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

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty two of The Suffragette, The History of the
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  Speaker 1: Woman's Militant Suffrage Movement by E. Sylvia Pankhurst. This LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Twenty two October nineteen
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  Speaker 1: hundred nine to January nineteen ten arrest of Lady Constance
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  Speaker 1: Lytton and others at Newcastle. Suffragettes attacked at Abernethy. Hose
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  Speaker 1: pipe played on Miss Davison in strange ways, jail Manchester,
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  Speaker 1: Mister Asquith at the Albert Hall. Whilst our comrades were
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  Speaker 1: thus enduring agonies in prison. Protest meetings were being held
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  Speaker 1: in all parts of the country. The Daily News said
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  Speaker 1: of the people in our movement, they are no longer
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  Speaker 1: men and women, They are a whirlwind. During the first
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  Speaker 1: three days of forcible feeding, one thousand, two hundred pounds
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  Speaker 1: was collected. At a great demonstration in the Albert Hall
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  Speaker 1: on October seventh, a further two thousand, three hundred pounds
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  Speaker 1: was subscribed, and the fifty thousand found campaign fund being complete,
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  Speaker 1: a fund of one hundred thousand was started. At this meeting.
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  Speaker 1: A procession of women who had already gone through the
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  Speaker 1: hunger strike marched up to the platform carrying the purple,
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  Speaker 1: white and green tri colored flags of the Union, and
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  Speaker 1: here Missus Pankhurst, who was on the eve of her
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  Speaker 1: departure for America, decorated them with medals and recognition of
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  Speaker 1: their services to the cause. The scene was one of
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  Speaker 1: the most tremendous enthusiasm. It was one which none of
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  Speaker 1: those present will ever forget. On October ninth, a great
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  Speaker 1: political pageant was held in Edinburgh when a procession of women,
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  Speaker 1: led by Scotch pipers and Missus Drummond in her general's
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  Speaker 1: uniform a stride of prancing charger, marched through the streets,
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  Speaker 1: accompanied by a number of tableaux representing the figures of
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  Speaker 1: heroic women famous in Scottish history. On October fourth, Lord Morley,
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  Speaker 1: as Chancellor of the Victoria University, visited Manchester to open
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  Speaker 1: the university's new chemical laboratory. Deeply moved by the sufferings
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  Speaker 1: of Missus Lee and her comrades in Winston Green Jail,
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  Speaker 1: Miss Rona Robinson m s C. And Miss Dora Marsden
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  Speaker 1: b A, both graduates of the university and the former
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  Speaker 1: a subscriber, also to the new laboratory, attended in their
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  Speaker 1: academic robes and with Miss Mary Garthorpe, advanced down the
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  Speaker 1: central aisle of the Whitworth Hall of the University just
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  Speaker 1: as Lord Morley was about to speak, each one raising
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  Speaker 1: a hand in appeal, they said, in concert, my Lord,
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  Speaker 1: our women are in prison. The rowdiness of the young
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  Speaker 1: men's students of our British universities is time honored. There
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  Speaker 1: are most deafening shouts and yells and practical jokes, always
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  Speaker 1: in evidence that functions such as this are invariably received
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  Speaker 1: with amused tolerance by the authorities. Mister Asqorth himself, when
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  Speaker 1: addressing the students of the university of which he as Chancellor,
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  Speaker 1: did not disdain to wait with a smile until their
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  Speaker 1: play was done before he could address them. Nevertheless, the earnest,
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  Speaker 1: quietly spoken words of these three young women were scarcely
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  Speaker 1: a when they were pounced upon by a number of
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  Speaker 1: strange men, who dragged them out of the hall, and
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  Speaker 1: as soon as they were lost to sight by the
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  Speaker 1: audience fell to striking, pommeling and pinching them as they
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  Speaker 1: pushed them into the street. The passers by rushed up
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  Speaker 1: to know what had happened, and at once the police
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  Speaker 1: ordered the three women to move on. They replied that
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  Speaker 1: they would not leave until their graduates, caps and other
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  Speaker 1: belongings which had been torn from them were restored, and
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  Speaker 1: until the names of the men who had ejected them
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  Speaker 1: were given. Thereupon, without further argument, the police seized them
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  Speaker 1: and dragged them to the police station, where they were
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  Speaker 1: accused of disorderly conduct and abusive language in Oxford Street.
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  Speaker 1: These ridiculous charges could not be substantiated, and were afterwards
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  Speaker 1: withdrawn by the Chief Constable of Manchester and the Vice
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  Speaker 1: Chancellor of the University. Such women as Missus Bains and
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  Speaker 1: Missus Lee, both capable of the fieryest zeal and the
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  Speaker 1: most reckless heroism spurred on by stern first hand knowledge
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  Speaker 1: of the crushing handicaps with which the women wage earner
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  Speaker 1: has to contend and the terrible disabilities which are riveted
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  Speaker 1: upon her, had found it not difficult to become rebels.
