 Preface of the Suffragette, The History of the Woman's Suffrage Movement. Recorded by Cillian Major. The Suffragette, The History of the Woman's Militant Suffrage Movement by E. Sylvia Pankhurst. This history of the woman's suffrage agitation is written at a time when the question is in the very forefront of British politics. What the immediate future holds for those women who are most actively engaged in fighting for their political freedom, no one can foretell, but one thing is certain. Complete victory for their cause is not far distant. When the long struggle for the enfranchisement of women is over, those who read the history of the movement will wonder at the blindness that led the government of the day to obstinately resist so simple and obvious a measure of justice. The men and women of the coming time will, I am persuaded, be filled with admiration for the patient work of the early pioneers and the heroic determination and persistence in spite of coercion, repression, misrepresentation, and insult of those who fought the later militant fight. Perhaps the women born in the happier days that are to come, while rejoicing in the inheritance that we of today are preparing for them, may sometimes wish that they could have lived in the heroic days of stress and struggle and have shared with us the joy of battle, the exaltation that comes of sacrifice of self for great objects, and the prophetic vision that assures us of the certain triumph of this twentieth-century fight for human emancipation. E. Pankhurst. 4. Clemens Inn. W. C. London. January 1911. Preface. In writing this history of the militant women's suffrage movement, I have endeavored to give a just and accurate account of its progress and happenings dealing fully with as many of its incidents as space will permit. I have tried to let my readers look behind the scenes in order that they may understand both the steps by which the movement has grown and the motives and ideas that have animated its promoters. I believe that women striving for enfranchisement in other lands and reformers of future days may learn with renewed hope and confidence how the family party who in 1905 set out determined to make votes for women the dominant issue of the politics of their time in but six years due to their standard the great women's army of today. It is certain that the militant struggle in which this woman's army has engaged and which has come as the climax to the long patient effort of the earlier pioneers will rank amongst the great reform movements of the world. Set as it has been in modern humdrum days, it can yet compare with any movement for variety and vivacity of incident. The adventurous and resourceful daring of the young suffragettes who by climbing up on roofs, by sliding down through skylights, by hiding under platforms constantly succeeded in asking their endless questions has never been excelled. What could be more pecan than the fact that two of the cabinet ministers who were carrying out a policy of coercion towards the woman should have been forced into the witness box to be questioned and cross questioned by Ms. Christabel Pankhurst, the prisoner in the dock. What, too, could throw a keen research light upon the methods of our statesmen than the evidence put forward in the course of that trial? Too many of our contemporaries perhaps the most remarkable feature of the militant movement has been the flinging aside by thousands of women of the conventional standards that hedge us so closely round in these days for a right that large numbers of men who possess it scarcely value. Of course it was more difficult for the earlier militants to break through the conventionalities and for those who followed, but as one of those associated with the movement from its inception I believe that the effort was greater for those who first came forward to stand by the originators than for the little group by whom the first blows were struck. I believe this because I know that the original militants were already in close association with the truth that not only were the deeds of the old-time pioneers and martyrs glorious, but that their work still lacks completion and that it behoves those of us who have grasped an idea for human betterment to endure if need be, social ostracism, violence and hardship of all kinds in order to establish it. Moreover, whilst the originators of the militant tactics let fly their bolt as it were from the clear sky, their early associates rallied to their aid in the teeth of all the fierce and bitter opposition that had been raised. The hearts of students of the movement in after-years will be stirred by the faith and endurance shown by the women who faced violence at the hands of the police and others in Parliament Square and at the Cabinet Ministers' meetings and, above all, by the heroism of the noble women who went through the hunger strike and the mental and physical torture of forcible feeding. A passionate love of freedom, a strong desire to do social service, and an intense sympathy for the unfortunate together made the movement possible in its present form. Those who have worked as a part of it know that it is notable not merely for its enthusiasm and courage, but also for its cherry spirit of loyalty and comradeship, its patient thornness in organization which has made possible its many great demonstrations and processions, its freedom from bitterness and recrimination, and its firm faith in the right. E. Sylvia Pankhurst, London, May, 1911 End of Preface Chapter 1 of The Suffragette, The History of the Woman's Militant Suffrage Movement by E. Sylvia Pankhurst This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Please note that footnotes will be read at the end of each chapter. 1. Early Days, From the Formation of the Woman's Social and Political Union to the Summer of 1905 From her girlhood, my mother, the founder of the Woman's Social and Political Union, had been inspired by stories of the early reform movements, and even before this, at an age when most children have scarcely learned their alphabet, her father, Robert Goulden of Manchester, sent her to read his newspaper to him at breakfast and thus awakened her lasting interest in politics. The Franco-German war was still a much-discussed event when Robert Goulden took his 13-year-old daughter to school in Paris, placing her at the École Normale, where she became the room companion of Henri Rochefort's daughter, Noémie. Noémie Rochefort told her little English school fellow, much of her own father's adventurous career, and Emmeline Goulden soon became an ardent and enthusiastic Republican. She was now delighted to discover that she had been born on the anniversary of the destruction of the Bastille, and was proud to tell her friend that her own grandmother had been an earnest politician, and one of the earliest members of the anti-corn law league, and that her grandfather had narrowly escaped death upon the field of Peterloo. Even before her school days in Paris, she had been taken by her mother to a woman's suffrage meeting addressed by Miss Lydia Becker. On returning home to England, Emmeline Goulden settled down at 17 years of age to help her mother in the care of her eight younger brothers and sisters, and when she was 21, she married Dr. Richard Marston Pankhurst, who was many years older than herself, and had long been well known as a public man. Dr. Pankhurst had been one of the founders of the Pioneer Manchester Woman's Suffrage Committee and one of its most active workers in the early days. He had drafted the original Woman's An Franchisement Bill, then called the Woman's Disabilities Removal Bill to give votes to women on the same terms as men, which had first been introduced by Mr. Jacob Bright in 1870 and had then passed its second reading in the House of Commons by a majority of 33. With Lord Coleridge, Dr. Pankhurst had acted as counsel for the women who had claimed to be put upon the parliamentary register in the case of Charlton v. Slinges in 1868. He was also at the time one of the most prominent members of the Married Women's Property Committee and had drafted the bill to give married women the absolute right to their own property and to sue and be sued in the courts of law, which was soon to be placed as an act upon the statute book. Two years before this great act became law, Mrs. Pankhurst was elected to the Married Women's Property Committee and at the same time she became a member of the Manchester Woman's Suffrage Committee. In 1889 my parents helped to form the Woman's Franchise League. My sister, Christabel and I, then nine and seven years old, already took a lively interest in all the proceedings and tried as hard as we could to make ourselves useful, writing out notices in big, uncertain letters and distributing leaflets to the guests at a three-days conference held in our own home. About this time we two children had begun to attend women's suffrage and other public meetings and these we reported in a little manuscript magazine which we both wrote and illustrated. When some few years afterwards owing chiefly to lack of funds and the ill health of its most prominent workers, the Woman's Franchise League was discontinued, Dr. and Mrs. Pankhurst returned to Manchester and worked mainly for general questions of social reform. Years before my mother had joined the Women's Liberal Federation in the hope that it would work to remove both the political and economic grievances of women and to raise the status of women generally, but finding that the Federation was being used merely to forward the interests of the Liberal Party, of which women could not be members and in the formation of whose program they were allowed no voice, she had resigned her membership. In 1894 she and Dr. Pankhurst joined the Independent Labour Party, one of the decisive reasons for this step being that, unlike the Liberal and Conservative Parties, the Independent Labour Party admitted men and women to membership on equal terms. In the same year Mrs. Pankhurst was elected to the Charlton Board of Guardians and remained a member of that body for four years. This experience taught her much of the pressing knees of the poor and of the bitter hardships especially of the women's lives. After Dr. Pankhurst's death in 1898, Mrs. Pankhurst retired from the Board of Guardians and became a registrar of births and deaths. For the next few years my mother took no active part in politics except as a member of the Manchester School Board. But in 1901 my sister Christabel became greatly