August 18, 2025 • 26 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 three, Chapter three of My Own Story by Emmeline Pankhurst.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
k Hand The Women's Revolution, Chapter three. The sentence of
nine months astonished us beyond measure, especially in view of
certain very recent events, one of these being the case
of some sailors who had mutinied in order to call
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attention to something which they considered a peril to themselves
and to all sea farers. They were tried and found
technically guilty, but because of the motive behind their mutiny,
were discharged without punishment. Perhaps more nearly like our case
than this was the case of the labor leader tom Mann,
who shortly before had written a pamphlet calling upon his
Majesty's soldiers not to fire upon strikers when commanded to
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do so by their superior officers. From the government's point
of view, this was a much more serious kind of
inciting than ours, because if it had been responded to,
the authorities would have been absolutely crippled in maintaining order. Besides,
soldiers who refuse to obey orders are liable to the
death penalty. Tom Mann was given a sentence of sicks,
but this was received on the part of the liberal
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press and liberal politicians with so much clamor and protest
that the prisoner was released at the end of two months.
So even on our way to prison, we told one
another that our sentences could not stand. Public opinion would
never permit the government to keep us in prison for
nine months or in the second division for any part
of our term. We agreed to wait seven parliamentary days
before we began a hunger strike protest. It was very
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dreary waiting those seven parliamentary days because we could not
know what was happening outside or what was being talked
of in the house. We could know nothing of the
protests and memorials that were pouring in on our behalf
from Oxford and Cambridge Universities, from members of learned societies,
and from distinguished men and women of all professions, not
only in England, but in every country of Europe, from
the United States and Canada, and even from India. An
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international memorial asking that we be treated as political prisoners
was signed by such great men and women as Professor
Paul Milakoff, leader of the Constitutional Democrats in the Duma,
signor Enrico Ferry of the Italian Chamber of Deputy Dudies,
Edward Bernstein of the German Reichstag, George Brandis, Edward Westermark,
Madame Curie ellen Key, Maurice Materlink, and many others. The
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greatest indignation was expressed in the House, Keir Hardy and
mister George Lansbury leading in the demand for a drastic
revision of our sentences and our immediate transference to the
first division. So much pressure was brought to bear that
within a few days the Home Secretary announced that he
felt it his duty to examine into the circumstances of
the case without delay. He explained that the prisoners had
not at any time been forced to wear prison clothes. Ultimately,
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which in this case means shortly before the expiration of
the seven parliamentary days, we were all three placed in
the first division. Missus Pethick Lawrence was given the cell
formerly occupied by doctor Jamison, and I had the cell
adjoining mister Pethick Lawrence. In Brixton Jail was similarly accommodated.
We all had the privilege of furnishing our cells with
comfortable chairs, tables, our own bedding, towels, and so on.
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We had meals sent in from the outside. We wore
our own clothing, and had what books, newspapers and writing
materials we required. We were not permitted to write or
receive letters, or to see our friends except in the
ordinary two weeks routine. Still, we had gained our point
that suffrage prisoners were politicals. We had gained it, but
as it turned out, only for ourselves. When we made
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the inquiry, are all our women now transferred to the
first Division? The answer was that the order for transference
referred only to mister and missus Pthick Lawrence and myself.
Needless to say, we immediately refused to accept this unfair advantage.
And after we had exhausted every means in our power
to induce the Home Secretary to give the other suffrage
prisoners the same justice that we had received, we adopted
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the protest of the hunger strike. The word flew swiftly
through Holloway, and in some mysterious way, traveled to Brixton,
to Aylesbury and Winston Green, and at once all the
other suffrage prisoners followed our lead. The government then had
over eighty hunger strikes on their hands, and as before
had ready only the argument of force, which means that
disgusting and cruel process of forcible feeding. Holloway became a
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place of horror and torment. Sickening scenes of violence took
place almost every hour of the day as the doctors
went from cell to cell performing their hideous office. One
of the men did his work in such brutal fashion
that the very sight of him provoked cries of horror
and anguish. I shall never while I live forget the
suffering I experienced during the days when those cries were
ringing in my ears. In her frenzy of pain, one
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woman threw herself from the gallery on which her cell opened.
A wire netting eight feet below broke her fall to
the iron staircase beneath, else she must inevitably have been killed.
As it was, she was frightfully hurt. The whole Sale
Hunger strike created a tremendous stir throughout England, and every
day in the House the ministers were harassed with questions.
The climax was reached on the third or fourth day
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of the strike, when a stormy scene took place in
the House of Commons. The Under Home Secretary, mister Ellis
Griffith had been mercilessly questioned as to conditions under which
the forcible feeding was being done, and as soon as
this was over, one of the Suffragist's members made a
moving appeal to the Prime Minister himself to order the
release of all the prisoners. Mister Asquith, forced again his
will to take part in the controversy, rose and said
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that it was not for him to interfere with the
actions of his colleague mister McKenna, and he added, in
his own suave, mendacious manner, I must point out this
that there is not one single prisoner who cannot go
out of prison this afternoon on giving the undertaking asked
for by the Home Secretary, meaning an undertaking to refrain
henceforth from militancy. Instantly, mister George Lansbury sprung to his
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feet and exclaimed, you know they cannot. It is perfectly
disgraceful that the Prime Minister of England should make such
a statement. Mister Asquith glanced carelessly at the indignant Landsbury,
but sank into his seat without deigning to reply, shocked
to the depths of his soul by the insult thrown
at our women. Mister Lansbury strode up to the ministerial
bench and confronted the Prime Minister, saying again, that was
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a disgraceful thing for you to say, sir. You are
beneath contempt, you and your colleagues. You call yourself gentlemen,
and you forcibly feed and murder women in this fashion.
You ought to be driven out of office. Talk about protesting.
It is the most disgraceful thing that ever happened in
the history of England. You will go down to history
as the men who tortured innocent women. By this time,
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the house was seething, and the indignant Labor member had
to shout at the top of his big voice in
order to be heard over the din. Mister Asquis's pompous
order that mister Lansbury leave the house for the day
was probably known to very few until it appeared in
print the next day. At all events, mister Lansbury continued
his protest for five minutes longer. You murder, torture and
drive women mad, he cried, And then you tell them
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they can walk out. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
You talk about principle, you talk about fighting in Ulster,
You too, turning to the Unionist benches, you ought to
be driven out of public life. These women are showing
you what principle is. You ought to honor them for
standing up for their womanhood. I tell you, Commons of England,
you ought to be ashamed of yourself. The Speaker came
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to mister Asquith rescue at last, and adjured mister Lansbury
that he must obey the Prime Minister's order to leave
the house, saying that such disorderly conduct would cause the
house to lose respect. Sir, exclaimed mister Lansbury, in a
final burst of righteous rage. It has lost it already.
