To a man the politicians were surprised. “Who would have dreamt,” they said, “that women could be so selfish?” Though their candidate, Mr. Robert Smillie, had not been attacked, the Labour men were also discontented, for there were Labour women in the Women’s Social and Political Union, and they considered that these particular women ought to have been working directly for the Labour Party and not to have been subordinating its interests to the getting of votes for themselves. The Conservatives meanwhile said very little about the matter, for their candidate had won and having, therefore, no reason to be aggrieved, they contented themselves with declaring that a glorious victory had been won for the cause of Tariff Reform.
So much for the politicians. The Party-following Press, with scarcely an exception, had been unanimous from the very first in their hostility to the Women’s Social and Political Union and its methods. Now, as before, they either shook their heads at us, expressing sorrow and regret that we should place ourselves in opposition to the “forces of progress,” or merely professed amusement that we should be so foolish and conceited as to think that anything that we could say or do would influence elections.
Timid and half-hearted friends of the Suffrage movement also condemned the new by-election policy on the ground that it was unwise for women to thus oppose the Government that had the power, if it wished, to give them what they asked. All this, of course, was to be expected, and so was comparatively easy to meet — it is what every true reformer has had to face. But even amongst some of those who had been hitherto the warmest supporters of the Suffragettes and all that they had done, there was much heart-searching and heart-burning because of the independent by-election policy, and it was felt by these that a mistake was being made in thus holding aloof from Men’s party organisations and counting as nought the opinions of private Members of Parliament. The W. S. P. U. pointed out to them that a large majority of the private Members in the House of Commons had long been pledged to give their support to Women’s Suffrage but that these pledges had been useless. This was due in the first place to the fact that private Members had little power to carry their pledges into effect because practically all the time at the disposal of Parliament was taken up by the Government, and that, as had been done on the 29th of April, a few obstructionists could easily block the question unless the party in power were prepared to find further time for it. Besides this, private members had over and over again shown that they would willingly break the pledges they had made to women at the bidding of their party leaders.
But these explanations failed to reassure many faint-hearted doubters, for though they agreed that in theory the independent policy was well enough, they felt convinced that in practice it was doomed to fail. They freely admitted that the women, by their clever speeches and the undeniable justice of their cause, would be almost certain to convince the electors that they were in the right, but they urged that the British elector was a hard-headed individual, who could never be induced to throw aside his party politics and to cast his vote on this one issue alone, especially as this issue was a women’s question that did not directly affect him.
So these critics agreed that the policy would “be possible with an electorate of heroes, but not with average men.” For this reason it must fail.
But in spite of these gloqmy predictions the Women’s Social and Political Union held to its course, and did not swerve one hair’s-breadth from the plan of campaign that it had laid down.
An Anti-Government election policy has frequently been employed by men politicians; notably by the Irish under Parnell. In the course of the agitation for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts, Mrs. Josephine Butler and her colleagues fought the Government at many by-elections, but with that exception an Anti-Government by-election policy had never been adopted by women. In following it out now, when many members, even of our own Committee doubted its wisdom, and few were really enthusiastic in its favour, Christabel Pankhurst, its originator in this case, gave evidence of that keen political insight and that indomitable courage and determination which are so essential to real leadership, and which have since enabled her to steer the Suffragette ship through so many dangerous shoals and quicksands.
On August 14th the three Suffragettes, “Mr. Asquith’s Prisoners,” as they had been called, were released from Holloway. They were all cheerfully and bravely uncomplaining. Mrs. Knight and Annie Kenney were both white and feeble-looking but only spoke of their anxiety to be of service to the cause, whilst Mrs. Sparborough, though she had got rheumatism through being made to scrub the stone floor of her cell without a kneeler, made light of the imprisonment, saying that she had felt peaceful and happy and had sung hymns to herself to drive her loneliness away.
