THE GENERAL ELECTION OF 1906
After the inauguration of the militant tactics on October 13th, we
determined not to let the matter rest until we had obtained a definite
pledge that the incoming Liberal Government would give votes to women.
On December 4th came the long-expected resignation of Mr. Balfour, and
the King then called upon Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, the Liberal
leader, to form an Administration. It was now announced that a great
demonstration should be held on December 21st in the Royal Albert Hall,
at which, surrounded by every member of his Cabinet, Sir Henry should
make his first public utterance as Prime Minister.
The importance of raising our question at this meeting was of course
apparent, and we at once endeavoured to procure tickets of admission.
But, even so early in the fight as this, the Liberals did not scruple
to refuse tickets to women who might be going to ask awkward questions.
On one occasion just as two tickets were about to be delivered over
to me, I was accused of having questioned Mr. Asquith at a meeting in
the Queen's Hall, and, though I had really not been present at that
meeting, I was obliged to go away empty-handed. I had been mistaken for
Annie Kenney who had come to London to attend both the Queen's Hall
and the Albert Hall meetings. We both of us thought the incident most
absurd, for we do not in any way resemble each other. But it put us on
our guard, and when on the very morning of the Albert Hall meeting, a
friend sent me three tickets, we made up our minds that they should
not be rendered useless by those who presented them being turned away
at the doors. I had been twice interviewed in two different sets of
clothes by the Liberal officials who had eventually refused me the
tickets and Annie herself had been paraded before a row of stewards; it
was therefore clear that if either of us went to the meeting we must go
disguised. We decided at last that the three tickets should be used by
Theresa Billington, who had recently joined the Union and was coming
from Manchester for the meeting, by Annie herself, and by a working
woman from the East End, a recent convert. Nevertheless, we intended
first to give the Prime Minister a chance to answer fairly, so that
no disturbance need be made. Shortly before the meeting, therefore,
Annie Kenney dispatched by express messenger a letter to Sir Henry
Campbell-Bannerman on behalf of our Union, asking him whether the new
Government would give Women the vote, and stating that she should be
in the hall that night in the hope that this important question would
be answered without delay. If this were not done, she added that she
should feel bound to rise in her place and make a protest.
The next thing to do was to disguise Annie. We understood that most
of the ladies would wear evening gowns, but it was essential to show
as little of her face, neck, and hair as possible, so, after dressing
her up in a light cream-coloured frock, we added a fur coat and a
thick dark veil. She told us afterwards that she felt very hot in these
clothes which she was afraid to remove, but, with the little East End
convert walking closely behind her as her maid, she was allowed by the
scrutineers to pass into a private box which we afterwards found had
been specially set apart for the use of Mr. John Burns' family and
friends.
The immense brilliantly lighted hall was filled from floor to ceiling.
The platform was gaily decorated with flowers. As the Prime Minister
began to speak Annie Kenney sat anxiously awaiting his answer, and at
last, as he did not give it, she rose suddenly up and hanging over the
edge of the box a little white calico banner with the words "Votes
for Women" painted upon it in black letters, she called out in a
loud clear voice, "Will the Liberal Government give women the vote?"
Immediately afterwards came an answering cry from the opposite end of
the hall, and Theresa Billington let down from the orchestra above the
platform a great banner, nine feet in length inscribed in black with
the words "Will the Liberal Government give justice to working-women?"
For a moment there was a hush, whilst the people waited for the Prime
Minister's answer, but he and his Cabinet remained silent. Then the
whole vast audience broke into a tumultuous, conflicting uproar, in the
midst of which the Chairman vainly called for order. The organ played
to drown the women's questions, and the women were flung out of the
hall.
The next day we returned to Manchester for Christmas to find that
Christabel was already planning a General Election campaign, and all
through the holidays, whilst Cabinet Ministers were resting from their
labours, we were busy making white calico banners, and inscribing them
in black letters with the fateful words, "Votes for Women" and "Will
the Liberal Government give women the vote?" We had no longer a doubt
either that the new Liberal Government was hostile to our cause or
that it was our duty to fight them until they were ready to capitulate
or to retire from office. Had it been possible we should have opposed
the election of every candidate running under their auspices, but as
we had neither the funds nor the membership for so extensive a work,
we decided to carry out a definite Election campaign against one
member of the Government,--Mr. Winston Churchill. Mr. Churchill was
selected not for any personal feeling against him, but because he was
the most important of the Liberal candidates who were standing for
constituencies within easy reach of our home.