This unprecedented explosion of wrath and scorn against the government
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was the sensation of the hour, and was felt on
all sides that the release of the prisoners, or at
least cesssion of forcible feeding, which amounted to the same thing,
would be ordered. Every day the Suffragettes marched in great
crowds the Holloway, serenading the prisoners and holding protest meanings
to immense crowds. The music and the cheering faintly wafted
to our straining ears, was inexpressibly sweet. Yet it was
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while listening to one of these serenades. At the most
dreadful moment of my imprisonment occurred. I was lying in bed,
very weak from starvation, when I heard a sudden scream
from Missus Lawrence's cell, then the sound of a prolonged
and very violent struggle, and I knew that they had
dared to carry their brutal business to our doors. I
sprang out of bed, and shaking with weakness and with anger.
I set my back against the wall and waited for
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what might come. In a few moments, they had finished
with Missus Lawrence and had flung open the door to
my cell. On the threshold I saw the doctors, and
the back of them a large group of wardresses. Missus
Pankhurst began the doctor. Instantly, I caught up a heavy
earthenware water jug from a table hard by, and with
hands that now felt no weakness, I swung the jug
head high. If any of you dares so much as
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to take one step inside this cell, I shall defend myself.
I cried. Nobody moved or spoke for a few seconds,
and then the doctor confusedly muttered something about tomorrow morning
doing as well, and they all retreated, I demanded to
be admitted to Missus Laurence's cell, where I found my
companion in a desperate state. She is a strong woman
and a very determined one, and it had required the
united strength of nine wardresses to overcome her. They had
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rushed into the cell without any warning and seized her unawares,
else they might not have succeeded at all. As it was,
she resisted so violently that the doctors could not apply
the stethoscope, and it had very great difficulty in getting
the tube down. After the wretched affair was over, Missus
Lawrence fainted and for hours afterward was very ill. This
was the last attempt made to forcibly feed either Missus
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Laurence or myself, and two days later we were ordered
released on medical grounds. The other hunger strikers were released
in batches, as every day a few more triumphant rebel
approached to the point where the government stood in danger
of committing actual murder. Mister Lawrence, who was forcibly fed
twice a day for more than ten days, was released
in a state of complete collapse on July first. Within
a few days after that, the last of the prisoners
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were at liberty. As soon as I was sufficiently recovered,
I went to Paris and had the joy of seeing
again my daughter Cristabel, who during all of the days
of strife and misery, had kept her personal anxiety in
the background and had kept staunchly at her work of leadership.
The absence of mister and missus Pethick Lawrence had thrown
the entire responsibility of the editorship of our paper Votes
for Women on her shoulders. But as she has invariably
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risen to meet new responsibility, she conducted the paper with
skill and discretion. We had much to talk about and
to consider, because it was evident that militancy, instead of
being dropped as the other suffrage societies were constantly suggesting,
must go on very much more vigorously than before. The
struggle had been too long drawn out. We had to
seek ways to shorten it, to bring it to such
a climax that the government would acknowledge that something had
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to be done. We had already demonstrated that our forces
were impregnable. We could not be conquered, could not be terrified,
we could not even be kept in prison. Therefore, since
the government had their war lost in advance, our task
was merely to hasten the surrender. The situation in Parliament,
as far as the suffrage question was concerned, was clean,
swept and barren. The Third Conciliation Bill had failed to
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pass its second reading, the majority against it being fourteen.
Many Liberal members were afraid to vote for the bill
because mister Lloyd George and mister Lewis Harcourt had persistently
spread the rumor that its passage at that time would
result in splitting the cabinet. The Irish Nationalist members had
become so hostile to the bill because their leader, mister Redmond,
was an anti suffragist and had refused to include a
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woman's suffrage clause in the House Rule Bill. Our erstwhile friends,
the Labor members were so apathetic or so fearful for
certain of their own measures, that most of them stayed
away from the House on the day the bill reached
its second reading, so it was lost and the militants
were blamed for its loss. In June, the government announced
that mister Asquith's Manhood Suffrage Bill would soon be introduced,
and very soon after this bill did appear. It simplified
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the registration machinery reduced the qualifying period of residence to
six months, and abolished property qualifications, plural voting, and university representation.
In a word, it gave the parliamentary franchise to every
man above the age of twenty one, and denied it
to all women. Never in the history of the suffrage
movement had such enof front been offered to women, and
never in the history of England had such a blow
been aimed at women's liberties. It is true that the
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Prime Minister had pledged himself to introduce a bill capable
of being amended to include women's suffrage, and to permit
any amendment that passed its second reading to become a
part of the bill. But we had no faith in
an amendment, nor in any bill that was not, from
its inception an official government measure. Mister Asquith had broken
every pledge he had ever made to the women, and
this new pledge impressed us not at all. Well, we
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knew that he had given it only to cover his
treachery in torpedoing the Conciliation Bill, and in the hope
of placating the suffragists, perhaps securing another truce to militancy.
If this last was his hope he was most grievously disappointed.
Signs were constantly appearing to indicate that women would no
longer be contented with the symbolic militancy involved in window breaking.
For example, traces were found in the House Secretary's office
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at Whitehall of an attempt at arson on the doorstep
of another Cabinet minister. Similar traces were found. Had the
government acted upon these warnings by giving women the vote,
all the serious acts of militancy that have occurred since
would have been averted. But like the heart of Pharaoh,
the heart of the government hardened, and militant acts followed
one after another in rapid succession. In July, the w
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s p U issued a manifesto which set forth our
intentions in that regard. The manifesto read in part as follows.
