JANUARY TO MARCH, 1909
REMINDING THE CABINET COUNCIL OF VOTES FOR WOMEN. ATTEMPTS BY THE
WOMEN'S FREEDOM LEAGUE, TO INTERVIEW MR. ASQUITH. ARREST OF MRS.
DESPARD. THE SEVENTH WOMEN'S PARLIAMENT. ARREST OF MRS. PETHICK
LAWRENCE AND LADY CONSTANCE LYTTON. MR. GEOFFREY HOWARD'S REFORM BILL.
THE EIGHTH WOMEN'S PARLIAMENT.
Speaking in December, 1908, on the policy of his Government in the
New Year, Mr. Asquith had declared that the stream of advice as to
what he should do next session was pouring in upon him "both night and
day," and that he was constantly receiving deputations who came to him
"from all quarters and in all causes, on an average of something like
two hours on three days in every week." These deputations all asked
for different things, but were all agreed that "their measure must be
mentioned in the King's Speech, and that the best hours, or at all
events some of the best hours, of the session must be given to its
special consideration. And the worst of it is," he went on, "that I am
disposed myself to agree with them all, for, as each group in their
turn come to me, I recognise in them some of our most loyal and fervent
supporters."
Thus Mr. Asquith was constantly receiving deputations of men and,
as he here admitted, the deputations were helping him to decide
what measures he must include in the next King's Speech, but he again
refused to receive a deputation of the women. Therefore, when the
first Cabinet Council of the season met on January 25th, members of
the Women's Social and Political Union called at No. 10 Downing Street
to urge their claims again as they had done last year. For knocking
at the door, four of them were arrested, and at Bow Street, where
for administrative reasons all Suffragette cases were in future to
be tried, they were ordered to go to prison for one month. They went
cheerfully, for Mrs. Clark, a sister of Mrs. Pankhurst, voiced the
feelings of all when, during her trial, she said, "I felt that it was
not I who was knocking at the Prime Minister's door, but the great need
of women knocking at the conscience of the nation, and demanding that
justice shall be done."
[Illustration: Mrs. Pethick Lawrence's release, April 17th.]
Next day it was the members of the Women's Freedom League who strove
to obtain an interview with Mr. Asquith, and, in consequence, six of
their number were arrested in Victoria Street, on their way to the
Official residence; sixteen at the entrance to Downing Street; and
six, including Mrs. Despard and Mr. Joseph Clayton, a journalist, who
protested on their behalf, at the door of the Stranger's Entrance to
the House of Commons. The resulting sentences varied from one month to
fourteen days' imprisonment.
Little notice was given of these imprisonments, the Press evidently
thinking such sensations stale; but those active inventive brains at
Clement's Inn were determined not to be check-mated and were ever
devising new stratagems and new surprises as a means of pushing
the cause forward. When Mr. Churchill visited Newcastle to inspect
a battleship, on December 4th and 5th, he was approached on the
first of these days no fewer than fifteen times, and on the second
almost constantly, by women who met him at the station, at the door
of his hotel, at a reception held in his honour, on the pier, on the
launch, on the ship itself, and again at every turn on landing, and
who presented him with copies of "Votes for Women," urged the cause
upon him in brief hurried reminders, and made speeches to him from
neighbouring boats. Every other Minister was similarly waylaid.
When Parliament met, and the King's Speech was found to contain no
mention of "Votes for Women," the W. S. P. U. decided that another
Woman's Parliament must be held and another deputation of women must
be sent out from it. Then again something that had never been done
before had to be contrived for focussing public attention upon this
event. Quite opportunely the Post Master General happened to issue
new regulations making it possible to post "human letters." Of course
it was at once determined to post some Suffragettes as letters to Mr.
Asquith in Downing Street. Accordingly, on Tuesday morning, January
23rd, Jessie Kenney dispatched Miss Solomon and Miss McClellan from
the Strand post office. Then, in charge of a little messenger boy,
one carrying a placard inscribed "_Votes for Women, Deputation to the
House of Commons, Wednesday_," and the other, to the _Right Hon. H.
