A CROP OF BY-ELECTIONS, MARCH TO MAY, 1907
No sooner had the second Women's Parliament been concluded than Mrs.
Pankhurst had hurried off by the night train to take command of the
Suffragette forces against the Government at a by-election at Hexham in
Northumberland, where the Liberal majority was reduced by more than a
thousand votes. This election was scarcely over when it was followed,
with scarcely a week's intermission, by no fewer than seven others, at
six of which the Suffragettes were to the fore.
From Hexham our militant army was transferred to Stepney and then to
Rutland, the smallest English County.
Writing at the beginning of the Rutland contest, the _Daily News_
correspondent said: "Each of the three parties (the third being the
Women's Social and Political Union) opened its campaign with meetings
in the Rutland Division to-night." Thus recognised from the start as
one of the three forces to be reckoned with in the Election, the W. S.
P. U. kept its important position right through until the end. In every
hamlet and village the women speakers were cordially received and their
speeches were listened to with earnest attention and respect. After
the meetings, men and women clustered round to ask questions and tell
how, before the passing of the 1884 Reform Act which had enfranchised
the agricultural labourers, in the days when voters were scarce, widows
and daughters whose fathers were dead, had been frequently turned out
of their farms, not because they could not pay the rent, but because
they could not vote. Even to-day the people said that a woman tenant
was sometimes looked upon with disfavour on that account. Though the
wages of the agricultural labourers in this district were exceedingly
low, there was hardly a single member of the audience who did not buy
at least one badge or penny pamphlet, whilst the free leaflets were
eagerly seized upon, and labourers would come hurrying across the
fields to the roadside in order to secure them.
As the days went by the journeyings of the Suffragettes from meeting
place to meeting place throughout the constituency became a sort of
triumphal progress. We were cheerily hailed from afar by distant
workers amongst the crops and by drivers of passing carts. Men, women
and children ran to the cottage doors to see us pass, and everywhere we
were greeted with smiles and kindly words.
Only in the towns, at Oakham, the capital, and at Uppingham, did we
meet with any opposition, but here most of the working men were deeply
anxious that the Liberal should be returned. Rightly or wrongly they
believed in the Liberal Party, believed it to be the party of progress
and the one that would stand by the poor man. Nevertheless the majority
listened courteously to our arguments, and admitting at last that our
policy was logical and right for us, although inconvenient to them.
Many of the staunchest Liberals were even won over to go all the way
with us and to help us to "keep the Liberal out."
But, whilst the majority were thus willing to listen and anxious
to understand, there was also a bitterly hostile element which was
inflamed by an absolutely unreasoning spirit of party antagonism,
and it was well known, and quite openly stated in Oakham, that a
certain well-to-do Liberal was paying a gang of youths to shout down
the Suffragettes at their nightly meetings in the market place. It
is always found by those who take part in political warfare that the
roughest and least civilised members of society are invariably opposed
to the pioneer and the reformer and usually support the Government in
power, to whatever party it may belong, just as they try to "back the
winner" in a race. With the additional monetary incentive to create
a disturbance, this element soon rendered our market place meetings
unpleasantly turbulent, with the result that the local police were
kept busier than they had been for a generation, and reinforcements
had to be sent in from Leicestershire in order to keep the peace. The
tradesman from whom we hired the lorry that we used as a platform,
now announced that he dared not let us have it in future because he
had been warned, not only that the vehicle itself would be damaged,
but that his windows would be broken and his shop looted. Not until
we had tried without success every lorry owner in Oakham, did a man,
who was storing a waggon for a farmer living many miles outside the
constituency, at last come to us and say that, if we would go to the
barn in the field where it was kept and fetch it out for ourselves,
we might have the use of this waggon on promising to make good any
damage that might be done. We agreed to this and were able to hold
our meetings right on until the end of the contest, though on the
last two nights very little that we said could be heard, owing to
the number of horns, bells and rattles that were loudly sounded by
our opponents. After these stormy meetings the police and hosts of
sympathisers always escorted us home to protect us from the rowdies.