The leaders of the Women Social and Political Union have
so often warned the government that unless the vote were
granted to women, in response to the mild militancy of
the past, a fiercer spirit of revolt would be awakened,
which it would be impossible to control. The government have
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blindly disregarded the warning, and now they are reaping the
harvest of their unstatesmanlike folly. This was issued immediately after
a visit paid by mister Asquith to Dublin. The occasion
had been intended to be one of great pomp and circumstance,
a huge popular demonstration in honor of the sponsor of
the Whome Rule, but the Suffragettes turned it into the
most lamentable fiasco imaginable. From the hour mister Asquis attempted
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secret departure from London until his return, he lived and
moved in momentary dread of suffragettes. Every time he entered
or left a railway carriage or a steamer, he was
confronted by women. Every time he rose to speak, he
was interrupted by women. Every public appearance he made was
turned into a riot by women. As he left Dublin,
a woman threw a hatchet into his motor car, without however,
doing him any injury. As a final protest against his
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reception by irishmen, the Theater Royal was set on fire
by two women. The theater was practically empty at the time,
the performance having been completed, and the damage done was
comparatively small. Yet the two women chiefly concerned, missus Lee
and Miss Evans, were given the barbarous sentences of five
years each in prison. These were the first women's sentence
to penal servitude in the history of our movement. Of course,
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they did not serve their sentences. On entering Mountjoy Prison,
they put in the usual claim for first division treatment,
and this being refused, they immediately adopted the hunger strike.
A number of Irish suffragettes were in Mountjoy at this
time for a pro test made against the exclusion of
women from the Home Rule Bill. They were in the
first division and they were almost on the eve of
their release. But such is the indomitable spirit of militancy
that these women entered upon a sympathetic hunger strike, they
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were released, but the government forbade the release of missus
Lee and Miss Evans. That is, they ordered the authorities
to retain the women as long as they could by
forcible feeding be kept alive. After a struggle which for
fierceness and cruelty is almost unparalleled in our annals, the
two women fought their way out. All during that summer,
militancy surged up and down throughout the kingdom. A series
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of attacks on golf links was instituted, not at all
in a spirit of wanton mischief, but with the direct
and very practical object of reminding the dull and self
satisfied English public that when the liberties of English women
were being stolen from them was no time to think
of sports. The women selected country clubs where prominent liberal
politicians were wont to take their weekend pleasures, and with
acids they burned great patches of turf, rending the golf
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greens useless for the time being. They burned the words
votes for Women in some cases, and always they left
behind them minders that women were warring for their freedom.
On one occasion, when the Court was at Balmoral Castle
in Scotland, the suffragettes invaded the Royal golf links, and
when Sunday morning dawned, all the marking flags were found
to have been replaced by W. S p U flags
bearing inscriptions such as votes for Women means peace for ministers,
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forcible feeding must be stopped, and the like. The golf
links were frequently visited by suffragettes in order to question
recreant ministers. Two women followed the Prime Minister to Inverness,
where he was playing golf, with mister McKenna. Approaching the men,
One suffragette exclaimed, mister Asquith, you must stop forcible feeding.
She got no farther from mister Asquith, turning pale with rage,
perhaps retreated behind the Home Secretary, who quite forgetting his manners,
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seized the suffragette, crying out that he was going to
throw her into the pond. Then we will take you
with us, the two retorted, after which a very lively
scuffle ensued and the women were not thrown into the pond.
This golf green activity really aroused more hostility against us
than all the window breaking. The papers published appeals to
us not to interfere with a game that helped weary
politicians to think clearly. But our reply to this was
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that it had not any such effect on the Prime
Minister or on mister Lloyd George. We had undertaken to
spoil their sport and that of a large class of
comfortable men, in order that they should be obliged to
think clearly about women and women's firm determination to get justice.
I made my return to active work in the autumn
by speaking of the Great Meeting of the w SPU
held in the Albert Hall. At that meeting I had
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the announcement to make that the six years association of
mister and Missus p Thick Lawrence with the WSPU had ended.
Since personal dissensions have never been dwelt upon in the WSPU,
have never been allowed to halt the movement or to
interfere for an hour with its progress. I shall not
hearsay any more about this important dissension than I said
at our first large meeting in Albert Hall after the
holiday on October seventeenth. That day, a new paper was
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sold on the streets. It was called The Suffragette. It
was edited by Cristophel Pankhurst, and was henceforth to be
the official organ of the union. Both in this new
paper and in the votes for women. The following announcement
appeared grave state by the leaders. At the first reunion
of the Leaders after the enforced holiday, Missus Pankhurst and
Miss Cristabel Pankhurst outlined a new militant policy which mister
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and Missus Pethick Lawrence found themselves altogether unable to approve.
Missus Pankhurst and Miss Cristapale Pankhurst indicated that they were
not prepared to modify their intentions and recommended that mister
missus Pethick Lawrence should resume control of the paper votes
for Women and should leave the Women Social and Political
Union rather than make the schism in the ranks of
the union. Mister and missus Pethick Lawrence consented to take
this course. This was signed by all four that night.
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At the meeting, I further explained to the members that
hardest partings from old friends and comrades, unquestionably were. We
must remember that we were fighting in an army, and
that unity of purpose and unity of policy are absolutely necessary,
because without them the army is hopelessly weakened. It is better,
I said that those who cannot agree, cannot see eye
to eye as to policy, should set themselves free, should part,
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and should be free to continue their policy as they
see it in their own way, unfettered by those with
whom they can no longer agree. Continuing, I said, I
give place to none an appreciation and gratitude to mister
missus p Thick Lawrence for the incalculable services that they
have rendered in the militant movement for women's suffrage, and
I firmly believe that the women's movement will be strengthened
by their being free to work for women's suffrage in
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the future as they think best, while we of the
Women's Social and Political Union shall continue the militant agitation
for women's suffrage initiated by my daughter and myself in
a handful of women more than six years ago. I
then went on to survey the situation in which the
WSPU now stood and to outline the new militant policy
which we had decided upon. This policy, to begin with,
was relentless opposition not only to the party in power,
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the Liberal Party, but to all parties in the coalition.
I reminded the women that the government had tricked and
betrayed us, and was now plotting to make our progress
towards citizenship doubly difficult. Was kept in office through the
coalition of three parties. There was the Liberal Party nominally
the governing party, but they could not live another day
without the coalition of the Nationalist and Labor parties. So
we should say, not only to the Liberal Party, but
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to the Nationalist Party and the Labor Party, so long
as you keep in office an anti suffrage government, you
are parties to their guilt. And from henceforth we offer
you the same opposition which we give to the people
whom you are keeping in power with your support. I
said further, we have summoned the Labor Party to do
their duty by their own program, and to go into
opposition to the government on every question until the government
do justice to women. They apparently are not willing to
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do that. Some of them tell us that other things
are more important than the liberty of women, than the
liberty of working women. We say, then, gentlemen, we must
teach you the value of your own principles, and until
you are prepared to stand for the right of women
to decide their lives in the laws under which they
shall live, you with mister Asquith and company are equally
responsible for all that has happened and is happening to
women in this struggle for emancipation. Outlining further our new
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and stronger policy of aggression, I said, there is a
great deal of criticism, ladies and gentlemen, of this movement.
