Latest / Suffragette The Militant Fight for Womens Voting Rights / 22 - Suffragette The Militant Fight for Womens Voting Rights by E. Sylvia Pankhurst

Transcript

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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter eighteen of The Suffragette, The History of the Woman's
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Militant Suffrage Movement by E Sylvia Pankhurst. This LibriVox recording
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain eighteen January to March nineteen
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: hundred nine, reminding the Cabinet Council of Votes for Women,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: attempts by the Woman's Freedom League to interview Mister Asquith.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Arrest of Missus Despard, the Seventh Woman's Parliament, arrest of
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Missus Pethick Lawrence and Lady Constance lytton Mister Jeffrey Howard's
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Reform Bill the Eighth Woman's Parliament. Speaking in December nineteen
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: hundred eight on the policy of his government in the
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: new year, Mister Asquith had declared that the stream of
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: advice as to what he should do next session was
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: pouring in upon him both night and day, and that
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: he was constantly receiving deputations who came to him from
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: all quarters and in all causes, on an average of
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: something like two hours on three days in every week.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: These deputations all last for different things, but were all
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: agreed that their measure must be mentioned in the King's speech,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: and that the best hours or at all events some
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: of the best hours of the session must be given
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: to its special consideration, and the worst of it is.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: He went on that I am disposed myself to agree
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: with them all, for as each group in their turn
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: come to me, I recognize in them some of our
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: most loyal and fervent supporters. Thus mister Asquith was constantly
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: receiving deputations of men, and as he here admitted, the
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: deputations were helping him to decide what measures he must
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: include in the next King's speech, but he again refused
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: to receive a deputation of the women. Therefore, when the
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: first Cabinet Council of the season met on January twenty fifth,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: members of the Women's Social and Political Union called at
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Number ten Downing Street to urge their claims again as
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: they had done last year, for knocking at the door.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Four of them were arrested and at Bow Street, wherefore,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: administrative reasons all suffragette cases were in future to be tried.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: They were ordered to go to prison for one month.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: They went cheerfully for Missus Clark, a sister of Missus Pankhurst,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: voiced the feelings of all when during her trial she said,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: I felt that it was not I who was knocking
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: at the Prime Minister's door, but the great need of
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: women knocking at the conscience of the nation and demanding
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: that justice shall be done. Next day, it was the
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: members of the Woman's Freedom League who strove to obtain
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: an interview with mister Asquith, and in consequence six of
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: their number were arrested in Victoria Street on their way
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: to the official residence, sixteen at the entrance to Downing Street,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: and six including Missus Despard and mister Joseph Clayton, a journalist,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: who protested on their behalf at the door of the
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: stranger's entrance to the House of Commons. The resulting sentences
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: varied from one month to fourteen days imprisonment. Little notice
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: was given of these imprisonments the press, evidently thinking such
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: sensations stale, But those active inventive brains at Clementson were
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: determined not to be checkmated, and were ever devising new
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: stratagems and new surprise as a means of pushing the
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: cause forward. When mister Churchill visited Newcastle to inspect a
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: battleship on December fourth and fifth, he was approached on
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: the first of these days, no fewer than fifteen times,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: and on the second almost constantly by women who met
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: him at the station, at the door of his hotel,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: had a reception held in his honor on the pier,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: on the launch, on the ship itself, and again at
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: every turn on landing, and who presented him with copies
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: of votes for women, urged the cause upon him in brief,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: hurried reminders, and made speeches to him from neighboring boats.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Every other minister was similarly waylaid. When Parliament met and
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: the King's speech was found to contain no mention of
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: votes for women, the w s p U decided that
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: another woman's parliament must be held, and another deputation of
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: women must be sent out from it. Then again, something
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: that had never been done before had to be contrived
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: for focusing public attention upon this event. Quite opportunely, the
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Postmaster General happened to issue new regulations made making it
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: possible to post human letters. Of course, it was at
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: once determined to post some suffragettes as letters to mister
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Asquith and Downing Street. Accordingly, on Tuesday morning, January twenty third,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Jesse Kenny dispatched Miss Solomon and Miss mc clellan from
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: the Strand post Office, then in charge of a little
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: messenger boy, one carrying a placard inscribed votes for women
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: deputation to the House of Commons Wednesday, and the other
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: to the Right Honorable H. H. Asquith, ten Downing Street.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: As w the two ladies marched off to the official residence.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: When they arrived, the messenger boy was invited inside and
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: the door was shut, But after a few moments it