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  Speaker 1: The torture of women in prison was now making it
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  Speaker 1: easy for gentler and happier spirits to cast aside also
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  Speaker 1: the mere going on deputations and asking of questions, and,
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  Speaker 1: whilst doing hurt to none, yet by symbolic acts, to
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  Speaker 1: shadow forth the violence that coercion always Breeds. On October ninth,
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  Speaker 1: mister Lloyd George was to speak at Newcastle, and the
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  Speaker 1: town was prepared as though for a revolution. Police and
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  Speaker 1: detectives were to be seen in hundreds, and great barriers
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  Speaker 1: were erected across the streets. The night before the meeting,
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  Speaker 1: twelve women met quietly together to lay their plans for
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  Speaker 1: opposing these tremendous forces. Amongst them was Lady Constance Lytton,
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  Speaker 1: who had already served one imprisonment for the cause in
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  Speaker 1: the previous February, and who, as daughter and sister of
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  Speaker 1: an English speer, wished to place herself side by side
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  Speaker 1: with Missus Lee, the working woman who was being tortured
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  Speaker 1: in Birmingham to do what she had done, prepared to
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  Speaker 1: suffer the same penalty. Missus j E. M. Brelsford, who
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  Speaker 1: had joined the Woman's Social and Political Union but a
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  Speaker 1: few weeks before, was another who had come forward to
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  Speaker 1: bear her share in this fight. It was Missus Bralford's husband, who,
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  Speaker 1: with mister Nevinson, had recently thrown up his post as
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  Speaker 1: leader writer to the Daily News because of his sympathy
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  Speaker 1: with the suffragettes. Amongst these women were also two hospital nurses,
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  Speaker 1: whilst two of the others, Miss Kathleen Brown and Miss
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  Speaker 1: Dorothy Shallard, had already won their way out of prison
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  Speaker 1: through the hunger strike. Next night, whilst vast throngs of
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  Speaker 1: people lining the streets, and the police were masked in
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  Speaker 1: their thousands to guard from them, the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
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  Speaker 1: the Son of the People, as he called himself, the
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  Speaker 1: twelve women quietly proceeded to do their deeds. It was
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  Speaker 1: rumored that mister Lloyd George was to stay with Sir
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  Speaker 1: Walter Runsman, and seeing the latter gentleman's motor car driving
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  Speaker 1: through the streets, Lady Constance Lytton threw a stone at it,
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  Speaker 1: carefully aiming at their radiator, in order that without injuring
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  Speaker 1: any one, she might strike the car. Miss Dorothy Pethick
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  Speaker 1: and Miss Kiddy Marion entered the General post Office, and,
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  Speaker 1: having carefully selected a window in the neighborhood of which
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  Speaker 1: there was no one to be hurt, they went out
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  Speaker 1: and cast their stones through it, with a cry of
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  Speaker 1: boats for women. A number of other women were also
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  Speaker 1: arrested for similar acts. Missus Brelsford walked quietly up to
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  Speaker 1: one of the police barriers and stood resting an innocent
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  Speaker 1: looking bouquet of chrysanthemums upon it. Suddenly the flowers fell
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  Speaker 1: to the ground, disclosing an axe, which she raised and
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  Speaker 1: let fall with one dull thud on the wooden bar.
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  Speaker 1: It was a symbolic act of revolution, and like her comrades,
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  Speaker 1: she was dragged away by the police by direct order
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  Speaker 1: of the Home Office. Bail was refused, and eight of
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  Speaker 1: these suffragettes were kept in the police court else from
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  Speaker 1: Saturday until Monday, without an opportunity of undressing, without a mattress,
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  Speaker 1: and with nothing but a rug in which to wrap
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  Speaker 1: themselves at night. Whilst the women who had thus been
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  Speaker 1: lodged in prison had been making their protest outside mister
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  Speaker 1: Lloyd George's meeting, there were men who were speaking for them. Within.
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  Speaker 1: As the Chancellor of the Exchequer was running through the
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  Speaker 1: list of taxes in the budget, a man complained that
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  Speaker 1: there was no tax on stomach pumps. The whole house
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  Speaker 1: rose at that, and the man was violently ejected. Many
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  Speaker 1: others followed his example. Mister Lloyd George taunted them by saying,
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  Speaker 1: there are many ways of earning a living, and I
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  Speaker 1: think this is the most objectionable of them, and by
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  Speaker 1: asking are there any more of these hirelings? Evidently he
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  Speaker 1: thought that there were no men disinterested enough to support
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  Speaker 1: the cause of women unless they received pay for it
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  Speaker 1: Note forty two. On Monday, whilst the other women received
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  Speaker 1: sentences varying from fourteen days to one month's hard labor,
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  Speaker 1: Lady Constance Lytton and Missus Brailford were ordered to be
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  Speaker 1: bound over to be of good behavior, and on refusing,
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  Speaker 1: were sent to prison in the second division for one month.
