August 18, 2025 • 22 mins
In My Own Story, Emmeline Pankhurst, the renowned British political activist and leader of the suffragette movement, shares her compelling journey in the fight for womens rights. Despite facing significant criticism for her militant approach, her relentless efforts played a pivotal role in securing womens suffrage in Britain. Written and published on the brink of the Great War, Pankhursts autobiography offers an intimate glimpse into her experiences and the challenges she faced along the way. (Summary by Petra)
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Book two, Chapter four of My Own Story by Emmeline Pankhurst.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
k Hand four Years of Peaceful Militancy, Chapter eight. Almost
immediately after the events chronicled in the preceding chapter, I
sailed for my second tour through the United States. I
was delighted to find a thoroughly alive and progressive suffrage movement,
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where before had existed with most people only in academic
theory in favor of equal political rights between men and women.
My first meeting, held in Brooklyn, was advertised by Sandwich
women walking through the principal streets of the city, quite
like our militant suffragists at home. Street meetings I found
were now daily occurrences in New York, the Women's Political
Union had adopted an election policy, and throughout the country,
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as far west as I traveled, I found women awakened
to the necessity of political action instead of mere discussion
of suffrage. My second visit to America, like my first one,
is clouded in my memory with sorrow. Very soon after
my return to England, a beloved sister, missus Mary Clark, died.
My sister, who was a most ardent suffragist and a
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valued worker in the Women's Social and Political Union, was
one of the women who was shockingly maltreated in Parliament
Square on Black Friday. She was also one of the
women who a few days later registered their protest against
the government by throwing a stone through the window of
an official residence. For this act, she was sent to
Holloway Prison for a term of one month, released on
December twenty first, it was plain to those who knew
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her best that her health had suffered seriously from the
dreadful experience of Black Friday and the after experience of prison.
She died suddenly on Christmas Day, to the profound sorrow
of all her associates. Hers was not the only life
that was sacrificed as a result of that day. Other
deaths occurred, mostly from hearts weakened by overstrain. Missus Henria
Williams died on January second, nineteen eleven, from heart failure.
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Missus Cecilia Woolseley Haig was another victim. Ill treatment on
Black Friday resulted in her case in a painful illness,
which ended, after a year of intense suffering, in her
death on December twenty first, nineteen eleven. It is not
possible to publish a full list of all the women
who have died or have been injured for life in
the course of the suffrage agitation in England. In many
cases the details have never been made public, and I
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do not feel at liberty to record them here. A
very celebrated case which is public property is that of
Lady Constance Lytton, sister of the Earl of Lytton, who
acted as chairman of the Conciliation Committee. Lady Constance had
twice in nineteen o nine gone to prison as a
result of suffrage activities, and on both occasions had been
given special privileges on account of her rank and family influence.
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In spite of her protests and her earnest pleadings to
be accorded the same treatment as other suffrage prisoners, the
snobbish and cowardly authorities insisted in retaining Lady Constance in
the hospital cells and discharging her before the expiration of
her sentence. This was done on a plea of her
ill health, and it was true that she suffered from
a valvular disease of the heart smarting. Under the sense
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of the injustice done her comrades in this discrimination. Lady
Constance Lytton did one of the mother heroic deeds to
be recorded in the history of the suffrage movement. She
cut off her beautiful hair and otherwise disguised herself, put
on cheap and ugly clothing, and as Jane Wharton took
part in a demonstration at Newcastle, again suffering arrest and imprisonment,
this tiny authorities treated her as an ordinary prisoner, without
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testing her heart or otherwise giving her an adequate medical examination,
they subjected her to the horrors of forcible feeding. Owing
to her fragile constitution, she suffered frightful nausea each time,
and when on one occasion the doctor's clothing was soiled,
he struck her contemptuously on the cheek. This treatment was
continued until the identity of the prisoner suddenly became known.
She was of course immediately released, but she never recovered
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from the experience and is now a hopeless invalid. I
want to say right here that those well meaning friends
on the outside who say that we have suffered these
horrors of prison of hunger strikes and forcible feeding because
we desired to martyrrize ourselves for the cause are absolutely
and entirely mistaken. We never went to prison in order
to be martyrs. We went there in order that we
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might obtain the rights of citizenship. We were willing to
break laws that we might force men to give us
the right to make laws. That is the way the
men have earned their citizenship. Truly, says Mazzini, that the
way to reform has always led through prison. The result
of the general election, which took place in January nineteen
eleven was that the Liberal Party was again returned to power.
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Parliament met on January thirty first, but the session formally
opened on February sixth with the reading of the King's Speech.
The program for the session included the Lord's veto measure
home rule, payment for members of Parliament and the abolishment
of plural voting. Invalid insurance was also mentioned in certain
amendments to the Old Age Pension Bill. Women suffrage was
not mentioned. Nevertheless, we were singularly lucky, the first three
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places in the ballot being secured by members of the
Conciliation Committee. Mister Phillips and Irish Member drew the first place,
but as the Irish Party had decided not to introduce
any bills that session. He yielded to Sir George Kemp,
who announced that he would use his place for the
purpose of taking a second reading debate on the new
Conciliation Bill. The old bill had been entitled a Bill
to give the Vote to Women Occupiers, a title that
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made amendment difficult. The new bill bore the more flexible
title A Bill to Confer the Parliamentary Franchise on Women,
thus doing away with one of mister Lloyd George's most
plausible objections to it. The ten pound occupation clause was omitted,
doing away with another objection, that of the possibility of
faggot voting, that is, of a rich man conferring the
vote on a family of daughters by the simple expedient
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of making them tenants of slices of his own property.
