speaker 1: her before the evidence had been heard. Now, this policy
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  Speaker 1: of the government of waiting the scales against us, Crista
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  Speaker 1: Bell declared, is not of interest merely to us, but
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  Speaker 1: to the whole community. In the course of British history
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  Speaker 1: we have seen many struggles for the purification of our
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  Speaker 1: our judicial system. It has been left to the twentieth
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  Speaker 1: century to these so called democratic days to see our
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  Speaker 1: judicial system corrupted for party ends. I am glad that
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  Speaker 1: we have been able to perform the public duty and
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  Speaker 1: service of doing something to attack this evil while it
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  Speaker 1: is in the bud dealing with the form of the summons,
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  Speaker 1: She urged that if she and her colleagues were guilty
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  Speaker 1: of any offense, it was that of illegal assembly. But
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  Speaker 1: the government had not charged them with this offense because
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  Speaker 1: they had wished to keep their trial in the police
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  Speaker 1: court and to prevent it from coming before a jury.
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  Speaker 1: They believe that by this means, she said, they will
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  Speaker 1: succeed in prejudicing the public against us. We know perfectly
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  Speaker 1: well that up till recently, the general public shunned the
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  Speaker 1: police court as a disgraceful place. Well, I think that
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  Speaker 1: by our presence here we have done something to believe
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  Speaker 1: the police court of that unenviable reputation. We have done
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  Speaker 1: something to raise its status in the public eye. The
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  Speaker 1: authorities dare not see this case come before jury, she continued,
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  Speaker 1: because they know perfectly well that if it were heard
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  Speaker 1: before a jury of our countrymen, we should be acquitted,
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  Speaker 1: just as John Burns was acquitted years ago for taking
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  Speaker 1: action far more serious, far more dangerous to the public
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  Speaker 1: peace than anything we have done. Yes, I say they
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  Speaker 1: are afraid of sending us before a jury, and I
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  Speaker 1: am quite sure that this will be obvious to the public,
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  Speaker 1: and that the government will suffer from the underhand, the unworthy,
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  Speaker 1: and the disgraceful subterfuge by which they have removed this
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  Speaker 1: case to what we can only call a star chamber
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  Speaker 1: of the twentieth century. Yes, this is a star chamber.
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  Speaker 1: We are deprived of trial by jury. We are also
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  Speaker 1: deprived of the right of appeal against the magistrate's decision.
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  Speaker 1: Very very carefully has this procedure been thought out, Very
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  Speaker 1: very cunningly. Has it been thought to hedge us in
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  Speaker 1: on every side and to deprive us of our rights
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  Speaker 1: in the matter. Though we are rendered liable to six
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  Speaker 1: months imprisonment, we are yet denied the privilege in making
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  Speaker 1: our defense that people liable to three months imprisonment. And
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  Speaker 1: joy we shall be told in the House of Commons,
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  Speaker 1: no doubt, we have been told the same thing before now,
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  Speaker 1: that we are only bound over. We need not go
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  Speaker 1: to prison. If we go to prison, we have only
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  Speaker 1: ourselves to thank if the case is decided against us.
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  Speaker 1: If we are called upon to be bound over. It
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  Speaker 1: must be remembered that that amounts to imprisoning us, and
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  Speaker 1: that therefore the authorities cannot possibly escape their responsibility in
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  Speaker 1: sending us to prison by saying that we could be
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  Speaker 1: at liberty if we liked. Magna carta has been practically
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  Speaker 1: torn up by the present government. We consider it that
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  Speaker 1: it is not we who ought to be in the
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  Speaker 1: dog to day, but the people who are responsible for
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  Speaker 1: such a monster as state of affairs. Then she went
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  Speaker 1: on to deal with the reasons for issuing the bill.
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  Speaker 1: We do not deny at all that we issued this bill.
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  Speaker 1: None of us three have wished to deny responsibility. We
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  Speaker 1: did issue the bill, We did cause it to be circulated.