interested in the suffrage propaganda organised by Ms. Esther Roper, Ms. Eva Gore Booth and Mrs. Sarah Dickinson amongst the women textile workers. She was also elected to the Manchester Women's Suffrage Committee of which Mrs. Roper was secretary. Christabel soon struck out a new line for herself. Impressed by the growing strength of the labour movement she began to see the necessity of converting to the question of women's suffrage the various trade union organisations which were upon the eve of becoming a concrete force in politics. She therefore made it her business to address as many of the trade unions as were willing to receive her. We were all much interested in Christabel's work and my mother's enthusiasm was quickly reawakened. The experiences of her later years had brought her a keener insight into the results of the political disabilities of women against which she had rebelled as a high spirited girl and she now realised more strongly than ever before the urgent and immediate need for the enfranchisement of her sex. She became failed with the consciousness that her duty lay in forcing this one question into the forefront of practical politics even if in so doing she should find it necessary to give up all her other work. The women's suffrage cause and the various ways in which to further its interests were now constantly present in all our minds. A glance at the early history of the movement to say nothing of personal experience was enough to show that the liberal and conservative parties had no intention of taking the question up and after mature consideration my mother at last decided that a separate woman's organisation must be formed. Therefore on October 10th 1903 she invited a number of women to meet at our home 62 Nelson Street Manchester and the women's social and political union was formed. Almost all the women who were present on that original occasion were working women, members of the labour movement but it was decided from the first that the union should be entirely independent of class and party. The phrase votes for women was now for the first time in the history of the movement adopted as a watchword by the new union. The propaganda work was at first mainly carried on amongst the women workers of Lancashire and Yorkshire and in the spring of 1904 as a result of the women's social and political unions activities the annual conference of the independent Labour Party instructed its administrative council to prepare a bill for the enfranchisement of women to be laid before Parliament in the forthcoming session. This resolution though carried by an overwhelming majority had been bitterly opposed by a minority of the conference who asserted that the Labour Party should not concern itself with a partial measure of enfranchisement but should work directly to secure universal adult suffrage for both men and women. Therefore, before preparing any special measure, the National Administrative Council of the Independent Labour Party went very carefully into the whole question. They were advised by Mr. Kair Hardy and others who understood parliamentary procedure that a measure for universal adult suffrage which would not only bring about most sweeping changes but would open countless avenues for discussion and consequent obstruction could never hope to be carried through Parliament except by the responsible government of the day. It was therefore useless for the Labour representatives to attempt to introduce such a measure. In addition to this it was pointed out that whilst a large majority of the members of the House of Commons had already pledged themselves to support an equal bill to give votes to women on the same terms as men no substantial measure of parliamentary support had as yet been obtained for adult suffrage even if confined to men. Taking into consideration all the present state of both public and parliamentary feeling and with a million more women than men in the British Isles there was absolutely no chance of carrying into law any proposal to give a vote to every grown man and woman in the country. Having thus arrived at the conclusion that an adult suffrage measure was out of the question the Council now carefully inquired into the various classes of women who were possessed of the qualifications which would have entitled them to vote had they been men. On its being ascertained that the majority would be householders whose names were already upon the register of municipal voters the following circular was addressed to all the independent Labour Party branches. We addressed to your branch a very urgent request to ascertain from your local voting register the following particulars. 1. The total number of electors in the ward. 2. The total number of women voters. 3. The number of women voters of the working classes. 4. The number of voters not of the working classes. It is impossible to lay down a strict definition of the term working classes but for this purpose it will be sufficient to regard as working class women those who work for wages who are domestically employed or who are supported by the earnings of wage-earning children. It was not unnatural that the majority of the branches failed to comply with a request which obviously entailed a very extensive work. Nevertheless returns were sent in from between 40 and 50 different towns and districts in various parts of the country and these showed the following results. Note 2. Total of electors on the municipal register. 423,321. Total of women voters. 59,920. Total of working women voters as defined above. 49,410. Total of non-working women voters. 10,510. Percentage of working women voters. 82.45. On receiving these figures the National Council of the Independent Labour Party decided to adopt the original women's and franchisement bill which passed its second reading in 1870. The text of the bill was as follows. In all acts relating to the qualifications and registration of voters or persons entitled or claiming to be registered and to vote in the election of members of parliament wherever words occur which import the masculine gender the same shall be held to include women for all purposes connected with and having referenced to the right to be registered as voters and to vote in such election any law or usage to the contrary notwithstanding. Meanwhile we of the women's social and political union were eagerly looking forward to the new session of parliament. It is indeed wonderful in the midst of the great women's movement that is present with us today to look back upon its small beginnings in that dreary and dismal time not yet six years ago. It seemed then well nigh impossible to rouse the London women from their apathy upon this question for the old suffrage workers had lost heart and energy in the long struggle for those who had joined them in recent days saw no prospect that votes for women would ever come to pass. I myself was then a student at the Royal College of Art South Kensington but I decided to absent myself in order to help my mother who had come down from Manchester to Lobby as it is called on those few important days. The house met on Tuesday, February 13th and during the eight days which intervened before the result of the private members ballot was made known and it meant the whole of our time in the stranger's lobby striving to induce every member who had pledged himself to support women's suffrage to agree that his chance in the ballot should be given to a women's suffrage bill. It was my first experience of lobbying. I knew we had an uphill task before us but I had no conception of how hard and discouraging it was to be. Members of parliament all told us that they had pledged themselves to do something for their constituents or had some other measure in which they were interested or had not been in parliament long and preferred to wait until they had more experience before they would care to ballot for a bill at all. Oh yes, they were in favour of women's suffrage. They believed that ladies ought to have votes but they really could not give their places in the ballot for the question. It was always anything but that and during the whole of the week we spent in the lobby we did not succeed in adding one single promise to that which we had originally received from Mr. Keir Hardy. On the fateful Wednesday on which the result was declared my mother and I were the only women in the lobby. We sat there on the shiny black leather seats in the circular hall waiting for the result and at last we saw with relief Mr. Keir Hardy's picturesque figure coming hurrying towards us from the inner lobby. He was so kind and helpful, the only kind and helpful person in the whole of parliament it seemed. At once he told us that his name had not been drawn in the ballot and explained that only the first twelve or at most fourteen places that had been drawn could be of any use to the members who had secured them and that owing to the limited number of days upon which private members bills could be discussed only the first three or four had even a moderately good chance of becoming law. Note three. Our next move must therefore be to get in touch with the successful fourteen members and to endeavor to persuade one of them to devote his place in the ballot to a woman's suffrage bill. After considerable trouble we finally got into communication with all of them and they all said no with the exception of Mr. Bamford Slack who held the fourteenth place and who at last agreed to introduce our bill largely because his wife was a suffragist and helped us to urge our cause. Of course the fourteenth place was not by any means a good one and the bill was set down as the second order of the day for Friday, May 12th. In the meantime we drafted a petition in support of it and set ourselves to procure signatures. One Sunday evening I went with a bundle of petition forms to a meeting addressed by Mr. G. K. Chesterton at Morris Hall Clapham. The lecturers' remarks were devoted to a eulogy of the French Revolution from which he asserted all ideas of popular representation at Sprung. An opening which I seize was given for a question on the subject of votes for women in relation to the government of our colonies. Whilst the audience were asking questions and offering criticisms, Mr. Chesterton was busily making sketches of us all but though I saw myself being added to the picture gallery in replying to the questions raised in the debate afterwards he did not answer my point. Afterwards however he came up and told me that he had forgotten to deal with