The Conciliation Bill now read one every woman possessed of
a household qualification within the meaning of the Representation of
the People Act eighteen forty four, shall be entitled to
be registered as a voter, and when registered to vote
in the county or borough in which the qualified premisses
are situated. Two for the purposes of this Act, a
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woman shall not be disqualified by marriage for being registered
as a voter, provided that a husband and wife shall
not both be registered as voters in the same parlor, mentary, borough,
or county division. This bill met with even warmer approval
than the first one, because it was believed that it
would win votes from those members who felt that the
original measure had fallen short of being truly democratic. Nevertheless,
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the Prime Minister showed from the first that he intended
to oppose it, as he had all previous suffrage measures.
He announced that all Fridays up to Easter, and also
all time on Tuesdays and Wednesdays usually allowed for private
members bills, were to be occupied with consideration of government measures.
Hardly a liberal voice was raised against this arbitrary ruling.
The Irish members indeed were delighted with it, since it
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gave the Home Rule Bill an advantage. The labor members
seemed complacent, and the rest of the coalition were indifferent.
One back bench liberal went so far as to rise
and thank the Prime Minister for the courtesy with which
the gagging process was accomplished. There was some show of
fight made by the opposition, but conservative indignation was tempered
by the reflection that the precedent established might be followed
to advantage when their party came into power. Sir George
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Kemp then announced that he would take May the fifth
for the second reading of the Conciliation Bill, and the
supporters of the bill, according to the various convictions, set
to work to further its interests. The conviction of the
WSPU was that mister Asquith's government would never allow the
bill to pass until they were actually forced to do so,
and we adopted our own methods to secure a definite
pledge from the government that they would give facilities to
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the bill. In April of that year, the census was
to be taken, and we organized a census resistance on
the part of women. According to our law, the census
of the entire Kingdom must be taken every ten years
on a designated day. Our plan was to reduce the
value of the census for statistical purposes by refusing to
make the required returns. Two ways of resistance presented themselves.
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The first and most important was direct resistance by occupiers
who should refuse to fill in the census papers. This
laid the register open to a fine of five pounds
or a month's imprisonment, and thus required the exercise of
considerable courage. The second means of resistance was evasion, staying
away from home during the entire time that the enumerators
were taking the census. We made the announcement of this plan,
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and instantly their ensued a splendid response from women in
a chorus of horrified disapproval from the conservative public. The
Times voiced this disapproval in a leading article, to which
I replied, giving our reasons for the protest. The census,
i wrote, is a numbering of the people. Until women
count as people for the purpose of representation in the
councils of the nation, as well as for the purposes
of taxation, we shall refuse to be numbered on the
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subject of laws made by men without the assistance of women.
For the protection of women and children, I have a
very special feeling from my experience is a poor law guardian,
and as registrar of births and deaths, I know how
ridiculously say, rather how tragically these laws fall short of protection.
Take for instance, the vaunted Children's Charter of nineteen o six,
the measure which spread mister Lloyd George's fame throughout the world.
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A volume could be filled with the mistakes and the
cruelties of that act, the object of which is the
preservation and improvement of child's life. The object of which
is the preservation and improvement of child life. A distinguishing
characteristic of the act is that it puts most of
the responsibility for the neglect of children on the backs
of the mothers, who, under the laws of England, have
no rights as parents. Two or three especially striking cases
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of this kind came into notice about this time and
gave the Sensus resistance and additional justification. The case of
Annie Wilmore was a very pitiful one. She was arrested
and sentenced to Holloway for six weeks for neglecting her children.
The evidence showed that the woman lived with her husband
and children in a miserable hovel, which would have been
almost impossible to keep clean even if there had been
water in the house. As it was, the poor soul,
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who was in ill health and weakened by deprivation, had
to carry all the water she used across a great distance.
The children, as well as the house were very dirty
it it was true, but the children were well nourished
and kindly treated. The husband, a laborer out of work
much of the time, testified that his wife starved herself
to feed the kids. Yet she had violated the terms
of the children's charter, and she went to prison. I
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am glad to say that, owing to the efforts of suffragists,
she was pardoned and provided with a better home. Another
case was that of Helen Conroy, who was charged with
living in one wretched room room with her husband and
seven children, the youngest a month old. According to the law,
the mother was forbidden to have this infant in bed
with her overnight, Yet part of the charge against her
was that the child was found sleeping in a box
of damp straw. Doubtless she would have preferred a cradle
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or even a box of dry straw, but direst poverty
made the cradle impossible, and the conditions of the tenement
kept the straw damp. Both parents in this instance were
sent to prison for three months at hard labor. The
magistrate casually remarked that the house in which these poor
people lived had been condemned two years before, but some
respectable property owner was still collecting rents from it. Another
poor mother evicted from her home because she could not
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pay the rent, took her four children out into the
open country, and when found was sleeping with them in
a gravel pit, she was sent to prison for a month,
and the children went to the workhouse. These sorry mothers
logical results of the subjection of women are enough in
themselves to justify almost any defiance of a government who
denied the women the right to work out their destinies
in freedom. No pledge having been secured from the Prime Minister.