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  Speaker 1: We did put upon it the words come and help
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  Speaker 1: the suffer, just to rush the House of Commons for
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  Speaker 1: these words, we do not apologize. It is very well
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  Speaker 1: known that we took this action in order to press
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  Speaker 1: forward a claim which, according to the British Constitution, we
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  Speaker 1: are well entitled to make. After all, we are seeking
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  Speaker 1: only to enforce the observance of the law of the
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  Speaker 1: land that taxation and representation must go together, and that
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  Speaker 1: one who obeys the laws must have a share in
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  Speaker 1: making them. Therefore, when we claim the parliamentary vote, we
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  Speaker 1: are asking the government to abandon the illegal practice of
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  Speaker 1: denying representation to those who have a perfect right to it.
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  Speaker 1: I want here to insist, she said, upon the legality
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  Speaker 1: of the action which we have taken. We have a
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  Speaker 1: perfectly constitutional right to go ourselves in person to lay
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  Speaker 1: our grievances before the House of Commons. And as one witness,
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  Speaker 1: an expert student of history, pointed out to you, we
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  Speaker 1: are but pursuing a legitimate course which in the old
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  Speaker 1: days women pursued without the smallest interference by the authorities.
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  Speaker 1: In regard to the me of the word rush, she
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  Speaker 1: pointed out that a large number of witnesses had been examined,
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  Speaker 1: and that all these witnesses had testified that, according to
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  Speaker 1: their interpretation of the word rush, no violence was counseled.
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  Speaker 1: The word rush, Cristabell said, appears to be very much
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  Speaker 1: the rage just now we find that. At a meeting
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  Speaker 1: of the League for Preservation of Swiss Scenery, mister Richard Whiting,
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  Speaker 1: discussing the question of Swiss railways, suggested that a general
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  Speaker 1: rush to the Italian Alps might induce the Swiss to
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  Speaker 1: listen to reason well, I do not think that any
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  Speaker 1: one here would suggest that mister Whiting meant to offer
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  Speaker 1: any violence to the Swiss. In his use of the
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  Speaker 1: word rush. He meant to imply that a speedy advance
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  Speaker 1: should be made to the Italian Alps. Then we have
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  Speaker 1: mister McKinnon wood counseling the electors to rush the county
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  Speaker 1: Council and get a lady elected to that body. I
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  Speaker 1: want to submit that rush, as a transitive verb, cannot
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  Speaker 1: mean attack as sail, make a raid upon, or anything
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  Speaker 1: of that kind. In support of her contentions, Christabelle quoted
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  Speaker 1: the definitions given by many dictionaries, including the Century Dictionary,
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  Speaker 1: Chambers English Dictionary, and Farmer in Henley's Dictionary of Slang,
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  Speaker 1: which gave, amongst other meanings of the word rush an
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  Speaker 1: eager demand, urgent pressure of business, hurry or hasten. It
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  Speaker 1: may be unduly to go forward over hastily, for example,
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  Speaker 1: a number of bills are rushed through parliament, or case
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  Speaker 1: is rushed through a law court. One of the definitions
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  Speaker 1: ran a rusher a go ahead person whilst on the
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  Speaker 1: rush was said to mean in a hurry and with
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  Speaker 1: a rush with spirit or energetically. Cristabelle also displayed a
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  Speaker 1: little label which had been sent to her during the
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  Speaker 1: progress of the case. It stated rush by first train leaving,
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  Speaker 1: and was used in America for parcels required to reach
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  Speaker 1: their destination early. She reminded the magistrate of missus May's
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  Speaker 1: comparison of the phrase rush the House of Commons with
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  Speaker 1: a dash for the pole, saying, every one knows that
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  Speaker 1: you cannot get to the poll in a hurry, but
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  Speaker 1: you can try to get there in a hurry, and
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  Speaker 1: that is what aid dash to the pole means. Every
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  Speaker 1: One knows that with a timid government like the present,
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  Speaker 1: having at its service the entire Metropolitan Police Force, if
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  Speaker 1: one woman says she is going to rush the House
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  Speaker 1: of Commons, there will be an immense number of police
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  Speaker 1: to prevent her doing it. Nobody, then, having regard to
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  Speaker 1: the facts I have mentioned, thought the woman would rush
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  Speaker 1: the House of Commons. But they knew that the woman
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  Speaker 1: would be there to show their indignation against the government,
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  Speaker 1: and I am glad to say that they were there.