And now great meetings of welcome to the prisoners were being held in London and Provincial campaigns were being organised in various parts of the country. Everywhere that the fiery torch of zeal and enthusiasm was carried there was warm sympathy from the masses of the people and the slumbering desire for enfranchisement amongst all classes of women began to awake. Mrs. Lawrence was holding a series of fine meetings in Yorkshire. Annie Kenney, after addressing vast and enthusiastic crowds in Lancashire, made her way up to Scotland and with Theresa Billington went on to Mr. Asquith’s constituency of East Fife. Aroused by their speeches the women here demanded that The Chancellor of the Exchequer should receive them in deputation. He judged it wisest to consent, but protected himself from meeting the two ex-prisoners by stipulating that only residents in the constituency should be present. In his reply to this deputation he declared himself to be still an opponent of their cause. “Then there is no hope for women? “asked one of them; but he only answered “Women must work out their own salvation.”
In Wales the flag of the W. S. P. U. was being hoisted by Mary Gawthorpe,6 another new recruit, a winsome, merry little creature, with bright hair and laughing hazel eyes, a face fresh and sweet as a flower, the dainty ways of a little bird, and having with all so shrewd a tongue and so sparkling a fund of repartee, that she held dumb with astonished admiration, vast crowds of big, slow-thinking workmen and succeeded in winning to good-tempered appreciation the stubbornist opponents. Whilst she was in his constituency, it was announced that Mr. Samuel Evans who had “talked out” the Votes-for-Women resolution on the twenty-ninth of April, and who was now appointed a Law Officer of the Crown, was coming to speak to his constituents. Miss Gawthorpe determined to talk him out as he had “talked out” the Women’s resolution. She therefore attended two of his meetings and at the first of these was dragged out by the stewards, but at the second a strong force of men gathered round to protect her and insisted that she should be heard. The Chairman then tried to checkmate her by playing the Welsh National Anthem, but little Mary won all hearts by leading off the singing, and so poor a figure did Mr. Samuel Evans cut that Mrs. Evans was said to have declared that next time there was a Women’s Suffrage debate in the House of Commons she should keep her husband at home.
In London the work was being organised by Christabel, who amongst other things was conducting an active campaign in Battersea, the constituency represented by Mr. John Burns, the President of the Local Government Board. The income of the Union was still very small, and everything had to be done with the strictest possible economy. The money for meetings in halls was only forthcoming on very special occasions, and wherever possible the expenses of printing and advertising were curtailed. A large number of meetings were held at street corners, with a chair borrowed from a neighbouring shop as platform, and, in order to collect a crowd, my sister started the custom of ringing a large muffin bell. One of those who had been greatly impressed by the work of our Union was Miss Elizabeth Robins, the novelist, whose impressions of these early days of the movement are so graphically described in her novel, The Convert.
The following extract from this book is a very truthful picture of a typical Battersea meeting:
In Battersea you go into some modest little restaurant, a
nd you say, “Will you lend me a chair?” This is a surprise for the restauranteur. … Ernestine carries the chair into the road and plants it in front of the fire station. Usually there are two or three helpers. Sometimes Ernestine if you please, carries the meeting entirely on her own shoulders — those same shoulders being about so wide. Yes, she is quite a little thing. If there are helpers she sends £hem up and down the street sowing a fresh crop of handbills. When Ernestine is ready to begin she stands on that chair in the open street and, as if she were doing the most natural thing in the world, she begins ringing that dinner bell. Naturally people stop and stare and draw nearer. Ernestine tells me that Battersea has got so used now to the ding-dong and to associating it with “our meetings,” that as far off as they hear it the inhabitants say, “It’s the Suffragettes, come along.” And from one street and another the people emerge laughing and running. Of course, as soon as there is a little crowd that attracts some more, and so the snowball grows. … Last night she was wonderful. … When she wound up “The motion is carried; the meeting is over!” and climbed down off her perch, the mob cheered and pressed round her so close that I had to give up trying to join her. I extricated myself and crossed the street. She is so little that unless she is on a chair she is swallowed up. For a long time I could not see her. I did not know whether she was taking the names and addresses of the people who wanted to join the Union, or whether she had slipped away and gone home, till I saw practically the whole crowd moving off with her up the street. I followed for some distance on the off side. She went calmly on her way — a tiny figure in a long grey coat between two “helpers,” a Lancashire cotton spinner and the Cockney working-woman and that immense tail of boys and men (and a few women) all following after — quite quiet and well-behaved — just following because it didn’t occur to them to do anything else. In a way she was still exercising her hold over her meeting. I saw presently there was one person in front of her; a great big fellow who looked like a carter. He was carrying home the chair. … Oh, if you could only see her! Trudging along, apparently quite oblivious of her quaint following, dinner bell in one hand, leather case piled high with leaflets on the other arm. Some of the leafllets sliding off and tumbling onto the pavement. Then dozens of hands helped her to recover her property. …
* * *
1 Out of all the many hundreds of women who have taken part in the militant Suffrage movement, and in spite of the many kinds of violence to which they have been subjected, only three women upon three single occasions, have ever made use of any weapon to protect themselves from their assailants.