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  Speaker 1: The authorities were evidently very loth to convict these two ladies,
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  Speaker 1: one of them because of her rank and the other
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  Speaker 1: because of her own and her husband's association with the
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  Speaker 1: Liberal Party, but both were determined to stand by their
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  Speaker 1: comrades and steadfastly refused to express any regret for what
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  Speaker 1: they had done. Their hope that their courageous action might
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  Speaker 1: save Missus Lee and the other Birmingham prisoners from further
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  Speaker 1: suffering proved to be vain, and on Wednesday, October thirteenth,
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  Speaker 1: Lady Constance Lytton and Missus Brailford, both of whom had
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  Speaker 1: refused food, were released, after having been imprisoned for no
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  Speaker 1: more than two and a half days. Mister Gladstone asserted
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  Speaker 1: that in deciding to release them he had not been
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  Speaker 1: in any way influenced by regard for their position, but
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  Speaker 1: that they had been turned out of prison on purely
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  Speaker 1: medical grounds. It was indeed true that Lady Constance was
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  Speaker 1: exceedingly fragile and delicate, and that she suffered from a
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  Speaker 1: slight heart affectation, but missus Brailford protested that she herself
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  Speaker 1: was perfectly well and strong. The eight other women were
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  Speaker 1: all forcibly fed, and all but two were retained in
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  Speaker 1: prison till the end of their sentence. In most cases
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  Speaker 1: the nasal tube was used. It always caused headache and sickness.
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  Speaker 1: The nostril soon became terribly inflamed, and every one of
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  Speaker 1: the women lost weight and suffered from great and growing weakness.
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  Speaker 1: On Saturday, October sixteenth, mister Winston Churchill was to speak
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  Speaker 1: at an open air gathering at Abernethy, some sixteen miles
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  Speaker 1: from Dundee. The w s p U had no intention
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  Speaker 1: of heckling him or creating any disturbance, for after much
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  Speaker 1: pressing and a lengthy correspondence, he had agreed to fulfill
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  Speaker 1: a promise made to the woman's Freedom League in the
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  Speaker 1: previous January to receive a woman's suffrage deputation on the
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  Speaker 1: following Monday. Nevertheless, the occasion was thought a suitable one
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  Speaker 1: for distributing suffrage literature and for holding a meeting somewhere
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  Speaker 1: in the neighborhood. ADELA Pankhurst, Missus Archdale, the daughter of Brussel,
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  Speaker 1: the founder of the great liberal newspaper The Scotsman, Missus
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  Speaker 1: Frank Corbett, the sister in law of a Member of Parliament,
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  Speaker 1: and and a Sea Jolly accordingly decided to motor over there.
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  Speaker 1: They started off on a crisp, bright autumn day, the
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  Speaker 1: clouds high, the sun shining in the trees all turning gold,
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  Speaker 1: and the little frost sparkles gleaming on the good hard road.
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  Speaker 1: Everything began auspiciously, but before long they were held up
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  Speaker 1: by a punctured tire. Owing to this delay, they lost
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  Speaker 1: the opportunity of giving out leaflets to the people as
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  Speaker 1: they arrived, for the audience had already entered the big
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  Speaker 1: tent where the speaking was to take place when the
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  Speaker 1: suffragettes drove up. Standing in the road were some thirty
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  Speaker 1: or forty men, all wearing the yellow rosettes of official
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  Speaker 1: liberal stewards, and as the car slowed down, they rushed
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  Speaker 1: furiously towards it, shouting and tearing up sods from the
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  Speaker 1: road and pelting the women with them. One man pulled
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  Speaker 1: out a knife and began to cut the tires, whilst
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  Speaker 1: the others feverishly pulled the loose pieces off with their fingers.
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  Speaker 1: These suffragettes tried to quiet them with a few words
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  Speaker 1: of explanation, but their only reply was to pull the
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  Speaker 1: hood of the motor over the woman's heads, and then
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  Speaker 1: to beat it and beat until it was broken in
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  Speaker 1: several places. Then they tore at the women's clothes and
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  Speaker 1: tried to pull them out of the car, whilst the
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  Speaker 1: son of the gentlemen in whose grounds the meeting was
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  Speaker 1: being held, then drove up in another motor and threw
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  Speaker 1: a shower of pepper in the woman's eyes. The shouts
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  Speaker 1: of the men reached the tent where mister Churchill was speaking,
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  Speaker 1: and numbers of people flocked out and watched the scene
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  Speaker 1: from over the hedge. But only two gentlemen had the
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  Speaker 1: courage to come to the aid of the women, and
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  Speaker 1: their efforts availed little against the large band of stewards.