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  Speaker 1: It may mean six months imprisonment, but I think it
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  Speaker 1: is worth it. We are anxious to know by what
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  Speaker 1: statute it is illegal to go to the House of Commons,
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  Speaker 1: walk up the steps and make our way to the
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  Speaker 1: stranger's entrance. We should like to know whether that is
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  Speaker 1: an illegal thing to do. And if it is not
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  Speaker 1: illegal to go at a slow pace, we should like
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  Speaker 1: to know whether it is illegal to go at a
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  Speaker 1: quick pace, because that is what the word rush means.
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  Speaker 1: To rush the House of Commons is to go with
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  Speaker 1: all possible speed inside the House of Commons. And I
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  Speaker 1: hope that we shall be told by what statute we
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  Speaker 1: have contravened, by doing it ourselves or by sending or
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  Speaker 1: inviting others to do it. Miss Pankhurst next referred to
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  Speaker 1: the speeches made in Trafalgar Square on October eleventh. She
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  Speaker 1: was glad that the prosecution had raised this point, because
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  Speaker 1: it was all in the defendant's favor. The speeches made
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  Speaker 1: at that meeting were made in interpretation of the famous
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  Speaker 1: hand Bill, and all the witnesses who had heard those speeches,
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  Speaker 1: not excepting mister Lloyd George himself, were agreed that they
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  Speaker 1: contained nothing inflammatory and no incitement to violence whatsoever. Crista
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  Speaker 1: Bell continued, it is not because of anything serious that
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  Speaker 1: occurred on October thirteenth, or was expected to occur that
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  Speaker 1: we are here. We are here in order that we
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  Speaker 1: may be kept out of the way for some months,
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  Speaker 1: and may cease from troubling the government for as long
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  Speaker 1: a period as they can find it in them, or
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  Speaker 1: for which the public will allow them to deprive us
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  Speaker 1: of our liberty. Whilst hosts of witnesses had testified to
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  Speaker 1: the orderly character of the crowd, she pointed out that
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  Speaker 1: two police officers only had been put forward. On the
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  Speaker 1: other side, the prosecution had been unable to bring forward
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  Speaker 1: a single impartial person. But police evidence appeared to be
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  Speaker 1: all that was considered in the police court, and she
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  Speaker 1: cried out passionately, it seems to me that the prosecution,
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  Speaker 1: the witnesses, the authorities, the magistrates are all on one side.
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  Speaker 1: They are all in the same box. And the prisoner
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  Speaker 1: charged with an offense is absolutely helpless. Whatever facts he
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  Speaker 1: may bring forward. It is indeed a waste of time
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  Speaker 1: to bring evidence over the doors of this court. Ought
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  Speaker 1: to be the motto abandon hope, all ye who enter here.
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  Speaker 1: We do not care for ourselves, because imprisonment is nothing
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  Speaker 1: to us. But when we think of the thousands of
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  Speaker 1: helpless creatures to come into this monstrous place with nobody
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  Speaker 1: to help them, nobody to plead for them. And we
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  Speaker 1: know perfectly well that they are found guilty before they
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  Speaker 1: have a chance of defending themselves. The injustice that is
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  Speaker 1: done in these courts is almost too terrible to contemplate.