2 Some years before a trades dispute had taken place at Feather stone in the course of which Mr. Asquith was said to have ordered that the military should be called out, and as a result the soldiers had fired upon the workingmen who were on strike. In consequence of this Mr. Asquith became so unpopular that he was frequently assailed at Public Meetings by the cry of “Featherstone Asquith, the Assassin.” Mrs. Sparborough, like many other persons had of course read of this.
3 On a protest being raised in the House, this sentence was afterwards reduced by half.
4 In the case of Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney, the Governor of Strangeways had refused money tendered to him by outsiders, saying that he was not authorised to accept a fine paid in this way, but now the Governor of Holloway, after consultation with the Home Office accepted the fine, and told Miss Billington that she must leave the prison.
5 Mr. Morrissey, who could not afford to leave his business, was regretfully obliged to pay his fine.
6 Mary Gawthorpe had become a pupil teacher at the age of thirteen and had worked for her living from that time. Amongst other distinctions, she had taken a first class King’s Scholarship. She had represented the Leeds Labour Church on the Local Labour Representation Committee. She had been a member of the Leeds Committee for the Feeding of School Children, and the Leeds Committee of the National Union of Teachers. In 1906 she had been elected as Labour delegate to the University Extension Committee, she was Vice-President of the Leeds Independent Labour Party and Secretary to the Women’s Labour League.
CHAPTER VI
OCTOBER TO NOVEMBER, 1906
A PROTEST MEETING IN THE LOBBY OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. ELEVEN WOMEN GO TO PRISON. WHAT IT IS LIKE IN HOLLOWAY GAOL.
ON October 3d, 1906, Parliament re-assembled for the Autumn session. A large number of our women made their way to the House of Commons on that day, but the government had again given orders that only twenty women at a time were to be allowed in the Lobby. All women of the working class were rigorously excluded. My mother and Mrs. Pethick Lawrence were among those who succeeded in gaining an entrance. They at once sent in for the Chief Liberal Whip and requested him to ask the Prime Minister, on their behalf, whether he proposed to do anything to enfranchise the women of the country during the session, either by including the registration of qualified women in the provisions of the Plural Voting Bill then before the House, or by any other means. The Liberal Whip soon returned with a refusal from the Government to hold out the very faintest hope that the vote would be given women at any time during their term of office.
