My own story
bare boards. Some groups of women hired gipsy vans and spent the night
on the moors.
In London we gave a great concert at Queen's Hall on Census night. Many
of us walked about Trafalgar Square until midnight and then repaired to
Aldwich skating rink, where we amused ourselves until morning. Some
skated while others looked on, and enjoyed the admirable musical and
theatrical entertainment that helped to pass the hours. We had with us a
number of the brightest stars in the theatrical world, and they were
generous in their contributions. It being Sunday night, the chairman had
to call on each of the artists for a "speech" instead of a song or other
turn. An all-night restaurant near at hand did a big business, and on
the whole the resisters had a very good time. The Scala Theatre was the
scene of another all-night entertainment.
There was a good deal of curiosity to see what the Government would
devise in the way of a punishment for the rebellious women, but the
Government realised the impossibility of taking punitive action, and Mr.
John Burns, who, as head of the Local Government Board, was responsible
for the census, announced that they had decided to treat the affair with
magnanimity. The number of evasions, he declared, was insignificant. But
every one knew that this was the exact reverse of the facts.
The Conciliation Bill was debated on May 5th and passed its second
reading by the enormous majority of 137. And now the public and a
section of the press united in a strong demand that the Government yield
to the undoubted will of the House and grant facilities to the bill. The
Conciliation Committee sent a deputation of members to the Prime
Minister to remind him of his pre-election promise that the House of
Commons should have an opportunity of dealing with the whole question
of woman suffrage, but they succeeded only in getting his assurance that
he had the matter under consideration. Late in the month the
announcement was made in the House that the Government would not grant
facilities during that session, but, since the new bill fulfilled the
conditions named by the Prime Minister, and was now capable of
amendment, the Government recognised it to be their duty to grant
facilities in some session of the present Parliament. They would be
prepared next session, when the bill had been again read for the second
time, either as a result of obtaining a good place in the ballot, or (if
that did not happen) by a grant of a Government day for the purpose, to
give a week, which they understood to be the time suggested as
reasonable by the promoters for its further stages.
This pledge was made in order to deter the W. S. P. U. from making a
militant demonstration in connection with the coronation of the King.
Keir Hardie asked if the Government would, by means of a closure or
otherwise, make certain that the bill would go through in the week, and
the Prime Minister replied, "No, I cannot give an assurance of that
kind. After all, it is a problem of the very greatest magnitude."
This reply seemed to make the Government's pledge practically worthless.
The Conciliation Committee also realised the possibilities of the bill
being talked out, and Lord Lytton wrote to Mr. Asquith and asked him for
assurances that the facilities offered were intended not for academic
discussion but for effective opportunity for carrying the bill. He also
asked that the week offered should not be construed rigidly but that,
providing the committee stage were got through in the time, additional
days for the report and third reading stages might be forthcoming.
Reasonable opportunity for making use of the closure was also asked. To
Lord Lytton's letter the Prime Minister replied as follows:
_My dear Lytton_--In reply to your letter on the subject of the
Women's Enfranchisement Bill, I would refer you to some
observations recently made in a speech at the National Liberal Club
by Sir Edward Grey, which accurately expresses the intention of the
Government.
It follows (to answer your specific inquiries), that the "week"
offered will be interpreted with reasonable elasticity, that the
Government will interpose no reasonable obstacle to the proper use
of the closure, and that if (as you suggest) the bill gets through
committee in the time proposed, the extra days required for report
and third reading will not be refused.
The Government, though divided in opinion on the merits of the
bill, are unanimous in their determination to give effect, not only
in the letter but in the spirit, to the promise in regard to
facilities which I made on their behalf before the last general
election.
Yours etc.,
H. H. ASQUITH.
Sceptical up to this point, the W. S. P. U. was now convinced that the
Government were sincere in their promise to give the bill full
facilities in the following year. We held a joyful mass meeting in
Queen's Hall and I again declared that warfare against the Government
was at an end. Our new policy was the inauguration of a great holiday
campaign, with the object of making victory in 1912 absolutely certain.
Electors must be aroused, members of Parliament held to their
allegiance. Women must be organised in order that questions that vitally
affect the social welfare of the country might be placed before them. I
chose Scotland and Wales as the scenes of my holiday labours.
I may say that our confidence was fully shared by the public at large.
The belief in Mr. Asquith's pledge was accurately reflected in a leader
published in _The Nation_, which said: "From the moment the Prime
Minister signed the frank and ungrudging letter to Lord Lytton which
appeared in last Saturday's newspapers, women became, in all but the
legal formality, voters and citizens. For at least two years, if not for
longer, nothing has been lacking save a full and fair opportunity for
the House of Commons to translate its convictions into the precise
language of a statute. That opportunity has been promised for next
session and promised in terms and under conditions which ensure
success."