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By April first, we carried out and most successfully, our
census resistance. Many thousands of women all over the country
refused or evaded the returns. I returned my census paper
with the words no vote, no census written across it,
and other women followed that example with similar messages. One
woman filled in the blank with full information about her
one man servant and added that there were many women,
but no more persons in her household. In Birmingham, sixteen
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women of wealth packed their houses with women resistors. They
slept on the floors, on chairs and tables, and even
in the baths. The head of a large college threw
open the building to three hundred women. Many women in
other cities held all night parties for friends who wish
to remain away from home. In some places, unoccupied houses
were rented for the night by resistors who lay on
the bare boards. Some groups of women hired gypsy vans
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and spent the night on the moors. In London we
gave a great concert at Queen's Hall on Census Night.
Many of us walked about Trafalgar Square until midnight, and
then repaired to Aldwitch Skating Rink, where we amused ourselves
until morning. Some skated while others looked on and enjoyed
the admirable music and theatrical entertainment that helped to pass
the hours. We had with us a number of the
brightest stars in the theatrical world, and they were generous
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in their contributions. It being Sunday night, the chairman had
to call on each of the artists for a speech
instead of a song or other turn. An all night
restaurant near at hand did a big business, and on
the whole the resistors had a very good time. The
Scala Theater was the scene of another all night entertainment.
There was a good deal of curiosity to see what
the government would devise in the way of a punishment
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for the rebellious women. But the government realized the impossibility
of taking punity to action, and mister John Burns, who
as head of the Local Government Board, was responsible for
the census, announced that they had decided to treat the
affair with magnanimity. The number of evasions, he declared were insignificant,
but everyone knew that this was the exact reverse of
the facts. The Conciliation Bill was debated on May fifth
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and passed its second reading by the enormous majority of
one hundred thirty seven, and now the public and a
section of the press united in a strong demand that
the Government yield to the undoubted will of the House
and grant facilities to the bill. The Conciliation Committee sent
a deputation of members to the Prime Minister to remind
him of his pre election promise that the House of
Common should have an opportunity of dealing with the whole
question of a woman's suffrage, but they succeeded only in
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getting his assurance that he had the matter under consideration.
Late in the month, the announcement was made in the
House that the Government would not grant facilities during that session,
but since the new bill fulfilled the conditions named by
the Prime Minister and was now capable of amendment. The
Government recognized it to be their duty to grant facilities
in some session of the present Parliament. They would be
prepared next session when the bill had been read for
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the second time, either as a result of obtaining a
good place in the ballot, or if that did not happen,
by a grant of a government day for the purpose
to give a week which they understood to be the
time suggested as reasonable by the promoters for its further stages.
This pledge was made in order to deter the w
s p U for making militant demonstration in connection with
the coronation of the King. Keir Hardy asked if the
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Government would, by means of closure or otherwise make certain
that the bill would go through in the week, and
the Prime Minister replied, no, I cannot give an assurance
of that kind. After all, it is a problem of
the very greatest magnitude. This reply seemed to make the
government's pledge practically worthless. The Conciliation Committee also realized the
possibilities of the bill being talked out, and Lord Lytton
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wrote to mister Asquith and asked him for assurances that
the facilities offered were intended not for academic discussion, but
for effective opportunity for carrying the bill. He also asked
that the week offered should not be construed rigidly, but that,
providing the committee stage were got through in the time,
additional days for the report and third reading stages might
be forthcoming. Reasonable opportunity for making use of the closure
was also asked. To Lord Lytton's letter, the Prime Minister
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replied as follows, my dear Lytton, in reply to your
letter on the subject of the Women's Enfranchisement Bill, I
would refer you to some observations recently made in a
speech at the National Liberal Club by Sir Edward Gray,
which accurately expresses the intention of the government. It follows
to answer your specific inquiries, that the week offered will
be interpreted with reasonable elasticity, that the Government will interpose
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no reasonable obstacle to the proper use of the closure,
and that, if as you suggest, the bill gets through
the Committee in the time proposed, the ex two days
required for a report and third reading will not be refused.
The government, though divided in opinion on the merit of
the bill. Are unanimous in their determination to give effect,
not only in the letter, but in the spirit to
the promise in regards to the facilities which I made
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on their behalf before the last general election. Yours et cetera. H. H.
Asquith skeptical up to this point, the w s p
U was now convinced that the Government were sincere in
their promise to give the bill full facilities. In the
following year we held a joyful mass meeting in Queen's Hall,
and I again declared that the warfare against the government
was at an end. Our new policy was the inauguration
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of a great holiday campaign with the object of making
victory in nineteen twelve. Absolutely certain electors must be aroused,
members of Parliament held to their allegiance. Women must be
organized in order that questions that vitally affect the social
welfare of the country might be placed before them. I
chose Scotland and Wales as the scenes of my holiday labors.
I may say that our confidence was fully shared by
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the public at large. The belief in mister Asquith's pledge
was accurately reflected in a Leader published in the nation,
which said, from the moment the Prime Minister signed the
frank and ungrudging letter to Lord Lytton, which appeared in
last Saturday's newspapers, women became, in all but the legal formality,
voters and citizens. For at least two years, if not
for longer, nothing has been lacking save a full and
fair opportunity for the House of Commons to translate to
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its convictions into the precise language of a statute. That
opportunity has been promised for next session, and promised in
terms and under conditions which ensure success. The only thing,
as we thought, that we had to fear, were wrecking
amendments to the bill, and in the new by election
policy which we adopted, we worked against all candidates of
every party who would refuse to promise not only to
support the Conciliation Committee to carry the bill, but also
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to vote against any amendment the Committee thought dangerous. We
believed that we had covered every possibility of disaster, but
we had something yet to learn of the treachery of
the Asquith Ministry and their capacity for cold blooded lying.
