NAWSA Subject File Pankhurst, Emmeline Aime Dupont N.Y. Mrs. Parkhurst April 14 Churchill House Serbia Credit must be given for each reproduction of this picture. Aime Dupont. This picture to be used in only the _____________________ issues of __________________and is not to be resold, syndicated, or transferred without our consent. MRS. PANKHURST TO SPEAK HERE FOR WAR-STRICKEN SERBIA Leader of British Suffragists Will Address Mass Meeting in Churchill House on the Evening of April 14.--- The Hon. William Beresford Will Preside.---Former Serbian Secretary of State to Come with Her By N.B. Pettis The hosts of men and women of this city who are giving so freely of time and money for the relief measures of the great European struggle are evidencing a lively interest in the coming here, on April 14, of Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst and Mr. Cheddo Miyatovitch, the latter formerly Serbian Secretary of State, and for many years Serbian Minister to the Court of St. James. Mrs. Pankhurst and Mr. Miyatovitch will speak in Churchill House on the evening of April 14 and the Hon. William Beresford will preside. Mrs. Pankhurst comes not in the interest of woman suffrage, however, as on the occasion of her first visit here, but to lift up her voice, which has thrilled countless thousands in the past, in behalf of stricken Serbia. For this great cause Mrs. Pankhurst and Mr. Miyatovitch came to America several months ago and have been going up and down the land inspiring interest and seeking aid for a country now devastated and despoiled; and for the remnant of its people whose needs are greater than all of the other stricken nations in the war zone. So great, indeed, that starvation and even annihilation threatens them, unless help comes speedily. And this help, Mrs. Pankhurst believes, must come from America, hence her mission here, a mission so great that the one time pre-eminent woman question is now to her subordinated to the greater issue, the all-absorbing love of country and humanity. Three Important Subjects At the forthcoming lecture Mrs. Pankhurst has consented to talk under the three following heads: First, "The Needs of the Serbians;" second, "The British Point of View in the War," and third, "American Preparedness." Her views on the last named subject are looked forward to with much eagerness by Rhode Island women, as during the last two months in her trip through the West and Canada, and being a close observer, she has had an exceptional opportunity to "size up" conditions and sentiment in America. In view of the present uncertainty which exists in the minds of many upon this question, which is uppermost in the mids of all, her statements may have considerable effect in clearing the atmosphere. The meeting in Churchill House has been brought about through the efforts of a central committee, made up of Mrs. James W. Algeo, Mrs. William Sprague and Mrs. William R. Tillinghast. CHURCHILL HOUSE PROVIDENCE. FRIDAY, APRIL 14. At 8 P. M. Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst and C. Miyatovitch, former Siberian minister to England, will speak on SERBIA. The Honorable William Beresford will preside. Admission Cards One Dollar. a12-2t HORSEBACK RIDING Taught at moderate rates; high class saddle horses, polo ponies for hire. Special rates to CLUB members. Send to H. Davis for circular, Tel. Broad 4180. FARRAGUT RIDING CLUB, at entrance to Roger Williams Park, Providence. a7 6t CHURCHILL HOUSE Friday, April 14th, 1916, at 8 P. M. MRS. EMMELINE PANKHURST AND MR. CHEDDOMIL MIYATOVICH Will Speak in Behalf of SERBIA The Hon. William Beresford Will Preside A limited number of tickets at $1.00 on sale at the Crown Hotel. THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL. TUESDAY. JAN 1913 MRS. EMMELINE PANKHURST Militant Leader Announces That London Suffragettes Will Wage a Guerilla Warfare. The committee has many helpers throughout the State and Mrs. A. Studley Hart will be head usher at the meeting, assisted by 10 young men. Mrs. Pankhurst and the former Serbian minister will arrive in Rhode Island on the 12th of April, and both will be guests of Mrs. Sprague at the beautiful new villa of her sister, Mrs. Avice Wheaton Borda, on Ocean Road, Narragansett Pier, facing an endless perspective of ocean. Will Rest at the Pier. In this ideal environment Mrs. Pankhurst hopes to rest before coming to Providence, realizing that in the companionship of Mrs. Sprague she will find full sympathy in all her hopes and plans for Serbia and the cause of freedom. Mrs. Sprague, as is well known, has made her home for the past several years in Paris, and recently returned to America on the death of her husband, the last War Governor. She was in Paris at the time of the mobilization of the French army, and experienced something of the horrors of the war, assisting also in the hospitals and at her own home. As the close friend of Miss Christabel Pankhurst, Mrs. Sprague has been intimately associated with the Pankhurst family and knows of their heroic work for the cause of liberty. "I never saw two women," said Mrs. Sprague to the writer, "so absolutely eliminated from everything save their one great idea as are Mrs. Pankhurst and Christabel." "They feel that now the feminist movement is settled forever in England. Two