it and then gave me an explanation. I had not asked are you in favor of votes for women? I had assumed that he was and he replied on the same assumption and afterwards voluntarily signed his name to my petition. It was, with surprise, not untempered with amusement therefore that I afterwards found Mr. Chesterton coming forward as an active anti-suffragist but his attitude seemed to me to be an augury of our speedy success for he delights to champion unpopular causes and to oppose himself to the overwhelming and inevitable march of coming events. Many other women societies suffrage organized petitions at this time for the fact of having a bill before the House of Commons for the first time for eight years had sent a thrill of new life through them all. The result of our united efforts was that when the 12th of May came round the stranger's lobby was densely crowded and many of the women had to be drafted on to the terrace or to stand in the various passages leading from the lobby as well as the members of the various suffrage societies women of all classes from the richest to the poorest were represented in the gathering and among the rest was a large contingent of women co-operators accompanied by Mrs. Nellie Alma Martel of Australia who had helped to win votes for women there and had afterwards been run as a candidate for the Commonwealth Parliament having polled more than 20,000 votes. Many of the women were quite pathetically confident that we were going to get women suffrage then and there but those of us who knew rather more both of the stubborn character of our opponents and the antiquated parliamentary procedure which renders it possible for a handful of obstructionists to block any private members measure unless the government will come to its aid knew that the women's enfranchisement bill stood in a very precarious position. The question which occupied the first place on the day for which our own measure had been set down was a simple practically non contentious little bill the object of which was to provide that carts traveling along public roads by night should carry a light behind as well as before. We had spent weeks in bringing all possible pressure to bear both upon the promoters of the roadway lighting bill that they might withdraw their measure and upon the conservative government in the hope that they would give special facilities for the further discussion of the bill. In both directions we met with a refusal but we would not give up hope. Finally on the very day of the second reading when the anti-suffragists as we had already foreseen would be the case were amusing themselves by spinning out the debate on the roadway lighting bill by pointless jokes and contemptible absurdities Mrs. Pankhurst sent a message to Mr. Balfour telling him that if facilities for the passing into law of the women's enfranchisement bill were not granted the women's social and political union would work actively against the government at the next general election. This message produced no apparent effect and from the meeting of the house at twelve o'clock until half past four in the afternoon the discussion upon the roadway lighting bill continued. Then only half an hour remained for our bill and this amid irresponsible laughter was talked out. The news of what was being done had gradually filtered into the lobby and the attitude of the assembled women had changed from one of pleased expectancy to anger and dismay. A feeling of tense excitement seemed to run through the gathering. Some of the faces were flushed and others white whilst many had tears in their eyes. Especially amongst the working women cooperators feeling was running high. These women were eagerly looking forward to the time when they would be able to take their parts side by side with men in settling the terrible social problems with which they were met on every hand. They bitterly resented the way in which they were being insulted by members of the House of Commons. They wanted to do something to express their feelings of disapproval and when the order for strangers to leave the House was given many of them seemed disinclined to go. Then some of the women who had been listening to the debate from behind the grill in the ladies gallery came down into the lobby and told us that a strange man in the adjoining gallery had suddenly sprung up to protest against the way in which our question was being talked out. He had been thrown out of the House by the police and was now at the entrance to the lobby. This piece of news created a diversion. The women flocked out to thank him. It was not until afterwards that we or they learned that the man was one of the unemployed bootmakers who had marched up from Leicester and that he had not made his protest in our favor, but because he saw that the House was wasting hour after hour in laughing and joking though the government had assured him that it had no time to attend to the grievances of starving men. My mother now suggested that a meeting of protest should be held outside and Mrs. Wolston Holm-Elmi, the oldest worker in the suffrage movement present, began to speak. The women crowded round to listen, but almost at once the police ordered us away and began striding in and out amongst us and pushing us apart. We thereupon moved to the foot of the Richard I statue which stands just outside the door of the House of Lords, but again the police intervened till at last after much argument the inspector of police offered to take us to a place where a meeting might be held. Mrs. Pankhurst then called upon Mrs. Martel as an Australian woman voter to lead us and joined by a single member of parliament, Mr. Keir Hardy, we marched with the police to broad sanctuary close to the gates of Westminster Abbey. Here we adopted a resolution condemning the procedure of the House of Commons which had made it possible for a small minority of opponents to prevent a vote being taken upon the women's enfranchisement bill calling upon the government to rescue it now and carry it into law. The meeting then dispersed vowing political vengeance upon the government if this should not be done. It will be remembered that during the summer of 1905 it was evident to the most casual observer that the resignation of the Conservative government could not be long delayed. Mr. Chamberlain's tariff reform proposals were causing dissent in the cabinet and the resignation of several ministers had already taken place. The South African War had brought a measure of overwhelmingly enthusiastic support to the Conservative government but, as almost always happens in such cases, a reaction had set in now that the war taxes had to be met. At the same time there was grave depression in the cotton trade and consequent distress in the industrial districts. In order to cope with the trouble Mr. Walter Long, on behalf of the government, had introduced a bill to provide relief work for the unemployed. This had met with serious opposition from his own party and it had been subsequently announced that no further time could be found for the discussion of the measure. At this point the dispute which had arisen between the Scottish Free Church and the United Free Church of Scotland had become acute and on June 7th Mr. Balfour had introduced the Scottish Churches Bill which was hurried through its various stages and finally passed on July 26th. It was urged that the new government ought not to have brought forward this new measure was the unemployed workman bill to which they were already committed had been set aside for lack of time. But Mr. Balfour excused himself by protesting that he had been obliged to carry the Scottish Churches Bill because a crisis had arisen. The unemployed and their leaders now stated that if Mr. Balfour needed a crisis to make him act they would certainly provide him with a crisis. An uprising on a small scale accordingly took place in Manchester in the course of which the unemployed in spite of police prohibition persisted in holding a meeting in Albert Square. Afterwards they marched in an irregular mass along market streets spreading all over the roadway and obstructing the traffic. A struggle with the police ensued during which four men were arrested. The question of the Manchester riot as it was called was at once raised by Mr. Keir Hardy as a matter of urgency in the House of Commons and as a result it was hastily carried through its remaining stages though in a modified form. We of the women's social and political union had been much interested by the situation that had arisen both in regard to the unemployed and the Scottish Churches and we determined to profit by the example of those who by determined and decisive action had secured a certain measure of consideration for their claims. It was only a question now of how much longer militant tactics were to be delayed and as to how they were regulated. A favourable opportunity for their dramatic commencement had not yet presented itself but there was plenty of necessary propaganda work for the women's social and political union to do. One Sunday evening in June Mrs. Pankhurst had been invited to speak on women's suffrage to a meeting held under the auspices of the Oldham Independent Labour Party. During the proceedings Glees were sung by a choir of men and women caught in operatives and one of the members was Annie Kenny who was afterwards to take so prominent a part in the votes for women movement. Annie Kenny was deeply impressed by all that Mrs. Pankhurst had to say and shortly afterwards when my sister Christabel also lectured in Oldham she asked to be introduced to her. Christabel then asked her to pay a visit to our home in Manchester and the friendship which was to have such far reaching results began. Annie Kenny was born at Lees near Oldham. She was the child of working class parents and to supplement her father's earnings her mother in addition to all her household cares had been obliged to go out to work in a cotton mill most of her married life. Annie Kenny herself had early become a wage earner for at ten years of age she secured an engagement as a half-timer in one of the Oldham cotton factories. Then wearing her heavy steel tipped clogs her fair hair hanging down her back in a long plate covered by straw she had gone into the hot crowded spinning mill and working amid the noisy jarring of the machinery as a little tenter at the disposal of three older women she had learnt to fit into place the big bobbins covered with fleecy strands of soft raw cotton and to piece these