It always seems to me when the anti suffrage members
of the government criticize militancy and women, that it is
very like beasts of prey reproaching the gentler animals who
turn in desperate resistance when at the point of death.
Criticism from gentlemen who do not hesitate to order our
armies to kill and slay their opponents, who do not
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hesitate to encourage party mobs to attack defensiswomen in public meetings,
criticism from them hardly rings true. Then I get letters
from people who tell me they are ardent suffragists, but
who say that they do not like the recent developments
in the militant movement and implore me to urge members
not to be reckless with human life. Ladies and gentlemen,
the only recklessness the militant suffragists have shown about human
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life has been about their own lives and not about
the lives of others. And I say here and now
that it has never been, and never will be the
policy of the Women's Social and Political Union recklessly to
endanger human life. We leave that to the enemy. We
leave that to the men in their warfare. It is
not the method of women. No, even from the point
of view of public policy, militancy affecting the security of
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human life would be out of place. There is something
that governments care for far more than human life, and
that is the security of property and so it is
through property that we shall strike the enemy. From henceforward,
the women who agree with me will say, we disregard
your laws, gentlemen. We set the liberty and dignity and
the welfare of women above all such considerations, and we
shall continue this war as we have done in the past.
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And what sacrifice of property, or what injury to property accruise,
will not be our fault. It will be the fault
of that government who admit the justice of our demands,
but refuses to concede them without the evidence. So they
have told us, afforded to governments of the past, that
those who asked for liberty were earnest in their demands.
I called upon the women of the meeting to join
me in this new militancy, and I reminded them anew
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that the women who were fighting in the Suffragette army
had a great mission, the greatest mission in the world
has ever known, the freeing of one half of the
human race, and through that freedom, the saving of the
other half. I said to them, be militant, each in
your own way. Those of you who can express your
militancy by going to the House of Commons and refusing
to leave without satisfaction, as we did in the early days.
Do so. Those of you who can express militancy by
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facing party mobs at cabinet minister's meetings, when you remind
them of their falseness to principle, do so. Those of
you who can express your militancy by joining us and
our anti government by election policy, do so. Those of
you who can break windows, break them. Those of you
who can still further attack the secret idol of property
so as to make the government realize that property is
as greatly endangered by women's suffrage as it was by
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the cherists of old, do so. And my last word
is to the government. I incite this meeting to rebellion.
I say to the government, you have not dared to
take the leaders of Ulster for their incitement to rebellion.
Take me if you dare. But if you dare, I
tell you this that so long as those who incited
to armed rebellion and the destruction of human life and
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Ulster are at liberty, you will not keep me in prison.
So long as men, rebels and voters are at liberty,
we will not remain in prison. First division or no
first division, I ask my readers, some of whom will
no doubt be shocked and displeased at these words of
mine that I have so frankly set down to put
themselves in the place of those women who for years
have given their lives entirely and unstintingly to the work
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of securing political freedom for women who had converted so
great a proportion of the allae elector to that had
the House of Commons been a free body, we should
have won that freedom years before, who had seen their
freedom withheld from them through treachery and misuse of power.
I ask you to consider that we had used in
our agitation only peaceful means until we saw clearly that
peaceful means were absolutely of no avail. And then for
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years we had used only the mildest militancy, until we
were taunted by cabinet ministers and told that we should
never get the vote, until we employed the same violence
that men had used in their agitation for suffrage. After
that we had used stronger militancy, but even that, by
comparison with the militancy of men in labor disputes, could
not possibly be counted as violent. Through all the stages
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of our agitation, we had been punished with the greatest severity,
sent a prison like common criminals, and of late years,
tortured as no criminals had been tortured for a century
in civilized countries of the world. And during all these
years we had seen disastrous strikes that had caused suffering
in death, to say nothing at all of the enormous
economic waste. And we had never seen a single strike
leader punished as we had been. We who had suffered
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sentences of nine months imprisonment for inciting women to mild rebellion,
had seen a labor leader who had done his best
to incite an army to mutiny, released from prison in
two months by the government. And now we had come
to a point where we saw civil war threatened, where
we read in the papers every day reports of speeches
a thousand times more incendiary than anything we had ever said.
We heard prominent members of Parliament openly declaring that if
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the Whome Rule Bill was passed, Ulster would fight, and
Ulster would be right. None of these men were arrested. Instead,
they were applauded. Lord Selborne, one of our sternish critics,
referring to the fact that Ulster men were drilling under
arms said publicly, the method which the people of Ulster
are adopting to show the depths of their convictions and
intensity of their feelings will impress the imagination of the
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whole country. But Lord Selborne was not arrested. Neither were
the mutinists officers who resigned their commissions when ordered to
report for duty against the men of Ulster who were
actually preparing for a civil war. What does all this mean?
Why is it that men's blood shedding militancy is applauded
and women's symbolic militancy punished with a prison cell and
the forcible feeding horror. It means simply this that men's
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double standard of sex morals, whereby the victims of their
lust are counted as outcasts while the men themselves escape.
All social censure really applies to morals in all departments
of life. Men make the moral code, and they expect
women to accept it. They've decided that it is entirely
right and proper for men to fight for their liberties
and their rights, but that it is not right and
proper for women to fight for theirs. Footnote There is
(25:28):
no question that a great deal of the animus directed
at us during nineteen thirteen and nineteen fourteen by the
government was due to sex bitterness stirred up by a
series of articles written by Crista Belle Pankhurst and published
in The Suffragette. These articles, a fearless and authoritative expose
of the evils of sexual immoralities and their blasting effect
on innocent wives and children, have since been published in
a book called The Great Scourge and How To End It,
(25:50):
issued by David Nutt, New Oxford Street, London, w C.