On the opening night of the campaign Mr. Churchill had arranged to hold
several meetings in halls in different parts of his constituency and,
as the intentions of the Women's Social and Political Union were now
well-known, considerable excitement and expectancy prevailed. The first
meeting was held in a school at Cheetham Hill. There were a number of
doors to the meeting room, one opening in the middle of a side wall
and communicating with a passage leading from the main entrance to
the building; another, a big emergency exit at the back of the room
farthest from the platform, and several others on each side of the
platform opening into class-rooms and ante-rooms. The first of these
doors was the one by which the audience came in.
No tickets were needed and the solitary Suffragette who presented
herself was able to walk quietly in unnoticed and to take a seat in the
middle of the room. If her heart beat so loud that it seemed that all
must hear it, if she felt sick and faint with suspense, no one knew.
The whole audience was eagerly looking for "The lady Suffragists."
A party of women in a little gallery above the door, attracted
considerable attention. "Those are the Suffragists, look up there," was
whispered from all quarters. A man who sat next to the unrecognised
Suffragette fixed his gaze upon these ladies, and turning to his
companion said: "That is Miss Pankhurst; she has aged very much since
I saw her last. The ladies have got their eyes on us; they will begin
putting their question soon." The hall filled up rapidly and at last
became so densely crowded that, owing to the press of people, the
emergency doors at the back of the hall were burst open and a large
crowd collected outside. Mr. Churchill was late, and during the
Chairman's remarks and the speeches that followed little attention was
paid to what was being said for everyone was waiting for what was to
happen next.
At last Mr. Winston Churchill came in. He spoke of the unsatisfactory
behaviour of the late Government. The will of the people, he declared,
had been ignored, "But now," he said, "you have got your chance!"
"Yes, we have got our chance, and we mean to use it. Will the Liberal
Government give women the vote?" The reply came prompt and sharp as a
pistol shot. It was a woman's voice, and there was a woman standing
up with a little white banner in her hand. There was a moment's
breathless waiting for Mr. Churchill's answer which did not come, and
then the usual uproar burst forth. The man who "knew" Miss Pankhurst
was the first to snatch the banner from the Suffragette, but it was
evident that sitting around her were many unknown friends.
For some time it was impossible to proceed with the meeting. Whilst the
noise was at its height the interrupter sat down and waited; then, as
soon as quiet was restored and Mr. Churchill attempted to continue his
speech without replying, she again got up and pressed for an answer
to her question. The Chairman endeavoured to induce Mr. Churchill to
give an answer, but without success. The stewards threatened to throw
the woman out but were afraid to do so because many of the men showed
that they were prepared to fight for her, and in any case, the meeting
was so crowded that it would have been difficult to get her through
the press of people. The woman asking for votes seemed likely to have
the best of it for once. Someone suggested that if Mr. Churchill would
only answer, or if the men in the audience would not get so very much
excited, things might go better, but the advice was unheeded.
At last the Chairman announced that, if the lady would promise to be
quiet afterwards, she should speak from the platform for five minutes.
To this she was not disposed to agree, but went up to the foot of the
platform to explain that all she wanted was an answer to her question.
Speaking directly to Mr. Churchill she said, "Don't you understand what
it is I want?" But hiding his face with a quick impatient movement of
his arm he answered crossly, "Get away, I won't have anything to do
with you." Then the Chairman appealed to her: "You had better come
up to the platform," he said, "we can hear you then; as it is, half
the people in the meeting do not know what all the fuss is about." She
consented, and for the next five minutes tried to make her explanation,
but the enthusiastic Liberals of the three front rows set up the
wildest tumult of shouts and yells in order to drown her words.
When the five minutes were over the woman turned to go, but Mr.
Churchill seized her roughly by the arm and forced her to sit down in
a chair at the back of the platform saying, "No, you must wait here,
till you have heard what I have to say," then turning to the audience
he began complaining of the way in which the women were treating him
and concluded, "nothing would induce me to vote for giving women the
franchise," and, "I am not going to be henpecked into a question of
such grave importance." As he finished this declaration of hostility
the men on the platform rose, as if by prearranged agreement, and
the woman questioner stood up also, wishing to leave. Instantly two
men hurried her to the side of the platform where, screened from the
audience by a group of others, they swung her roughly over the edge and
dragged her into an ante-room.