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: was opened again, and an official appeared, saying to the women,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: you must be returned, but we have been paid for.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: They protested, and he replied, the post office must deliver
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: you somewhere else. You cannot be received here. An express
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: letter is an official document, they persisted, and must be
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: signed for according to the regulation. But the official replied,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: you cannot be signed for. You must be returned. You
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: are dead letters. So there was nothing for it but
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: to go back to Clemens. In another day, a facsimile
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: of Black Maria, the van which takes the prisoners to Holloway,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: was seen driving through the town. It bore the inscription
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: E P for Emmeline Pankhurst instead of E. R. Edward Rex,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: and a man dressed almost exactly like a policeman rode
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: on the back step. When the van reached Regent Street,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: a body of women in imitation prison dress emerged and
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: proceeded to distribute handbills to the passers by, and to
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: shalk announcements of the forthcoming deputation to mister Asquith upon
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: the pavement. The members of the Women's Freedom League also
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: hit upon a new and striking advertisement for mismatters. The
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: heroine of the grill scene floated over the House of
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Commons in a cigar shaped dirigible balloon painted with the
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: fateful words votes for women. Ridiculous, petty, even unworthy of
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: serious people. You may think were some of these methods
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: of propaganda and advertisement. But these suffragettes knew only too
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: well that the cause which does not advance cannot remain stationary,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: but slips back into the limbo of forgotten things. On
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: February twenty fourth, the Seventh Woman's Parliament met in the
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Caxton Hall. Missus Pethick Lawrence sallied forth from it with
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: a number of women in her train, But she and
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: twenty eight of her comrades, including Lady Constance Lytton and
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Miss Daisy D. Solomon, the daughter of the late Prime
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: Minister of the Cape were soon arrested. Their trial took
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: place before Sir Albert de Rudson at Bow Street next day,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: and on refusing to be bound over to keep the peace,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: they received sentences of from one to two months imprisonment.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: There were now many members both of the Women's Social
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: and Political Union and of the Women's Freedom League in Holloway,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: and one day whilst they were exercising together, a member
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: of the latter organization, missus Meredith mac donald, a lady
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: in middle life, fell on the frosty' stoe. Two of
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: her fellow prisoners ran to help her, but the wardress
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: forced them away, and though she said she believed her
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: thigh to be injured, she was forced to drag herself
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: unaided to herself. Her request to see her own doctor
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: was refused, and not until she became unable even to
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: turn in her bed was she removed to the prison hospital.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: When at last the X rays were applied, it was
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: found that her thigh was fractured and that, owing to
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: the long delay and lack of poor treatment, she would
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: be lame for life. The matter was reported to the
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Home Secretary with a demand for redress, but no result
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: followed until June nineteen ten, more than a year afterwards,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: when legal proceedings having been instituted, the authorities at last
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: agreed to pay missus mc donald five hundred pounds damages
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: and her legal costs amounting to an equal sum. Meanwhile,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: a place for a woman's suffrage measure had been won
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: in the private member's ballot by mister Jeffrey Howard, a
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Liberal member of Parliament and son of the Countess of Carlisle.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Mister j Howard and the Woman's Suffrage Committee of Liberal
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: members with whom he was working decided to abandon the
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: old equal Bill and to introduce a complicated reform measure
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: on the lines of that foreshadowed by mister Asquith in
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: his famous promise of the previous year, except that in
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: this case votes for women was to form part of
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: the original measure instead of being left to come in
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: as an amendment. Under this Private Member's reform Bill, the
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: only condition required for registration as a parliamentary voter was
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: to be that the person registered, whether man or woman,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: should be of full age and have resided for not
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: less than three months within the same constituency. It was
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: estimated that The bill would qualify some fifteen million new voters,
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: twelve million of whom would be women, and would thus
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: nearly trouble the number at present entitled to exercise the
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: franchise Note thirty three. It would at the same time
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: abolish plural voting. The professed object of bringing forward this
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: measure was to meet the stipulation put forward by mister
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Asquith and mister Lowe George that votes should not be
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: given to women except on democratic lines. On Friday, March nineteenth,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: the bill came up for second reading, and mister Howard,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: in explaining its provisions, said that he had no hope
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: of carrying it into law, but merely wished to clear
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: the air for the reform bill presented by the government.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: Sir Charles McLaren said that he hoped this bill might
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: help the government to come to some decision as to
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: the manner in which they would deal with a woman's
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: suffrage question next year. But when mister Asked with arose
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: to make the expected government pronouncement, he declared that the