End footnote. They have decided that for men to remain
silently quiescent while tyrannical rule impose bonds of slavery upon
them is cowardly and dishonorable, but that for women to
do that same thing is not cowardly and dishonorable, but
merely respectable. While the Suffragettes absolutely repudiate that double standard
(26:11):
of morals. If it is right for men to fight
for their freedom, and God knows what the human race
would be like today if men had not, since time
began fought for their freedom, that it is right for
women to fight for their freedom and the freedom of
the children. They bear on this declaration of faith, the
militant women of England, rest their case. End of Book three,
Chapter three,
Book three, Chapter three of My Own Story by Emmeline Pankhurst.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
k Hand The Women's Revolution, Chapter three. The sentence of
nine months astonished us beyond measure, especially in view of
certain very recent events, one of these being the case
of some sailors who had mutinied in order to call
(00:20):
attention to something which they considered a peril to themselves
and to all sea farers. They were tried and found
technically guilty, but because of the motive behind their mutiny,
were discharged without punishment. Perhaps more nearly like our case
than this was the case of the labor leader tom Mann,
who shortly before had written a pamphlet calling upon his
Majesty's soldiers not to fire upon strikers when commanded to
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do so by their superior officers. From the government's point
of view, this was a much more serious kind of
inciting than ours, because if it had been responded to,
the authorities would have been absolutely crippled in maintaining order. Besides,
soldiers who refuse to obey orders are liable to the
death penalty. Tom Mann was given a sentence of sicks,
but this was received on the part of the liberal
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press and liberal politicians with so much clamor and protest
that the prisoner was released at the end of two months.
So even on our way to prison, we told one
another that our sentences could not stand. Public opinion would
never permit the government to keep us in prison for
nine months or in the second division for any part
of our term. We agreed to wait seven parliamentary days
before we began a hunger strike protest. It was very
(01:24):
dreary waiting those seven parliamentary days because we could not
know what was happening outside or what was being talked
of in the house. We could know nothing of the
protests and memorials that were pouring in on our behalf
from Oxford and Cambridge Universities, from members of learned societies,
and from distinguished men and women of all professions, not
only in England, but in every country of Europe, from
the United States and Canada, and even from India. An
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international memorial asking that we be treated as political prisoners
was signed by such great men and women as Professor
Paul Milakoff, leader of the Constitutional Democrats in the Duma,
signor Enrico Ferry of the Italian Chamber of Deputy Dudies,
Edward Bernstein of the German Reichstag, George Brandis, Edward Westermark,
Madame Curie ellen Key, Maurice Materlink, and many others. The
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greatest indignation was expressed in the House, Keir Hardy and
mister George Lansbury leading in the demand for a drastic
revision of our sentences and our immediate transference to the
first division. So much pressure was brought to bear that
within a few days the Home Secretary announced that he
felt it his duty to examine into the circumstances of
the case without delay. He explained that the prisoners had
not at any time been forced to wear prison clothes. Ultimately,
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which in this case means shortly before the expiration of
the seven parliamentary days, we were all three placed in
the first division. Missus Pethick Lawrence was given the cell
formerly occupied by doctor Jamison, and I had the cell
adjoining mister Pethick Lawrence. In Brixton Jail was similarly accommodated.
We all had the privilege of furnishing our cells with
comfortable chairs, tables, our own bedding, towels, and so on.
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We had meals sent in from the outside. We wore
our own clothing, and had what books, newspapers and writing
materials we required. We were not permitted to write or
receive letters, or to see our friends except in the
ordinary two weeks routine. Still, we had gained our point
that suffrage prisoners were politicals. We had gained it, but
as it turned out, only for ourselves. When we made
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the inquiry, are all our women now transferred to the
first Division? The answer was that the order for transference
referred only to mister and missus Pthick Lawrence and myself.
Needless to say, we immediately refused to accept this unfair advantage.
And after we had exhausted every means in our power
to induce the Home Secretary to give the other suffrage
prisoners the same justice that we had received, we adopted
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the protest of the hunger strike. The word flew swiftly
through Holloway, and in some mysterious way, traveled to Brixton,
to Aylesbury and Winston Green, and at once all the
other suffrage prisoners followed our lead. The government then had
over eighty hunger strikes on their hands, and as before
had ready only the argument of force, which means that
disgusting and cruel process of forcible feeding. Holloway became a
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place of horror and torment. Sickening scenes of violence took
place almost every hour of the day as the doctors
went from cell to cell performing their hideous office. One
of the men did his work in such brutal fashion
that the very sight of him provoked cries of horror
and anguish. I shall never while I live forget the
suffering I experienced during the days when those cries were
ringing in my ears. In her frenzy of pain, one
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woman threw herself from the gallery on which her cell opened.
A wire netting eight feet below broke her fall to
the iron staircase beneath, else she must inevitably have been killed.
As it was, she was frightfully hurt. The whole Sale
Hunger strike created a tremendous stir throughout England, and every
day in the House the ministers were harassed with questions.
The climax was reached on the third or fourth day
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of the strike, when a stormy scene took place in
the House of Commons. The Under Home Secretary, mister Ellis
Griffith had been mercilessly questioned as to conditions under which
the forcible feeding was being done, and as soon as
this was over, one of the Suffragist's members made a
moving appeal to the Prime Minister himself to order the
release of all the prisoners. Mister Asquith, forced again his
will to take part in the controversy, rose and said
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that it was not for him to interfere with the
actions of his colleague mister McKenna, and he added, in
his own suave, mendacious manner, I must point out this
that there is not one single prisoner who cannot go
out of prison this afternoon on giving the undertaking asked
for by the Home Secretary, meaning an undertaking to refrain
henceforth from militancy. Instantly, mister George Lansbury sprung to his
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feet and exclaimed, you know they cannot. It is perfectly
disgraceful that the Prime Minister of England should make such
a statement. Mister Asquith glanced carelessly at the indignant Landsbury,
but sank into his seat without deigning to reply, shocked
to the depths of his soul by the insult thrown
at our women. Mister Lansbury strode up to the ministerial
bench and confronted the Prime Minister, saying again, that was
(05:44):
a disgraceful thing for you to say, sir. You are
beneath contempt, you and your colleagues. You call yourself gentlemen,
and you forcibly feed and murder women in this fashion.
You ought to be driven out of office. Talk about protesting.
It is the most disgraceful thing that ever happened in
the history of England. You will go down to history
as the men who tortured innocent women. By this time,
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the house was seething, and the indignant Labor member had
to shout at the top of his big voice in
order to be heard over the din. Mister Asquis's pompous
order that mister Lansbury leave the house for the day
was probably known to very few until it appeared in
print the next day. At all events, mister Lansbury continued
his protest for five minutes longer. You murder, torture and
drive women mad, he cried, And then you tell them
(06:25):
they can walk out. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
You talk about principle, you talk about fighting in Ulster,
You too, turning to the Unionist benches, you ought to
be driven out of public life. These women are showing
you what principle is. You ought to honor them for
standing up for their womanhood. I tell you, Commons of England,
you ought to be ashamed of yourself. The Speaker came
(06:46):
to mister Asquith rescue at last, and adjured mister Lansbury
that he must obey the Prime Minister's order to leave
the house, saying that such disorderly conduct would cause the
house to lose respect. Sir, exclaimed mister Lansbury, in a
final burst of righteous rage. It has lost it already.