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  Speaker 1: We saw then, those helpless creatures, as we had done
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  Speaker 1: so often, and as christabel called up their image, her
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  Speaker 1: voice broke and there were tears on her face. I
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  Speaker 1: am thankful to think, she said triumphantly, that we have
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  Speaker 1: been able, by submitting ourselves to the absurd proceedings that
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  Speaker 1: are conducted here, to ventilate this fearful wrong. Cristabelle next
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  Speaker 1: developed the contention that in the course which they had taken,
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  Speaker 1: the women had followed historical precedent and had been encouraged
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  Speaker 1: by statesmen, and especially by liberal statesmen. The reform acts
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  Speaker 1: had been obtained by disorder. Prior to eighteen thirty two,
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  Speaker 1: the Mansion House, the Custom House, the Bishop's Palace, the
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  Speaker 1: Excise Office, three prisons, four toll houses, and forty two
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  Speaker 1: private dwellings and warehouses had been burnt, amongst other things.
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  Speaker 1: The breaking down of the Hyde Park railings won the
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  Speaker 1: Reform Act of eighteen sixty seven. In eighteen eighty four
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  Speaker 1: there were the Aston Park riots. John Bright threatened to
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  Speaker 1: crowd the streets from Westminster Bridge to charing Cross. Lord
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  Speaker 1: Randolph Churchill advised the voters of Ulster, and voters have
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  Speaker 1: other means of urging their opinions, to resort to the
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  Speaker 1: supreme arbitrament of force. He said, Ulster will fight, and
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  Speaker 1: Ulster will be right. And as a result of his words,
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  Speaker 1: dangerous riots, almost amounting to warfare, occurred, yet he was
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  Speaker 1: never prosecuted. Joseph Chamberlain threatened to march one hundred thousand
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  Speaker 1: men on London, but no proceedings were taken against him.
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  Speaker 1: The Gladstone of those days, Christabelle declared, was less absurd, hesitating,
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  Speaker 1: and cowardly than the present Gladstone and his colleagues, and
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  Speaker 1: therefore he took the statesman like action of pressing forward
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  Speaker 1: the reform bill instead of taking proceedings against mister Chamberlain.
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  Speaker 1: Even a vote of censure moved upon mister Chamberlain in
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  Speaker 1: the House of Commons was defeated. John Burns, whose language
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  Speaker 1: was far more violent than any that the woman had used,
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  Speaker 1: was tried at the Old Bailey and acquitted. He said
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  Speaker 1: in his speech that he was a rebel because he
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  Speaker 1: was an outlaw. Well, that fact will support us in
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  Speaker 1: all we have done. If we go to far greater
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  Speaker 1: lengths than we have done yet, we shall only be
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  Speaker 1: following in the footsteps of a man who is now
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  Speaker 1: a member of the government. Following out this line of thought,
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  Speaker 1: CHRISTA Bell went on, Mister Herbert Glastone has told us
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  Speaker 1: in the speech I read to him that the victory
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  Speaker 1: of argument alone is not enough, as we cannot hope
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  Speaker 1: to win by force of argument alone. It is necessary
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  Speaker 1: to overcome the savage resistance of the government to our
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  Speaker 1: claim for citizenship by other means. He says, go on
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  Speaker 1: fight as the men did, and then when we show
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  Speaker 1: our power and get the people to help us. He
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: takes proceedings against us in a manner which would have
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  Speaker 1: been disgraceful even in the old days of court, and
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  Speaker 1: which would be thought disgraceful if it were practiced in Russia.
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  Speaker 1: Then there is mister Lloyd George, who, if any man
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  Speaker 1: has done so, has set us an example. His whole
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: career has been a series of revolts. He has said
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  Speaker 1: that if we do not get the vote. Mark these words.
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  Speaker 1: We should be justified in adopting the methods which men
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  Speaker 1: had to adopt, namely in pulling down the Hyde Park railings.
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  Speaker 1: Then as a sign of the way in which men
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: politicians deal with men's interests. We have heard Lord Morley saying,
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  Speaker 1: we are in India in the presence of a living movement,
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  Speaker 1: and a movement for what for objects which we ourselves
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  Speaker 1: have taught them to think our desirable objects. And unless
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  Speaker 1: we can somehow reconcile order with satisfaction of those ideas
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  Speaker 1: and aspirations, the fault will not be theirs, it will
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  Speaker 1: be ours. It will mark the breakdown of British statesmanship.