Just as we reached our door there was generally a little scuffle with a
band of youths who waited there to pelt us with sand and gravel as we
passed in. Once inside the house, the rest of the evening was always
taken up with interviewing the host of previously unknown callers, who
came to ask whether we had arrived home safely, to apologise for the
roughs, to express sympathy with "Votes for Women," to buy literature,
badges and buttons, or to ask us to inscribe our names in autograph
albums. At Uppingham, the second largest town, the hostile element was
smaller than at Oakham, but its methods were more dangerous. Whilst
Mary Gawthorpe was holding an open-air meeting there one evening, a
crowd of noisy youths began to throw up peppermint "bull's eyes" and
other hard-boiled sweets. "Sweets to the sweet," said little Mary,
smiling, and continued her argument, but a pot-egg, thrown from the
crowd behind, struck her on the head and she fell unconscious. She was
carried away, but next day appeared again, like a true Suffragette,
quite undaunted, and the incident and her plucky spirit, made her the
heroine of the Election. Polling took place on June 11th, and instead
of the great increase in the Government vote that had been expected
the Conservative majority was nearly doubled. The figures were:
J. Gretton (C.) 2,213
W. F. Lyon (L.) 1,362
_____
851
The figures at the General Election had been:
H. G. Finch (C.) 2,047
Harold Pearson (L.) 1,564
_____
483
The campaign in Rutland was not yet over, when Mrs. Pankhurst and part
of our forces were obliged to go north to Jarrow, where there was
a Government majority of nearly three thousand votes to pull down.
The Conservatives, the Labour Party, the Irish Nationalists, and, of
course, the Liberals themselves had each put a candidate into the
field, and every one of this bevy of candidates was "in favour" of
Votes for Women.
Whether the majority of these who came in contact with the Suffragettes
during these By-Election Campaigns understood the workings of the
Party machinery, which controls the Government of our country, well
enough to realise that by voting against the Government they would
help the Votes for Women cause may perhaps be doubted by some, though
the Suffragettes were constantly receiving both written and verbal
assurances from electors who declared that their votes had turned upon
this question; but that the hearts of the people were stirred by the
Suffragettes' appeal is absolutely sure. In the leafy lanes and tiny
villages of Rutland great interest and sympathy had been evoked, but in
smoky struggling Jarrow, with its coal mines, shipbuilding yards and
engineering works, with its dingy slums where overcrowding and infant
mortality are, in common with the rest of this district, more rife than
in any other part of the country, the message of the Suffragettes came
to the overburdened women as a wonderful ray of hope that had burst in
upon the squalor of their lives.
On the first night of their arrival in Jarrow, Mrs. Pankhurst and Annie
Kenney held the largest open-air meeting that had ever been seen in
that town, and the numberless subsequent gatherings, whether for men
and women, or for women only, which were held in halls, in open spaces,
at work gates, and at the collieries, were, in every case, larger and
more orderly than those held by any of the other parties. A systematic
canvass was made of the women householders, who numbered more than one
thousand, and a Committee of Local Women who had come forward with
offers of help sprang almost spontaneously into being.
Three days before the end of the contest it was suggested that a
women's procession should march to the various polling booths, in order
to remind the men to vote against the nominee of the Government that
had refused to allow women to become voters too. The idea was eagerly
caught up, banners were quickly made by voluntary helpers, the news
was carried throughout the district, and on polling day great crowds
of women came flocking to the Mechanics' Hall, where they were to
assemble. They came early, but found that a well dressed mob of men
and youths, wearing the Liberal Colours, had already gathered to bar
the doorway, and the women were literally obliged to fight their way
both in and out of their own meeting. As soon as the procession had
got fairly out into the main road, however, everything went well, for
though at no time did the police put in an appearance, either to keep
order or to clear the way for them, the women were protected from
obstruction by the sympathy and good will of the populace. As they
passed onward, greater and greater numbers joined their ranks until it
seemed as though all the women of Jarrow were marching along the road.
