Latest / Historic Speeches of the UK House of Commons, Vol. 1 / 013 - Speech on women's suffrage 1905

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013 - Speech on women's suffrage 1905 · Historic Speeches of the UK House of Commons, Vol. 1

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  Speaker 1: Speech by James Keir Hardy. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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  Speaker 1: by Icy Jombo, speech given to the House of Commons
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  Speaker 1: on the eighteenth of May nineteen o five by James
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  Speaker 1: Keir Hardy. It is not my purpose to write a
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  Speaker 1: learned dissertation, or even an elaborate essay on the woman question.
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  Speaker 1: This has been done by men and women well qualified
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  Speaker 1: for the task, and doubtless will be again. My present
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  Speaker 1: object is to restate, in plain and homely language, the
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  Speaker 1: case for woman's suffrage. To deal with the woman question
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  Speaker 1: as a whole would involve a long inquiry into the
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  Speaker 1: causes responsible for the differences in the status of the sexes,
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  Speaker 1: including woman's economic position, the marriage laws, and our social polity.
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  Speaker 1: These are all subjects interwoven with the position of women,
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  Speaker 1: but they are beyond the scope of my ability, and
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  Speaker 1: for the moment I leave them aside and confine myself
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  Speaker 1: to the one question of their political enfranchisement. I do
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  Speaker 1: so mainly because that is a question ripe for settlement
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  Speaker 1: by legislation. The other questions hinted at may be left
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  Speaker 1: to evolve their own solution as time and chance determine.
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  Speaker 1: None of them are within the ken of politics, nor
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  Speaker 1: should they be brought into the political arena until women
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  Speaker 1: are in a position to influence equally with men, the
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  Speaker 1: creation of opinion upon them, and where necessary, the legislation
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  Speaker 1: which may be required to assist in solving them. John
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  Speaker 1: Stewart Mill declared it to have been one of his earliest,
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  Speaker 1: as it remained one of his strongest convictions, that the
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  Speaker 1: principles which regulate the existing social relations between the two sexes,
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  Speaker 1: the legal subordination of one sex to the other, is
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  Speaker 1: wrong in itself and now one of the chief hindrances
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  Speaker 1: to human improvement, and that it ought to be replaced
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  Speaker 1: by principles of perfect equality, admitting no power or privilege
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  Speaker 1: on the one side, nor disability on the other. I
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  Speaker 1: hold it to be true with those who say that
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  Speaker 1: the foundation upon which this equality is to be reared
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  Speaker 1: is the political enfranchisement of women. In sentiment, we have
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  Speaker 1: advanced somewhat since seventeen ninety, when a learned writer of
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  Speaker 1: the period explained that people who should not be included
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  Speaker 1: in the county franchise were those who lie under natural
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  Speaker 1: incapacities and therefore cannot exercise a sound discretion, or who
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  Speaker 1: are so much under the influence of others that they
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  Speaker 1: cannot have a will of their own In the choice
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  Speaker 1: of candidates of the former description are women, infants, idiots, lunatics,
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  Speaker 1: of the latter persons receiving arms and revenue offices. We
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  Speaker 1: do not now speak of women as being in this
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  Speaker 1: same category as idiots and lunatics, but for political purposes
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  Speaker 1: we treat them as if they were. No one seeks
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  Speaker 1: to deny the existence of differences between the sexes, differences subtle,
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  Speaker 1: deep seated, and ineradicable. But these being admitted, afford no
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  Speaker 1: justification for the usurpation by man of the right to
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  Speaker 1: say what duties and responsibilities woman may be allowed to
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  Speaker 1: undertake and what must be withheld from her because of
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  Speaker 1: her sex. Such a theory can only be upheld on
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  Speaker 1: the old tradition of the East, that woman is one
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  Speaker 1: of the lower animals over whom lordly man was given dominion.
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  Speaker 1: The harem is the logical outcome of this belief. It
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  Speaker 1: is only by removing the disabilities and restraints imposed upon woman,
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  Speaker 1: and permitting her to enter freely into competition with man
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  Speaker 1: in every sphere of human activity, that her true position
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  Speaker 1: and function in the economy of life will ultimately be settled.