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: opinion of the government was unchanged and entirely unaffected by
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: the introduction of this bill. He added, however, that there
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: were certain proposals contained in the measure of which he approved,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: but carefully explained that his approval only extended so far
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: as the bill referred to men. Though he was aware
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: that the measure would not be pressed beyond a second reading,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: he stated that the members of the Government would abstain
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: from voting either for or against it. The whole debate
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: therefore ar entered in fiasco and had been merely a
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: wasted opportunity. After mister Asquith's pronouncement, the House divided and
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: there voted for the bill one hundred fifty seven against
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: the bill one hundred twenty two, majority for the bill
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: thirty five. It will be thus seen that this bill
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: of mister Howard secured a very much smaller measure of
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: support than that which had been accorded to the Equal
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Woman's Enfranchisement Bill in the previous year. For the figures
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: had then been for the bill two hundred seventy one
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: against ninety two, majority for the bill one hundred seventy nine.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: The Women's Social and Political Union now decided that another
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: deputation should attempt to obtain an interview with mister Asquith,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: and an eighth Woman's Parliament was held on March thirtieth,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Missus Saul Solomon, widow of the Governor General of South Africa,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: an elderly motherly figure, volunteered to lead its deputation of
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: thirty women who were to carry the usual resolution to
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: the house, whilst Miss Dora Marsden b A of Manchester,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: looking exactly like a Florentine angel, marched before with a purple,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: white and green standard announcing the arrival of the deputation.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: As soon as the women reached the street, the usual
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: pushing and hustling by the police began, and after an
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: hour's brave struggle, eleven of them were arrested. Next day,
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: nine of those who had not been taken again returned
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: to the charge, and eventually the twenty women were sent
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: to prison at Sir Albert de Rudson's orders, nineteen of
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: them for one month, and Patricia Woodlock, because she had
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: served several sentences already, for three. On April sixteenth, Missus
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Pethick Lawrence, our dear Treasurer, was released and we were
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: able to tell her that no less than eight thousand
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: pounds had been collected by the sacrifice of our members
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: during self denial week. A great procession was formed in
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: her honor, and marched from the marble arch to the
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Aldwych Theater, where she was to speak. What a day
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: it was to welcome anyone from prison. The trees were
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: just bursting into leaf, and the brilliant april sunshine glistened
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: on the silver armor of Elsie Howie, who represented Joan
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: of Arc, the Warrior Maid, whose beatification was taking place
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: that very day, and rode at the head of the
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: procession as tried her great white charger, with the brisk
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: wind blowing back her fair hair and gaily fluttering the purple,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: white and green standard which she bore. Then came women
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: and girls with flowers and banners, and Missus Lawrence's own
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: carriage covered with flags, and everywhere were the purple, white
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: and green colors. Except at one point were the American
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: delegates to the International Woman's Suffrage Congress, then sitting in London,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: rode in a carriage draped with their own stars and stripes.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: Inside the theater, the platform was covered with flowers sent
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: by hundreds of members and friends, and there too the
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: American delegates had added their tribute, a little silk copy
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: of their national flag. It was a wonderful speech that
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Missus Lawrence then delivered, full not only of enthusiasm and
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: deep feeling, but of logic and common sense, and of
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: unanswerable arguments for the women's cause. Reminded us that she
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: and her fellow suffragists had gone to prison in support
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: of the old English constitutional maxim that taxation and representation
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: should go together. Before she had gone to prison, she
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: told us a birthday book had been shown to her
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: that had been got out for church bazaar. In that book,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: mister Asquith had been asked to write his favorite quotation
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: with his signature, and this favorite quotation of mister Asquith's
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: had turned out to be Taxation without representation is tyranny.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Many stories she told us of what she had seen
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: and heard in prison. One morning, the chaplain had come
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: into the hospital where she was and had called up
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: an old woman to speak to him. Everyone there had
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: heard the conversation that passed between them, and had learned
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: in reply to his peremptory questioning her name, her age,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: the length of her sentence, and so on. She was
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: seventy six, unmarried, and for the first time in her
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: long life, she was now imprisoned because she could not
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: pay her rent in taxes three pounds sixty shillings. I
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: keep a lodging house for working men, she said. It
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: has been a very bad winter for my lodgers and
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: they have not been able to pay me. This woman
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: was quite good enough to pay taxes, said missus Lawrence,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: this old woman of seventy six, and to go to
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: prison when she could not meet the taxes, and yet