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  Speaker 1: At last, fearing that his motor would be entirely wrecked.
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  Speaker 1: The driver put on full speed and drove away. The
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  Speaker 1: only excuse for the stewards who took part in this
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  Speaker 1: extraordinary occurrence is that many of them were intoxicated. On Monday.
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  Speaker 1: As he had promised, mister Churchill received the deputation from
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  Speaker 1: the Women's Freedom League. He then entirely departed from what
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  Speaker 1: he had said during the elections, both in Manchester and
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  Speaker 1: at Dundee itself. In Manchester, when asked what he would
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  Speaker 1: do to help to secure the enfranchisement of women, he
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  Speaker 1: had said, I will try my best as and when
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  Speaker 1: occasion offers. He had added that the women's suffragists had
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  Speaker 1: now got behind them a great popular demand, and that
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  Speaker 1: their movement was assuming the same character as franchise movements
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  Speaker 1: have previously assumed. In Dundee, he had said that women's
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  Speaker 1: suffrage would be a real practical issue at the next
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  Speaker 1: general election, and that he thought that the next Parliament
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  Speaker 1: ought to see the gratification of the women's claim. Now
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  Speaker 1: that no election was in prospect, he said, looking back
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  Speaker 1: over the last four years, I am bound to say
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  Speaker 1: I think your cause has marched backwards. He further said
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  Speaker 1: that the mass of people still remained to be converted,
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  Speaker 1: and that so far as he could see, women's enfranchisement
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  Speaker 1: could not figure either in the program of any great
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  Speaker 1: political party or in the election address of any prominent man,
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  Speaker 1: and that until militant tactics were discontinued, he himself would
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  Speaker 1: render no assistance to the cause. A more flagrant example
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  Speaker 1: of political dishonesty than that which these conflicting statements of
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  Speaker 1: mister Churchill's presented, it would be difficult to find, and
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  Speaker 1: not merely the suffragettes, but the people of Dundee freely
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  Speaker 1: expressed their disapproval. On Tuesday, mister Churchill was to speak
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  Speaker 1: in the Kinnaired Hall, and huge crowds then filled the streets, and,
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  Speaker 1: in spite of the tremendous force of police, the barricades
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  Speaker 1: were stormed, led by Missus Corbett, Miss Joaquim and Missus Archdale.
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  Speaker 1: They shouted votes for women and rushed again and again
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  Speaker 1: at the doors of the hall. The three women who
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  Speaker 1: led the crowds were arrested, but the storm still went on.
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  Speaker 1: ADELA Pankhurst and Miss C. Jolly, who had lain concealed
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  Speaker 1: there since the previous Sunday had raised the cry votes
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  Speaker 1: for women in a little dark room, the windows of
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  Speaker 1: which overlooked the large hall. After a tussle with the
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  Speaker 1: police and stewarts, which lasted three quarters of an hour,
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  Speaker 1: they were arrested and with the three who had been
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  Speaker 1: taken in the street, were eventually sent to prison for
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  Speaker 1: ten They immediately commenced the hunger strike and were set
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  Speaker 1: free on Sunday, twenty fourth October, after having gone without
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  Speaker 1: food for five and a half days. Whilst they were
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  Speaker 1: in prison, huge crowds came to the gates every night
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  Speaker 1: to cheer them, and on the next night after their release,
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  Speaker 1: the men have Dundee organized a meeting of protest in
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  Speaker 1: the Canared Hall. Meanwhile, four suffragettes were suffering the torture
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  Speaker 1: of forcible feeding in Strange Ways jail, Manchester. They had
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  Speaker 1: been arrested in connection with a meeting held by mister
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  Speaker 1: Runsomen at Ratcliffe and sentenced to one month's imprisonment with
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  Speaker 1: hard labor on October twenty first. They had gone into
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  Speaker 1: prison on the Thursday and had begun the hunger strike
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  Speaker 1: at once, and on Friday the doctors and wardresses came
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  Speaker 1: to feed them by force. Miss Emily Wilding. Davison urged
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  Speaker 1: that the operation was illegal, but she was seized and
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  Speaker 1: forced down on her bed. The scene which followed, she says,
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  Speaker 1: will haunt me with its horror all my life, and
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  Speaker 1: is almost indescribable. Each time it happened she felt she
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  Speaker 1: could not possibly live through it again. On Monday, a
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  Speaker 1: wardress put her into an empty cell next door to
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  Speaker 1: her own, and there she found that instead of one
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  Speaker 1: plank bed, there were two. She saw in a flash away.