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  Speaker 1: We can at present form no conception of what woman
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  Speaker 1: is capable of being or doing. We have no data
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  Speaker 1: upon which to base any real conclusions. Nowhere is woman
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  Speaker 1: treated as the free and equal companion of man amongst
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  Speaker 1: coloured peoples, living in a state of nature and in
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  Speaker 1: a tribal environment which has evolved itself, and wherein custom
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  Speaker 1: is the only law. The woman, though far from being
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  Speaker 1: the degraded creature which he has so often been pictured
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  Speaker 1: by superficial observers, is still her husband's drudge and frequently
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  Speaker 1: a part of his wealth. In the military state of
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  Speaker 1: social evolution, or the age of chivalry, as it has
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  Speaker 1: been dubbed by persons of a poetic temperament and a
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  Speaker 1: vivid imagination, woman is the weaker and more spiritualized sex,
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  Speaker 1: requiring to be protected by her lord and almost worshiped
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  Speaker 1: as a superior creation. Half angel half idiot aptly describes
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  Speaker 1: this case inception of woman. This is but a perverted
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  Speaker 1: way of declaring her inferiority. The homage paid to her
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  Speaker 1: is much like that we should pay to a child.
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  Speaker 1: In no sense is it a recognition of equality. Very
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  Speaker 1: often it is the exact opposite. In modern life we
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  Speaker 1: get back to the savage stage. Woman of the working
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  Speaker 1: class is again the drudge who does the menial work.
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  Speaker 1: Her husband works for and is dependent for the opportunity
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  Speaker 1: to work upon a master. His wife works for and
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  Speaker 1: is dependent for her livelihood too, a husband. That there
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  Speaker 1: are varying degrees of this feeling of subjection goes without saying.
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  Speaker 1: And I think it could be shown that the position
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  Speaker 1: of women, as of most other things, has always been better,
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  Speaker 1: more near an equality with man in Celtic than in
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  Speaker 1: non Celtic races or tribes. Thus, in Scotland a woman
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  Speaker 1: speaks of her husband as her man, whilst in Staffordshire
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  Speaker 1: is always spoken of as the master. The universality of
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  Speaker 1: this subjection of women is assumed by many as an
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  Speaker 1: infallible testimony to the truth of the theory that women
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  Speaker 1: must in some way be inferior to man. Were it
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  Speaker 1: not so, say these quidnunks, there would be some exceptions
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  Speaker 1: to prove the contrary. They overlook the one obvious explanation
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  Speaker 1: which explains everything motherhood. In the early days of the race,
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  Speaker 1: the days of the huntsmen and the warrior, when the
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  Speaker 1: spoils of war and the trophies of the chase were
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  Speaker 1: the only wealth of nations, child bearing must have been
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  Speaker 1: a serious handicap to the woman. Add to this the
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  Speaker 1: fact that war meant prisoners, and that from the very first,
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  Speaker 1: probably even when men captured in warfare were killed as
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  Speaker 1: an encumbrance, women, for reasons which will be understood without
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  Speaker 1: being stated, were spared by their captors. And coming down
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  Speaker 1: to later times when men captives were made slaves and
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  Speaker 1: women raiding became a favorite pastime, we can see explanation
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  Speaker 1: enough of the position which, in process of time woman
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  Speaker 1: came to occupy, and from which she is only now
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  Speaker 1: slowly and toilsomely emerging. Already we see how the intensity
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  Speaker 1: of the struggle for political recognition is developing in individual
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  Speaker 1: cases those qualities of mind and brain which man has
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  Speaker 1: been wont to assume as being his special monopoly. And
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  Speaker 1: from these cases we may infer how richly endowed the
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  Speaker 1: field of human thought will become when enriched by the
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  Speaker 1: products of the brains of men and women. Working together
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  Speaker 1: on terms of equality, and free from the debasing and
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  Speaker 1: sinister influences which subjection in any form imposes alike upon
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  Speaker 1: the subdued and the subduer. So true is it that
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  Speaker 1: one end of the chain which binds the slave is
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  Speaker 1: fastened round the life of his master, that the emancipation
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  Speaker 1: of women will also infallibly give freedom to the man.
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  Speaker 1: Curious are the changes which a quarter of a century
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  Speaker 1: produces in the political horizon. Questions arise no larger than
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  Speaker 1: a man's hand at first, and are driven by the
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  Speaker 1: force of agitation nearer the arena in which the political
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  Speaker 1: strife of the day is waged, and keep gathering size
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  Speaker 1: as they approach, until they obscure everything else. They are debated,
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  Speaker 1: wrangled over, and made leading issues at general elections, and
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  Speaker 1: even whilst the strife which their coming has caused waxes hot,
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  Speaker 1: they begin to move away from sight without having been resolved.