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: she was not counted fit to exercise a vote. Missus
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: Lawrence also told us of a conversation between herself and
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: the chaplain. I have heard a great deal of you,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: missus Lawrence. He had said, you have started holiday homes
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: for girls. I wish you would start a holiday home
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: for wardresses. You see, they work very hard, twelve hours
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: a day. They very often break down, and then they
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: have not enough money to go away on holiday. I
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: looked at him in amazement. Missus Lawrence told us to
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: think that a government servant should come to me a
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: voteless woman, and suggests that I should supply a defficiency
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: created because our legislators do not pay their women servants enough.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: So argument followed argument, and there were many suffragettes who
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: joined the union on that day. Ever since, the night
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: on which the members of the Freedom League had changed
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: themselves to the grilled, and pieces of that historic monument
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: of prejudice had been taken down, whilst two men in
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: the Strangers gallery had loudly demanded votes for women, the
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: galleries had been closed, and though press representatives had still
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: leave to come and go as far as the general
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: public was concerned, the House had sat in secret conclave
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: for six months. Members of Parliament found the exclusion of
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: all visitors to the House to be exceedingly inconvenient, and
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: at last the Government introduced what it called a brawling Bill,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: which was to settle the question by providing that any person,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: not being a member of either House of Parliament, while
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: present in the Palace of Westminster during the sitting of
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: either House, who is guilty of disorderly conduct or acts
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: in contravention of any rule or order of the House
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: in respect of the admission of strangers, shall be guilty
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: of misdemeanor and liable to some reconviction and imprisonment for
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: a term not exceeding six months, or to a fine
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: not exceeding one hundred pounds. In bringing the bill forward,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: the Attorney General urged that though the House could already
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: punish strangers who broke its rules by committing them to
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Newgate Prison. Their imprisonment there could only last whilst the
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: House was sitting, so that those who committed an offense
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: towards the close of the session would be too easily
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: let off. Moreover, the House had not the power to
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: punish offenders without debate, and for it to suspend its
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: consideration of high matters in order to discuss the cases
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: of persons who, though he declared that no offense could
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: be more serious than theirs, he yet characterized as unworthy
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: in themselves of further consideration than any ordinary police magistrate
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: could give them. Was to play the game of the disturbers,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: and to give them the maximum of advertisement with the
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: minimum of punishment. When some one pointed out that all
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: accused persons liable to six months imprisonment were entitled trial
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: by jury, he at once stated that he should prefer
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: to reduce the proposed term of imprisonment to three months. Finally,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: he recommended the bill to the House as one that
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: would save its time and safeguard its dignity. Lord Balcarres
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: urged that anyone charged under the bill would have the
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: right to subpoena. The Speaker of the Chairman of Committee,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: who had witnessed the occurrence, complained of to give evidence
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: at the trial. It would be impossible, he said, to
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: say that mister Speaker must not be summoned because he
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: represented the quintessence of the collective wisdom of the House
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: of Commons, and it would be a most deplorable thing
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: if the Speaker and other officials and members of the
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: House were to be hauled into court for no other
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: reason than to draw public attention to the police court
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: proceedings and to make sensational paragraphs in the evening papers.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: Mister Mooney, an Irish member, said, omit great laughter that
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: he thought the bill must have been drafted in the
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: neighborhood of clements In because of the advertisement it would
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: give to certain propagandists. Whilst mister Hazelton declared that the
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: Government were merely setting up an Act of Parliament as
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: an aunt sally for every suffragette to come along and
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: have a shot at. Mister KEIRR. Hardy stated that, in
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: his opinion, the bill it was only necessary because of
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: the failure of members of the Government and members of
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: the House to redeem their election pledges in regard to
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: woman's suffrage, and that it was because women felt that
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: they could no longer appeal to the honor of the
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: House of Commons that they had taken to extreme measures.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: In his reply, the Attorney General ignored this latter view
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: of the case, but dealt at length with the right
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: of summoning witnesses, pointing to the setting aside of the
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: subpoenas to mister Asquith and mister Herbert Gladstone in the
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: case of missus Bain's trial at Leeds as a proof
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: that this could easily be done again. To protect the
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: officers of the House, and especially the great Officers, from
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: being summoned, he promised that stringent provisions with this object
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: should be added in committee, saying I do not think