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  Speaker 1: To escape the torture, she hastily pulled down the two
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  Speaker 1: bed boards and laid them end to end upon the floor,
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  Speaker 1: one touching the door, the other the opposite wall, and
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  Speaker 1: as the door opened inwards, she thus hoped to prevent
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  Speaker 1: any one entering. A space of a foot or more, however, remained,
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  Speaker 1: but she jammed in her stool, her shoes, and her
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  Speaker 1: hair brush, and sat down holding this wedge firm. Soon
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  Speaker 1: the wardress returned, unlocked the door and pushed it sharply,
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  Speaker 1: but it would not move. Looking through the spy hole,
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  Speaker 1: she discovered the reasoning called open the door, but the
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  Speaker 1: prisoner would not budge. After some threats and coaxing, the
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  Speaker 1: window of her cell was broken the nozzle of a
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  Speaker 1: hose pipe was poked through and the water was turned
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  Speaker 1: full upon her. She clung to the bed boards with
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  Speaker 1: all her strength, gasping for breath, until a voice called out,
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  Speaker 1: quick stop, no more, no more. She sat there, drenched
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  Speaker 1: and shivering, still crouching on the bed boards, the water
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  Speaker 1: six inches deep around her. After a time they decided
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  Speaker 1: to take the heavy iron door off its hinges, and
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  Speaker 1: when this was done, a warder rushed in and seized her, saying,
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  Speaker 1: as he did so, you ought to be horsewhipped for this.
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  Speaker 1: Now her clothes were torn off, she was wrapped in blankets,
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  Speaker 1: put into an invalid's chair, and rushed off to the hospital,
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  Speaker 1: there to be plunged into a hot bath and rubbed down.
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  Speaker 1: And then, still gasping and shivering miserably, she was put
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  Speaker 1: into bed between blankets with a hot bottle. At six
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  Speaker 1: p m. On Thursday, she was released. Meanwhile, the whole
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  Speaker 1: country had heard of the incident, and an outcry had
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  Speaker 1: been raised. A correspondent wrote that he had seen a
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  Speaker 1: host pipe played on drunken stokers at sea. They were
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  Speaker 1: Norwegian stokers. The officer would not have dared to do
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  Speaker 1: it had they been English, but the passengers had intervened
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  Speaker 1: at what they felt to be revolting in unjustifiable brutality.
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  Speaker 1: The thought of turning that fearful force of ice cold
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  Speaker 1: water upon a woman already weak from several days of
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  Speaker 1: fasting was horrible, indeed to anyone who realized what it meant.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Gladstone himself admitted that the visiting committee who had
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  Speaker 1: ordered it were guilty of a grave error of judgment,
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  Speaker 1: and ordered the discharge of Miss Davison. But later on
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  Speaker 1: he addressed a letter to the officials of Strangeways Jail
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  Speaker 1: through the Prison Commissioners, expressing his appreciation of the way
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  Speaker 1: in which the medical officers had carried out their duties,
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  Speaker 1: and commending the efficiency of the prison service, the carefulness
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  Speaker 1: and good sense shown by the staff, and the tact care,
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  Speaker 1: humanity and firmness with which the problem of these suffragette
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  Speaker 1: imprisonments had been handled by all concerned. The other Manchester
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  Speaker 1: prisoners were obliged to complete their sentences, being forcibly fed
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  Speaker 1: during the whole time. At this point the government had
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  Speaker 1: an opportunity of learning the view of the electorate as
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  Speaker 1: to their treatment of the women. For a by election
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  Speaker 1: was now taking place in Bermondsey, and these suffragettes were
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: w as usual actively opposing the government candidate, in order
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: that every elector might understand, as far as possible, what
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: forcible feeding really meant. A pictorial poster showing the operation
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: was displayed throughout the constituency, and models representing forcible feeding
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: were shown at the WSPU committee rooms. A manifesto against
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: the government was also issued by nine representative men, including
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: mister Belsford, mister Nevinson and doctor Hugh Fenton, which urged
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: the electors, in the name of chivalry and humanity, as
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: well as in the interests of true liberalism, to see
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: to it that whatever else may happen at this particular election,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: the government candidate is left at the bottom of the pole.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: These suffragettes worked, if possible, more vigorously than ever, and
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: after the first three days of their campaign, liberal workers
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: came to them in despair, saying, why have you come
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: down to boss our election. These suffragettes never go to
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: liberal meetings at election times, but the Liberal speakers were
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: constantly being heckled by the men and women of Bermondsey
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: as to the forcible feeding of these suffragettes. These suffragettes
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: themselves were greeted with cheers and words of encouragement wherever
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: they went. All the policemen in this constituency are going
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: to vote for you, one of the constables said, and
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: others testified that they preferred to keep order at the
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: women's meetings than at any other because they talk. Since
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: in the result, the Liberal candidate was defeated and the
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: Liberal poll was reduced by more than one thousand, four
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: hundred votes. The figures were Mister Dumfries Unionist four thousand,
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: two hundred seventy eight, Mister Spencer Lee Hugh Liberal three thousand,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: two hundred ninety one, Doctor Salter Socialist one thousand, four
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: hundred thirty five, Unionist majority nine hundred eighty seven. The