Thinking that she was merely to be put outside she had made no
resistance, but now one of the men went to find the key to lock her
in whilst the other remained in the room, standing with his back to
the door. As soon as they were alone he began to use the most violent
language and, calling her a cat, gesticulated as though he would
scratch her face with his hands. Knowing that the room was on the
ground floor, she ran to the window, and threw it open, only to find
that it was barred. She called to some people who were passing in the
side street saying: "I want you to be witnesses of anything that takes
place in this room," and they came running up and shouted to the man
to behave himself. He at once became quieter, and presently on a key
being brought to him, he locked the door and went away. Now, some of
those in the street discovered that one of the windows had no bars, and
they called to the prisoner to go and open it in order that they might
help her to escape. This was easily done and an indignation meeting
was immediately held on a piece of waste ground near by. Meanwhile Mr.
Churchill was going on to his other meetings, but he found a woman
readily to question him at every one.
Next day there were long columns in the Manchester papers dealing with
these incidents whilst Mr. Churchill's angry assertion that he would
not be "henpecked" drew forth innumerable jokes from the humorous
writers. A verse from one of these, entitled "The Heckler, and the
Hen-pecker, with apologies to Lewis Carroll" ran as follows:--
"'The price of bread' the Heckler said, 'is what we have to note.
Answer at once, who caused the war, and who made Joseph's coat?'
But here the Hen-pecker, shrieked out, 'Will women have the vote?'
'I weep for you' the Heckler said, 'I deeply sympathise,
We have asked a hundred questions and yet had no replies.'
But here the Hen-pecker spread out a flag of largest size."
Day by day the warfare with Mr. Churchill continued, a large proportion
of the inhabitants of the district gradually becoming more and more
completely converted to the women's point of view. In some cases after
violent scenes of disorder, the entire audience got up and left the
meeting to show their sympathy with them.
In our Manchester election campaign we did not confine ourselves,
however, merely to questioning and Heckling Mr. Churchill. We also held
numberless meetings of our own and distributed thousands of leaflets.
One day my brother Harry, who was then fifteen years of age, suggested
to us a scheme which, though it involved some risk of prosecution, we
found irresistible. Accordingly, in the small hours of the last two
mornings before polling, he and two of his school fellows set off with
brush and paste can and some long narrow slips called "fly posters,"
with "Votes for Women" printed in black letters upon them. Whilst the
other two boys kept a lookout for passing policemen, Harry pasted these
slips cornerwise across Mr. Churchill's great red and white posters
which appeared on every hoarding in the constituency, just as the
ordinary advertiser does when he wishes to bring out special points of
attraction to heighten the public interest.
Though Mr. Churchill won the Election, his majority was smaller than
that of any of the other Manchester Liberal candidates.
One of the most active workers in the new militant campaign was
Mrs. Flora Drummond, a cheery, rosy-faced little woman, a native of
the Island of Arran. As a girl Flora Gibson had been daring and
high-spirited, a good swimmer, a splendid walker, and the leader
in all kinds of out-door sports and games. On leaving school she
successfully passed all examinations for the position of post mistress,
but immediately afterwards the Post Master General raised the height
standard for all post masters and mistresses to five feet, two inches,
the same standard being exacted both for men and women although the
average height of men is of course greater than that of women. Flora
Gibson was only five feet one inch in height, and as it had been only
at considerable sacrifice that her widowed mother had been able to
pay for her education, poor Flora was in despair; but her father's
relations agreed to pay the necessary fees for her to learn shorthand
and typewriting. She soon became exceedingly skilled and took a Society
of Arts certificate. Shortly after this she married Mr. Drummond, a
journeyman upholsterer, and removed to Manchester, his native place.
Soon after her marriage she was obliged to resume her typewriting
because bad trade threw Mr. Drummond out of regular employment.
Eventually she became manager of the Oliver Typewriter Company's
office in Manchester. She had joined the W. S. P. U. on hearing of the
imprisonment of Annie Kenney and Christabel Pankhurst.
Mrs. Drummond was invaluable for the work of questioning Cabinet
Ministers which was carried on continuously in spite of our Manchester
election campaign. When, early in January, 1906, we heard that the
Prime Minister was to speak at the Sun Hall, Liverpool, she and several
other members of the Union agreed to go over and question him. Mr.