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  Speaker 1: Apply those words to our case. Remember that we are
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  Speaker 1: demanding of liberal statesmen that which for us is the
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  Speaker 1: greatest boon and the most essential right. Remember that we
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  Speaker 1: are asking for votes, that we are demanding the franchise.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: And if the present government cannot reconcile order with our
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: demand for the vote without delay, it will mark the
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  Speaker 1: breakdown of their statesmanship. Yes, their statesmanship has broken down already.
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  Speaker 1: They are disgraced. It is only in this court that
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  Speaker 1: they have the smallest hope of getting bolstered up, turning
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  Speaker 1: finally from the magistrate to the great world of public
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  Speaker 1: opinion outside. She finished on a defiant note, caring nothing
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  Speaker 1: whether the abuse which she had heaped upon his petty
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  Speaker 1: court and its unworthy procedure, should cause him to increase
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  Speaker 1: her sentence ten or even a hundredfold. Mister Curtis Bennett
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  Speaker 1: sat with brows knit and an angry flush on his face,
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  Speaker 1: and the whole court was wrought up to the most
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  Speaker 1: intense excitement. But now it was Missus Mackhurs's turn to speak,
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  Speaker 1: and her clear, even tones and absolute calm of manner created,
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  Speaker 1: if possible, an even deeper impression. Sir, I want to
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  Speaker 1: endorse what my daughter has said, that, in my opinion,
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  Speaker 1: we are proceeded against in this court by malice on
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  Speaker 1: the part of the government. She began, quietly and firmly.
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  Speaker 1: I want to protest as strongly as she has done.
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  Speaker 1: I want to put before you that the very nature
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  Speaker 1: of your duties in this court, although I wish to
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  Speaker 1: say nothing disrespectful to you, render you unfitted to deal
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  Speaker 1: with a question which is a political question, as a
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  Speaker 1: body of jurymen could do. We are not women who
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  Speaker 1: would come into this court as ordinary law breakers. Missus
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  Speaker 1: Drummond here is a woman of very great public spirit.
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  Speaker 1: She is an admirable wife and mother, and although a
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: married woman, she has maintained herself for many years and
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: has acquired for herself the admiration and respect of all
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: the people with whom she has had business relations. I
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  Speaker 1: do not think I need speak about my daughter. Her
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: abilities and earnestness of purpose are very well known to you.
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  Speaker 1: They are young women, I am not, sir. You and
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: I are older, and have both had very great and
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  Speaker 1: very wide experience of life under different conditions. Before you
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  Speaker 1: decide what is to be done with us, I should
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  Speaker 1: like you to hear from me a statement of what
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: has brought me into this dome this morning. I was
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  Speaker 1: brought up by a father who taught me that his children,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: boys and girls alike, had a duty towards their country.