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: figures at the last election had been George J. Cooper
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: Liberal four thousand, seven hundred seventy five, H. J. Cocaine
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: cust Conservative three thousand sixteen Liberal majority one thousand, seven
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: hundre fifty nine. On polling day, an unlooked for and
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: to the Women's Social and Political Union unwelcome incident occurred.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: The Women's Freedom League endeavored to render the election void
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: because they objected to any election being held at which
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: women might not vote. The w SPU were against this
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: because their policy was to prove that the electors were
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: prepared to defeat the government candidate in order to show
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: their belief in votes for women. The attempt of the
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: Freedom League members to render the election void was carried
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: out in the following manner. Two members of the League,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Missus Chapin and Miss Allison Kneelands, each entered a separate
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: polling booth with a glass test tube failed with a
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: solution of ink and photographic chemicals, which had been carefully
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: prepared to destroy the ballot papers without any risk of
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: injury to any person who might happen to touch it.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: In each case, the woman concerned broke the test tube
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: by striking it on top of the ballot box so
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: that the black liquid might fall into the slot. When
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: this was done by Missus Chapin, a mister Thorley rushed
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: forward and some of the black liquids splashed into his eye.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: In Miss Neeland's case, a man stretched out his hand
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: and some of the liquid fell upon it. In both cases,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: the men asked if the stuff would burn, and were
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: told it would do no harm if it were washed
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: off at once. Miss Nieland's own hands and gloves were
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: soaked with the fluid, but she suffered no harm. Only
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: five papers were touched by the fluid, and none of
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: these were indecipherable. A great outcry was raised, however, for
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: it was declared that mister Thorley would be blind for life.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: For some time, he went out wearing a black shade
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: over his eye, but when he was called upon unexpectedly
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: by some members of the Woman's Freedom League, he was
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: found to be without the shade, and his eye appeared
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: perfectly normal. The cases hung over for some time, and eventually,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: on November twenty fourth, missus Chapin was sentenced to three
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: months imprisonment for interfering with the ballot box and four
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: months for a common assault upon mister Thorley, the sentences
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: to run concurrently, whilst Miss Nieland's was ordered three months imprisonment.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: After a time, it leaked out that the slight injury
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: from which mister Thorley had suffered had been caused not
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: by the liquid which missus Chapin had thrown, but by
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: some ammonia which he had used to counteract any after effects.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: Two days after miss Neeland's release, missus Chapin was granted
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: the King's pardon. On October thirtieth, Missus Lee was suddenly
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: released from Birmingham Jail in a very critical state. Though
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: two months out of the four to which she had
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: been sentenced still remained to run, she was at once
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: removed to a nursing home. November ninth was Lord Mayor's Day,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: and as usual, the Lord Mayor had invited the cabinet
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: ministers to a banquet in the guild Hall. Knowing this,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Miss Alice Paul, an American citizen, and Miss Amelia Brown,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: disguised themselves as charwomen, and carrying buckets and brushes, entered
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: the building with the other cleaners at nine o'clock in
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: the morning. There they hid themselves and waited until the evening,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: when they took their stand in the gallery outside the
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: banqueting hall. When mister Asquith was about to speak, Miss Brown,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: having carefully selected a pane of the stained glass window
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: upon which there was no ornament and which she thought
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: might be easily replaced, stooped down, took off her shoe
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: and smashed the chosen pain in order that her shout
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: of votes for women might be heard by those below.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Miss Alice Paul also took up the cry. Both women
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: were arrested and afterwards sent to prison for one month's
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: hard labor on refusing to pay fines of five pounds
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: and damages of two pounds ten shillings each. They were
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: both forcibly fed, and as a result of this Miss
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Brown was attacked with severe gastritis. Three days later, on
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: November thirteenth, mister Winston Churchill visited Bristol to speak at
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: the Colston Hall. Missteresa Garnett, the woman who had been
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: twice through the hunger strike and whom the Home Secretary
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: had wrongfully accused of biting, resolved to humiliate mister Churchill,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: both as a member of the government which preferred rather
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: to imprison women than to enfranchise them, and to torture
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: them rather than to extend towards them the ordinary privileges
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: of political prisoners, and also on his own account for
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: his slippery and disingenuous statements in regard to the votes
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: for women question. She therefore met the train by which
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: he was arriving from London and found him on the
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: platform in the midst of a large force of detectives.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: Who formed a semicircle around him. She rushed straight forward
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: and they either did not or would not see her coming.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: But the Cabinet Minister saw her. He paled and stood
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: there as though petrified, only raising his arm to guard himself.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: She reached him and, with a light writing switch, struck