Balfour, who was then fighting a losing battle in the effort to retain
his old seat in East Manchester, had agreed to receive a deputation
from our Union. Nothing very important came of the interview, though
Mr. Balfour's reply was kindly and sympathetic, but long before Mr.
Balfour's hotel had been reached the deputation had discovered that
they were being shadowed by detectives. As it had been arranged that
some of the women should go straight on to Liverpool, they made every
attempt to shake off their pursuers. Proceeding first in one direction
and then in another, they were tracked all over Manchester and
Liverpool until finally Christabel said good-bye to her companions and
returned to Manchester. Then, instead of breaking up into two parties
the detectives all followed her, whilst the other women, in company
with a number of Liverpool members of our Union, quietly made their
way to the Sun Hall, where nine of them subsequently questioned the
Prime Minister and were all thrown out of the hall without receiving a
reply. After the first woman had been rejected Sir Campbell-Bannerman
said: "If I might have done so, I could have calmed that lady's nerves
by telling her that I am in favour of Women's Suffrage," but this, of
course, was no answer to the question as to whether the Government was
prepared to enfranchise the women of the country.
On January 15th Mrs. Drummond and a number of her friends in Glasgow
attended a meeting of the Prime Minister's in the St. Andrew's Hall
there. Heckling is a regular institution in Scotland, and the Glasgow
women declared that they would certainly receive courteous replies.
On asking the usual question Mrs. Drummond was at once flung out by
the stewards and immediately afterwards one of her companions who
had hitherto been a staunch Liberal approached her with hat awry and
dishevelled clothing saying in bewilderment, "Oh my, they pet me oot!"
During these weeks questions were also put at several other meetings
including that of Mr. Asquith in the Sheffield Drill Hall. Everywhere
the women were ejected. On January 25th one of the last big Liberal
meetings of the General Election was held at Altrincham in Cheshire,
Mr. Lloyd George being the principal speaker. The members of the W.
S. P. U. who were present did not interrupt him during his speech but
waited until he had finished before asking him the usual question. Mr.
Lloyd George then said: "I was going to congratulate myself that I had
escaped this; however, at the last meeting of the campaign the spectre
has appeared." That was all, and the women were quickly hauled out to
prevent their again raising their voices.
So the General Election ended, and we were still left without that
pledge from the Liberal leaders which we had set ourselves to gain.
Those of us who went through the campaign will be ever at a loss to
understand the motives which led the Liberal leaders to treat our first
orderly and considerate questioning and even the later, more persistent
heckling, as they did. They obviously had neither the wish nor the
intention of giving votes to women during their term of office, and
it was probably the fear of offending the ladies who canvassed for
them that prevented their plainly saying so. Yet after all, they were
accustomed to parrying the questioning of men and it was surely unwise,
even from their own standpoint, to deal so violently with women.
All that had been done by the new militant suffragists up to now had
been merely the brilliant skirmishing of an intrepid and resourceful
little band of enthusiasts driven to employ somewhat unconventional
methods, both by the old established custom of boycotting their cause
and by the ruthless brutality of the forces that were arrayed against
them. Our opponents called us "a stage army" and "a family party,"
and the designations were not inapt, but the little stage army was
always cleverly marshalled, and its soldiers were as cheerfully and
affectionately loyal to the mother of the movement and to the young
general who had initiated the new tactics as though in reality they had
all been members of a single family.
During the General Election various attempts to press forward the
question of Women's Suffrage had also been made by the non-militant
Suffragists. Miss Llewellyn Davies and others had organised a joint
Manifesto on this question from a large number of societies. These
included, amongst others, the Women's Co-operative Guild with 20,700
members, the Women's Liberal Federation with 76,000 members and the
Scottish Women's Liberal Federation with 15,000 members. The North
of England Weavers' Association, with 100,000. The British Women's
Temperance Association with 109,890 members, the Independent Labour
Party with 20,000 members, and the Lancashire and Cheshire Textile
and others Workers' Representation Committee, whose Secretaries
were Miss Eva Core-Booth and Mrs. Sarah Dickinson. The Women Textile
Workers' Committee had also run Mr. Thorley Smith as a Women's Suffrage
candidate for Wigan. Though Mr. Smith had not been elected, a good
fight had been made and a very creditable vote secured; the figures had
been:--
Powel (Conservative) 3,573
Smith (Women's Suff.) 2,205
Woods (Liberal) 1,900