This unprecedented explosion of wrath and scorn against the government
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was the sensation of the hour, and was felt on
all sides that the release of the prisoners, or at
least cesssion of forcible feeding, which amounted to the same thing,
would be ordered. Every day the Suffragettes marched in great
crowds the Holloway, serenading the prisoners and holding protest meanings
to immense crowds. The music and the cheering faintly wafted
to our straining ears, was inexpressibly sweet. Yet it was
(07:26):
while listening to one of these serenades. At the most
dreadful moment of my imprisonment occurred. I was lying in bed,
very weak from starvation, when I heard a sudden scream
from Missus Lawrence's cell, then the sound of a prolonged
and very violent struggle, and I knew that they had
dared to carry their brutal business to our doors. I
sprang out of bed, and shaking with weakness and with anger.
I set my back against the wall and waited for
(07:48):
what might come. In a few moments, they had finished
with Missus Lawrence and had flung open the door to
my cell. On the threshold I saw the doctors, and
the back of them a large group of wardresses. Missus
Pankhurst began the doctor. Instantly, I caught up a heavy
earthenware water jug from a table hard by, and with
hands that now felt no weakness, I swung the jug
head high. If any of you dares so much as
(08:09):
to take one step inside this cell, I shall defend myself.
I cried. Nobody moved or spoke for a few seconds,
and then the doctor confusedly muttered something about tomorrow morning
doing as well, and they all retreated, I demanded to
be admitted to Missus Laurence's cell, where I found my
companion in a desperate state. She is a strong woman
and a very determined one, and it had required the
united strength of nine wardresses to overcome her. They had
(08:31):
rushed into the cell without any warning and seized her unawares,
else they might not have succeeded at all. As it was,
she resisted so violently that the doctors could not apply
the stethoscope, and it had very great difficulty in getting
the tube down. After the wretched affair was over, Missus
Lawrence fainted and for hours afterward was very ill. This
was the last attempt made to forcibly feed either Missus
(08:51):
Laurence or myself, and two days later we were ordered
released on medical grounds. The other hunger strikers were released
in batches, as every day a few more triumphant rebel
approached to the point where the government stood in danger
of committing actual murder. Mister Lawrence, who was forcibly fed
twice a day for more than ten days, was released
in a state of complete collapse on July first. Within
a few days after that, the last of the prisoners
(09:12):
were at liberty. As soon as I was sufficiently recovered,
I went to Paris and had the joy of seeing
again my daughter Cristabel, who during all of the days
of strife and misery, had kept her personal anxiety in
the background and had kept staunchly at her work of leadership.
The absence of mister and missus Pethick Lawrence had thrown
the entire responsibility of the editorship of our paper Votes
for Women on her shoulders. But as she has invariably
(09:33):
risen to meet new responsibility, she conducted the paper with
skill and discretion. We had much to talk about and
to consider, because it was evident that militancy, instead of
being dropped as the other suffrage societies were constantly suggesting,
must go on very much more vigorously than before. The
struggle had been too long drawn out. We had to
seek ways to shorten it, to bring it to such
a climax that the government would acknowledge that something had
(09:55):
to be done. We had already demonstrated that our forces
were impregnable. We could not be conquered, could not be terrified,
we could not even be kept in prison. Therefore, since
the government had their war lost in advance, our task
was merely to hasten the surrender. The situation in Parliament,
as far as the suffrage question was concerned, was clean,
swept and barren. The Third Conciliation Bill had failed to
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pass its second reading, the majority against it being fourteen.
Many Liberal members were afraid to vote for the bill
because mister Lloyd George and mister Lewis Harcourt had persistently
spread the rumor that its passage at that time would
result in splitting the cabinet. The Irish Nationalist members had
become so hostile to the bill because their leader, mister Redmond,
was an anti suffragist and had refused to include a
(10:35):
woman's suffrage clause in the House Rule Bill. Our erstwhile friends,
the Labor members were so apathetic or so fearful for
certain of their own measures, that most of them stayed
away from the House on the day the bill reached
its second reading, so it was lost and the militants
were blamed for its loss. In June, the government announced
that mister Asquith's Manhood Suffrage Bill would soon be introduced,
and very soon after this bill did appear. It simplified
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the registration machinery reduced the qualifying period of residence to
six months, and abolished property qualifications, plural voting, and university representation.
In a word, it gave the parliamentary franchise to every
man above the age of twenty one, and denied it
to all women. Never in the history of the suffrage
movement had such enof front been offered to women, and
never in the history of England had such a blow
been aimed at women's liberties. It is true that the
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Prime Minister had pledged himself to introduce a bill capable
of being amended to include women's suffrage, and to permit
any amendment that passed its second reading to become a
part of the bill. But we had no faith in
an amendment, nor in any bill that was not, from
its inception an official government measure. Mister Asquith had broken
every pledge he had ever made to the women, and
this new pledge impressed us not at all. Well, we
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knew that he had given it only to cover his
treachery in torpedoing the Conciliation Bill, and in the hope
of placating the suffragists, perhaps securing another truce to militancy.
If this last was his hope he was most grievously disappointed.
Signs were constantly appearing to indicate that women would no
longer be contented with the symbolic militancy involved in window breaking.
For example, traces were found in the House Secretary's office
(12:02):
at Whitehall of an attempt at arson on the doorstep
of another Cabinet minister. Similar traces were found. Had the
government acted upon these warnings by giving women the vote,
all the serious acts of militancy that have occurred since
would have been averted. But like the heart of Pharaoh,
the heart of the government hardened, and militant acts followed
one after another in rapid succession. In July, the w
(12:23):
s p U issued a manifesto which set forth our
intentions in that regard. The manifesto read in part as follows.