Mister Lloyd George from the first was an open enemy
of the bill, but since we had no doubt of
the sincerity of the Prime Minister, we could only conclude
that mister Lloyd George had detached himself from the main
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body of the government and had become the self constituted
leader of the opposition. In an address to a large
Liberal group, mister Lloyd George advised that Liberal members be
asked to ballot for a place for a democratic measure,
and ordered that such a measure might claim the Prime
Minister's pledge for the facility's next session. In one or
two other speeches, he made vague allusions to the possibilities
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of introducing another suffrage bill. His own idea was to
amend the bill to give a vote to wives of
all electors, making married women voters in virtue of their
husband's qualification. The inevitable effect of such an amendment would
be to wreck the bill, since it would have enfranchised
about six million women in addition to the million in
half who would benefit by the original terms of the bill.
Such a wholesale addition to the electorate was never known
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in England, the number enfranchised by the Reform Bill of
eighteen thirty two being hardly more than half a million.
The Reform Bill of eighteen sixty seven admitted a million
new voters, and that of eighteen eighty four perhaps two millions.
The absurdity of mister Lloyd George's proposal was such that
we did not regard it seriously. We did not allow
his opposition to give a serious alarm until a day
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in August when a Welsh member, mister Leif Jones, asked
the Prime Minister from the floor of the House whether
he was aware that his promise for facilities for the
Conciliation Bill in the next session was being claimed exclusively
for that bill, and asked further for a statement that
the promise facilities would be equally granted to any other
suffrage bill that might secure a second reading and was
capable of amendment. Mister Lloyd George, speaking for the Government,
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replied that they could not undertake to give facilities to
more than one bill on the same subject, but that
any bill which satisfying these tests secured a second reading
would be treated by them as falling within their engagements.
Astounded at this plaint evasion of a sacred promise, Lord
Lytton again wrote to the Prime Minister, reviewing the entire
matter and asking for another statement of the government's intentions.
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The following is the text of mister Asquith's reply, My
dear Lytton, I have no hesitation in saying that the
promises made by and on behalf of the Government in
regard to giving facilities to the Conciliation Bill will be
strictly adhered to, both in letter and in spirit. Yours, sincerely, H. H. Asquith,
August twenty third, nineteen eleven. Again we were reassured, and
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our confidence in the Premier's pledge remained unshaken throughout the campaign.
Although mister Lloyd George continued to throw out hints that
the promises of facilities for the bill were altogether illusory,
we could not believe him. And when two months later
I was asked in America, when will English women vote?
I replied with perfect conviction. Next year, this was in Louisville, Kentucky,
where I attended the nineteen eleven annual Convention of the
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National American Women Suffrage Association. I remember this third visit
to the United States with a special pleasure. I was
the guest in New York of doctor and Missus John
Winter's Brannon, and through the courtesy of doctor Brannon, who
was at the head of all the city hospitals. I
saw something of the penal system and the institutional life
of America. We visited the workhouses and the penitentiary on
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Blackwell's Island, and although I am told that these places
are not regarded as model institutions, I can assure my
readers that they are infinitely superior to the English prisons,
where women are punished for trying to win their political freedom.
In the American prisons, much as they lacked in some essentials,
I saw no solitary confinement, no rule of silence, no
deadly air of officialdom. The food was good and varied,
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and above all, there was an air of kindness and
good feeling between the officials and the prisoners that is
almost wholly lacking in England. But after all, in the
United States, as in other countries, the problem of the
relations between the unenfranchised women and the state remains unsolved
and unsatisfactory. One night, my friends took me to that
somber and terrible institution, the Night Court for Women. We
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sat on the bench with the magistrate, and he very
courteously explained everything to us. The whole business was heart breaking.
All the women with one exception, an old drunkard were
charged with solicitation. Most of them were of high type
by nature. It all seemed so hopeless, and it was
clear that they were victims of an evil system. Their
conviction was a foregone conclusion. The magistrate said that in
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most cases the reason for their coming here was economic.
One case of a little cigar maker who said very
simply that she only went on the streets when out
of work, and that when in work she earned eight
dollars a week was very tragic and touching. I could
not keep the night Court out of my speeches. After that.
The whole dreadful injustice of women's lives seemed mirrored in
that place. I went as far as the Pacific coast
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on this visit, spending Christmas Day in Seattle, and for
the first time seeing a community where women and men
existed on terms of exact equality. It was a delightful experience.
As I wrote home to our members, the men of
the Western States seemed to my eyes eager, earnest, rough men,
building a great community in a great hurry. But never
have I seen greater respect, courtesy, and chivalry shown to
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women than in that one suffrage state. It has been
my privilege to visit. I am getting a little head
of my story. However, it was in November, when I
was in the city of Minneapolis, that a crushing blow
descended on the English Suffragettes. I learned of this through
cabled despatches in the newspapers and from private cables, and
was so staggered that I could scarcely command myself sufficiently
to fill my immediate engagements. This was the news that
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the government had broken their plighted word and had deliberately
destroyed the Conciliation Bill. My first wild thought on hearing
of this act of treachery was to cancel all engagements
and return to England. But my final decision to remain
afterwards proved the right one, because the women at home,
without a moment's loss of time, struck the answering blow.
Guided by that insight which has been characteristic of every
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act of the members of our union, I did not
return to England until January eleven, nineteen twelve, and by
that time great deeds had been done. Our movement had
entered upon a new and more vigorous stage of militancy.