H. Asquith, 10, Downing Street, S. W._, the two ladies marched off to
the official residence. When they arrived the messenger boy was
invited inside, and the door was shut, but, after a few moments, it
was opened again and an official appeared, saying to the women, "You
must be returned." "But we have been paid for," they protested, and he
replied, "The Post Office must deliver you somewhere else, you cannot
be received here." "An express letter is an official document," they
persisted, "and must be signed for according to the regulations." But
the official replied, "You cannot be signed for; you must be returned;
you are dead letters." So there was nothing for it but to go back to
Clement's Inn.
[Illustration: The arrest of Miss Dora Marsden, the Standard Bearer,
March 30th, 1909]
Another day a facsimile of "Black Maria," the van which takes the
prisoners to Holloway, was seen driving through the town. It bore the
inscription E. P. for Emmeline Pankhurst, instead of E. R., Edward Rex,
and a man dressed almost exactly like a policeman rode on the back
step. When the van reached Regent Street a body of women in imitation
prison dress emerged and proceeded to distribute handbills to the
passers-by and to chalk announcements of the forthcoming deputation
to Mr. Asquith upon the pavement. The members of the Women's Freedom
League also hit upon a new and striking advertisement, for Miss
Matters, the heroine of the Grille scene, floated over the House of
Commons in a cigar-shaped dirigible balloon painted with the fateful
words, "Votes for Women."
Ridiculous, petty, even unworthy of serious people, you may think,
were some of these methods of propaganda and advertisement, but the
Suffragettes knew only too well that the cause which does not advance
cannot remain stationary, but slips back into the limbo of forgotten
things. On February 24th, the seventh Women's Parliament met in the
Caxton Hall. Mrs. Pethick Lawrence sallied forth from it with a number
of women in her train, but she and twenty-eight of her comrades,
including Lady Constance Lytton and Miss Daisy D. Solomon, the daughter
of the Late Prime Minister of the Cape, were soon arrested. Their trial
took place before Sir Albert de Rutzen at Bow Street next day, and on
refusing to be bound over to keep the peace they received sentences of
from one to two months' imprisonment.
There were now many members, both of the Women's Social and Political
Union and of the Women's Freedom League, in Holloway, and one
day, whilst they were exercising together, a member of the latter
organisation, Mrs. Meredith MacDonald, a lady in middle life, fell on
the frosty stones. Two of her fellow prisoners ran to help her, but the
wardress forced them away and, though she said she believed her thigh
to be injured, she was forced to drag herself unaided to her cell. Her
request to see her own doctor was refused and not until she became
unable even to turn in her bed was she removed to the prison hospital.
When, at last, the X-rays were applied, it was found that her thigh
was fractured, and that, owing to the long delay and lack of proper
treatment, she would be lame for life. The matter was reported to the
Home Secretary with a demand for redress, but no result followed until
June, 1910, more than a year afterwards, when, legal proceedings having
been instituted, the authorities at last agreed to pay Mrs. MacDonald
£500 damages and her legal costs, amounting to an equal sum.
Meanwhile a place for a Women's Suffrage measure had been won in
the private Members' ballot by Mr. Geoffrey Howard, a Liberal Member
of Parliament and son of the Countess of Carlisle. Mr. Howard and the
Women's Suffrage Committee of Liberal Members with whom he was working,
decided to abandon the old equal Bill and to introduce a complicated
Reform measure, on the lines of that foreshadowed by Mr. Asquith in his
famous promise of the previous year, except that, in this case, Votes
for Women was to form part of the original measure, instead of being
left to come in as an amendment. Under this Private Members' Reform
Bill the only condition required for registration as a Parliamentary
voter was to be that the person registered, whether man or woman,
should be of full age and have resided for not less than three months
within the same constituency. It was estimated that the Bill would
qualify some fifteen million new voters, twelve million of whom would
be women,[33] and would thus nearly treble the number at present
entitled to exercise the franchise. It would at the same time abolish
plural voting. The professed object of bringing forward this measure
was to meet the stipulation put forward by Mr. Asquith and Mr. Lloyd
George that votes should not be given to women except on "democratic
lines."
[Illustration: Elsie Howey as Joan of Arc, who rode at the head of the
procession formed to celebrate Mrs. Pethick Lawrence's release from
prison]
On Friday, March 19th, the Bill came up for Second Reading and Mr.