same fleecy strands when they broke as they did so often whilst they were being spun out thinner and stronger. Once as she sees the broken thread in her tiny fingers one of them was caught somehow and torn off into whirling bobbins. Whilst she was still a half-timer she worked alternately one week from six o'clock in the morning till midday in the mill and during the afternoon at the elementary school and the next week she spent the morning at school and four hours of the afternoon in the mill. At thirteen her school days had ceased and she had become a full timer working in the mill from six o'clock in the morning till six at night. The first shift of wage earners had left its mark upon Annie Kenny. Her features had been sharpened by it and her eager face that clutched so easily was far more deeply lined than are the faces of girls whose childhood has been prolonged. Those wide, wide eyes of hers so wonderfully blue, though at rare moments they could dance in sparkle like a fountain in the sunshine, were more often filled with pain, anxiety and foreboding or with a longing restless woman. A member of a very large family, Annie had four sisters. Nelly, Kitty, Jenny and Jesse who came nearest her in age and had been her companions in the cotton mill. In spite of the fact that they were constantly obliged to rise at four or five in the morning in order to reach the factory gates at six o'clock and on returning home were obliged first to help to do the housework and prepare the evening meal for the rest of the family, these girls were in the cotton mill and they regularly attended the Oldham night schools. At the time when we first met Annie, Nelly and Kitty, the two eldest of the sisters had both worked their way out of the cotton mill. Nelly had become a shop assistant and had soon proved herself so able that she had been put in charge of two of her employer's shops whilst Kitty had passed the necessary examinations and had obtained a post as an elementary school teacher and Jenny, though still in the mill Jesse, who was but sixteen, was learning typewriting and shorthand. Annie, who was then twenty-five, was unlike her sisters in many ways. She frequently said that she was not so clever as her sisters, but when any decisive step was to be taken or any question of principle to be decided, it was always Annie who took the lead. There is not much that is beautiful in a small, Lancashire manufacturing town, but what little there was, Annie, Kenny, contrived like the most of. She was a regular attendant at the church and delighted in the beauty of the music. The wit-suntide processions in which she walked with the other Sunday school children all in their white dresses being vivid memories with her still. She early commenced to carry on a literary campaign amongst her workmates and having come across a copy of the Penny Weekly paper The Clarion, in which Robert Blatchford was publishing a series of articles on his favorite books, contrived the works which were there mentioned and introduced them to her companions. On the few holidays which fall to the lot of the cotton worker or when the mills were stopped owing to bad trade, Annie, Kenny and her sisters and some of their favorite workmates would put together a simple luncheon and set off roaming for miles across the moors. The grass and the trees might be blackened with the smoke of the factories, the sight of whose tall chimneys the girls could never leave behind, but, blighted as it was, it was the only country that Annie had ever known and it was all beautiful to her. When they had walked till they were tired the girls would lie down on the grass and then they would read to each other in turn and Annie would talk to them about the flowers and the sky. Just as she was intensely alive to all that was beautiful so too Annie, Kenny realized keenly the ugly and sordid side of life. When speaking of her early days to a conference of women in Germany in 1908 she said I grew up in the midst of women and girls in the works and I saw the hard lives of the women and children about me. I noticed the great difference made in the treatment of men and women in the factory differences in conditions, differences in wages and differences in status. I realized this difference not in the factory alone but in the home. I saw men, women, boys and girls all working hard during the day in the same hot, stifling factories. Then when work was over I noticed that it was the mothers who hurried home, who fetched the children that had been put out to nurse, prepared the tea for the husband, did the cleaning, baking, washing, sewing and nursing. I noticed that when the husband came home his day's work was over. He took his tea and then went to join his friends in the club or in the public house or on the cricket or football field and I used to ask myself why this was so. Why was the mother the drudge of the family and not the father's companion and equal? From the first we found Annie ready with excellent ideas for spreading our propaganda. In Lancashire every little town and village has its wakes week. The wakes being a sort of fair at which there are merry-go-rounds, coconut shies and numberless booths and stalls where human and animal monstrosities are shown and all kinds of things are sold. In every separate town or village the wakes is held at a different date so that within a radius of a few miles one or other of these fairs is going on all through the summer and autumn. Annie told us that on the Sunday before the wakes almost all the inhabitants of the place go down to the wakes ground and walk amongst the booths and that Salvation Army and other preachers, temperance orators, the vendors of quack medicines and others sees this opportunity of addressing the crowds. She suggested that we should follow their example. We readily agreed and all through that summer and autumn we held these meetings going from Staley Bridge to Royton, Mosley, Oldham, Lees where Annie lived and to a dozen other towns. Footnotes Note 1 When the school boards were abolished Mrs. Pankhurst became the trades council representative on the education committee. Note 2 In Booze's classic book Life and Labour in London the result of a canvas of the then 186,982 women occupiers shows that of that number 94,940 were wage earners who were divided into the following categories Char Women Office Keepers Laundresses Dressmakers and Milleners 14,361 Shirt and Blousemakers Seamstresses 6,525 Waitresses, Matrons, etc. 5,595 Tailresses 4,443 Lodging and Coffee House Keepers 4,226 Medical Women Nurses Midwives 3,971 Teachers 2,198 On the basis of Booze's figures Mrs. Clara Collett, the government's director for women's industries writing in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society for September 1908 estimated that the women occupiers of London might be divided as follows Occupied women who work out, 51% Housewives without servants 38% Housewives with one servant 5% Housewives with two or more servants 6% Note 3 The first place is useless if the government and the speaker are hostile End of Chapter 1 Chapter 2 of The Suffragette The History of the Woman's Militant Suffrage Movement by E. Sylvia Pankhurst This LibriVox recording is in the public domain 2. The Beginning of the Militant Tactics Arrest and Imprisonment of Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney October 1905 Whilst the educational propaganda work of the woman's social and political union was being quietly carried on stirring events were in preparation The resignation of the conservative government was daily expected The Liberal leaders were preparing themselves to take office and every newspaper in the country was discussing who the new ministers were to be A stir of excitement was spreading all over the country and now the organizers of the Liberal Party decided to hold a great revival meeting in that historic Manchester Free Trade Hall which stands upon the site of the old franchise battle of Peterloo The meeting was fixed for October 13th and here it was determined that the old fighting spirit of the radical should be revived The principles and policy of Liberalism should be proclaimed anew and upon the strength of those principles and of that policy the people should be called upon to support the incoming government with voice and vote The evening of the 13th came the great hall was filled to overflowing with an audience mainly composed of enthusiastic Liberals for the meeting was almost entirely a ticket one and the tickets had been circulated amongst the Liberal associations throughout the length and breadth of Lancashire The organ played victorious music and then the Liberal men whose party had been out of office for so long and who now sought coming into power rose to their feet and cheered excitedly as their leaders came into the hall After a few brief words from the chairman words in which he struck a note of triumphant confidence in the approaching Liberal victory, Sir Edward Gray was called upon to speak The future cabinet minister in a speech full of fine sentiments and glowing promises named all the various great reforms that the Liberal Government would introduce and appealed to the people to give the Liberal party its confidence and to return a Liberal ministry to power Whilst he was speaking Sir Edward Gray was interrupted by a man who asked him what the Government proposed to do for the unemployed Sir Edward paused with ready courtesy to listen Somebody said the unemployed He explained to the audience Well, I will come to that and he did so saying that this important question would certainly be dealt with Then he came to his pareration He spoke of the difficulties of administration difficulties which were especially great at the present time We ask for the Liberal party he said The same chance as the Conservative party has had for nearly twenty years There is no hope in the present men but there is hope in new men It is to new men with fresh minds untrammeled by prejudice and quickened by sympathy and who are vigorous and true that I believe that the country will turn with hope What I ask for them is generous support and a fair chance The thunder of applause that greeted his final words had scarcely died away when, as if in answer to Sir Edward Gray's appeal and promise, a little white cotton banner inscribed with the words Votes for women was put up in the centre of the hall and a woman was heard asking what the Government would do to make the woman politically free Almost simultaneously two or three men were upon