On hearing this, Mrs. Pankhurst and Mrs. Pethick Lawrence returned to their comrades and consulted with them. The women had received a direct rebuff, and they felt that they must now act in such a way as to prove that the Suffragettes would no longer quietly submit to this perpetual ignoring of their claims. They therefore decided to hold a meeting of protest, not outside in the street, but just there, in the Lobby of the House of Commons — of all places the most effective one for women to choose for a meeting, because the nearest within their reach to that legislative Chamber which had so frequently refused to grant them the franchise. Once made, the resolution was acted upon without delay. Mary Gawthorpe mounted one of the settees close to the statue of Sir Stafford Northcote and began to address the crowd of visitors who were waiting to interview various Members of Parliament. The other women closed up around her, but in the twinkling of an eye dozens of policemen sprang forward, tore the tiny creature from her post and swiftly rushed her out of the Lobby. Instantly Mrs. Despard, a sister of General French, a tall> ascetic-looking, grey-haired figure, stepped into the breach; but she also was roughly dragged away. Then followed Mrs. Cobden Sanderson, a daughter of Richard Cobden, and many others, but each in her turn was thrust outside and the order was given to clear the Lobby. Mrs. Pankhurst was thrown to the ground in the outer entrance hall and many of the women, thinking that she was seriously hurt, closed round her refusing to leave her side. Crowds were now collecting in the roadway and the women who had been flung out of the House attempted to address them but were hurled away.
Annie Kenney, who had scarcely recovered from the effects of her last imprisonment, had been told by the Committee that she must not take any part in the demonstration for fear that she should be again arrested. She agreed to run no risks, but she could not keep entirely away from the scene of action and, standing on the other side of the road, was now watching to see what might befall her comrades. In the midst of the struggle she noticed that Mrs. Pethick Lawrence was being roughly handled, and impulsively ran forward to ask her if she were hurt. Being already well known to the police, she was immediately arrested. Mrs. Lawrence was greatly distressed and cried out, “You shall not take this girl; she has done nothing.” But the only result of her protest was that she herself was also taken into custody. Before long seven women had shared the same fate, including Miss Irene Miller, my sister Adela Pankhurst, and Mrs. How Martyn, B.Sc., who had recently become Honorary Secretary of the London Committee of the Women’s Social and Political Union.1
Meanwhile, some of the poor women who had marched from the East End and who had been denied admission to the Lobby, were resting their tired limbs on the stone benches in the long entrance hall, and after Mrs. Cobden Sanderson had made her attempt to speak and had been hustled away, she seated herself quietly beside these women and began to talk wi
th them. Shortly afterwards a young policeman came up and abruptly ordered her away and, as she did not go he seized her and dragged her to the police station.
The next morning the women were brought up at Rochester Row Police Court before Mr. Horace Smith. Mrs. Cobden Sanderson’s sisters, Mrs. Cobden Unwin and Mrs. Cobden Sickert and several friends and relatives of the other women, had come early in order that they might be sure of obtaining a seat in Court. Whilst another trial was in progress the Usher had asked them to leave the Court for the present in order to make room for other people, saying, “You shall be allowed in again when your own case comes on.” They at once acceded to his request, but were prevented from returning and were subsequently told that no women would be allowed to enter. Some twenty or thirty of us had by this time congregated in the large entrance hall, but, though men were constantly passing in and out of the Court where the trial was taking place, admittance was denied to us. Many of us wished to testify as witnesses, but we were told that we could not go into the Court, and were taken into a side room, where an attempt was made to lock us in. To prevent this, we insisted upon standing in the doorway.
In the meantime the case against the ten Suffragists was being hurried through. They were all put into the dock together. After the police evidence had been heard against them, Mrs. Cobden Sanderson asked leave to make a statement. You must not picture her to yourself as being either big-boned, plain-looking and aggressive and wearing “mannish” clothes, or as emotional and overstrung. On the contrary, she is just what Reynolds, Hoppner, Sir Henry Raeburn, or Romney with his softest and tenderest touch, would have loved to paint Not very tall, she is comfortably and firmly knit and as she walks she puts her foot down quite firmly, in a dignified and stately way. She is always dressed in low-toned greys and lilacs, and her clothes are gracefully and delicately wrought, with all sorts of tiny tuckings and finishings which give a suggestion of daintiest detail without any loss of simplicity or breadth. She has a shower of hair like spun silver that crinkles itself in the most original and charming way, and which she binds around with broad ribbon, lest its loose falling strands should mar the neatness of her aspect. Her cheeks are tinged with the soft dull rose that one sees in pastel, and her eyes have the most genial and benevolent glance.
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