Howard, in explaining its provisions, said that he had no hope of
carrying it into law, but merely wished to "clear the air" for the
Reform Bill promised by the Government. Sir Charles M'Laren said
that he hoped this Bill might help the Government to come to some
decision as to the manner in which they would deal with the Women's
Suffrage question next year, but when Mr. Asquith arose to make the
expected Government pronouncement, he declared that the opinion of the
Government was unchanged and entirely unaffected by the introduction
of this Bill. He added, however, that there were certain proposals
contained in the measure of which he approved, but carefully explained
that his approval only extended so far as the Bill referred to men.
Though he was aware that the measure would not be pressed beyond a
Second Reading, he stated that the members of the Government would
abstain from voting either for or against it. The whole debate,
therefore, ended in fiasco, and had been merely a wasted opportunity.
After Mr. Asquith's pronouncement the House divided and there voted,
For the Bill 157
Against the Bill 122
___
Majority for the Bill 35
It will be thus seen that this Bill of Mr. Howard's secured a very
much smaller measure of support than that which had been accorded to
the equal Women's Enfranchisement Bill in the previous year, for the
figures had then been: For the Bill 271, against 92. Majority for the
Bill 179.
The Women's Social and Political Union now decided that another
deputation should attempt to obtain an interview with Mr. Asquith, and
an eighth Women's Parliament was held on March 30th. Mrs. Saul Solomon,
widow of the Governor General of South Africa, an elderly, motherly
figure, volunteered to lead its deputation of thirty women who were
to carry the usual resolution to the House, whilst Miss Dora Marsden,
B.A., of Manchester, looking exactly like a Florentine angel, marched
before with a purple-white-and-green standard announcing the arrival
of the deputation. As soon as the women reached the street, the usual
pushing and hustling by the police began, and after an hour's brave
struggle, eleven of them were arrested. Next day nine of those who had
not been taken again returned to the charge, and eventually the twenty
women were sent to prison at Sir Albert de Rutzen's orders, nineteen
of them for one month and Patricia Woodlock, because she had served
several sentences already, for three.
On April 16th, Mrs. Pethick Lawrence, our dear treasurer, was
released, and we were able to tell her that no less than £8,000 had
been collected by the sacrifice of our members during self-denial
week. A great procession was formed in her honour and marched from
the Marble Arch to the Aldwych Theatre, where she was to speak. What
a day it was to welcome anyone from prison! The trees were just
bursting into leaf, and the brilliant April sunshine glistened on
the silver armour of Elsie Howey, who represented Joan of Arc, the
warrior maid, whose Beatification was taking place that very day, and
rode at the head of the procession, astride her great white charger,
with the brisk wind blowing back her fair hair, and gaily fluttering
the purple-white-and-green standard which she bore. Then came women
and girls with flowers and banners, and Mrs. Lawrence's own carriage
covered with flags, and everywhere were the purple-white-and-green
colours, except at one point where the American delegates to the
International Women's Suffrage Congress, then sitting in London, rode
in a carriage draped with their own stars and stripes. Inside the
theatre the platform was covered with flowers sent by hundreds of
members and friends, and there too the American delegates had added
their tribute, a little silk copy of their national flag.
It was a wonderful speech that Mrs. Lawrence then delivered, full, not
only of enthusiasm and deep feeling, but of logic and common sense, and
of unanswerable arguments for the women's cause. She reminded us that
she and her fellow Suffragists had gone to prison in support of the old
English Constitutional maxim that taxation and representation should go
together. Before she had gone to prison, she told us, a birthday book
had been shown to her that had been got out for a Church bazaar. In
that book Mr. Asquith had been asked to write his favourite quotation
with his signature, and this favourite quotation of Mr. Asquith's had
turned out to be, "Taxation without representation is tyranny." Many
stories she told us of what she had seen and heard in prison. One
morning the Chaplain had come into the hospital where she was, and had
called up an old woman to speak to him. Everyone there had heard the
conversation that passed between them, and had learnt in reply to his
peremptory questioning her name, her age, the length of her sentence,
and so on. She was seventy-six, unmarried, and for the first time in
her long life she was now imprisoned because she could not pay her rent
and taxes £3 16s. "I keep a lodging house for workingmen," she said.