The men whom they met coming from the polling booths greeted them
with cheers and cries of "We have voted for the women this time. We
have kept the Liberal out." They spoke truly, for when the votes were
counted, it was found that the Government candidate was third on the
list, and that the Liberal vote at the General Election had been
reduced by more than half. The figures were:
Pete Curran (Lab.) 4,698
P. Rose Innes (C.) 3,930
Spencer Leigh Hughes (L.) 3,474
J. O'Hanlon (N.) 2,124
The figures at the General Election had been:
Sir C. M. Palmer (L.) 8,047
Pete Curran (Lab.) 5,093
Before the Jarrow election was over came another in the Colne Valley,
in Yorkshire, and here again an old Liberal stronghold was wrested from
the Government. After the declaration of the poll, Mr. Grayson, the
successful candidate, publicly admitted that his return was largely
due to the heavily damaging effect of the Suffragettes' attack upon
his Liberal opponent. An article[23] on this election headed "Votes
for Women, but Fair Play for Liberals," which appeared in the Liberal
_Tribune_, condemning the anti-Government by-election policy of the
Suffragettes, was an admission of the great influence which they had
been able to exercise at this and other recent by-elections.
A more gracious tribute to the electioneering capabilities of the
Suffragettes by the special correspondent of the _Morning Post_
appeared in that paper on August 1st, 1909, during the North West
Staffordshire by-election.
The next Election was at Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk. Here the Liberal
vote was greatly reduced, and that of the Conservative more than
doubled. The figures were:
The Hon. W. Guinness (U.) 1,631
W. B. Yates (L.) 741
_____
Unionist majority 890
The figures at the General Election had been:
Capt. F. W. Harvey (U.) 1,481
W. B. Yates (L.) 1,047
_____
Unionist Majority 434
When, after the declaration of the poll, the successful candidate, the
Hon. W. Guinness, appeared at the window of the Angel Hotel to thank
his supporters and to speak to the people in the customary way, he
asked, "What has been the cause of this great and glorious victory?" He
was interrupted by cries of "Votes for Women!" and by "Three cheers for
the Suffragettes!" vigorously given from the assembled crowd. "No doubt
the ladies had something to do with it," he was constrained to agree.
During this first year of by-election work since the anti-Government
campaign had been started at Eye and Cockermouth in 1906, the
Suffragette forces had grown very largely, and instead of the one or
two workers who had gone to the first contests there were now upwards
of thirty regular by-election campaigners, who could always be relied
upon, at headquarters. During each contest from sixteen to twenty
meetings were held by the union each day. At all these gatherings
collections were taken and admission was charged for many of the
election meetings held in halls, though both practices were unexampled
at Election times. A fine answer to the Liberal cry that they were
fighting with "Tory Gold," and a striking proof of the Suffragette
speakers' popularity with the audiences were thus provided. At every
contest in which the Suffragettes had fought hitherto, there had been
a fall in the Government vote, which had been reduced at Cockermouth
by 1,446; at Huddersfield by 540; in North West Derbyshire by 1,021;
in South Aberdeen by 3,001; at Hexham by 231; at Stepney by 503; at
Rutland by 202; at Jarrow by 4,573; at Colne Valley by 2,204; in North
West Staffordshire by 271, and at Bury St. Edmunds by 306; making in
all a total loss of votes to the Government of 13,300. In spite of the
denials of Party wire-pullers a part of this loss was certainly due to
the Suffragettes.
At some of the later election contests, beginning at Hexham, a new
complication had been introduced. During all the years of its existence
the old non-militant National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies had
held entirely aloof from all election warfare but, seeing that the
Suffragettes during the first year of their anti-Government by-election
campaigning had rapidly grown not only in surface popularity but in
real influence with the electorate, the older Suffragists now came
to the conclusion that they, too, must adopt a by-election policy.
Unfortunately, however, the older Suffragists had not the courage to
make common cause with the Suffragettes who had raised the question
of Women's Suffrage from the position of a stale, old-fashioned joke
to that of a living, moving force in practical politics. They decided,
instead, not to oppose the Government, but to support any Parliamentary
candidate who should declare himself to be favourable to Woman
Suffrage. If, as generally happened nowadays, all the candidates should
claim to be favourable, the N. U. S. S. should either support the most
favourable, or remain neutral. In the event of no candidate being
favourable, a special Women's Suffrage candidate might be run.