their feet demanding information upon other questions The men were at once replied to but the woman's question was ignored She therefore stood up again and pressed for an answer to her question but the men sitting near her forced her down into her seat and one of the stewards of the meeting held his hat over her face Meanwhile the hall was filled with a babble of conflicting sounds Shouts of Sit down Be quiet What's the matter and let the lady speak were heard on every hand As the noise subsided a little a second woman sitting beside the first again Will the Liberal Government give women the vote But Sir Edward Gray made no answer and again arose the tumult of cries and counter-cries Then the chief constable of Manchester, Mr William Peacock came down from the platform to where the women were sitting and asked them to write out the question that they had put to Sir Edward Gray saying that he would himself take it to the chairman and make sure that it received a reply The women agreed to this suggestion and who had first spoken now wrote Will the Liberal Government give votes to working women signed on behalf of the women's social and political union, Annie Kenny member of the Oldham Committee of the Card and Blowing Room Operatives To this she added that as one of the 96,000 organised women cotton workers and for their sake she earnestly desired an answer Mr Peacock took the paper on which the question had been written back to the platform and handed it to Sir Edward Gray who having read it smiled and passed it to the chairman from whom it went the round of every speaker in turn Then it was laid aside and no answer was returned to it A lady sitting on the platform who had noticed and understood all that was going on now tried to intervene Note 4 May I as a woman be allowed to speak she began but the chairman called on Lord Durham to move a vote of thanks to Sir Edward Gray This vote had been seconded by Mr Winston Churchill and when it had afterwards been carried Sir Edward Gray rose to reply But he made no reference either to the enfranchisement of women or to the question which had been put Then followed the carrying of a vote of thanks to the chair and by this time the meeting showed signs of breaking up Some of the audience had left the hall and some of the people on the platform were preparing to go The woman's question still remained unanswered and seemed in danger of being forgotten by everyone concerned But the two women were anxiously awaiting a reply and the one who had first spoken now rose again and this time she stood up upon her seat and called out as loudly as she could Will the liberal government give working women the vote? At once the audience became a seething infuriated mob Thousands of angry men were upon their feet shouting, gesticulating and crying out upon the woman who began dare to disturb their meeting She stood there above them all a little slender fragile figure She had taken off her hat and her soft loosely flowing hair gave her a childish look Her cheeks were flushed and her blue eyes blazing with earnestness It was Annie Kenny the mill girl who had gone to work in an Oldham Cotton factory as a little half-timer at ten years of age A working woman, the child of a working woman whose life had been passed among the workers she stood there now feeling herself to be the representative of thousands of struggling women and in their name she asked for justice But the liberal leaders who had spoken so glibly of sympathy for the poor and needy were silent now when one stood there asking for justice and their followers who had listened so eagerly and applauded with so much enthusiasm speeches filled with the praise of liberty and equality were thinking now of nothing but liberal victories They howled at her fiercely and numbers of liberal stewards came hurrying to drag her down Then Christabel Pankhurst her companions started up and put one arm around Annie Kenny's waist and with the other warded off their blows and as she did so they scratched and tore her hands until the blood ran down on Annie's hat that lay upon the seat and stained it red whilst she still called the question, the question answer the question So holding together these two women fought for votes as their forefathers had done upon the side of Peter Lu At last six men liberal stewards and policemen in plain clothes seized Christabel Pankhurst and dragged her away down the central aisle and past the platform then others followed bringing Annie Kenny after her As they were forced along the women still looked up and called for an answer to their question and still the liberal leaders on the platform apparently unmoved and never said a word As they saw the women dragged away the men in the front seats the ticket holders from the liberal clubs shouted throw them out but from the free seats at the back the people answered shame Having been flung out into the street the two women decided to hold an indignation meeting there and so at the corner of Peter Street and South Street close to the hall they began to speak but within a few minutes they were arrested and followed by hundreds of men and women were dragged to the town hall Here they were both charged with obstruction and Christabel Pankhurst was also accused of assaulting the police They were summoned to attend the police court in Minshal Street next morning Meanwhile as soon as the women had been thrown out of the hall there came a revulsion of feeling in their favor and the greater part of the meeting broke up in disorder believing that some explanation was expected of him Sir Edward Gray now said that he regretted the disturbance which had taken place I am not sure, he continued that unwittingly and in innocence I have not been a contributing cause As far as I can understand the trouble arose from a desire to know my opinion on the subject of women's suffrage That is a question which I would not deal with here tonight because it is not and I do not think it is likely to be a party question I have already given his opinion upon votes for women and that as he did not think it a fitting subject for this evening he would not repeat it Thus within a few days of the 40th anniversary of the formation of the first women's suffrage society perhaps even upon that very anniversary and after 40 years of persevering labor for this cause Sir Edward Gray announced that women's suffrage was as yet far outside the realm of practical politics and the two women who had dared to upon this subject were flung with violence and insult from the hall The next morning the police court was crowded with people eager to hear the trial The two girls refused to dispute the police evidence as to the charges of assault and obstruction and based their defense solely upon the principle that their conduct was justified by the importance of the question upon which they had endeavored to secure a pronouncement and by the outrageous treatment which they had received the violence to which they had been subjected and exaggerating the disturbance which they had made the council for the prosecution had dwelt at length upon the scene in the free trade hall the women were not allowed to refer to it and though it was evident that before what had taken place in the meeting they would not have been arrested for speaking in the street they were ordered to confine their remarks to what had taken place after they had been ejected Both defendants were found guilty Cristabel Pankhurst being ordered to pay the fines or go to prison for seven days and Annie Kenny being fined five shellings with the alternative of three days imprisonment They both refused to pay the fines and were immediately hurried away to the cells Now the whole country rang with the story In Manchester especially the news created tremendous excitement The father of one of the prisoners was as we have seen a Manchester man Dr. Pankhurst's remarkable ability and learning his wonderful eloquence his wide range of interests and the number of causes in which he had taken a foremost part had secured for him an unusually large amount of public recognition Note 5 There was scarcely a man or a woman in the city to whom he was not a familiar figure Moreover his fascinating personality and his well-known tenderness of heart illustrated as it was by thousands of kindly acts as well as by his long life of service and sacrifice for the public good had endeared him to many of his strongest political opponents Whatever bitterness may have been aroused against him by his strenuous advocacy of advanced and frequently unpopular causes had disappeared when the news of his sudden death which took place in the midst of a legal case that he was conducting on behalf of the Manchester Corporation had become known and public sympathy had gone generously forth to Mrs. Pankhurst in her tragic homecoming when she had read of her great loss in the evening papers in the train Mrs. Pankhurst by her work on public bodies was also known, of course and Christabel Pankhurst herself had recently attracted notice because having wished to follow her father's profession she had applied to the benches of Lincoln's Inn for admission to the bar Her application had been refused on the ground of her sex as had also a request to be heard by the benches in support of her claim but she had not abandoned her endeavours to secure the opening of this avenue of employment to women and she was now a law student at the Victoria University of Manchester Votes for women in those days was regarded by the majority of sober level-headed men as a ladies fad which would never come to anything and the idea that it could ever be a question upon which governments would stand or fall or be associated with persecution writing and imprisonment had been a like unthinkable to them therefore for many reasons this trial and imprisonment came as a tremendous to the general public of Manchester questions addressed to political speakers by men in the audience both during and at the close of the speeches were as everyone knew the invariable accompaniment of every public political meeting in this country these questions were almost always replied to when dissatisfied with the answer the interrogators frequently began a running commentary of disapproval which sometimes terminated in their ejection but not until they had become a source of general disturbance to the meeting these facts were of course a matter of common knowledge but the newspapers now ignored them and treated the questioning of Sir Edward Gray in the manner adopted by