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  Speaker 1: They must be good citizens. I married a man whose
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  Speaker 1: wife I was, but also his comrade. In all his
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  Speaker 1: public life, he was, as you know, a distinguished member
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: of your own profession. But he felt it his duty,
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  Speaker 1: in addition to do political work, to interest himself in
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  Speaker 1: the welfare of his fellow countrymen and countrywomen. Throughout the
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: whole of my marriage, I was associated with him in
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  Speaker 1: his public work. In addition to that, as soon as
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  Speaker 1: my children were of an age to permit me to
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  Speaker 1: leave them, I took to public duties. I was for
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: many years a guardian of the poor. For many years
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: I was a member of the school board, and when
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  Speaker 1: that was abolished, I was elected to the educational Committee.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: My experience in doing that work brought me in contact
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  Speaker 1: with many of my own sex, who, in my opinion,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: found themselves in deplorable positions because of the state of
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: the English law as it affects women. You in this
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: court must have had experience of women who would never
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: have come here if married women were afforded by law
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  Speaker 1: that claim for maintenance by their husbands, which I think
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: in justice should be given them when they give up
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  Speaker 1: their economic independence and are unable to earn a subsistence
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  Speaker 1: for themselves. You know how inadequate are the marriage laws
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  Speaker 1: to women. You must know, sir, as I have found
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  Speaker 1: out in my experience of public life, how abominable, atrocious
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: and unjust are the divorce laws as they affect women.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: You know very well that the married woman has no
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: legal right to the guardianship of her children. Then too
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: the illegitimacy laws. You know that a woman sometimes commits
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: the dreadful crime of infanticide, while her partner, the man
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: who should share her punishment, gets off scot free. Ever
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: since my girlhood, a period of about thirty years, I
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: have belonged to organizations to secure for women that political
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: power which I have felt essential to bringing about those
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: reforms which women need. We have tried to be what
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: you call womanly. We have tried to use feminine influence,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: and we have seen that it is of no use.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: Men who have been impatient have invariably got reforms. I
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: have seen that men are encouraged by law to take
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: advantage of the helplessness of women. Many women have thought
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: as I have, and for many many years, have tried,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: by that influence of which we have so often been reminded,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: to alter these laws, but have found that that influence
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: counts for nothing. When we went to the House of Commons,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: we used to be told when we were persistent, that
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: members of Parliament were not responsible to women, they were
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: responsible only to voters, and that their time was too
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: fully occupied to reform those laws. Although they agreed that
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: they needed reforming. We women have presented larger petitions in
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: support of our enfranchisement than were ever presented for any
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: other reform. We have succeeded in holding greater public meetings
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: than men have ever held for any reform. In spite
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: of the difficulty which women have in throwing off their
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: natural diffidence, that desire to escape publicity, which we have
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: inherited from generations of our foremothers, we have broken through that.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: We have faced hostile mobs at street corners because we
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: were told that we could not have that representation for
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: our taxes which men have won, unless we converted the
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: whole of the country to our side. Because we have
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: done this, we have been misrepresented, We have been ridiculed,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: We have had contempt poured upon us, and the ignorant
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: mob incited to offer us violence which we have faced
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: unarmed and unprotected by the safeguards which cabinet ministers have.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: I am here to take upon myself now, sir, as
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: I wish the prosecution had put upon me the full
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: responsibility for this agitation in its present phase. I want
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: to address you as a woman who has performed the
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: duties of a woman, and in addition has performed the
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: duties which ordinary men have to perform, by earning a
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: living for her children and educating them. I want to
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: make you realize that it is a point of honor
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: that if you decide, as I hope you will not
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: decide to bind us over, that we shall not sign
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: any undertaking, as the Member of Parliament did who was
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: before you yesterday. Perhaps his reason for signing that undertaking
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: may have been that the Prime Minister had given some
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: assurance to the people he claimed to represent that something
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: should be done for them. We have had no such assurance.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: So sir, if you decide against us to day to prison,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: we must go, because we feel we should be going
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: back to the hopeless condition this movement was and three
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: years ago, if we consented to be bound over to
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: keep the peace which we have never broken. If you
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: decide to bind us over, although the government have admitted
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: that we are political offenders, we shall be treated as
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: pickpockets and drunkards. And I want you, if you can,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: as a man, to realize what that means to women
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: like us. We are driven to do this. We are
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: determined to go on with this agitation because we feel
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: an honor bound just as it was the duty of
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: your forefathers. It is our duty to make this world