End of Book two, Chapter eight. End of Book two
Book two, Chapter four of My Own Story by Emmeline Pankhurst.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
k Hand four Years of Peaceful Militancy, Chapter eight. Almost
immediately after the events chronicled in the preceding chapter, I
sailed for my second tour through the United States. I
was delighted to find a thoroughly alive and progressive suffrage movement,
(00:24):
where before had existed with most people only in academic
theory in favor of equal political rights between men and women.
My first meeting, held in Brooklyn, was advertised by Sandwich
women walking through the principal streets of the city, quite
like our militant suffragists at home. Street meetings I found
were now daily occurrences in New York, the Women's Political
Union had adopted an election policy, and throughout the country,
(00:46):
as far west as I traveled, I found women awakened
to the necessity of political action instead of mere discussion
of suffrage. My second visit to America, like my first one,
is clouded in my memory with sorrow. Very soon after
my return to England, a beloved sister, missus Mary Clark, died.
My sister, who was a most ardent suffragist and a
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valued worker in the Women's Social and Political Union, was
one of the women who was shockingly maltreated in Parliament
Square on Black Friday. She was also one of the
women who a few days later registered their protest against
the government by throwing a stone through the window of
an official residence. For this act, she was sent to
Holloway Prison for a term of one month, released on
December twenty first, it was plain to those who knew
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her best that her health had suffered seriously from the
dreadful experience of Black Friday and the after experience of prison.
She died suddenly on Christmas Day, to the profound sorrow
of all her associates. Hers was not the only life
that was sacrificed as a result of that day. Other
deaths occurred, mostly from hearts weakened by overstrain. Missus Henria
Williams died on January second, nineteen eleven, from heart failure.
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Missus Cecilia Woolseley Haig was another victim. Ill treatment on
Black Friday resulted in her case in a painful illness,
which ended, after a year of intense suffering, in her
death on December twenty first, nineteen eleven. It is not
possible to publish a full list of all the women
who have died or have been injured for life in
the course of the suffrage agitation in England. In many
cases the details have never been made public, and I
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do not feel at liberty to record them here. A
very celebrated case which is public property is that of
Lady Constance Lytton, sister of the Earl of Lytton, who
acted as chairman of the Conciliation Committee. Lady Constance had
twice in nineteen o nine gone to prison as a
result of suffrage activities, and on both occasions had been
given special privileges on account of her rank and family influence.
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In spite of her protests and her earnest pleadings to
be accorded the same treatment as other suffrage prisoners, the
snobbish and cowardly authorities insisted in retaining Lady Constance in
the hospital cells and discharging her before the expiration of
her sentence. This was done on a plea of her
ill health, and it was true that she suffered from
a valvular disease of the heart smarting. Under the sense
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of the injustice done her comrades in this discrimination. Lady
Constance Lytton did one of the mother heroic deeds to
be recorded in the history of the suffrage movement. She
cut off her beautiful hair and otherwise disguised herself, put
on cheap and ugly clothing, and as Jane Wharton took
part in a demonstration at Newcastle, again suffering arrest and imprisonment,
this tiny authorities treated her as an ordinary prisoner, without
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testing her heart or otherwise giving her an adequate medical examination,
they subjected her to the horrors of forcible feeding. Owing
to her fragile constitution, she suffered frightful nausea each time,
and when on one occasion the doctor's clothing was soiled,
he struck her contemptuously on the cheek. This treatment was
continued until the identity of the prisoner suddenly became known.
She was of course immediately released, but she never recovered
(03:39):
from the experience and is now a hopeless invalid. I
want to say right here that those well meaning friends
on the outside who say that we have suffered these
horrors of prison of hunger strikes and forcible feeding because
we desired to martyrrize ourselves for the cause are absolutely
and entirely mistaken. We never went to prison in order
to be martyrs. We went there in order that we
(04:00):
might obtain the rights of citizenship. We were willing to
break laws that we might force men to give us
the right to make laws. That is the way the
men have earned their citizenship. Truly, says Mazzini, that the
way to reform has always led through prison. The result
of the general election, which took place in January nineteen
eleven was that the Liberal Party was again returned to power.
(04:21):
Parliament met on January thirty first, but the session formally
opened on February sixth with the reading of the King's Speech.
The program for the session included the Lord's veto measure
home rule, payment for members of Parliament and the abolishment
of plural voting. Invalid insurance was also mentioned in certain
amendments to the Old Age Pension Bill. Women suffrage was
not mentioned. Nevertheless, we were singularly lucky, the first three
(04:44):
places in the ballot being secured by members of the
Conciliation Committee. Mister Phillips and Irish Member drew the first place,
but as the Irish Party had decided not to introduce
any bills that session. He yielded to Sir George Kemp,
who announced that he would use his place for the
purpose of taking a second reading debate on the new
Conciliation Bill. The old bill had been entitled a Bill
to give the Vote to Women Occupiers, a title that
(05:06):
made amendment difficult. The new bill bore the more flexible
title A Bill to Confer the Parliamentary Franchise on Women,
thus doing away with one of mister Lloyd George's most
plausible objections to it. The ten pound occupation clause was omitted,
doing away with another objection, that of the possibility of
faggot voting, that is, of a rich man conferring the
vote on a family of daughters by the simple expedient
(05:27):
of making them tenants of slices of his own property.
The Conciliation Bill now read one every woman possessed of
a household qualification within the meaning of the Representation of
the People Act eighteen forty four, shall be entitled to
be registered as a voter, and when registered to vote
in the county or borough in which the qualified premisses
are situated. Two for the purposes of this Act, a
(05:51):
woman shall not be disqualified by marriage for being registered
as a voter, provided that a husband and wife shall
not both be registered as voters in the same parlor, mentary, borough,
or county division. This bill met with even warmer approval
than the first one, because it was believed that it
would win votes from those members who felt that the
original measure had fallen short of being truly democratic. Nevertheless,
(06:12):
the Prime Minister showed from the first that he intended
to oppose it, as he had all previous suffrage measures.