the two women in the free trade hall as an absolutely new and entirely reprehensible departure they were all agreed that such behavior would inevitably injure the women's suffrage cause of which though they had hitherto boycotted it most of them now implied that they were supporters extracts from two newspapers are enough to convey the attitude which in varying degrees of severity was adopted by them all the evening standard the magistrates were lenient in inflicting a small fine if Miss Pankhurst desires to go to jail rather than pay the money let her go our only regret is that the discipline will be identical with that experienced by mature and sensible women and not that which falls to the lot of children in the nursery the Birmingham Daily Mail if any argument were required against giving to ladies political status and power it has been furnished in Manchester and by two of the people who are most strenuously clamoring for the franchise the reason why the press as a whole was against the women was of course because every great newspaper in this country is a special pleader for one or other of the two great political parties the liberals and the conservatives and both these parties looked upon the question which the women were striving to urge forward as something of a nuisance unfortunately vast numbers of people instead of examining into and thinking out a thing for themselves begin at any rate by allowing their opinions to be formed for them by the particular newspapers which they happen to read therefore some people at once made up their minds that the women were entirely in the wrong because the paper said so others with strange obliquity of vision because they did not like the idea of women mixing themselves up in scenes of violence found it easier to disapprove of the women who had been ill-used than of those who had ill-used them besides the unthinking ones there were also many who had become so much inflamed by party spirit that their sole idea was to whitewash and bolster up the liberal leaders and to cast a slur upon the character of any who had dared to turn too fierce a light upon their faults and weaknesses but with all this the imprisoned women were not friendless and though for the time being stone walls and iron bars might prevent their speaking there were those outside who were determined to defend and uphold them and to turn what they had done to good the women's social and political union at once published a statement explaining that in view of the approaching general election the intentions of the liberal leaders with regard to women's suffrage had been recognized to be of immense importance and Sir Edward Gray had therefore been asked to receive a deputation of members of the union in which the questions it was desired that he should answer were clearly stated no reply or acknowledgement of this request had been received and it had there upon been decided that two delegates from the union should attend the free trade hall meeting to question Sir Edward Gray many who witnessed the scene in the free trade hall wrote to the newspapers expressing their sympathy with the women a sympathizer apologized for having helped to shout the women down saying that he would never have done so had he realized what was really taking place on first reading the accounts Mr. Keir Hardy the only member of parliament to come forward in support of the prisoners telegraphed the thing is a dastard layout rage but do not worry it will do immense good to the cause can I do anything Sir Edward Gray's wife Lady Gray made no public statement but she told her friends that she considered justified in the means they had adopted of forcing their question forward what else could they do she asked whilst Mr. Winston Churchill fearing probably that his approaching candidature in Manchester might be damaged by the imprisonment of the women visited strange ways jail and offered to pay their fines but the governor refused to accept the money from him on Friday October 20th a crowded demonstration was held to welcome the ex-prisoners in the free trade hall they had been flung out with ignominy but a week before and now as they entered the audience rose with raised hats and waving handkerchiefs and greeted them with cheers Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Canny did not speak of their imprisonment we knew that they had been treated as belonging to the third and lowest class of criminals and that they had been dressed in the prison clothes fed on skilly and brown bread and kept in solitary confinement in a narrow cell both day and night that they had attended services with the other prisoners in the chapel and with them had gone out to exercise in the prison yard that they had performed the daily routine of prison tasks and losing their own names had answered only to the number of their cell these things we know but they refused to speak of them then wishing that all attention should be concentrated upon the cause of the enfranchisement of women for which they had been willing to endure all but in spite of their own silence we have one picture of Christabel during that first imprisonment it was brought out to us by one of the visiting justices a friend of her father who in the hope of inducing her to allow her fine to be paid had gone in to see her in the prison cell he found her clad and strangely made coarse surged garments with large heavy shoes upon her feet and with a white cap framing her rosy face and partly covering her soft brown hair seated on a wooden stool she was working away at her allotted task the making of a shirt for one of the men prisoners her dinner consisting of two or three small sodden looking unpeeled potatoes and a chunk of coarse brown bread was lying beside her and she was taking a bite of the bread every now and then don't you think you're a very silly girl to sit here eating brown bread and potatoes and sewing that shirt when you might be freely doing what you please outside the justice asked her but she smiled up at him brightly oh no she said I always liked brown bread fresh and bright and full of cheer as she had been in herself though more serious she was now as she stood on the free trade hall platform to make her speech when she began to tell the meeting of the disturbance which had taken place upon the previous Friday there were some cries of protest from liberals who disagreed with her but she stopped them saying I am sure you want to hear my side of the story and when she had finished resolutions calling for the immediate extension of the franchise to women commending the bravery of the released prisoner's action and condemning the behavior of those who had refused to answer their question were carried with tremendous enthusiasm Dr. Pankhurst biographical note in addition to his activities for women's suffrage and indeed for all questions affecting the welfare of women which have already been referred to Dr. Pankhurst had taken an important part in many other reform movements he had been one of the most distinguished of the students of Owens College which paved the way for and became incorporated with the newer Victoria University of Manchester having studied at Owens he had taken his BA degree at the London University in 1858 his LLB with honors and principles of legislation in 1859 and LLD with the gold medal in 1863 called to the bar in Lincoln's Inn in 1867 he had joined the northern circuit and became a member of the bar of the County Palatine and the Lancaster Chance Recourt he had been honorary secretary to the Union of Lancashire and Cheshire Institutes from 1863 to 1876 in which years he had labored zealously in the promotion of education devoting much time to visiting the various mechanics institutes which largely owing to his work were beginning to spring up as the forerunners of the technical schools and municipal evening classes of today teaching and addressing the students questions and enlisting public sympathy in this important work later when in 1893 the subject of citizenship had owing primarily to his influence been made a part of the teaching of the evening continuation schools in Manchester Dr. Pankhurst had issued a scheme of political studies in the form of an outline of political and social theory and in 1894 he had delivered a series of addresses on the life and duties of citizenship which were afterwards published in 1882 he had become a member of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce and was recognized to be an authority upon many commercial questions he was one of the earliest and most active workers of the social science association which did so much to educate public opinion upon many questions affecting the welfare of women and the community in general Dr. Pankhurst had also been the author of many important papers on the patent laws of courts and tribunals, international law the study of jurisprudence and other subjects he had interested himself greatly in public health and the general field of sanitation and had been concerned in many public inquiries in regard to this matter he had been a life member of the association for the reform and codification of the law of nations and had laid before that body a scheme of international arbitration as a substitute for war a principle for which he had for many years strenuously contented he had three times been a candidate for parliament having contested Manchester in 1883 rather high than 1885 and Gorton in 1895 but because admittedly he was too fearlessly honest and outspoken he had on each occasion failed to secure election even by his bitterest political opponents he was respected for it was a matter of common knowledge that for the sake of his principles he had over and over again sacrificed material advancement he had begun life as an advanced radical having been a friend of John Stuart Mill also of Ernest Jones and other well-known chartists so long ago as 1873 he had been a pronounced home ruler he had been a member of the executive of the national reform union and the declaration of principles which he had issued in his candidature of 1883 has been ascribed as a third charter in itself by his fearless championship of their interests and his sympathy for them in time of trouble he had especially endeared himself to the working people so early as the days of George Odger and other leaders of the labour cause he had taken part in a movement which resulted in the recasting of the labour laws he had acted as arbitrator for the men in many cases of trade dispute whilst taking an