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: the House need trouble itself without objection. Evidently, therefore, the
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: gradual sweeping away of every safeguard of a free people
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: against coercion, which had been won for us by the
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: suffering and sacrifice and ceaseless effort of generation of our forebears,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: was as nothing to the government in comparison with the
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: states off of the women's claim to vote. Now it
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: was one of the fundamental rights of the accused person
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: that they were proposing to tamper with, but the House
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: would not agree. Sir Edward Carson, whilst expressing doubt as
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: to the practicability of the government's proposals, protested emphatically against
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: the suggestion that there should be a law of subpoena
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: for the House of Commons different to that which prevailed
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: in the rest of the land. Finally, the Prime Minister
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: rose to say that though after the trouble that had
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: been taken in drafting it, he did not like to
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: withdraw the bill altogether. He had thought that further time
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: should be given for consideration, and that the debate should
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: be adjourned. The Brawling Bill was never heard of again.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: Its final death blow was dealt on April twenty seventh,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: exactly a week after it had been discussed, when five
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: suffragettes effectively showed that no threat of a brawling Bill
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: could prevent them from demonstrating in the House of Commons
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: by entering Saint Stephen's Hall and at chaining themselves to
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: the statues of five men. While poll Lord somers Selden
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: and Lord Falkland, whose names are famous in the struggle
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: for British liberties and Stuart Days. Having so chained themselves,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: the women addressed the visitors and members of Parliament, explaining
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: that they themselves were engaged in fighting for the liberties
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: of one half of the British people. With strong pincers.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: The police succeeded in breaking the chains, but there was
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: no prosecution, and shortly afterwards the Speaker announced that both
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: the Lady's and Strangers Galleries were to be reopened on
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: certain conditions. Before being admitted, each visitor must now subscribe
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: his or her name and address to the following printed pledge.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: I undertake to abstain from making any interruption or disturbance,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: and to obey the rules for the maintenance of order
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: in the galleries. Having signed the pledge, men visitors were
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: to be absolutely trusted, but women were treated as having
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: absolutely no sense of honor, for no woman was to
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: be permitted to get even so far as the signing
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: of the pledge unless she happened to be related to
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: a Member of Parliament, and no member was to be
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: allowed to introduce any lady to them the gallery unless
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: he had previously won a place for her in the ballot.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: On May thirteenth, the Women's Social and Political Union opened
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: in the Prince's Skating Rink, Knightsbridge, a Votes for Women
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: exhibition in the purple, white and green. Missus Lawrence and
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: the Committee of the Union were driven thither by a
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: woman chauffeur in a motor car for which the suffragettes
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: had subscribed in order that they might present it to
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: the treasurer on her release from prison. The rink was
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: covered outside with a mass of waving flags in the colors,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: and inside these also predominated. The theme of the decorations
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: which lined the walls of the Great Central Hall, was
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: they that so in tears shall reap enjoy, and he
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed, shall doubtless
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. And indeed,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: in those bright spring days at the skating rink, though
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: the victory of the franchise was not yet one, some
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: of the fruits of the struggle were already present in
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: the glad comradeship of the workers. Everyone seemed to be
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: full of high spirits, and all were keenly interested in
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: the success of the enterprise. And in spite of the
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: strenuous militant tactics in which they were engaged, and of
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: all the propaganda work which they were accomplishing. Every branch
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: of the union and every organizing center had its stall
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: laden with goods. Friends from all over the world had
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: sent their contributions, and the Norwegian delegates to the International
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: Suffrage Congress had installed of their own in aid of
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: the w SBU funds. But this was no mere bazaar,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: for at every turn one was reminded of votes for women.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Each day, as one entered, a ballot paper was always
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: pressed into one's hand, and every visitor to the exhibition
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: was invited to record a vote upon some question of
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: the moment, the ballot box and everything connected with the
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: voting being arranged just exactly as it is in parliamentary elections.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: At one end of the hall was a facsimile of
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: a prison cell, in which sat a woman in second
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: division prison dress, who herself had actually been to Holloway
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: and could explain exactly how the bed was rolled and
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: the tins were cleaned. Side by side with this was
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: the sort of seal which may be occupied by men
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: political prisoners. Ranged along one wall were glass cases containing
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: clever little cartoon models prepared by sculptors in the Union
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: and showing numerous representations of Cabinet ministers in their various
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: encounters with the Suffragettes, amongst a host of others. There
