My own story
magnificent technical college--and now the corporations had full control
of both elementary and secondary education.
The law did indeed provide that the corporations should co-opt at least
one woman on their education boards. Manchester co-opted four women, and
at the strong recommendation of the Labour Party, I was one of the
women chosen. At their urgent solicitation I was appointed to the
Committee on Technical Instruction, the one woman admitted to this
committee. I learned that the Manchester Technical College, called the
second best in Europe, spending thousands of pounds annually for
technical training, had practically no provision for training women.
Even in classes where they might easily have been admitted, bakery and
confectionery classes and the like, the girls were kept out because the
men's trades unions objected to their being educated for such skilled
work. It was rapidly becoming clear to my mind that men regarded women
as a servant class in the community, and that women were going to remain
in the servant class until they lifted themselves out of it. I asked
myself many times in those days what was to be done. I had joined the
Labour Party, thinking that through its councils something vital might
come, some such demand for the women's enfranchisement that the
politicians could not possibly ignore. Nothing came.
All these years my daughters had been growing up. All their lives they
had been interested in women's suffrage. Christabel and Sylvia, as
little girls, had cried to be taken to meetings. They had helped in our
drawing-room meetings in every way that children can help. As they grew
older we used to talk together about the suffrage, and I was sometimes
rather frightened by their youthful confidence in the prospect, which
they considered certain, of the success of the movement. One day
Christabel startled me with the remark: "How long you women have been
trying for the vote. For my part, I mean to get it."
Was there, I reflected, any difference between trying for the vote and
getting it? There is an old French proverb, "If youth could know; if age
could do." It occurred to me that if the older suffrage workers could in
some way join hands with the young, unwearied and resourceful
suffragists, the movement might wake up to new life and new
possibilities. After that I and my daughters together sought a way to
bring about that union of young and old which would find new methods,
blaze new trails. At length we thought we had found a way.
CHAPTER III
In the summer of 1902--I think it was 1902--Susan B. Anthony paid a
visit to Manchester, and that visit was one of the contributory causes
that led to the founding of our militant suffrage organisation, the
Women's Social and Political Union. During Miss Anthony's visit my
daughter Christabel, who was very deeply impressed, wrote an article for
the Manchester papers on the life and works of the venerable reformer.
After her departure Christabel spoke often of her, and always with
sorrow and indignation that such a splendid worker for humanity was
destined to die without seeing the hopes of her lifetime realised. "It
is unendurable," declared my daughter, "to think of another generation
of women wasting their lives begging for the vote. We must not lose any
more time. We must act."
By this time the Labour Party, of which I was still a member, had
returned Mr. Keir Hardie to Parliament, and we decided that the first
step in a campaign of action was to make the Labour Party responsible
for a new suffrage bill. At a recent annual conference of the party I
had moved a resolution calling upon the members to instruct their own
member of Parliament to introduce a bill for the enfranchisement of
women. The resolution was passed, and we determined to organise a
society of women to demand immediate enfranchisement, not by means of
any outworn missionary methods, but through political action.
It was in October, 1903, that I invited a number of women to my house in
Nelson street, Manchester, for purposes of organisation. We voted to
call our new society the Women's Social and Political Union, partly to
emphasise its democracy, and partly to define its object as political
rather than propagandist. We resolved to limit our membership
exclusively to women, to keep ourselves absolutely free from any party
affiliation, and to be satisfied with nothing but action on our
question. Deeds, not words, was to be our permanent motto.
To such a pass had the women's suffrage cause come in my country that
the old leaders, who had done such fine educational work in the past,
were now seemingly content with expressions of sympathy and regret on
the part of hypocritical politicians. This fact was thrust upon me anew
by an incident that occurred almost at the moment of the founding of the
Women's Social and Political Union. In our Parliament no bill has a
chance of becoming a law unless it is made a Government measure. Private
members are at liberty to introduce measures of their own, but these
rarely reach the second reading, or debatable stage. So much time is
given to discussion of Government measures that very little time can be
given to any private bills. About one day in a week is given over to
consideration of private measures, to which, as we say, the Government
give facilities; and since there are a limited number of weeks in a
session, the members, on the opening days of Parliament, meet and draw
lots to determine who shall have a place in the debates. Only these
successful men have a chance to speak to their bills, and only those who
have drawn early chances have any prospect of getting much discussion on
their measures.