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  Speaker 1: Disestablishment and republicanism are questions which illustrate my meaning here,
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  Speaker 1: But so also does woman suffrage. In the days of
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  Speaker 1: the franchise agitations, the enfranchisement of woman promoted by Mill
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  Speaker 1: and strenuously supported by Forcet, doctor Pankhurst, and other leaders
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  Speaker 1: of reform promised to become a question of first political importance.
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  Speaker 1: But with the passing of the one and then of
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  Speaker 1: the other of these friends of the movement, leaving no
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  Speaker 1: successors to carry on their tradition, it gradually passed into
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  Speaker 1: semi obscurity. As it is again emerging and showing fresh vitality,
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  Speaker 1: it may not be amiss to briefly record its history,
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  Speaker 1: particularly as it connects itself with the various reform bills.
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  Speaker 1: In the Reform Act of eighteen thirty two, the word
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  Speaker 1: male was interpolated before persons. Never before, and never since,
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  Speaker 1: has the phrase male persons appeared in any statute of
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  Speaker 1: the realm. By this act, therefore, women were legally disenfranchised
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  Speaker 1: for the first time in the history of the English Constitution.
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  Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty one, Lord Brahm's Act was passed providing
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  Speaker 1: that the word man should always include woman, except where
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  Speaker 1: otherwise stated. That seemed to clear the ground and give
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  Speaker 1: women the same legal status as men, But alas in
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  Speaker 1: eighteen sixty seven, the Representation of the People Act came
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  Speaker 1: before the House, John Stuart Mill's amendment that it should
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  Speaker 1: be made expressly to include women was defeated, but so
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  Speaker 1: also was the amendment that the phrase male persons of
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  Speaker 1: eighteen thirty two should be replaced the word man was
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  Speaker 1: used instead. During the discussion, the Honorable John Denman, Justice
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  Speaker 1: of the Common Pleas, asked the following question why, instead
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  Speaker 1: of the words male person of the Act of eighteen
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  Speaker 1: thirty two the word man had been substituted in the
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  Speaker 1: present bill In the fifth clause, he found that, after
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  Speaker 1: saying that every man should be entitled to be registered,
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  Speaker 1: it proceeds to say, or a male person in any
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  Speaker 1: university who has passed any senior middle examination. In the
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  Speaker 1: light of Lord Braun's Act, if the Court of Queen's
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  Speaker 1: Bench had to decided tomorrow on the construction of these clauses,
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  Speaker 1: they would be constrained to hold that they conferred the
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  Speaker 1: suffrage on female persons as well as on males. The
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  Speaker 1: Government did not answer this question and passed the bill
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  Speaker 1: as it stood. It was thought therefore that women were
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  Speaker 1: now entitled to vote, and in Manchester five thousand, three
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  Speaker 1: hundred forty seven women got on the register as voters.
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  Speaker 1: In Salford one thousand, five hundred about were registered, and
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  Speaker 1: large numbers in other places. Great uncertainty prevailed as to
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  Speaker 1: how to treat them, but most revising barristers threw them out.