The only thing, as we thought, that we had to fear were wrecking
amendments to the bill, and in the new by-election policy which we
adopted we worked against all candidates of every party who would refuse
to promise, not only to support the Conciliation Committee to carry the
bill, but also to vote against any amendment the committee thought
dangerous. We believed that we had covered every possibility of
disaster. But we had something yet to learn of the treachery of the
Asquith Ministry and their capacity for cold-blooded lying.
Mr. Lloyd-George from the first was an open enemy of the bill, but since
we had no doubt of the sincerity of the Prime Minister, we could only
conclude that Mr. Lloyd-George had detached himself from the main body
of the Government and had become the self-constituted leader of the
opposition. In an address to a large Liberal group Mr. Lloyd-George
advised that Liberal members be asked to ballot for a place for a
"democratic measure," in order that such a measure might claim the Prime
Minister's pledge for facilities next session. In one or two other
speeches he made vague allusions to the possibilities of introducing
another suffrage bill. His own idea was to amend the bill to give a vote
to wives of all electors--making married women voters in virtue of their
husband's qualification. The inevitable effect of such an amendment
would be to wreck the bill, since it would have enfranchised about
6,000,000 women in addition to the million and a half who would benefit
by the original terms of the bill. Such a wholesale addition to the
electorate was never known in England; the number enfranchised by the
Reform Bill of 1832 being hardly more than half a million. The Reform
Bill of 1867 admitted a million new voters, and that of 1884 perhaps two
millions. The absurdity of Mr. Lloyd-George's proposition was such that
we did not regard it seriously. We did not allow his opposition to give
us serious alarm until a day in August when a Welsh member, Mr. Leif
Jones, asked the Prime Minister from the floor of the House, whether he
was aware that his promise for facilities for the Conciliation Bill in
the next session was being claimed exclusively for that bill, and asked
further for a statement that the promised facilities would be equally
granted to any other suffrage bill that might secure a second reading
and was capable of amendment. Mr. Lloyd-George, speaking for the
Government, replied that they could not undertake to give facilities to
more than one bill on the same subject, but that any bill which,
satisfying these tests, secured a second reading, would be treated by
them as falling within their engagements.
Astounded at this plain evasion of a sacred promise, Lord Lytton again
wrote to the Prime Minister, reviewing the entire matter, and asking for
another statement of the Government's intentions. The following is the
text of Mr. Asquith's reply:
_My dear Lytton_--I have no hesitation in saying that the promises
made by, and on behalf of the Government, in regard to giving
facilities to the Conciliation Bill, will be strictly adhered to,
both in letter and in spirit.
Yours sincerely,
H. H. ASQUITH.
August 23, 1911.
Again we were reassured, and our confidence in the Premier's pledge
remained unshaken throughout the campaign, although Mr. Lloyd-George
continued to throw out hints that the promises of facilities for the
bill were altogether illusory. We could not believe him, and when, two
months later, I was asked in America: "When will English women vote?" I
replied with perfect conviction, "Next year."
This was in Louisville, Kentucky, where I attended the 1911 Annual
Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
I remember this third visit to the United States with especial
pleasure. I was the guest in New York of Dr. and Mrs. John Winters
Brannan, and through the courtesy of Dr. Brannan, who is at the head of
all the city hospitals, I saw something of the penal system and the
institutional life of America. We visited the workhouse and the
penitentiary on Blackwell's Island, and although I am told that these
places are not regarded as model institutions, I can assure my readers
that they are infinitely superior to the English prisons where women are
punished for trying to win their political freedom. In the American
prisons, much as they lacked in some essentials, I saw no solitary
confinement, no rule of silence, no deadly air of officialdom. The food
was good and varied, and above all there was an air of kindness and good
feeling between the officials and the prisoners that is almost wholly
lacking in England.
But, after all, in the United States as in other countries, the problem
of the relations between unfranchised women and the State remains
unsolved and unsatisfactory. One night my friends took me to that sombre
and terrible institution, the Night Court for Women. We sat on the bench
with the magistrate, and he very courteously explained everything to us.
The whole business was heart-breaking. All the women, with one
exception--an old drunkard--were charged with solicitation. Most of them
were of high type by nature. It all seemed so hopeless, and it was clear
that they were victims of an evil system. Their conviction was a
foregone conclusion.
The magistrate said that in most cases the reason for their coming