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: was Missus Pankhurst and redeputation at the door of the
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: House of Commons, with the Cabinet ministers hiding fearfully behind
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: a group of stalwart police. Then there was a picture
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: gallery of press photographs showing the history of the militant movement,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: and there were entertainments all about votes for women by
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: those ardent suffragists, the members of the Actresses Franchise League.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: The exhibition lasted a fortnight, and at the end of
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: the first week came a great surprise for a woman's
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: drum and fife band, consisting of members of our Union
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: who had been practicing in secret for months past, now
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: dressed in a specially designed uniform of purple, white and green,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: formed up in the center of the rink, and with
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Missus Lee as drum nature marched out playing the Marseilles,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: and then went round the town to advertise the exhibition.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Hundreds of new members were made during the fortnight, and
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: perhaps the smallest part of the whole achievement was that
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: five thousand, five hundred sixty four pounds was added to
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: the w SBU campaign fund. Altogether, it was decided that
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: the exhibition in the Colors was the smartest, brightest and
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: cheeriest exhibition that anyone had ever seen. Strangers visiting it said,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: what happy women you suffragettes are. We never thought you
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: were like that. To those who read of this movement
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: in future years, it may seem strange that, in spite
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: of the unremitting character of the struggle, the suffragettes, when
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: not actually engaged in the fighting line, should have been
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: so generally merry and light hearted. W. D. Howells, in
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: his Venetian Life and others, tell us that whilst Venice
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: was dominated by Austria, the whole town was under a cloud.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: The Italians gave no balls, dinners or entertainments, and even
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: in a great opera house was closed. But the attitude
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: of the suffragettes was perhaps more in keeping with the
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: English character. Have we not heard that though the Spanish
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Armada had long been expected, Drake and the other great
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: Sea fighters were playing bowls when the news came that
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: it was in sight. And now, whilst the exhibition was
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: in progress. The fighting campaign was going forward all over
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: the country as briskly as ever Note thirty four. The
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: protests in connection with Cabinet minister's meetings continued almost daily,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: and whilst the strictest precautions were taken to keep them out,
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: the greatest ingenuity was displayed by them in obtaining an
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: entry at a meeting of mister Burrell's in the Colston Hall, Bristol.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Two women were found to have hidden themselves among the
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: pipes of the organ. When the same minister spoke with
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: Lord Crewe at Liverpool. Mary Phillips, who had lain crouching
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: for twenty four hours amid the dust and grime in
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: a narrow space under the organ, was there to remind
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: them of Patricia Woodlock, the Liverpool suffragette, who was then
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: serving a sentence of three months imprisonment in Holloway Jail. Meanwhile,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: during the spring of nineteen hundred nine, eight by election
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: contests had been fought at Glasgow, Hoyke boroughs Forfir South Edinburgh, Croydon,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: East Edinburgh, the Attercliffe Division of Sheffield and Stratford Don.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Even these Scotch constituencies, with the exception of Glasgow, which
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: is not typically Scotch were the most difficult to fight
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: for the majority of the Scotch people have long been
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: so rootedly Liberal that a very exceptional degree not only
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: of sympathy with the cause, but of belief in the
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: by election policy was needed to induce any of the
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: electors to alter their old allegiance and to allow a
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Conservative to be returned. Nevertheless, the Liberal majority was in
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: every case reduced. In Glasgow, the seat which had been
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: held by a Liberal was wrested from the government by
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: a Liberal majority of two thousand, one hundred thirteen. At Croydon,
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: the Liberal candidate was also defeated by a greatly increased majority.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: For whilst in the general election it had been six
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: hundred thirty eight, it was now three thousand, nine hundred
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: forty eight. The elections at Attercliffe and Stratford on Avon
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: were perhaps the most striking of the series. In the
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: former contest, the Liberals strove to counteract the Suffragette influence
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: in numerous ways, including the issuing of leaflets with such
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: headings as working Men Don't be fooled by Missus Pankhurst
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: and Suffragette and Tory lies nailed to the counter In
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: these documents, they tried to lead the public to think
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: that the police and not the government in power, were
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: responsible for the suffragists imprisonments. When the result of the
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: polling was made known, it was found that the Liberal
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: nominee had been placed third on the poll, having secured
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: less than half the votes which had been cast for
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: his party in the last election. At Stratford on Avon,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: another Liberal seat, the Government candidate was again routed, this
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: time by a majority of two thousand, six hundred twenty
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: seven votes. Footnotes thirty three estimate given by the Liberal
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: Daily Chronicle, Note thirty four. The Freedom League had also
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: held a successful and interesting green, white and gold affair
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: at the Caxton Hall end of Chapter eighteen.