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: at him three times, saying take that in the name
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: of the insulted women of England. At that, he grappled
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: with her, wrested the switch from her hand and put
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: it in his pocket. Then she was seized and dragged
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: away to prison. She was charged with assaulting mister Churchill,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: but eventually this charge was withdrawn, presumably because mister Churchill
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: knew that he would be subpoenaed as a witness, and
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: on being accused of having disturbed the peace, was sentenced
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: to one month's imprisonment on refusing to be bound over. Meanwhile,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: thirty thousand men and women had turned out to help
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: the suffragettes in their protest around the Couston Hall where
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: mister Churchill was speaking, and during the evening four women
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: were arrested and afterwards punished with from two months hard
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: labor to fourteen days in the second division, whilst several
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: men who had spoken up for them inside the Couston
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Hall were beaten unmercifully by the stewards. Forcible feeding was
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: resorted to in Bristol Prison also, and handcuffs were used
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: in some cases. Meanwhile, the supporters of the Liberal government
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: were adopting militant tactics on their own account. What was
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: called a League against the Lords had been formed with
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: the warmly expressed approval of many of the Liberal leaders,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: and though the leaders had kept in the background, the
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: members of the League had twice assembled in Parliament Square
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: to hoot the peers as they drove by in their carriages,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: and had come into collision with the police. At the
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: same time, the Liberal newspapers were openly commending the efforts
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: of gangs of men who were going from meeting to
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: meeting held by the Conservatives, and with shouts and violence,
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: were making it impossible for their political opponents to speak.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Columns were devoted to describing the doings of what was
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: called the Voice, which persistently heckled tariff reformers and supporters
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: of the House of Lords. Mister Winston Churchill was now
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: arranging to hold a campaign of public meetings in Lancashire
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: and the w SPU publicly and openly appealed for funds
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: to ensure that protests and demonstrations should be made in
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: connection with all his meetings. Thousands of pounds were, on
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: the other hands, spent by the authorities to defeat the
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: woman's intentions. In Preston, in addition to many other precautions,
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: seventy men were employed and one hundred fifty pounds spent
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: on barricading the windows and roof of the hall where
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: mister Churchill was to speak, and at Southport two hundred
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: fifty pounds was laid out on mounted police to protect
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: the Empire Music Hall alone. When the Southport meeting began,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: mister Churchill looked ill at ease and turned about sharply
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: from time to time, as though expecting an interruption. But
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: at last he seemed to gain confidence and was proceeding
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: briskly with his remarks when suddenly there floated down from
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: the roof a soft voice, faint and reedy, and peering
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: through one of the great porthole like openings in the
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: slope of the ceiling, was seen a strange little elfin
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: form with wan childish face, broad brow and big gray eyes,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: looking like nothing real or earthly, but a dream waif.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: But for the weary paleness of her she might have
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: been one of those dainty little child angels the old
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: Italian painters loved to show, peeping down the tops of
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: high clouds, or nestling amongst the details of their stately architecture.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: It was Dora Marsden, who, with two other women, had
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: lain concealed on the roof since two o'clock in the
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: small hours of the previous morning. So unexpected and pathetic
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: was this little figure that lent further forward to repeat
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: her message that the audience could not forbear to cheer her.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: They stood up, waving their hats and programs, looking delighted
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: as they loft placed intruder herself observed. Missus Churchill smiled
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: also and waved her hand, and even mister Churchill, though
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: this was probably because of his wife's presence and of
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: the general feeling of the audience, himself, looked pleasantly up
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: and said, if some stewards will fetch those ladies after
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: my speeches concluded, I shall be glad to answer any
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: questions they may put to me. But these stewards, who
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: by this time had found the women, were not disposed
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: to bring them into the hall. A hand was thrust
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: over Dora Marson's mouth, and she and the others were
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: roughly pulled back from their coin of vantage and sent
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: rolling down the steep sloping roof. Stop that, you fools,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: some one cried out, you will all fall over the edge,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: but one of the stewards answered, I do not care
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: what happens. Fortunately, two of the suffragettes were caught in
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: their perilous descent by the edge of a water trough,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: whilst a policeman seized Dora Marsdon by the ankle, telling
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: her if I had not caught your foot, you would
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: have gone to glory. Once safely on the ground, the
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: women were placed under arrest, but the case against them
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: was eventually dismissed. At Preston, suffragettes, dressed in shawls and
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: clogs sallied forth at night and pasted forcible feeding posters
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: on the street, pillar boxes, the prison and other public buildings,