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: up better place for women than it is to day now. Sir,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: we have not wished to waste your time in any way.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: We have wished to make you realize that there is
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: another side to the case than that put before you
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: by the prosecution. We want you to use your power.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: I do not know what value there is in the
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: legal claims that have been put before you as to
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: your power to decide this case, but we want you, sir,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: if you will, to send us to be tried in
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: some place more suitable for the trial of political offenders
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: than an ordinary police court. You must realize how futile
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: it is to attempt to settle this question by binding
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: us over to keep the peace. You have tried it,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: It has failed. Others have tried to do it and
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: have failed. If you had power to send us to
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: prison not for six months, but for six years, for
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: sixteen years, or for the whole of our lives, the
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: government must not think that they could stop the sagitation.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: It would go on. Lastly, I want to draw your
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: attention to the self restraint which was shown by our
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: followers on the night of the thirteenth, after we had
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: been arrested. It only shows that our influence over them
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: is very great, because I think if they had yielded
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: to their natural impulses, there might have been a breach
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: of the peace. They were very indignant, but our words
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: have always been be patient, exercise self restraint, show our
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: soul called superiors that the criticism of women being hysterical
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: is not true. Use no violence, offer yourselves to the
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: violence of others. We are going to win. Our women
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: have taken that advice. If we are in prison, they
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: will continue to take that advice. Well, sir, that is
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: all I have to say to you. We are here
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: not because we are law breakers. We are here in
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: our efforts to become law makers. The angry red had
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: faded from mister Curtis Bennett's face, and whilst Missus Pankhurst
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: was speaking, he kept his hand up to it, and
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: at one point we saw it quiver, and for a
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: moment he hid his eyes. Some of the big, burly
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: policemen whom we knew so well, and who, except in
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: the raids when they were obliged to do their duty,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: were always so kind and jovial towards us were openly
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: in tears. Then Missus Drummond, looking paler and more serious
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: than is her, wont rose up to speak her turn.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Her voice was a few notes thinner and higher pitched,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: and like her words, it seemed to be stripped of
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: all emotion and to be instinct with the clearest and
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: most logical common sense. Not only what she said, but
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: her whole personality was so honest, sincere, and unaffected that
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: she seemed to add the one thing lacking to the
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: completeness of that presentment of the great unanswerable case for
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: woman's suffrage. Her concluding words were an assurance that the
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: agitation which was spreading and growing all over the country
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: would go on as before I can speak on good authority,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: she said, for we have left everything in working order,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: and we shall find the movement stronger than when we
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: left it, because the action which the government have taken
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: has fired the bosoms of women who are determined to
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: take up the flag that we have had to lay
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: down to day. When Missus Drummond had finished, mister Curtis
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Bennett began speaking quite cheerfully, and as though the whole
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: affair were an amusing discussion between friends, and had no
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: unpleasant side to it. During the first part of his speech,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: he reviewed the arguments on both sides of the case,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: and as he referred meanwhile to the pages on which
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: he had taken his notes, he so frequently smiled as
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: though they recalled amusing and rather pleasant memories to him,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: that many people made up their minds that he was
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: either about to stay a case for a higher court,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: as the defendants wished, or to discharge them altogether all
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: at once. However, his tone changed, and he began to
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: speak hurriedly, with lowered voice and increased severity of manner,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: and went on to say that there could be no
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: doubt that it was for that court, and that court alone,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: to deal with the offense for which the defendants had
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: been summoned, and that there could be no doubt but
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: that the handbill which the defendants circulated was liable to
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: cause something to occur which might then probably would and
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: in a breach of the piece. The Chief Commissioner of
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Police was bound to keep Parliament Square and the Vicinity
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: free and open, and the Commissioner of Police had felt
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: that it would be impossible to do that if crowds
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: assembled together in order to help and to see the
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: women rush the House of Commons. Therefore, each of the
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: two older defendants would be bound over in their own
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: recognances of one hundred pounds, and they must find two
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: charities in fifty pounds each to keep the piece for
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: twelve months, or in default, must undergo three months imprisonment.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: In the case of the younger defendant, her own recognances
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: would be fifty pounds, with two sureties of twenty five
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: pounds each, the alternative being ten weeks imprisonment Footnotes thirty. This,
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: as mister Jarvis afterwards admitted, was a mistake. Missus Pankhurst
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: really said that women had no representation in the House
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: of Commons. End of Chapter fifteen.