Thus, rather than boldly oppose a Government that had only too clearly
shown that it would never give women the vote until it was forced to
do so, these old-fashioned Suffragists preferred to ignore entirely
the dominating principle of the politics of their own time, namely,
government by party. They preferred to go on working for the return
of a few more of the Private Members of Parliament who, though they
already formed a majority of more than two-thirds of the House of
Commons, had themselves, for the hundredth time, been proved to be
incapable of doing anything to prevent the wrecking of a Women's
Suffrage Bill, when, in that very March in which this futile election
policy was decided upon, Mr. Dickinson's Bill had been "talked out."
It is always more difficult to carry out a weak policy than a strong
one, and the adoption of this particular policy not only failed to
advance the Suffrage cause, but also failed in one object for which it
primarily was designed, namely, to prevent dissension in the ranks of
the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies itself. Many members
at once seceded and joined the Women's Social and Political Union,
and many of those who did not actually resign their membership of the
old society now threw all their energy into working for the younger,
more active and courageous body. On the other hand, there were still
those Liberal women who cared more for party than for principle to
be reckoned with, and one of these, Lady Carlisle, resigned the Vice
Presidentship of the N. U. W. S. S., which she had accepted but a few
days before the new by-election policy had been announced, because, in
her party-ridden opinion, to oppose a Liberal candidate who was opposed
to their enfranchisement, seemed too "drastic" and "extreme" a course
for women to adopt.
When the by-election policy of the N. U. W. S. S. came to be put
into practice its unworkable character was immediately demonstrated.
The candidates at Hexham were interviewed, with the result that
the Unionist, Colonel Bates, returned what was considered to be a
favourable answer, whilst the reply of Mr. R. D. Holt, the Liberal,
was said to be unsatisfactory. The National Union of Women's Suffrage
Societies was therefore, according to the newly framed policy, obliged
to support the Conservative candidate, but, when they proceeded to do
so, many of the Liberal members of the organisation objected, and some
even went so far as to work for the Liberal candidate in opposition to
their Secretary, Miss Edith Palliser, and the rest of the Society. To
make matters even more embarrassing for those who were endeavouring to
carry out the policy the Liberal candidate now veered round a point or
two--as candidates so often will--and stated that he had always been
in favour of women's enfranchisement and that his only fear was that
women were not asking for their votes upon a sufficiently democratic
basis. He was therefore proclaimed by his supporters to be a staunch
and devoted friend of the Women's Suffrage Cause.
Meanwhile the Suffragettes foresaw very clearly that this new policy
which would sometimes cause the Suffragists to support the Government
candidate whom they themselves were strenuously working against would
confuse the electors and increase the difficulty of explaining the
anti-Government policy, and, though the anti-Government policy was a
very simple one, even simple things are difficult to explain when hosts
of people are striving to misrepresent them.
In May, the National Union of Suffrage Societies decided to run a
Parliamentary candidate of their own, at a by-election in Wimbledon,
and had chosen as their nominee a well known Liberal, the Hon. Bertrand
Russell. The crushing defeat which resulted has unfortunately been
quoted as a proof that the majority of the Parliamentary voters in that
constituency were opposed to the principle of women's enfranchisement,
but an impartial examination into the facts shows clearly that they do
not in any way justify this conclusion.
The Wimbledon seat had always been held by the Conservatives, and
their majority at the General Election, in spite of the then great
Liberal revival, had numbered more than 2,000 votes. Now, with the
well known and typical old Conservative, Mr. Henry Chaplin, in the
field, the Liberal Party considered it wisest not to fight. Therefore,
but for the intervention of the National Union of Suffrage Societies,
who opposed him because of his anti-Suffragist views, Mr. Chaplin
would have been returned without a contest. Opinions may reasonably
be divided as to whether the game of running Parliamentary candidates
would possibly be worth the candle to a Women's Suffrage Society, but
everyone will surely agree that if Suffrage candidates were to be run
at all, the chief object of the Suffragists ought to have been to
efface as far as possible all other points of political difference
between the rival candidates in order that upon the question of
Votes for Women, and upon that question alone, the electors might
have decided how to vote. To ensure that the single issue should
predominate, it might have been well to choose as the Suffragist
nominee a candidate whose views upon general political questions
were, either similar to those of his anti-Suffrage opponent, or
altogether colourless and obscure. In any case it was essential that
the Suffragist candidate should be willing to subordinate all his other
political opinions and to concentrate his attention absolutely upon
the question of Votes for Women. In this Election, however, though it
was well known that Liberalism was unpopular, the Suffragists chose
to represent them a strong Liberal who was determined to make the
election contest an opportunity for propagating his Liberal principles.