Now, the old suffragists had long since given up hope of obtaining a
Government suffrage bill, but they clung to a hope that a private
member's bill would some time obtain consideration. Every year, on the
opening day of Parliament, the association sent a deputation of women to
the House of Commons, to meet so-called friendly members and consider
the position of the women's suffrage cause. The ceremony was of a most
conventional, not to say farcical character. The ladies made their
speeches and the members made theirs. The ladies thanked the friendly
members for their sympathy, and the members renewed their assurances
that they believed in women's suffrage and would vote for it when they
had an opportunity to do so. Then the deputation, a trifle sad but
entirely tranquil, took its departure, and the members resumed the real
business of life, which was support of their party's policies.
Such a ceremony as this I attended soon after the founding of the
W. S. P. U. Sir Charles M'Laren was the friendly member who presided
over the gathering, and he did his full duty in the matter of formally
endorsing the cause of women's suffrage. He assured the delegation of
his deep regret, as well as the regret of numbers of his colleagues,
that women so intelligent, so devoted, etc., should remain
unenfranchised. Other members did likewise. The ceremonies drew to a
close, but I, who had not been asked to speak, determined to add
something to the occasion.
"Sir Charles M'Laren," I began abruptly, "has told us that numbers of
his colleagues desire the success of the women's suffrage cause. Now
every one of us knows that at this moment the members of the House of
Commons are balloting for a place in the debates. Will Sir Charles
M'Laren tell us if any member is preparing to introduce a bill for
women's suffrage? Will he tell us what he and the other members will
pledge themselves to _do_ for the reform they so warmly endorse?"
Of course, the embarrassed Sir Charles was not prepared to tell us
anything of the kind, and the deputation departed in confusion and
wrath. I was told that I was an interloper, an impertinent intruder. Who
asked me to say anything? And what right had I to step in and ruin the
good impression they had made? No one could tell how many friendly
members I had alienated by my unfortunate remarks.
I went back to Manchester and with renewed energy continued the work of
organising for the W. S. P. U.
In the spring of 1904 I went to the annual conference of the Independent
Labour Party, determined if possible to induce the members to prepare a
suffrage bill to be laid before Parliament in the approaching session.
Although I was a member of the National Administrative Council and
presumably a person holding some influence in the party, I knew that my
plan would be bitterly opposed by a strong minority, who held that the
Labour Party should direct all its efforts toward securing universal
adult suffrage for both men and women. Theoretically, of course, a
Labour party could not be satisfied with anything less than universal
adult suffrage, but it was clear that no such sweeping reform could be
effected at that time, unless indeed the Government made it one of their
measures. Besides, while a large majority of members of the House of
Commons were pledged to support a bill giving women equal franchise
rights with men, it was doubtful whether a majority could be relied upon
to support a bill giving adult suffrage, even to men. Such a bill, even
if it were a Government measure, would probably be difficult of passage.
After considerable discussion, the National Council decided to adopt the
original Women's Enfranchisement Bill, drafted by Dr. Pankhurst, and
advanced in 1870 to its second reading in the House of Commons. The
Council's decision was approved by an overwhelming majority of the
conference.
The new session of Parliament, so eagerly looked forward to, met on
February 13, 1905. I went down from Manchester, and with my daughter
Sylvia, then a student at the Royal College of Art, South Kensington,
spent eight days in the Strangers' Lobby of the House of Commons,
working for the suffrage bill. We interviewed every one of the members
who had pledged themselves to support a suffrage bill when it should be
introduced, but we found not one single member who would agree that his
chance in the ballot, if he drew such a chance, should be given to
introducing the bill. Every man had some other measure he was anxious to
further. Mr. Keir Hardie had previously given us his pledge, but his
name, as we had feared, was not drawn in the ballot. We next set out to
interview all the men whose names had been drawn, and we finally induced
Mr. Bamford Slack, who held the fourteenth place, to introduce our bill.
The fourteenth place was not a good one, but it served, and the second
reading of our bill was set down for Friday, May 12th, the second order
of the day.
This being the first suffrage bill in eight years, a thrill of
excitement animated not only our ranks but all the old suffrage
societies. Meetings were held, and a large number of petitions
circulated. When the day came for consideration on our bill, the
Strangers' Lobby could not hold the enormous gathering of women of all
classes, rich and poor, who flocked to the House of Commons. It was
pitiful to see the look of hope and joy that shone on the faces of many
of these women. We knew that our poor little measure had the very
slightest chance of being passed. The bill that occupied the first order
of the day was one providing that carts travelling along public roads at
night should carry a light behind as well as before. We had tried to
induce the promoters of this unimportant little measure to withdraw it
in the interests of our bill, but they refused. We had tried also to
persuade the Conservative Government to give our bill facilities for
full discussion, but they also refused. So, as we fully anticipated,
the promoters of the Roadway Lighting Bill were allowed to "talk out"
our bill. They did this by spinning out the debate with silly stories