"It has been a very bad winter for my lodgers, and they have not been
able to pay me." "This woman was quite good enough to pay taxes," said
Mrs. Lawrence, "this old woman of seventy-six, and to go to prison
when she could not meet the taxes, and yet she was not counted fit to
exercise a vote."
[Illustration:
SHALL DOUBTLESS
COME
AGAIN WITH
REJOICING
A part of the decoration of the Exhibition held in the Prince's Skating
Rink, May, 1909]
Mrs. Lawrence also told us of a conversation between herself and
the chaplain. "I have heard a great deal of you, Mrs. Lawrence,"
he had said. "You have started holiday homes for girls. I wish you
would start a holiday home for wardresses. You see they work very
hard--twelve hours a day. They very often break down, and then they
have not enough money to go away for a holiday." "I looked at him in
amazement," Mrs. Lawrence told us, "to think that a Government servant
should come to me, a voteless woman, and suggest that I should supply
a deficiency created because our legislators do not pay their women
servants enough." So argument followed argument, and there were many
Suffragettes who joined the Union on that day.
* * * * *
Ever since the night on which the members of the Freedom League had
chained themselves to the grille and pieces of that historic monument
of prejudice had been taken down, whilst two men in the Stranger's
Gallery had loudly demanded votes for women, the galleries had been
closed and though Press representatives had still leave to come and go,
as far as the general public was concerned, the House had sat in secret
conclave for six months. Members of Parliament found the exclusion of
all visitors to the House to be exceedingly inconvenient, and at last
the Government introduced what it called a "Brawling Bill" which was
to settle the question by providing that:--
Any person, not being a member of either House of Parliament, while
present in the Palace of Westminster during the sitting of either
House who is guilty of disorderly conduct or acts in contravention
of any rule or order of the House in respect of the admission of
strangers, shall be guilty of misdemeanour and liable to summary
conviction and imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to
a fine not exceeding £100.
In bringing the Bill forward the Attorney General urged that though the
House could already punish strangers who broke its rules by committing
them to Newgate prison, their imprisonment there could only last whilst
the House was sitting, so that those who committed an offence towards
the close of the session would be too easily let off. Moreover the
House had not the power to punish offenders without debate and for it
to suspend its consideration of "high matters" in order to discuss the
cases of persons, who, though he declared that no offence could be more
serious than theirs, he yet characterised as unworthy in themselves of
"further consideration than any ordinary police magistrate could give
them," was to play the game of the disturbers and to give them the
maximum of advertisement with the minimum of punishment. When someone
pointed out that all accused persons liable to six months' imprisonment
were entitled to trial by jury, he at once stated that he should prefer
to reduce the proposed term of imprisonment to three months. Finally he
recommended the Bill to the House as one that would "save its time and
safeguard its dignity."
Lord Balcarres urged that anyone charged under the Bill would have
the right to subpœna the Speaker or the Chairman of Committee who
had witnessed the occurrence complained of to give evidence at the
trial. It would be impossible, he said, to say that Mr. Speaker must
not be summoned because he represented "the quintessence of the
collective wisdom of the House of Commons," and "it would be a most
deplorable thing if the Speaker and other officials and Members of
the House were to be hauled into court for no other reason than to
draw public attention to the Police Court proceedings, and to make
sensational paragraphs in the evening papers." Mr. Mooney, an Irish
member, said amid great laughter, that he thought the Bill must have
been, drafted in the neighbourhood of Clement's Inn, because of the
advertisement which it would give "to certain propagandists," whilst
Mr. Hazleton declared that the Government were merely setting up an act
of Parliament "as an Aunt Sally for every Suffragette to come along and
have a shot at."
Mr. Keir Hardie stated that in his opinion the Bill was only necessary
because of the failure of members of the Government, and Members of the
House to redeem their election pledges in regard to Women's Suffrage,
and that it was because women felt that they could no longer appeal
to the honour of the House of Commons, that they had taken to extreme
measures.
In his reply the Attorney General ignored this latter view of the case,
but dealt at length with the right of summoning witnesses, pointing
to the setting aside of the subpœnas to Mr. Asquith and Mr. Herbert
Gladstone, in the case of Mrs. Baines' trial at Leeds, as a proof
that this could easily be done again to protect the officers of the
House, and especially the "great officers" from being summoned. He
promised that stringent provisions with this object should be added in
committee, saying "I do not think the House need trouble itself with
that objection."