million women are now working in the factories and in all the places once filled by men and doing their work patiently, bravely and well. Suffrage Issue Forgotten. "So far as Mrs. Pankhurst and her family are concerned," said Mrs. Sprague, "suffrage is an issue relegated to oblivion for the present, at least. "I have known Christabel Pankhurst for four years," continued Mrs. Sprague, 'and through her I have known of her mother's wonderful recruiting speeches in London and Manchester and Wales. "It has been said in London that she has been more successful in getting recruits than any of the men. More than this," said Mrs. Sprague, "Mrs. Pankhurst has been pointing the way in England for the women to go into the munition factories, and so valuable has been her work to the cause of freedom that the question was raised whether she should be allowed to leave England, where she was doing such a wonderful work." She said, however, that where the greatest need existed there she must be and thus she became the champion of Serbia. Christabel Pankhurst Mrs. Sprague recalled reminiscently her pleasant associations with Christabel Pankhurst and said she was much like her mother, full of magnetism and personal charm, highly cultivated and a brilliant writer. Her paper, she said, once known as the Suffragette, is now called Britannia and wields a powerful influence as the official organ of the Women's Social and Political Union. It voices no question of suffrage, but speaks of things as the are, the "Nation in Danger." "Christabel spoke at my house in Paris on July 14 and 15," continued Mrs. Sprague, "at the national fete day in Paris in celebration of the 'Storming of the Bastille.' " Mr. Cheddo Miyatovich, who is accompanying Mrs. Pankhurst here and also to speak at the same time, has had a distinguied career as a diplomat, minister and man of letters. He was quite a young man when he represented Serbia at the International Conference on the Black Sea and Danube in London. After the war between Serbia and Bulgaria in 1885 he, as Serbian Minister in London --- was called to negotiate peace between his country and Bulgaria, an dhe signed then that unique document in diplomatic history, consisting only of one single article, declaring "that the peace between Serbia and Bulgaria is established." He served his country as Minister of Finance and Commerce and also as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Serbian Minister in London. He has been Minister to Roumania, Holland and Turkey as well as to England, and in 1889 he represented Serbia at the first International Peace Conference at The Hague. In 1901 he was made member of the Upper House or Senate of Serbia. In addition to having been a di- plomat and statesman of repute, Mr Miyatovich has won distinction as a man of letters. In his own country he is known as the translator of Bunyan's "Pilgrims' Progress" and Franklin's Autobiography. He has also written, in English, a history of the Serbian people, their customs and folklore. SUFFFRAGIS DEFENDS MILITANT SISTERS _____________ To the Editor of the Times: The editorials in so many of our papers, the criticism generally of our press, are so terribly severe, and the accounts from across the water, as we get the cables, are often so misrepresented, that it would seem only just and fair to set forth, if one can, any extenuating circumstances on the side of the militant suffragettes in England and Scotland. It would seem to the writer that all of the facts, the reasons which have driven some very good women across the water to commit what seem to us deeds of "atrocity" are not generally known here. "If," said a London reporter, "if we were allowed to tell the truth of this matter, the women here would win their votes." Is it generally known here that these "impatient" women of England have been trying for some 50 years to obtain that which they are now so struggling for? When you hear these women accused of impatience, of rashness, and so on, bear in mind that for a full half-century they have been striving in every peaceful, lawful way known to men (or women) to obtain what they consider justice--the full power of franchise with their brothers. And for these 50 years they have been given promises and seen these promises broken' they have been given reason to hope and have fallen again and again into almost despair; they have worked like galley slaves for the various political parties there--for the English women are much more active in politics than our women are here--and time after time have they been cast down and repudiated by the very ones whom they have helped raise to power. The women have petitioned. Devoted bands of women scoured their country. For weeks and months they added name after name to their list until their petition was so monster that it had finally to be wheeled in a cart into Caxton Hall, I think it was, in London. One safely landed the members of Parliament walked into the hall, surveyed the enormous number of names written on innumerable sheets of paper, and then, smilingly, walked out again! Every bill has to have three readings in the English Parliament before it can be made law. Over and over and over again has the government allowed the women's bill to have one or two readings; never the third reading, even