He announced that all Fridays up to Easter, and also
all time on Tuesdays and Wednesdays usually allowed for private
members bills, were to be occupied with consideration of government measures.
Hardly a liberal voice was raised against this arbitrary ruling.
The Irish members indeed were delighted with it, since it
(06:33):
gave the Home Rule Bill an advantage. The labor members
seemed complacent, and the rest of the coalition were indifferent.
One back bench liberal went so far as to rise
and thank the Prime Minister for the courtesy with which
the gagging process was accomplished. There was some show of
fight made by the opposition, but conservative indignation was tempered
by the reflection that the precedent established might be followed
to advantage when their party came into power. Sir George
(06:57):
Kemp then announced that he would take May the fifth
for the second reading of the Conciliation Bill, and the
supporters of the bill, according to the various convictions, set
to work to further its interests. The conviction of the
WSPU was that mister Asquith's government would never allow the
bill to pass until they were actually forced to do so,
and we adopted our own methods to secure a definite
pledge from the government that they would give facilities to
(07:18):
the bill. In April of that year, the census was
to be taken, and we organized a census resistance on
the part of women. According to our law, the census
of the entire Kingdom must be taken every ten years
on a designated day. Our plan was to reduce the
value of the census for statistical purposes by refusing to
make the required returns. Two ways of resistance presented themselves.
(07:39):
The first and most important was direct resistance by occupiers
who should refuse to fill in the census papers. This
laid the register open to a fine of five pounds
or a month's imprisonment, and thus required the exercise of
considerable courage. The second means of resistance was evasion, staying
away from home during the entire time that the enumerators
were taking the census. We made the announcement of this plan,
(07:59):
and instantly their ensued a splendid response from women in
a chorus of horrified disapproval from the conservative public. The
Times voiced this disapproval in a leading article, to which
I replied, giving our reasons for the protest. The census,
i wrote, is a numbering of the people. Until women
count as people for the purpose of representation in the
councils of the nation, as well as for the purposes
of taxation, we shall refuse to be numbered on the
(08:22):
subject of laws made by men without the assistance of women.
For the protection of women and children, I have a
very special feeling from my experience is a poor law guardian,
and as registrar of births and deaths, I know how
ridiculously say, rather how tragically these laws fall short of protection.
Take for instance, the vaunted Children's Charter of nineteen o six,
the measure which spread mister Lloyd George's fame throughout the world.
(08:46):
A volume could be filled with the mistakes and the
cruelties of that act, the object of which is the
preservation and improvement of child's life. The object of which
is the preservation and improvement of child life. A distinguishing
characteristic of the act is that it puts most of
the responsibility for the neglect of children on the backs
of the mothers, who, under the laws of England, have
no rights as parents. Two or three especially striking cases
(09:08):
of this kind came into notice about this time and
gave the Sensus resistance and additional justification. The case of
Annie Wilmore was a very pitiful one. She was arrested
and sentenced to Holloway for six weeks for neglecting her children.
The evidence showed that the woman lived with her husband
and children in a miserable hovel, which would have been
almost impossible to keep clean even if there had been
water in the house. As it was, the poor soul,
(09:30):
who was in ill health and weakened by deprivation, had
to carry all the water she used across a great distance.
The children, as well as the house were very dirty
it it was true, but the children were well nourished
and kindly treated. The husband, a laborer out of work
much of the time, testified that his wife starved herself
to feed the kids. Yet she had violated the terms
of the children's charter, and she went to prison. I
(09:51):
am glad to say that, owing to the efforts of suffragists,
she was pardoned and provided with a better home. Another
case was that of Helen Conroy, who was charged with
living in one wretched room room with her husband and
seven children, the youngest a month old. According to the law,
the mother was forbidden to have this infant in bed
with her overnight, Yet part of the charge against her
was that the child was found sleeping in a box
of damp straw. Doubtless she would have preferred a cradle
(10:12):
or even a box of dry straw, but direst poverty
made the cradle impossible, and the conditions of the tenement
kept the straw damp. Both parents in this instance were
sent to prison for three months at hard labor. The
magistrate casually remarked that the house in which these poor
people lived had been condemned two years before, but some
respectable property owner was still collecting rents from it. Another
poor mother evicted from her home because she could not
(10:33):
pay the rent, took her four children out into the
open country, and when found was sleeping with them in
a gravel pit, she was sent to prison for a month,
and the children went to the workhouse. These sorry mothers
logical results of the subjection of women are enough in
themselves to justify almost any defiance of a government who
denied the women the right to work out their destinies
in freedom. No pledge having been secured from the Prime Minister.
(10:54):
By April first, we carried out and most successfully, our
census resistance. Many thousands of women all over the country
refused or evaded the returns. I returned my census paper
with the words no vote, no census written across it,
and other women followed that example with similar messages. One
woman filled in the blank with full information about her
one man servant and added that there were many women,
but no more persons in her household. In Birmingham, sixteen
(11:18):
women of wealth packed their houses with women resistors. They
slept on the floors, on chairs and tables, and even
in the baths. The head of a large college threw
open the building to three hundred women. Many women in
other cities held all night parties for friends who wish
to remain away from home. In some places, unoccupied houses
were rented for the night by resistors who lay on
the bare boards. Some groups of women hired gypsy vans
(11:38):
and spent the night on the moors. In London we
gave a great concert at Queen's Hall on Census Night.