Evidently, therefore, the gradual sweeping away of every safeguard
of a free people against coercion, which had been won for us by the
suffering and sacrifice and ceaseless effort of generations of our
forebears, was as nothing to the Government, in comparison with the
staving off of the Women's claim to vote. Now it was one of the
fundamental rights of the accused person that they were proposing
to tamper with, but the House would not agree. Sir Edward Carson,
whilst expressing doubt as to the practicability of the Government's
proposals, protested emphatically against the suggestion that there
should be a law of subpœna for the House of Commons different to that
which prevailed in the rest of the land. Finally the Prime Minister
rose to say that though, after the trouble that had been taken in
drafting it, he did not like to withdraw the Bill altogether, he yet
thought that further time should be given for consideration, and that
the debate should be adjourned.
The Brawling Bill was never heard of again. Its final death-blow was
dealt on April 27th, exactly a week after it had been discussed, when
five Suffragettes effectively showed that no threat of a Brawling
Bill could prevent them from demonstrating in the House of Commons by
entering St. Stephen's Hall and chaining themselves to the statues of
five men--Walpole, Lord Somers, Selden, and Lord Falkland, whose names
are famous in the struggle for British Liberties in Stuart days. Having
so chained themselves, the women addressed the visitors and Members of
Parliament, explaining that they themselves were engaged in fighting
for the liberties of one-half of the British people. With strong
pincers the police succeeded in breaking the chains, but there was no
prosecution and shortly afterwards the Speaker announced that both
the Ladies' and Strangers' Galleries were to be reopened on certain
conditions. Before being admitted each visitor must now subscribe his
or her name and address to the following printed pledge:
I undertake to abstain from making any interruption or disturbance and
to obey the rules for the maintenance of order in the Galleries.
Having signed the pledge, men visitors were to be absolutely trusted,
but women were treated as having absolutely no sense of honour, for
no woman was to be permitted to get even so far as the signing of the
pledge, unless she happened to be related to a Member of Parliament and
no Member was to be allowed to introduce any lady to the gallery unless
he had previously won a place for her in the ballot.
* * * * *
On May 13th, the Women's Social and Political Union opened in the
Prince's Skating Rink, Knightsbridge, a Votes for Women Exhibition in
the purple, white and green. Mrs. Lawrence and the Committee of the
Union were driven thither by a woman chauffeur in a motor car for which
the Suffragettes had subscribed in order that they might present it to
the Treasurer on her release from prison. The Rink was covered outside
with a mass of waving flags in the colours, and inside these also
predominated. The theme of the decorations which lined the walls of the
great central hall was "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy and
he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed, shall doubtless
come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." And indeed
in those bright spring days at the Skating Rink, though the victory
of the franchise was not yet won, some of the fruits of the struggle
were already present in the glad comradeship of the workers. Everyone
seemed to be full of high spirits, and all were keenly interested in
the success of the enterprise and, in spite of the strenuous militant
tactics in which they were engaged and of all the propaganda work which
they were accomplishing, every branch of the Union and every organising
centre, had its stall laden with goods. Friends from all over the
world had sent their contributions, and the Norwegian delegates to the
International Suffrage Congress had a stall of their own in aid of the
W. S. P. U. funds.
But this was no mere bazaar, for at every turn one was reminded of
Votes for Women. Each day as one entered, a ballot paper was always
pressed into one's hand and every visitor to the exhibition was invited
to record a vote upon some question of the moment; the ballot box
and everything connected with the voting being arranged just exactly
as it is in Parliamentary Elections. At one end of the hall was a
facsimile of a prison cell, in which sat a woman in second division
prison dress who herself had actually been to Holloway and could
explain exactly how the bed was rolled and the tins were cleaned. Side
by side with this was the sort of cell which may be occupied by men
political prisoners. Ranged along one wall were glass cases containing
clever little cartoon models, prepared by sculptors in the Union and
showing numerous representations of Cabinet Ministers in their various
encounters with the Suffragettes. Amongst a host of others, there was
Mrs. Pankhurst and her deputation at the door of the House of Commons
with the Cabinet Ministers hiding fearfully behind a group of stalwart
police.