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  Speaker 1: The Manchester women consolidated their claims and appealed against the decision,
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  Speaker 1: and the case of Chalton versus Lyings was heard in
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  Speaker 1: eighteen sixty eight. The case was tried in the Court
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  Speaker 1: of Common Pleas with mister Coleridge, afterwards Lord Coleridge and
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  Speaker 1: the late doctor Pankhurst representing the women. It was argued
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  Speaker 1: that inasmuch as women had in the Middle Ages been
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  Speaker 1: recognized as voters by the state, and as that right
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  Speaker 1: had never been expressly taken away, therefore they had a
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  Speaker 1: prima facier right to vote. Further, it was contended that
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  Speaker 1: under Lord Brahm's Act referred to above, the Franchise Act
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  Speaker 1: of eighteen sixty seven, must apply to women, since the
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  Speaker 1: term used was men and not male persons as in
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  Speaker 1: the Act of eighteen thirty two. Despite this pleading, the
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  Speaker 1: judges decided that women had no statutory right to be
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  Speaker 1: recognized as citizens, and that until that right was expressly
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  Speaker 1: conferred upon them by act of Parliament, they must remain
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  Speaker 1: outside the pale of the franchise. In eighteen eighty four,
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  Speaker 1: mister Gladstone procured the rejection of the amendment to his
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  Speaker 1: County Franchise Bill which would have enfranchised women, by threatening
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  Speaker 1: to abandon the bill if the amendment was carried. In
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  Speaker 1: eighteen eighty nine came the case of Beresford Hope versus
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  Speaker 1: Lady Santurk, in which it was decided that women are
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  Speaker 1: incapacitated from being elected members of a county council. The
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  Speaker 1: case is important from the point of view of the
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  Speaker 1: franchise parliamentary question, because the judges quoted, approved and confirmed
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  Speaker 1: the decision. In the case of Chalton versus Lings, one
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  Speaker 1: of the judges, Lord Esher, Master of the Roles, in
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  Speaker 1: delivering his judgment, said, I take the first proposition to
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  Speaker 1: be that laid down by Justice Wills in the case
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  Speaker 1: of Chalton versus Lings. I take it that by neither
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  Speaker 1: the common law nor the Constitution of this country, from
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  Speaker 1: the beginning of the common law until now, can a
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  Speaker 1: woman be entitled to exercise any public function. Justice Wills
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  Speaker 1: said so in that case, and a more learned judge
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  Speaker 1: never lived. He took notice of the case of the
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  Speaker 1: Countess of Pembroke in the County of Westmolland, who was
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  Speaker 1: hereditary sheriff, which he says was an exceptional case. The
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  Speaker 1: cases of an overseer and a were before him. And
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  Speaker 1: what I deduce from his judgment is that for such
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  Speaker 1: somewhat obscure offices as these exercised, often in a remote
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  Speaker 1: part of the country where nobody else could have been
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  Speaker 1: found who could exercise them, women had been admitted into
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  Speaker 1: them by way of exception, and that striking out those exceptions,
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  Speaker 1: the act of voting in such matters being a public
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  Speaker 1: function prima facier, and according to the constitutional and common law,
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  Speaker 1: a woman cannot exercise it. But that case goes further.
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  Speaker 1: It says that this being the common law of England,
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  Speaker 1: when you have a statute which deals with the exercise
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  Speaker 1: of public functions, unless that statute expressly gives power to
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  Speaker 1: women to exercise them, it is to be taken that
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  Speaker 1: the true construction is that the powers given are confined
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  Speaker 1: to men, and that Lord Brahm's Act does not apply.
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  Speaker 1: The judges had in this case to interpret the Municipal
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  Speaker 1: Corporations Act, in which the word person is used throughout.
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  Speaker 1: In addition, there is an interpretation clause sixty third section
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  Speaker 1: which provides that for all purposes connected with and having
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  Speaker 1: reference to, the right to vote at municipal election, words
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  Speaker 1: in this Act importing the masculine gender include women. It
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  Speaker 1: was held that the right to be elected was not
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  Speaker 1: conferred by the Act, but only the right to vote,
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  Speaker 1: the word person not being regarded by the judges as
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  Speaker 1: including women. Lord Justice Pride, going so far as to say,
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  Speaker 1: I regard the sixty third section ascertaining both affirmatively and
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  Speaker 1: negatively the rights which have been conferred upon women, ascertaining
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  Speaker 1: them affirmatively by express statement and ascertaining them negatively by
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  Speaker 1: necessary implication. What is given to them is the right
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  Speaker 1: to vote. What is denied by the necessary implication are
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  Speaker 1: all the other rights which may be conferred by the statute.
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  Speaker 1: I do not regard the negative implication arising from that
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  Speaker 1: section sixty third as applying to the whole Act, as
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  Speaker 1: applying to crimes, or to the obligations on the duties
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  Speaker 1: of witnesses, or matters of that sort. But I regard
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  Speaker 1: it as applying to the rights granted by that statute.
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  Speaker 1: In Miss Hall's Case nineteen hundred, the right of a
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  Speaker 1: woman to become a law agent in Scotland was denied
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  Speaker 1: by the judges on the ground that person, when it
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  Speaker 1: is a case of exercising a public function, means male person.
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  Speaker 1: The judges relied on the case of Chalton versus Lings
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  Speaker 1: as the ground of their decision. Now, in view of
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  Speaker 1: these decisions, the situation is quite clear. A woman, for
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  Speaker 1: the purposes of citizenship has no legal existence in England
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  Speaker 1: and has to be created before she can be enfranchised.