active part in the effort to secure both the later extensions of the franchise which took place in 1867 and 1884 Dr. Panker has had as we have seen done all he could to get women included under them footnotes note 4 she had no connection with the two women and no previous knowledge that the question was to be put note 5 see biographical note at the end of this chapter end of chapter 2 chapter 3 of the suffragette women's militant suffrage movement by E. Sylvia Pankhurst this Libra box recording is in the public domain 3 the general election of 1906 after the inauguration of the militant tactics on October 13 we determined not to let the matter rest until we had obtained a definite pledge that the incoming liberal government would give votes to women on December 4th came the long expected resignation of Mr. Balfour and the king then called upon Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman the Liberal leader to form an administration it was now announced that a great demonstration should be held on December 21 in the Royal Albert Hall at which surrounded by every member of his cabinet Sir Henry should make his first public utterance as Prime Minister the importance of raising our question at this meeting was of course apparent and we at once endeavored to procure tickets of admission but even so early in the fight as this the liberals did not scruple to refuse tickets to women who might be going to ask awkward questions on one occasion just as two tickets were about to be delivered over to me I was accused of having questioned Mr. Asquith at a meeting in the Queen's Hall and though I had really not been present at that meeting I was obliged to go away empty handed I had been mistaken for Annie Kenny who had come to London to attend both the Queen's Hall and the Albert Hall meetings we both of us thought the incident most absurd for we do not in any way resemble each other but it put us on our guard and when on the very morning of the Albert Hall meeting a friend set me three tickets we made up our minds that this should not be rendered useless by those who presented them being turned away at the doors I had been twice interviewed in two different sets of clothes by the liberal officials who had eventually refused me the tickets and Annie herself had been paraded before a row of stewards it was therefore clear that if either of us went to the meeting we must go disguised we decided at last that the three tickets should be used by Teresa Billington who had recently joined the Union and was coming from Manchester for the meeting by Annie herself and by a working woman from the East End a recent convert nevertheless we intended first to give the Prime Minister a chance to answer fairly so that no disturbance need be made shortly before the meeting therefore Annie Kenny dispatched by Express Messenger a letter to Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman on behalf of our Union asking him whether the new government would give women the vote and stating that she should be in the hall that night in the hope that this important question would be answered without delay if this were not done she added that she should feel bound to rise in her place and make a protest the next thing to do was to disguise Annie we understood that most of the ladies would wear evening gowns to show as little of her face, neck and hair as possible so after dressing her up in a light cream colored frock we added a fur coat and a thick dark veil she told us afterwards that she felt very hot in these clothes which she was afraid to remove but with the little East End convert walking closely behind her as made she was allowed by the scrutineers to pass into a private box which she afterwards found had been specially set apart for the use of Mr. John Burns family and friends the immense brilliantly lighted hall was filled from floor to ceiling the platform was gaily decorated with flowers as the prime minister began to speak Annie Kenny sat anxiously awaiting his answer and at last as he did not give it she rose up suddenly and hanging over the edge of the box a little white calico banner with the words VOTES FOR WOMEN painted upon it in black letters she called out in a loud, clear voice will the liberal government give women the vote immediately afterwards came an answering cry from the opposite end of the hall and Teresa Billington let down from the orchestra above the platform a great banner nine feet in length inscribed in black with the words will the liberal government give justice to working women for a moment there was a hush whilst the people waited for the prime minister's answer but he and his cabinet remained silent then the whole vast audience broke into a tumultuous conflicting uproar in the midst of which the chairman vainly called for order the organ played to drown the women's questions and the women were flung out of the hall the next day we returned to Manchester for Christmas to find that Christabel was already planning a general election campaign and all through the holidays whilst cabinet ministers were resting from their labors we were busy making white calico banners and inscribing them in black letters with the fateful words VOTES FOR WOMEN liberal government give women the vote we had no longer a doubt either that the new liberal government was hostile to our cause or that it was our duty to fight them until they were ready to capitulate or to retire from office had it been possible we should have opposed the election of every candidate running under their auspices but as we had neither the funds nor the membership for so extensive a work we decided to carry out a definite election campaign against one member of the government Mr. Winston Churchill Mr. Churchill was selected not for any personal feeling against him but because he was the most important of the liberal candidates who were standing for constituencies with an easy reach of our home on the opening night of the campaign Mr. Churchill had arranged to hold several meetings and halls in different parts of his constituency and as the intentions of the women's social and political union were now well known considerable excitement and expectancy prevailed the first meeting was held in a school at Cheatham Hill there were a number of doors to the meeting room one opening in the middle of a side wall and communicating with a passage leading from the main entrance to the building another, a big emergency exit at the back of the room farthest from the platform and several others on each side of the platform opening into classrooms and anti-rooms the first of these doors was the one by which the audience came in no tickets were needed and the solitary suffragette who presented herself was able to walk quietly and unnoticed and to take a seat in the middle of the room if her heart beat so loud that it seemed that I must hear it if she felt sick and faint with suspense no one knew the whole audience was eagerly looking for the lady suffragists a party of women in a little gallery above the door attracted considerable attention those are the suffragists look up there was whispered from all quarters a man who sat next to the unrecognized suffragette fixed his gaze upon these ladies and turning to his companion said that is Miss Pankhurst she has aged very much since I saw her last the ladies have got their eyes on us they will begin putting their questions soon the hall filled up rapidly and at last became so densely crowded that owing to the press of people the emergency doors at the back of the hall were burst open and a large crowd collected outside Mr. Churchill was late and during the chairman's remarks and the speeches that followed little attention was paid to what was being said for everyone was waiting for what was to happen next at last Mr. Winston Churchill came in he spoke of the unsatisfactory behavior of the late government the will of the people he declared had been ignored but now he said we have got your chance yes we have got our chance and we mean to use it will the liberal government give women the vote? the reply came prompt and sharp as a pistol shot it was a woman's voice and there was a woman standing up with a little white banner in her hand there was a moment's breathless waiting for Mr. Churchill's answer which did not come and then the usual uproar burst forth the man who knew Miss Pankhurst snatched the banner from the suffragette but it was evident that sitting around her were many unknown friends for some time it was impossible to proceed with the meeting whilst the noise was at its height the interrupter sat down and waited then as soon as quiet was restored and Mr. Churchill attempted to continue his speech without replying she again got up and pressed for an answer to her question the chairman endeavored to induce Mr. Churchill to give an answer but without success the stewards threatened to throw the woman out but were afraid to do so because many of the men showed that they were prepared to fight for her and in any case the meeting was so crowded that it would have been difficult to get her through the press of people the woman asking for votes seemed unlikely to have the best of it for once someone suggested that if Mr. Churchill would only answer or if the men in the audience would not get so very much excited things might go better but the advice was unheeded at last the chairman announced that if the lady would promise to be quiet afterwards she should speak from the platform for five minutes to this she was not disposed to agree but went up to the foot of the platform to explain that all she wanted was an answer to her question speaking directly to Mr. Churchill she said don't you understand what it is I want but hiding his face with a quick impatient movement of his arm he answered clearly get away I won't have anything to do with you then the chairman appealed to her you had better come up to the platform he said we can hear you then as it is half the people in the meeting do not know what all the fuss is about she consented and for the next five minutes tried to make her explanation but the enthusiastic liberals of the three front rows set up the wildest tumult of shouts and yells in order to drown her words when the five minutes were over the woman turned to go but Mr. Churchill seized her roughly by the arm and forced her to sit down in a chair at the back of the platform saying no you must wait here till you have heard what I have to say then turning to the audience he began complaining of the way in which