The leaders of the Women Social and Political Union have
so often warned the government that unless the vote were
granted to women, in response to the mild militancy of
the past, a fiercer spirit of revolt would be awakened,
which it would be impossible to control. The government have
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blindly disregarded the warning, and now they are reaping the
harvest of their unstatesmanlike folly. This was issued immediately after
a visit paid by mister Asquith to Dublin. The occasion
had been intended to be one of great pomp and circumstance,
a huge popular demonstration in honor of the sponsor of
the Whome Rule, but the Suffragettes turned it into the
most lamentable fiasco imaginable. From the hour mister Asquis attempted
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secret departure from London until his return, he lived and
moved in momentary dread of suffragettes. Every time he entered
or left a railway carriage or a steamer, he was
confronted by women. Every time he rose to speak, he
was interrupted by women. Every public appearance he made was
turned into a riot by women. As he left Dublin,
a woman threw a hatchet into his motor car, without however,
doing him any injury. As a final protest against his
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reception by irishmen, the Theater Royal was set on fire
by two women. The theater was practically empty at the time,
the performance having been completed, and the damage done was
comparatively small. Yet the two women chiefly concerned, missus Lee
and Miss Evans, were given the barbarous sentences of five
years each in prison. These were the first women's sentence
to penal servitude in the history of our movement. Of course,
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they did not serve their sentences. On entering Mountjoy Prison,
they put in the usual claim for first division treatment,
and this being refused, they immediately adopted the hunger strike.
A number of Irish suffragettes were in Mountjoy at this
time for a pro test made against the exclusion of
women from the Home Rule Bill. They were in the
first division and they were almost on the eve of
their release. But such is the indomitable spirit of militancy
that these women entered upon a sympathetic hunger strike, they
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were released, but the government forbade the release of missus
Lee and Miss Evans. That is, they ordered the authorities
to retain the women as long as they could by
forcible feeding be kept alive. After a struggle which for
fierceness and cruelty is almost unparalleled in our annals, the
two women fought their way out. All during that summer,
militancy surged up and down throughout the kingdom. A series
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of attacks on golf links was instituted, not at all
in a spirit of wanton mischief, but with the direct
and very practical object of reminding the dull and self
satisfied English public that when the liberties of English women
were being stolen from them was no time to think
of sports. The women selected country clubs where prominent liberal
politicians were wont to take their weekend pleasures, and with
acids they burned great patches of turf, rending the golf
(14:53):
greens useless for the time being. They burned the words
votes for Women in some cases, and always they left
behind them minders that women were warring for their freedom.
On one occasion, when the Court was at Balmoral Castle
in Scotland, the suffragettes invaded the Royal golf links, and
when Sunday morning dawned, all the marking flags were found
to have been replaced by W. S p U flags
bearing inscriptions such as votes for Women means peace for ministers,
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forcible feeding must be stopped, and the like. The golf
links were frequently visited by suffragettes in order to question
recreant ministers. Two women followed the Prime Minister to Inverness,
where he was playing golf, with mister McKenna. Approaching the men,
One suffragette exclaimed, mister Asquith, you must stop forcible feeding.
She got no farther from mister Asquith, turning pale with rage,
perhaps retreated behind the Home Secretary, who quite forgetting his manners,
(15:41):
seized the suffragette, crying out that he was going to
throw her into the pond. Then we will take you
with us, the two retorted, after which a very lively
scuffle ensued and the women were not thrown into the pond.
This golf green activity really aroused more hostility against us
than all the window breaking. The papers published appeals to
us not to interfere with a game that helped weary
politicians to think clearly. But our reply to this was
(16:04):
that it had not any such effect on the Prime
Minister or on mister Lloyd George. We had undertaken to
spoil their sport and that of a large class of
comfortable men, in order that they should be obliged to
think clearly about women and women's firm determination to get justice.
I made my return to active work in the autumn
by speaking of the Great Meeting of the w SPU
held in the Albert Hall. At that meeting I had
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the announcement to make that the six years association of
mister and Missus p Thick Lawrence with the WSPU had ended.
Since personal dissensions have never been dwelt upon in the WSPU,
have never been allowed to halt the movement or to
interfere for an hour with its progress. I shall not
hearsay any more about this important dissension than I said
at our first large meeting in Albert Hall after the
holiday on October seventeenth. That day, a new paper was
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sold on the streets. It was called The Suffragette. It
was edited by Cristophel Pankhurst, and was henceforth to be
the official organ of the union. Both in this new
paper and in the votes for women. The following announcement
appeared grave state by the leaders. At the first reunion
of the Leaders after the enforced holiday, Missus Pankhurst and
Miss Cristabel Pankhurst outlined a new militant policy which mister
(17:08):
and Missus Pethick Lawrence found themselves altogether unable to approve.
Missus Pankhurst and Miss Cristapale Pankhurst indicated that they were
not prepared to modify their intentions and recommended that mister
missus Pethick Lawrence should resume control of the paper votes
for Women and should leave the Women Social and Political
Union rather than make the schism in the ranks of
the union. Mister and missus Pethick Lawrence consented to take
this course. This was signed by all four that night.
(17:32):
At the meeting, I further explained to the members that
hardest partings from old friends and comrades, unquestionably were. We
must remember that we were fighting in an army, and
that unity of purpose and unity of policy are absolutely necessary,
because without them the army is hopelessly weakened. It is better,
I said that those who cannot agree, cannot see eye
to eye as to policy, should set themselves free, should part,
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and should be free to continue their policy as they
see it in their own way, unfettered by those with
whom they can no longer agree. Continuing, I said, I
give place to none an appreciation and gratitude to mister
missus p Thick Lawrence for the incalculable services that they
have rendered in the militant movement for women's suffrage, and
I firmly believe that the women's movement will be strengthened
by their being free to work for women's suffrage in
(18:13):
the future as they think best, while we of the
Women's Social and Political Union shall continue the militant agitation
for women's suffrage initiated by my daughter and myself in
a handful of women more than six years ago. I
then went on to survey the situation in which the
WSPU now stood and to outline the new militant policy
which we had decided upon. This policy, to begin with,
was relentless opposition not only to the party in power,
(18:36):
the Liberal Party, but to all parties in the coalition.
I reminded the women that the government had tricked and
betrayed us, and was now plotting to make our progress
towards citizenship doubly difficult. Was kept in office through the
coalition of three parties. There was the Liberal Party nominally
the governing party, but they could not live another day
without the coalition of the Nationalist and Labor parties. So
we should say, not only to the Liberal Party, but
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to the Nationalist Party and the Labor Party, so long
as you keep in office an anti suffrage government, you
are parties to their guilt. And from henceforth we offer
you the same opposition which we give to the people
whom you are keeping in power with your support. I
said further, we have summoned the Labor Party to do
their duty by their own program, and to go into
opposition to the government on every question until the government
do justice to women. They apparently are not willing to
(19:20):
do that. Some of them tell us that other things
are more important than the liberty of women, than the
liberty of working women. We say, then, gentlemen, we must
teach you the value of your own principles, and until
you are prepared to stand for the right of women
to decide their lives in the laws under which they
shall live, you with mister Asquith and company are equally
responsible for all that has happened and is happening to
women in this struggle for emancipation. Outlining further our new
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and stronger policy of aggression, I said, there is a
great deal of criticism, ladies and gentlemen, of this movement.