Many of us walked about Trafalgar Square until midnight, and
then repaired to Aldwitch Skating Rink, where we amused ourselves
until morning. Some skated while others looked on and enjoyed
the admirable music and theatrical entertainment that helped to pass
the hours. We had with us a number of the
brightest stars in the theatrical world, and they were generous
(12:00):
in their contributions. It being Sunday night, the chairman had
to call on each of the artists for a speech
instead of a song or other turn. An all night
restaurant near at hand did a big business, and on
the whole the resistors had a very good time. The
Scala Theater was the scene of another all night entertainment.
There was a good deal of curiosity to see what
the government would devise in the way of a punishment
(12:22):
for the rebellious women. But the government realized the impossibility
of taking punity to action, and mister John Burns, who
as head of the Local Government Board, was responsible for
the census, announced that they had decided to treat the
affair with magnanimity. The number of evasions, he declared were insignificant,
but everyone knew that this was the exact reverse of
the facts. The Conciliation Bill was debated on May fifth
(12:43):
and passed its second reading by the enormous majority of
one hundred thirty seven, and now the public and a
section of the press united in a strong demand that
the Government yield to the undoubted will of the House
and grant facilities to the bill. The Conciliation Committee sent
a deputation of members to the Prime Minister to remind
him of his pre election promise that the House of
Common should have an opportunity of dealing with the whole
question of a woman's suffrage, but they succeeded only in
(13:05):
getting his assurance that he had the matter under consideration.
Late in the month, the announcement was made in the
House that the Government would not grant facilities during that session,
but since the new bill fulfilled the conditions named by
the Prime Minister and was now capable of amendment. The
Government recognized it to be their duty to grant facilities
in some session of the present Parliament. They would be
prepared next session when the bill had been read for
(13:26):
the second time, either as a result of obtaining a
good place in the ballot, or if that did not happen,
by a grant of a government day for the purpose
to give a week which they understood to be the
time suggested as reasonable by the promoters for its further stages.
This pledge was made in order to deter the w
s p U for making militant demonstration in connection with
the coronation of the King. Keir Hardy asked if the
(13:48):
Government would, by means of closure or otherwise make certain
that the bill would go through in the week, and
the Prime Minister replied, no, I cannot give an assurance
of that kind. After all, it is a problem of
the very greatest magnitude. This reply seemed to make the
government's pledge practically worthless. The Conciliation Committee also realized the
possibilities of the bill being talked out, and Lord Lytton
(14:08):
wrote to mister Asquith and asked him for assurances that
the facilities offered were intended not for academic discussion, but
for effective opportunity for carrying the bill. He also asked
that the week offered should not be construed rigidly, but that,
providing the committee stage were got through in the time,
additional days for the report and third reading stages might
be forthcoming. Reasonable opportunity for making use of the closure
was also asked. To Lord Lytton's letter, the Prime Minister
(14:31):
replied as follows, my dear Lytton, in reply to your
letter on the subject of the Women's Enfranchisement Bill, I
would refer you to some observations recently made in a
speech at the National Liberal Club by Sir Edward Gray,
which accurately expresses the intention of the government. It follows
to answer your specific inquiries, that the week offered will
be interpreted with reasonable elasticity, that the Government will interpose
(14:53):
no reasonable obstacle to the proper use of the closure,
and that, if as you suggest, the bill gets through
the Committee in the time proposed, the ex two days
required for a report and third reading will not be refused.
The government, though divided in opinion on the merit of
the bill. Are unanimous in their determination to give effect,
not only in the letter, but in the spirit to
the promise in regards to the facilities which I made
(15:13):
on their behalf before the last general election. Yours et cetera. H. H.
Asquith skeptical up to this point, the w s p
U was now convinced that the Government were sincere in
their promise to give the bill full facilities. In the
following year we held a joyful mass meeting in Queen's Hall,
and I again declared that the warfare against the government
was at an end. Our new policy was the inauguration
(15:34):
of a great holiday campaign with the object of making
victory in nineteen twelve. Absolutely certain electors must be aroused,
members of Parliament held to their allegiance. Women must be
organized in order that questions that vitally affect the social
welfare of the country might be placed before them. I
chose Scotland and Wales as the scenes of my holiday labors.
I may say that our confidence was fully shared by
(15:55):
the public at large. The belief in mister Asquith's pledge
was accurately reflected in a Leader published in the nation,
which said, from the moment the Prime Minister signed the
frank and ungrudging letter to Lord Lytton, which appeared in
last Saturday's newspapers, women became, in all but the legal formality,
voters and citizens. For at least two years, if not
for longer, nothing has been lacking save a full and
fair opportunity for the House of Commons to translate to
(16:16):
its convictions into the precise language of a statute. That
opportunity has been promised for next session, and promised in
terms and under conditions which ensure success. The only thing,
as we thought, that we had to fear, were wrecking
amendments to the bill, and in the new by election
policy which we adopted, we worked against all candidates of
every party who would refuse to promise not only to
support the Conciliation Committee to carry the bill, but also
(16:39):
to vote against any amendment the Committee thought dangerous. We
believed that we had covered every possibility of disaster, but
we had something yet to learn of the treachery of
the Asquith Ministry and their capacity for cold blooded lying.