when the second reading had received a large affirmative majority of votes. It was only after exhausting every lawful means known that the women resorted to militancy. As lately as the year 1911, after the women had begun to practise militancy, they were promised that if they would drop these methods and keep the peace until fall their bill should be given the third reading. That meant, simply, that their bill would be then put through such measures that it could be voted on and be either turned down or made law. The women, on the strength of this promise, dropped all militant methods and preserved perfect order until fall. Then, deliberately, the government again broke its promise. It gave the women's bill no reading at all and brought forward another bill, on the full enfranchisement of men, about which there had been no such agitation or any part as great a demand for as there had been for the cause of the women. This bill was put forward simply to sidetrack the women's bill. The women then resumed militancy lution, when we became militant against our King and country. Everywhere we find women proud, and justly proud of being descended from the soldiers of the American Revolution. These same women in so many cases, utterly condemn the attitude of their sisters across the sea in their rebellion against their government. One notes recently a celebration by our women here of the Burning of the Gaspee. The Gaspee was an English vessel, and first we chased her into shoal water, and then by the light of the moon we went down to where she lay and burned her, first firing at and wounding her master, the King's servant. Certainly it is not for us, whose fathers threw a cargo of perfectly good tea into Boston Harbor, to throw too many stones at the women who burn the empty building, cut the painting or throw the stone ("time honored political weapon" in England) carefully aimed to hit no one. The matter over there certainly settles down to this: The women there consider a vote, as do we women here, as being the simplest, most business- like and direct way of each person's having a voice in the common government of the whole people. They want this power for endless reasons. One of them is that many laws and conditions are unfair to women. They have tried, as before described, in every lawful way, to get some of the wrong things put right. All these ways failing they have resorted to the methods that Englishmen use when thy are disaffected with their government. Low Wages. The average wage of English working women is $1.87 (in our money) per week. We do not think that that amount is a living wage for a human being. Besides that, if $1.87 is the average, there must be many women getting less than that amount. In England a woman with property may not dispose of it until she is fully of age. But by an ancient law, which the women have never been able to have removed from the statutes, the same person may give herself in marriage at the tender age of 13. Thoughtful women reflect that here all care is given to the proper guarding of stone, mortar, bank notes, but none to the guarding of the soul, mind and body of the woman. In England the women are very much more active in politics than are generally our women here. They are of the greatest aid in assisting their candidates get their lections. When the candidate is fully instated in office, then he smilingly greets the women who have worked for him. I heard an English woman tell her story. "We were greatly interested," she said, "in having removed from the statutes, some ancient evils. We presented ourselves to our representative and were smilingly welcomed. Every attention that a 'chivalrous' man shows a woman was ours. We were pressed to take tea and strawberries on the terrace of the House of Commons, we were offered tickets in the ladies' gallery, that we might hear the speeches of the day, but when it came to any sort of business, to any help in wiping out old wrongs, to any bettering of the conditions of women, we were absolutely thrown down. Finally, in desperation, our member flatly refused any help along these lines, and said 'I cannot help you. I cannot give you any more time. I have other fish to fry.' Meaning, of course, that he must be obliging to, and working for those who held the power of the vote." It was only after years of similar experiences that the women of England followed the tactics of the men of England when they are disaffected with their government. Wants to Get at Truth. The writer of this article is a sincere lover of England. It is her wish to state facts, to get at the truth of the matter. She is not writing through prejudice. But in getting at facts we must take into consideration that England is a different country than ours. It is less open to change. It is more confirmed in custom. It would be harder for England to change its habits in regard to the freedom of its women than it would be for a newer, younger country, like ours, to change its. "I think," said Mrs. Pankhurst, simply, in one of her lectures here, "I think that your country is less hidebound than is ours." This is one of the reason why the women over there have such a tremendous piece of work to induce their government to make any change in the condition of women. But the breath of liberty is