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  Speaker 1: To the uninitiated, this may appear absurd and ridiculous, but
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  Speaker 1: it is the plain, unvarnished truth. Nonetheless, a woman may
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  Speaker 1: be a criminal, a queen, a tax and rate payer,
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  Speaker 1: and the owner of property, but she may not be
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  Speaker 1: a citizen of Great Britain and Ireland until a right
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  Speaker 1: to become such has been created by Act of Parliament.
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  Speaker 1: If only people would bear this fact in mind, they
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  Speaker 1: would be saved from much error when considering her claims
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  Speaker 1: to the franchise. During the past two sessions of Parliament,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: a measure has been introduced at the instigation of the
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  Speaker 1: Independent Labor Party, having this for its object. It is
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: a bill of one clause which reads as follows. In
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: all acts relating to the qualifications and registration of voters
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  Speaker 1: or persons entitled or claiming to be registered and to
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  Speaker 1: vote in the election of members of Parliament. Wherever words
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  Speaker 1: occur which imports the masculine gender, the same shall be
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  Speaker 1: held to include women for all purposes connected with and
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: having reference to, the right to be registered as voters
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  Speaker 1: and to vote in such election. Any law or usage
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: to say the contrary. Notwithstanding, there are those who see
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: in this innocent looking measure a sinister attempt to extend
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  Speaker 1: and strengthen the property qualification, and by enfranchising propertied women
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: enable these to range themselves on the side of the
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: reactionaries in opposing the enfranchisement of working class women. Needless
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: to add, a strong section of the liberal press adopts
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: and enforces this misstatement with all the ingenuity which a
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: fertile and untrained imagination can lend to a bad cause.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: One would have thought the record of the Liberal Party
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: in connection with woman suffrage would have chastened the ardor
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: of these organs of liberalism which are opposing this bill
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: in the interests of true female suffrage. But the gift
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: of perspective is rare in politics, and a strict desire
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: for accuracy and inconvenient failing when there are party ends
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  Speaker 1: to serve. The late mister Gladstone, as already stated, threatened
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: to a abandon his reform bill in eighteen eighty four
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  Speaker 1: if the woman's enfranchisement amendment were carried. There have been
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: three conservative premiers who have publicly committed themselves in speech.
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  Speaker 1: At least none of them have acted to this reform,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: which has yet to find the first Liberal premier who
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: will say a word in its favor. Any One who
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: takes the trouble to read the bill quoted above will
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: note that it does not propose any franchise qualification, but
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: asks that, whatever the qualification, women shall enjoy the franchise
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: on the same basis as men. It is a bill
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: which only proposes to do one thing, and that is
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: to remove the sex disability which debars a woman, because
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: she is a woman, from becoming a voter. If the
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: qualification for men be a property one, it shall be
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: the same for women, no more and no less. And
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: if it be manhood suffrage, it shall also be a womanhood.
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  Speaker 1: A woman may have the brain of a bacon, the
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: talent of a Shakespeare, the eloquence of a Demosthenes, and
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: the wealth of a creesus all combined. But being a woman,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: she may not vote for a member of parliament. And
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: this bill proposes to remove the disability which stands in
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: the way of her becoming a citizen, to remove her
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  Speaker 1: from the sphere of idiots, lunatics and paupers, and to
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: recognize that woman, though she be, she is a human
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: being who may become a citizen. And now let us ascertain,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: if we can, what women would be enfranchised under the
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: terms of the bill quoted above. There are four main
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: heads under which the franchise qualifications fall to be grouped.