That Mr. Bertrand Russell cared very much more for Liberalism than he
did for Women's Votes was at once apparent. With the news that he had
consented to stand as the Suffrage candidate came the announcement that
he would not in any circumstances have agreed to do so had an official
Liberal been nominated, and he showed clearly that he had no intention
of standing out against the wishes of his party leaders in order to
press forward the Women's Cause. Right from the outset the record of
the Liberal Government, and the general principles of Liberalism were
the points constantly put before the electors, and it was upon these
points that the Election was really fought. Mr. Russell's Election
Address, which was in fact the manifesto of the Suffragists, advocated
Free Trade, the Taxation of Land Values and other questions quite
unconnected with their cause. In his last message to the electors he
said:
I ask for the Liberal vote because I am a Liberal through and through.
I am just as much a Liberal as dozens of the Ministerialists in the
House of Commons, who are as keen as ever I can be upon the Women's
Suffrage question. To those who waver about giving me their vote
because they have doubts on the women's question, I would ask, "Do you
prefer Mr. Chaplin, the protectionist and crusted Tory, to one who is
at least a Free Trader and Progressive?" Such persons should remember
that every vote not given to me is given to my opponent!
The Conservatives eagerly seized the opportunity of fighting Mr.
Russell on the ground of his Liberalism and scouted the idea of his
being considered a Women's Suffrage candidate. At the same time the
Liberals dissociated themselves from his candidature. It was no great
matter for surprise, therefore, that Mr. Russell was defeated by more
than 6,000 votes. The figures were:
H. Chaplin (U.) 10,263
B. Russell (L.) 3,299
______
6,964
The figures at the General Election had been:
C. E. Hambro (U.) 9,523
Mr. Lane Fox Pitt (L.) 7,409
_____
2,114
It is interesting to note that in the six elections which had taken
place since 1885 the Liberals had only thought it worth their while to
contest the seat on three occasions, and on one of these the Liberal
vote had fallen below that recorded for Mr. Bertrand Russell.
Perhaps the most unfortunate feature of the contest was that those of
the Suffragist women who genuinely wished to further the interests of
the women's cause without respect to party, instead of taking command
of the situation, leading their candidate aright, and showing that
they were determined that Woman Suffrage should be the only feature
of the election, allowed the contest to be dominated by Mr. Russell
and his Liberal opinions. Herein lay the great point of difference
between the Suffragists and the Suffragettes. The Suffragists were ever
prone to look upon their cause as a side issue and to apologise for
any impatient attempt to press it to the front. The Suffragettes, on
the other hand, were ready to stake their all upon it and constantly
proclaimed it to be the highest and greatest in the world.
FOOTNOTES:
[23] If Mr. Stanley is the saint and Mr. Twyford the hero, the
Suffragettes are the politicians of the Election.... I confess that
until I had seen the Suffragette Ironsides at work I thought the Tariff
Reform Ruperts unsurpassed. The organization of the Suffragettes is as
good as their political insight. They adopt the "fan" formation. They
usually have three or four local centres in a scattered constituency.
The members of each group in each centre live together irrespective of
class differences. It is a pleasure to see the fan opened, controlled
and set by the controlling hand at the centre. Early in the morning
while men are sleeping or at the Committee Rooms a group of women will
walk up the street of their centre.... At the crossroads of each centre
each single group becomes a fan itself. Each member takes a different
road. Chalk in hand, each woman whilst, going to one meeting, makes
the announcement of another. The men usually hunt in couples. They do
not care to face these hostile audiences single-handed, but each of
these women, as often as not, tackles an audience alone. If combined
hammering is necessary the central hand sends to the rescue. Their
staying power, judging them by the standard of men, is extraordinary.
By taking afternoon as well as evening meetings they have worked twice
as hard as the men. They are up earlier, they retire just as late.
Women against men, they are better speakers, more logical, better
informed, better phrased, with a surer insight for the telling argument.