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: and the windows and doors of the Liberal Club as
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: a welcome to mister Churchill, and in connection with turbulent
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: scenes which occurred whilst his meeting was in progress. Four
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: women were arrested at every other town he visited. The
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: same kind of thing occurred at Waterloo. There was one
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: arrest at Liverpool, there were two and one at Bolton
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: and one at Crewe. Meanwhile, mister Harcourt had held a
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: series of meetings in the Rossendale Valley. On December first,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: the door and windows of the house in which he
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: was staying were found to have been covered during the
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: night with forcible feeding posters. The next evening three men
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: were set to watch with large hose pipes attached to
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: the main but somehow or other the connection was mysteriously
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: cut and the windows were broken without their being aware
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: of it, by some person or persons unknown. Two women
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: were arrested in connection with disturbances on the following Monday,
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: and were sent to prison for one month and fourteen
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: days respectively. They both adopted the hunger strike and were
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: both forcibly fed. Two women were arrested outside Sir Edward
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: Gray's meeting at Leath on December fourth, nineteen hundred nine.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: A general election was now announced, and on December tenth
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: mister Asquith was to speak at a great meeting in
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: the Albert Hall. And whilst the authorities were making every
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: attempt to keep them out. These suffragettes were, of course
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: making every attempt to get into the building. Some of
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: them did succeed in concealing themselves inside, but were discovered.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Jesse Kenny, who disguised herself as a telegraph boy and
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: tried to get in while the meeting was in progress,
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: was also detected and turned back. But three men sympathizers
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: protested during the meeting. To these, Mister Asquith replied, nearly
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: two years ago, I declared on behalf of the present
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: government that in the event of our bringing in a
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: reform Bill, we should make the question of suffrage for
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: women an open one for the House of Commons to decide.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: My declaration survives the general election, and this cause, so
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: far as the Government is concerned, shall be no worse
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: off in the new Parliament than it would have been
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: in the old. Thus, mister Asquith was cheerfully preparing for
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: another general election without one word of regret or apology
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: to those women who had been misled by his promise
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: to introduce the reform bill before Parliament came to an end.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: That was almost the last of the old false promise. Meanwhile,
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: Charlotte marsh, who had gone into Winston Green Jail, with
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: the first batch of prisoners to be forcibly fed was
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: still being detained there, whilst missus Lee and all the
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: rest had been released. Those who went to visit her
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: once at the expiration of each month were only allowed
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: to look at her through a small square of perforated zinc.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: They could neither see her clearly nor hear distinctly what
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: she said. Nevertheless, they gathered that she was suffering greatly.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Our hearts ached for that noble girl. Often there came
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: before our eyes the picture of the tall, straight figure
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: that had carried the colors of our union before us
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: in so many gay processions. We saw the fair, fresh face,
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: with its delicate, regular saxon features, those masses of bright
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: golden hair, the head so proudly held, and the faint
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: flicker of a shy smile that always came when one
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: spoke to her. We heard the boyish ring in her voice,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: and realized again her earnestness and enthusiasm, and the unaffected
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: gentleness of her address. There was always something about her
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: that made many a woman think of some dear young brother.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: Her father called her Charlie, and thought of her as
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: his only boy amongst the family of girls. It was
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: expected that she would have been released on December seventh,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: but the government, who had held her in torment for
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: so long, were anxious to extort from her the very
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: last outs of their pound of flesh. They determined not
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: to grant her the remission of one sixth of the
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: sentence usually allowed, but to withhold it as a punishment
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: for her refusal to take food, and this they did,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: though they knew that her father was dangerously ill, and
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: though her mother had appealed for her release on that
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: ground a week before, there was no fine that could
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: be laid down to buy her out, for she had
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: been sentenced without that option, and so perforce she must
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: wait the pleasure of the government. On the eighth of December,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: it was known that Charlotte Marsh's father was dying, and
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: her family made another urgent appeal that she might be
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: brought to him, but it was not until the ninth
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: that the Home Secretary at last tardily let her go.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: She hurried at once to her home in Newcastle, so
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: thin and worn from what she had suffered that her
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: sisters scarcely knew her as she came into the house
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: only to find that her father was unconscious and would
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: never wake to know her any more. Footnotes forty two.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Mister Lloyd George's basiss insinuation was of course indignantly and
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: publicly repudiated by the men concerned. End of Chapter twenty two.