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  Speaker 1: One owners of property, two householders, three lodgers four service.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: One set of opponents of the Woman's Enfranchisement Bill say
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: that it would be from classes one and three that
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: the new citizens would be drawn, which, if true, would
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: leave working class women out in the cold. Few working
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: women own property, and not many earn wages enough to
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: pay the four shillings a week for unfurnished apartments, which
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: is necessary to qualify for the lodger franchise. Rich men,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: they assert, would be able to put their wives and
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: daughters on as voters and out voters, which would tend
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: to greatly increase an evil which is already of sufficient magnitude. Fortunately,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: we already have an index to guide us as to
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: the extent to which this statement is true. Even were
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: the worst fears of our opponents to be realized. There
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: are roughly seven million electors in Great Britain, of whom
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: two hundred and twenty thousand are lodger voters. A very
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: large proportion of these are workmen, and it is doubtful
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: whether rich men's sons qualifying from their father's property, account
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: for more than twenty thousand of the whole. Even were
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: alike number of daughters to be put upon the voters,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: they would not save in those few constituencies where the
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: property vote is already overwhelming, and where therefore they could
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: do no harm. Save in these few cases, I say,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: they would not constitute an appreciable fraction of any constituency.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: As for the out voters, we may surely anticipate with
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: some degree of assurance that the coming liberal government will
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: at least put an end to their existence, and so
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: we need not worry ourselves about them one way or
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: the other. In so far as the service franchise will
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: give women the right to vote, those brought in will
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: be working women, and we may pit these against the
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: daughters of the rich. It will, I think, be concluded
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: that the great bulk of those who will be enfranchised
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: by the bill will be householders. And here I repeat,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: we have reliable data upon which to base our conclusions.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: Women may not be elected to a town or borough council,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: but she may vote in the election of sane councils.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Owing to a difference of opinion in the ranks of
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: the Independent Labor Party over the Woman's Enfranchisement Bill, it
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: was decided to make a serious effort to obtain from
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: the municipal registers some guidance as to the class of
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: women already registered as municipal voters and who would be
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: entitled to be placed upon the parliamentary list should the
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: bill become law. Accordingly, a circular was issued to every
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: branch of the Party, some three hundred in all, containing
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: the following instructions. We address to your branch a very
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: urgent request to ascertain from your local voting registers the
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: following particulars. First, the total number of electors in the ward.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: Second number of women voters, Third number of women voters
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: of the working class, Fourth number of women voters not
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: of the working class. It is impossible to lay down
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: a strict definition of the term working class, but for
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: this purpose it will be sufficient to regard as working
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: class women those who work for wages, who are domestically employed,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: who are supported by the earnings of wage earning children.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: The returns to hand are not yet complete, but they
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: comprise fifty towns or parts of towns, and show the
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: following results. Total electors on the municipal registers three hundred
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: seventy two thousand, three hundred twenty one. Total women voters
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: fifty nine thousand, nine hundred twenty working women voters as
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: defined above, forty nine thousand, four hundred ten, non working
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: women voters ten thousand, five hundred ten. Percentage of working
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: women voters eighty two point five. As will be seen
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: at a glance, the proportion of women voters on the
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: registers tested for the purposes of the above return, and
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: these were not in any way selected, but were included
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: because they were in the ward or parish within which
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: the branch was situated, is equal to one sixth of
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: the whole, assuming, as we may fairly do, that the
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: same proportion obtains for the country as a whole. It
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: would give us one million, two hundred fifty thousand women voters,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: of whom eighty two percent are working women, and every
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: one of whom would at once be placed upon the
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: parliamentary register. Were the bill now before Parliament to become law. Here,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: then we have it proved beyond cavil or question, that
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: whatever the Woman's Enfranchisement Bill might do for propertied women,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: it would, for a certainty and at once put eight
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: hundred fifty thousand working women on the parliamentary voters rolls
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: of Great Britain, and a like proportion in Ireland. The
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: fact speaks for itself. The Woman's Enfranchisement Bill does not
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: concern itself with franchise qualifications. It is for the removal
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: of the sex disqualification only. And yet on the present
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: franchise qualifications and reactionary registration laws, it would at once
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: lift one million, two hundred and fifty thousand British women
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: from the political sphere to which idiots, lunatics and paupers
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: are consigned, and transform them into free citizens, and open
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: wide the door whereby in the future every man and
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: every woman may march side by side into the full
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: enjoyment of adult suffrage. Hitherto I have been dealing with
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: those opponents whose objection to the bill is that it
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: does not go far enough, and who prefer waiting for
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: a measure of adult suffrage, under which every man and
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: every woman, married and singularlike shall be enfranchised at one stroke.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Now I have had some experience of politics and of
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: political methods, and I give it as my deliberate opinion
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: that nothing would so much hasten the coming of that