Mister Lloyd George from the first was an open enemy
of the bill, but since we had no doubt of
the sincerity of the Prime Minister, we could only conclude
that mister Lloyd George had detached himself from the main
(17:00):
body of the government and had become the self constituted
leader of the opposition. In an address to a large
Liberal group, mister Lloyd George advised that Liberal members be
asked to ballot for a place for a democratic measure,
and ordered that such a measure might claim the Prime
Minister's pledge for the facility's next session. In one or
two other speeches, he made vague allusions to the possibilities
(17:21):
of introducing another suffrage bill. His own idea was to
amend the bill to give a vote to wives of
all electors, making married women voters in virtue of their
husband's qualification. The inevitable effect of such an amendment would
be to wreck the bill, since it would have enfranchised
about six million women in addition to the million in
half who would benefit by the original terms of the bill.
Such a wholesale addition to the electorate was never known
(17:43):
in England, the number enfranchised by the Reform Bill of
eighteen thirty two being hardly more than half a million.
The Reform Bill of eighteen sixty seven admitted a million
new voters, and that of eighteen eighty four perhaps two millions.
The absurdity of mister Lloyd George's proposal was such that
we did not regard it seriously. We did not allow
his opposition to give a serious alarm until a day
(18:03):
in August when a Welsh member, mister Leif Jones, asked
the Prime Minister from the floor of the House whether
he was aware that his promise for facilities for the
Conciliation Bill in the next session was being claimed exclusively
for that bill, and asked further for a statement that
the promise facilities would be equally granted to any other
suffrage bill that might secure a second reading and was
capable of amendment. Mister Lloyd George, speaking for the Government,
(18:26):
replied that they could not undertake to give facilities to
more than one bill on the same subject, but that
any bill which satisfying these tests secured a second reading
would be treated by them as falling within their engagements.
Astounded at this plaint evasion of a sacred promise, Lord
Lytton again wrote to the Prime Minister, reviewing the entire
matter and asking for another statement of the government's intentions.
(18:46):
The following is the text of mister Asquith's reply, My
dear Lytton, I have no hesitation in saying that the
promises made by and on behalf of the Government in
regard to giving facilities to the Conciliation Bill will be
strictly adhered to, both in letter and in spirit. Yours, sincerely, H. H. Asquith,
August twenty third, nineteen eleven. Again we were reassured, and
(19:08):
our confidence in the Premier's pledge remained unshaken throughout the campaign.
Although mister Lloyd George continued to throw out hints that
the promises of facilities for the bill were altogether illusory,
we could not believe him. And when two months later
I was asked in America, when will English women vote?
I replied with perfect conviction. Next year, this was in Louisville, Kentucky,
where I attended the nineteen eleven annual Convention of the
(19:30):
National American Women Suffrage Association. I remember this third visit
to the United States with a special pleasure. I was
the guest in New York of doctor and Missus John
Winter's Brannon, and through the courtesy of doctor Brannon, who
was at the head of all the city hospitals. I
saw something of the penal system and the institutional life
of America. We visited the workhouses and the penitentiary on
(19:52):
Blackwell's Island, and although I am told that these places
are not regarded as model institutions, I can assure my
readers that they are infinitely superior to the English prisons,
where women are punished for trying to win their political freedom.
In the American prisons, much as they lacked in some essentials,
I saw no solitary confinement, no rule of silence, no
deadly air of officialdom. The food was good and varied,
(20:13):
and above all, there was an air of kindness and
good feeling between the officials and the prisoners that is
almost wholly lacking in England. But after all, in the
United States, as in other countries, the problem of the
relations between the unenfranchised women and the state remains unsolved
and unsatisfactory. One night, my friends took me to that
somber and terrible institution, the Night Court for Women. We
(20:35):
sat on the bench with the magistrate, and he very
courteously explained everything to us. The whole business was heart breaking.
All the women with one exception, an old drunkard were
charged with solicitation. Most of them were of high type
by nature. It all seemed so hopeless, and it was
clear that they were victims of an evil system. Their
conviction was a foregone conclusion. The magistrate said that in
(20:56):
most cases the reason for their coming here was economic.
One case of a little cigar maker who said very
simply that she only went on the streets when out
of work, and that when in work she earned eight
dollars a week was very tragic and touching. I could
not keep the night Court out of my speeches. After that.
The whole dreadful injustice of women's lives seemed mirrored in
that place. I went as far as the Pacific coast
(21:17):
on this visit, spending Christmas Day in Seattle, and for
the first time seeing a community where women and men
existed on terms of exact equality. It was a delightful experience.
As I wrote home to our members, the men of
the Western States seemed to my eyes eager, earnest, rough men,
building a great community in a great hurry. But never
have I seen greater respect, courtesy, and chivalry shown to
(21:38):
women than in that one suffrage state. It has been
my privilege to visit. I am getting a little head
of my story. However, it was in November, when I
was in the city of Minneapolis, that a crushing blow
descended on the English Suffragettes. I learned of this through
cabled despatches in the newspapers and from private cables, and
was so staggered that I could scarcely command myself sufficiently
to fill my immediate engagements. This was the news that
(22:00):
the government had broken their plighted word and had deliberately
destroyed the Conciliation Bill. My first wild thought on hearing
of this act of treachery was to cancel all engagements
and return to England. But my final decision to remain
afterwards proved the right one, because the women at home,
without a moment's loss of time, struck the answering blow.
Guided by that insight which has been characteristic of every
(22:20):
act of the members of our union, I did not
return to England until January eleven, nineteen twelve, and by
that time great deeds had been done. Our movement had
entered upon a new and more vigorous stage of militancy.
End of Book two, Chapter eight. End of Book two
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