Then there was a picture gallery of Press photographs showing the
history of the militant movement, and there were entertainments, all
about Votes for Women, by those ardent Suffragists, the members of the
Actresses Franchise League.
The exhibition lasted a fortnight, and at the end of the first week,
came a great surprise, for a women's drum and fife band, consisting
of members of our Union, who had been practising in secret for months
past, now dressed in a specially designed uniform of purple, white and
green, formed up in the centre of the rink and with Mrs. Leigh as Drum
Major, marched out playing the "Marseillaise," and then went round the
town to advertise the exhibition.
Hundreds of new members were made during the fortnight, and perhaps
the smallest part of the whole achievement was that £5,564 was added
to the W. S. P. U. campaign fund. Altogether it was decided that the
Exhibition in the Colours was the smartest, brightest and cheeriest
exhibition that anyone had ever seen. Strangers visiting it said,
"What happy women you Suffragettes are; we never thought you were like
that!" To those who read of this movement in future years it may seem
strange that, in spite of the unremitting character of the struggle
the Suffragettes, when not actually engaged in the fighting line,
should have been so generally merry and light hearted. W. D. Howells,
in his _Venetian Life_, and others, tell us that whilst Venice was
dominated by Austria the whole town was under a cloud; the Italians
gave no balls, dinners or entertainments, and even the great Opera
House was closed. But the attitude of the Suffragettes was perhaps more
in keeping with the English character. Have we not heard that though
the Spanish Armada had long been expected, Drake and the other great
sea fighters were playing bowls when the news came that it was in
sight? And now, whilst the Exhibition[34] was in progress the fighting
campaign was going forward all over the country as briskly as ever.
The protests in connection with Cabinet Ministers' meetings continued
almost daily and, whilst the strictest precautions were taken to keep
them out, the greatest ingenuity was displayed by them in obtaining
an entry. At a meeting of Mr. Birrell's in the Colston Hall, Bristol,
two women were found to have hidden themselves amongst the pipes of
the organ. When the same Minister spoke with Lord Crew at Liverpool,
Mary Phillips, who had lain crouching for twenty-four hours amid the
dust and grime in a narrow space under the organ, was there to remind
them of Patricia Woodlock, the Liverpool Suffragette, who was then
serving a sentence of three months' imprisonment in Holloway gaol.
[Illustration: The band out for the first time, May, 1909]
Meanwhile during the spring of 1909, eight by-election contests had
been fought at Glasgow, Hawick Burghs, Forfar, South Edinburgh,
Croydon, East Edinburgh, the Attercliffe Division of Sheffield, and
Stratford-on-Avon.
The Scotch constituencies, with the exception of Glasgow, which is not
typically Scotch, were the most difficult to fight, for the majority
of the Scotch people have long been so rootedly Liberal that a very
exceptional degree, not only of sympathy with the cause but of belief
in the by-election policy, was needed to induce any of the electors
to alter their old allegiance, and to allow a Conservative to be
returned. Nevertheless the Liberal majority was in every case reduced.
In Glasgow the seat which had been held by a Liberal was wrested from
the Government by a Liberal majority of 2113. At Croydon the Liberal
Candidate was also defeated by a greatly increased majority, for whilst
in the general election it had been 638 it was now 3,948. The elections
at Attercliffe and Stratford-on-Avon were perhaps the most striking of
the series. In the former contest the Liberals strove to counteract
the Suffragette influence in numerous ways, including the issuing of
leaflets with such headings as, "WORKING MEN DON'T BE FOOLED BY MRS.
PANKHURST," and, "SUFFRAGETTE AND TORY LIES NAILED TO THE COUNTER." In
these documents they tried to lead the public to think that the police,
and not the Government in power, were responsible for the Suffragist
imprisonments. When the result of the polling was made known, it was
found that the Liberal nominee had been placed third on the poll,
having secured less than half the votes which had been cast for his
party in the last election.
At Stratford-on-Avon, another Liberal seat, the Government candidate
was again routed, this time by a majority of 2,627 votes.
FOOTNOTES:
[33] Estimate given by the Liberal _Daily Chronicle_.
[34] The Freedom League had also held a successful and interesting
Green White and Gold Fair at the Caxton Hall.