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: much to be desired time as would the passing of
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: the woman's Enfranchisement Bill. If the workers were prepared to
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: lay every other reform on the shelf and begin an
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: agitation for adult suffrage, they might, if specially fortunate, be
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: successful in getting it. About the year nineteen twenty nine,
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: manhood's suffrage could probably be secured almost at once and
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: for the asking. But the complete enfranchisement of all men
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: and all women at once would be resisted bitterly by
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: all parties, and the main difficulty in the way would
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: be the enfranchisement of all women married and living with
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: their husbands, as well as single. The leap from what
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: is now to what this proposes is too great for
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: the mind of the British elector to grasp, and not
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: by any means the least of the opposition would come
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: from the working classes. Reformers gain nothing by shutting their
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: eyes to facts which stare up at them from every part.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: I speak what most people know to be true when
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: I say that the chief obstacle to reform of any
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: kind in England is the conservative, plodding, timid of the
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: average man. Hence the reason why all our reforms have
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: come to us not leaping and bounding, but slowly and hesitatingly.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: Even the franchise, such as it is, has been dribbled
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: out to us in almost homeopathic doses. This difficulty applies
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: to women's enfranchisement in a special degree. The male man,
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: even he of the working classes, will not lightly or
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: all at once, part with the authority which has so
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: long been his and admit that the wife of his
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: bosom is his political equal. But once women are admitted
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: to citizenship, and some women become voters, the male mind
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: will insensibly accustom itself to the idea of woman citizenship,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: and the way be thus prepared for adult suffrage, complete
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: and unrestricted by sex, poverty, or marriage. To those who
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: are opposed on principle to women having the vote at all,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: I have little to say. These I find easier to
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: pity than to reason with. But when they foresee the
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: deluge following upon the enfranchisement of women, I refer them
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: to the colonies. There women are citizens and voters, but
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: they have not, because of that, ceased to be wives,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: even housewives, or mothers. Their outlook on life has been
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: a little broadened by the possession of the vote, which
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: willy nilly forces them to interest themselves somewhat in political
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: and social questions. They are thus in a fair way
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: to become better companions to their husbands, and and I
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: say this with deep conviction, better mothers. Women whose circle
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: of interests is circumscribed by her pots, pans and scrubbing brushes,
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: varied by an occasional gossip with a neighbor or quarrel
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: with her husband, can never, however, affectionate be other than
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: a curb upon the opening eagerly questioning intelligence of her children.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Broaden the outlook of the mother, and you open a
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: new world for childhood to grow in, and bind many
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: a wild, wayward youth to his home life, who is
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: now driven out into the hard world for lack of
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: that sympathetic, intelligent companionship which an educated and enlightened mother
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: can alone supply. Colonial statesmen and social reformers all admit
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: that woman's influence in the sphere of politics has been
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: healthy and quickening. And as it has been there, so
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: undoubtedly would it be here. The half angel, half idiot
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: period is over. In the woman's world. She is fighting
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: her way into every sphere of human activity. Her labour
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: is coming into competition with that of man in nearly
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: every department of industry, in the learned professions, she is
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: forcing herself to the front by sheer determination and force
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: of intellect in a way that will not be denied.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: Sooner or later, men will be compelled to treat with
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: her and recognize her as a co worker, and they
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: could not begin better than by admitting her right to
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: be a co voter. Those who prate so glibly of
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: adult suffrage might surely learn something of men's opinion of
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: women by taking note of the way in which lawyers
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: and doctors are resisting her encroachments upon their preserves. A
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: woman may be Queen of England, but she may not
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: enter the profession from which lord chancellors are drawn. The
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: enfranchisement of women is not a party question. Its supporters
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: and opponents are distributed over all parties. The measure is
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: again coming well within the sphere of practical politics, and
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: it is for women to see that it is kept
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: there until a settlement is reached. If they will, as
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: I think, they should, make it not a test but
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: the test question at elections and resolutely refuse to work
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: for or in any way countenance any candidate who is
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: not wholeheartedly with them, they will. If not in this parliament,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: then certainly in the next secure the passage of a
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: measure through the House of Commons at least which will
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: place them on terms of political equality with men. If
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: this comes as part of a measure for giving complete
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: adult suffrage, well and good, but political equality, they should
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: insist upon whatever the conditions of that equality may be. Disraeligh,
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: speaking on this question in the House of Commons, said,
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: I say that in a country governed by a woman,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: where you allow women to form part of the other
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: estate of the realm peeresses in their own right. For example,
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: where you allow a woman not only to hold land,
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: but to be a lady of the manner and hold
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: legal courts where a woman by law may be a
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: churchwarden and overseer of the poor. I do not see
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: where she has so much to do with the state
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: and church on what reasons, if you come to write,
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: she has not a right to vote. And with these
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: words I conclude end of speech.