the women were treating him and concluded nothing would induce me to vote for giving women the franchise and I am not going to be infect into a question of such grave importance as he finished this declaration of hostility the men on the platform rose as if by prearranged agreement and the woman questioner stood up also wishing to leave instantly two men hurried to the side of the platform where screened from the audience by a group of others they swung her roughly over the edge and dragged her into an anti room thinking that she was merely to be put outside she had made no resistance but now one of the men went to find the key to lock her in whilst the other remained in the room standing with his back to the door as soon as they were alone he began to use the most violent language and calling her a cat gesticulated as though he would scratch her face with his hands knowing that the room was on the ground floor she ran to the window and threw it open only to find that it was barred she called to some people who were passing in the side streets saying I want you to be witnesses of anything that takes place in this room and they came running up and shouted to the man to behave himself and this became quieter and presently on a key being brought to him he locked the door and went away now some of those in the street discovered that one of the windows had no bars and they called to the prisoner to go and open it in order that they might help her to escape this was easily done and an indignation meeting was immediately held on a piece of waste ground nearby meanwhile Mr. Churchill was going on to his other meetings but he found a woman readily to question him at every one next day there were long columns in the Manchester papers dealing with these incidents whilst Mr. Churchill's angry assertion that he would not be henpecked drew forth innumerable jokes from the humorous writers a verse from one of these entitled the heckler and the henpecker with apologies to Lewis Carroll ran as follows the price of bread the heckler said is what we have to note answer it once who caused the war and who made Joseph's coat or the henpecker shrieked out will women have the vote I weep for you the heckler said I deeply sympathize we have asked a hundred questions and yet had no replies but here the henpecker spread out a flag of largest size day by day the warfare with Mr. Churchill continued a large proportion of the inhabitants of the district gradually becoming more and more completely converted to the woman's point of view and in some cases after violent scenes of disorder the entire audience got up and left the meeting to show their sympathy with them in our Manchester election campaign we did not confine ourselves however merely to questioning and heckling Mr. Churchill we also held numberless meetings of our own and distributed thousands of leaflets one day my brother Harry who was then 15 years of age suggested to us a scheme which though it involved some risk of prosecution we found irresistible accordingly in the small hours of the last two mornings before polling he and two of his school fellows set off with brush and paste can and some long narrow slips called fly posters with votes for women printed in black letters upon them whilst the other two boys kept a lookout for passing policemen Harry pasted these slips corner wise across Mr. Churchill's great red and white posters which appeared on every hoarding in the constituency just as the ordinary advertiser does when he wishes to bring out special points of attraction to heighten the public interest though Mr. Churchill won the election his majority was smaller than that of any of the other Manchester Liberal candidates one of the most active workers in the new militant campaign was Mrs. Flora Drummond a cheery rosy faced little woman a native of the island of Aaron as a girl Flora Gibson had been daring and high spirited a good swimmer Walker and the leader in all kinds of outdoor sports and games on leaving school she successfully passed all examinations for the position of postmistress but immediately afterwards the postmaster general raised the height standard for all postmasters and mistresses to 5 feet two inches the same standard being exacted both for men and women although the average height of men is of course greater than that of women Flora Gibson was only 5 feet one inch in height and as it had only a considerable sacrifice that her widowed mother had been able to pay for her education poor Flora was in despair but her father's relations agreed to pay the necessary fees for her to learn shorthand and typewriting she soon became exceedingly skilled and took a society of arts certificate shortly after this she married Mr. Drummond a journeyman upholsterer and removed to Manchester his native place soon after her marriage she was obliged to resume her typewriting because bad trade threw Mr. Drummond out of regular employment eventually she became manager of the Oliver typewriter company's office in Manchester she had joined the WSPU on hearing of the imprisonment of Annie Kenny and Christabel Pankhurst Mrs. Drummond was invaluable for the work of questioning cabinet ministers which was carried on continuously in spite of our Manchester election campaign when early in January 1906 he said that the Prime Minister was to speak at the Sun Hall Liverpool she and several other members of the union agreed to go over and question him Mr. Balfour who was then fighting a losing battle in the effort to retain his old seat in East Manchester had agreed to receive a deputation from our union nothing very important came of the interview though Mr. Balfour's reply was kindly and sympathetic but long before Mr. Balfour's hotel had been reached the deputation had discovered that they were followed by detectives as it had been arranged that some of the women should go straight on to Liverpool they made every attempt to shake off their pursuers proceeding first in one direction and then in another they were tracked all over Manchester and Liverpool until finally Christabel said goodbye to her companions and returned to Manchester then instead of breaking up into two parties the detectives all followed her whilst the other women in company with a number of Liverpool members of our union quietly made their way to the Sun Hall where nine of them subsequently questioned the Prime Minister and were all thrown out of the hall without receiving a reply after the first woman had been rejected Sir Campbell Bannerman said if I might have done so I could have calmed that ladies nerves by telling her that I am in favour of women's suffrage but this of course was no answer to the question as to whether the government was prepared to add franchise the women of the country on January 15th Mrs Drummond and a number of her friends in Glasgow attended a meeting of the Prime Ministers in the St Andrews Hall there Heckling is a regular institution in Scotland and the Glasgow women declared that they would certainly receive courteous replies on asking the usual question Mrs Drummond was at once flung out by the stewards and immediately afterwards one of her companions who had hitherto been a staunch liberal approached her with hat or re-indeshevelled clothing in bewilderment oh my they bit me out during these weeks questions were also put at several other meetings including that of Mr Askwith in the Sheffield Real Hall everywhere the women were ejected on January 25th one of the last big liberal meetings of the general election was held at Atronom in Cheshire Mr Lloyd George being the principal speaker the members of the WSPU who were present did not interrupt him during his speech but waited until he had finished before asking him the usual question Mr Lloyd George then said I was going to congratulate myself that I had escaped this however at the last meeting of the campaign the specter has appeared that was all and the women were quickly hauled out to prevent their again raising their voices so the general election ended and we were still left without that pledge from the liberal leaders which we had set ourselves to gain those of us who went through the campaign will be ever at a loss to understand the motives which led the liberal leaders to treat our first orderly and considerate questioning and even the later more persistent heckling as they did they obviously had neither the wish nor the intention of giving votes to women during their term of office and it was probably the fear of offending the ladies who canvassed for them that prevented their plainly saying so yet after all they were accustomed to parrying the questioning of men and it was surely unwise even from their own standpoint to deal so violently with women all that had been done by the new militant suffragists up to now had been merely the brilliant skirmishing of an intrepid and resourceful little band of enthusiasts driven to employ somewhat unconventional methods both by the old established custom of boycotting their cause and by the ruthless brutality of the forces that were arrayed against them their opponents called us a stage army and a family party and the designations were not inapt but the little stage army was always cleverly marshaled and its soldiers were as cheerfully and affectionately loyal to the mother of the movement and to the young general who had initiated the new tactics as though in reality they had all been members of a single family during the general election various attempts to press forward the question of women's suffrage had also been made by the non-militant suffragists Miss Llewellyn Davies and others had organized a joint manifesto on this question from a large number of societies these included amongst others the women's cooperative guilt with 20,700 members the women's liberal federation with 76,000 members and the Scottish women's liberal federation with 15,000 members the north of England weavers association with 100,000 the British women's temperance association with 109,890 members the independent labour party with 20,000 members and the Lancashire and Cheshire textile and other workers representation committee whose secretaries were Miss Eva Corbuth and Miss Sarah Dickinson the women's textile workers committee had also run Mr. Thorley Smith as a women's suffrage candidate for Wigan though Mr. Smith had not been elected a good fight had been made and a very credible vote secured the figures had been Powell, conservative 3,573 Smith, women's suffrage 2,205 Woods, liberal 1,900 End of chapter 3