It always seems to me when the anti suffrage members
of the government criticize militancy and women, that it is
very like beasts of prey reproaching the gentler animals who
turn in desperate resistance when at the point of death.
Criticism from gentlemen who do not hesitate to order our
armies to kill and slay their opponents, who do not
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hesitate to encourage party mobs to attack defensiswomen in public meetings,
criticism from them hardly rings true. Then I get letters
from people who tell me they are ardent suffragists, but
who say that they do not like the recent developments
in the militant movement and implore me to urge members
not to be reckless with human life. Ladies and gentlemen,
the only recklessness the militant suffragists have shown about human
(20:26):
life has been about their own lives and not about
the lives of others. And I say here and now
that it has never been, and never will be the
policy of the Women's Social and Political Union recklessly to
endanger human life. We leave that to the enemy. We
leave that to the men in their warfare. It is
not the method of women. No, even from the point
of view of public policy, militancy affecting the security of
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human life would be out of place. There is something
that governments care for far more than human life, and
that is the security of property and so it is
through property that we shall strike the enemy. From henceforward,
the women who agree with me will say, we disregard
your laws, gentlemen. We set the liberty and dignity and
the welfare of women above all such considerations, and we
shall continue this war as we have done in the past.
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And what sacrifice of property, or what injury to property accruise,
will not be our fault. It will be the fault
of that government who admit the justice of our demands,
but refuses to concede them without the evidence. So they
have told us, afforded to governments of the past, that
those who asked for liberty were earnest in their demands.
I called upon the women of the meeting to join
me in this new militancy, and I reminded them anew
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that the women who were fighting in the Suffragette army
had a great mission, the greatest mission in the world
has ever known, the freeing of one half of the
human race, and through that freedom, the saving of the
other half. I said to them, be militant, each in
your own way. Those of you who can express your
militancy by going to the House of Commons and refusing
to leave without satisfaction, as we did in the early days.
Do so. Those of you who can express militancy by
(21:51):
facing party mobs at cabinet minister's meetings, when you remind
them of their falseness to principle, do so. Those of
you who can express your militancy by joining us and
our anti government by election policy, do so. Those of
you who can break windows, break them. Those of you
who can still further attack the secret idol of property
so as to make the government realize that property is
as greatly endangered by women's suffrage as it was by
(22:14):
the cherists of old, do so. And my last word
is to the government. I incite this meeting to rebellion.
I say to the government, you have not dared to
take the leaders of Ulster for their incitement to rebellion.
Take me if you dare. But if you dare, I
tell you this that so long as those who incited
to armed rebellion and the destruction of human life and
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Ulster are at liberty, you will not keep me in prison.
So long as men, rebels and voters are at liberty,
we will not remain in prison. First division or no
first division, I ask my readers, some of whom will
no doubt be shocked and displeased at these words of
mine that I have so frankly set down to put
themselves in the place of those women who for years
have given their lives entirely and unstintingly to the work
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of securing political freedom for women who had converted so
great a proportion of the allae elector to that had
the House of Commons been a free body, we should
have won that freedom years before, who had seen their
freedom withheld from them through treachery and misuse of power.
I ask you to consider that we had used in
our agitation only peaceful means until we saw clearly that
peaceful means were absolutely of no avail. And then for
(23:17):
years we had used only the mildest militancy, until we
were taunted by cabinet ministers and told that we should
never get the vote, until we employed the same violence
that men had used in their agitation for suffrage. After
that we had used stronger militancy, but even that, by
comparison with the militancy of men in labor disputes, could
not possibly be counted as violent. Through all the stages
(23:38):
of our agitation, we had been punished with the greatest severity,
sent a prison like common criminals, and of late years,
tortured as no criminals had been tortured for a century
in civilized countries of the world. And during all these
years we had seen disastrous strikes that had caused suffering
in death, to say nothing at all of the enormous
economic waste. And we had never seen a single strike
leader punished as we had been. We who had suffered
(24:00):
sentences of nine months imprisonment for inciting women to mild rebellion,
had seen a labor leader who had done his best
to incite an army to mutiny, released from prison in
two months by the government. And now we had come
to a point where we saw civil war threatened, where
we read in the papers every day reports of speeches
a thousand times more incendiary than anything we had ever said.
We heard prominent members of Parliament openly declaring that if
(24:22):
the Whome Rule Bill was passed, Ulster would fight, and
Ulster would be right. None of these men were arrested. Instead,
they were applauded. Lord Selborne, one of our sternish critics,
referring to the fact that Ulster men were drilling under
arms said publicly, the method which the people of Ulster
are adopting to show the depths of their convictions and
intensity of their feelings will impress the imagination of the
(24:42):
whole country. But Lord Selborne was not arrested. Neither were
the mutinists officers who resigned their commissions when ordered to
report for duty against the men of Ulster who were
actually preparing for a civil war. What does all this mean?
Why is it that men's blood shedding militancy is applauded
and women's symbolic militancy punished with a prison cell and
the forcible feeding horror. It means simply this that men's
(25:05):
double standard of sex morals, whereby the victims of their
lust are counted as outcasts while the men themselves escape.
All social censure really applies to morals in all departments
of life. Men make the moral code, and they expect
women to accept it. They've decided that it is entirely
right and proper for men to fight for their liberties
and their rights, but that it is not right and
proper for women to fight for theirs. Footnote There is
(25:28):
no question that a great deal of the animus directed
at us during nineteen thirteen and nineteen fourteen by the
government was due to sex bitterness stirred up by a
series of articles written by Crista Belle Pankhurst and published
in The Suffragette. These articles, a fearless and authoritative expose
of the evils of sexual immoralities and their blasting effect
on innocent wives and children, have since been published in
a book called The Great Scourge and How To End It,
(25:50):
issued by David Nutt, New Oxford Street, London, w C.
End footnote. They have decided that for men to remain
silently quiescent while tyrannical rule impose bonds of slavery upon
them is cowardly and dishonorable, but that for women to
do that same thing is not cowardly and dishonorable, but
merely respectable. While the Suffragettes absolutely repudiate that double standard
(26:11):
of morals. If it is right for men to fight
for their freedom, and God knows what the human race
would be like today if men had not, since time
began fought for their freedom, that it is right for
women to fight for their freedom and the freedom of
the children. They bear on this declaration of faith, the
militant women of England, rest their case. End of Book three,
Chapter three,
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