just as much to the typical Englishman as it is to the typical American man. And in England when men are disaffected with their government they harass it. They tear down great lengths of fencing, they burn buildings, they throw stones and demolish buildings. And, alas, they have often and often taken human life. The English women, driven to desperation, do indeed imitate their brother--except that they will not take life. Please note that with them the building burned is an empty building: the thrown stone is carefully aimed not to wound. The bomb is timed to do its work when the crowd has dispersed. Now I do not know that it is ever right to burn a building, but I do know that stone and wood are not as valuable as human life. I do not know that it is ever right for them to cut a painting, but I do know that not one of the old masters is as precious as the lives of girls and women. I do not know that it is ever right to break the pettiest law, but I do know that a fair living wage foe women is more important than the cost of the broken windows. These women are harassing their government. This is the extent of their crime. Their methods may be all wrong--many of our best suffragists hold them to be utterly mistaken-- but in justice bear in mind that these means seem to be with them the last court of resort. They but follow the methods of their brothers and of our fore- fathers in this very country against wrongs no greater than the wrongs of these women. Wants Equal Rights. In this country the writer is only one SUFFRAGIS DEFENDS MILITANT SISTERS To the Editor of the Times: The editorials in so many of our papers, the criticisms generally of our press, are so terribly severe, and the accounts from across the water, as we get the cables, are often so misinterpreted, that it would seem only just and fair to set forth, if one can, any extenuating circumstances on the side of the militant suffragettes in England and Scotland. It would seem to the writer that all of the facs, the reasons which have driven some very good woman across the water to commit what seem to us deeds of "atrocity" are not generally known here. "If," said a London reporter, "if we were allowed to tell the truth of this matter, the women here would win their votes." Is it generally known here that these "impatient" women of England have been trying for some 50 years to obtain that which they are now so struggling for? When you hear these women accused of impatience, of rashness, and so on, bear in mind that for a full half-century they have been striving in every peaceful, lawful way known to men (or women) to obtain what they consider justice - the full power of franchise with their brothers. And for these 50 years they have been given promises and seen these promises broken; they have been given reason to hope and have fallen again and again into almost despair; they have worked like galley slaves for the various political parties there - for the English women are much more active in politics than our women are here - and time after time have been cast down and repudiated by the very ones whom they have helped raise to power. The women have petitioned. Devoted bands of women scoured their country. For weeks and months they added name after name to their list until their petition ws so monster that it had finally to be wheeled in a cart into Caxton Hall, I think it was, in London. Once safely landed the members of Parliament walked into the hall, surveyed the enormous number of names written on unnumerable sheets of paper, and then, smilingly, walked out again! Every bill has to have three readings in the English Parliament before it can be made law. Over and over and over again has the government allowed the women's bill to have one or two readings; never the third reading, even when the second reading had received a large affirmative majority of votes. It was only after exhausting every lawful means known that the women resoted to militancy. As lately as the year 1911, after the women had begun to practise militancy, they were promised that if they would drop these methods and keep the peace until fall their bill should be given the third reading. That meant, simply, that their bill would be then put through such measures that it could be voted on and be either turned down or made law. The women, on the strength of this promise, dropped all militant methods and preserved perfect order until fll. Then, deliberately, the government again broke its promise. It gave the women's bill no reading at all and brought forward another bill, on the full enfranchisement of men, about which there had been no such agitation or any part as great a demand as there had been for the cause of women. This bill was put forward simply to sidetrack the women's bill. The women then resumed militancy. Should Learn to Reason. It would sometimes seem that our schools and colleges eliminate largely from their process of educating that which is most vital to the real meaning of living. One of the most vitally important things in this world would seem to be that human beings should learn to reason on the merits of a question. As a matter of fact we are commonly influenced simply by custom, by precedent. We do not, as often as we should, decide a thing upon its merits. I think the chief criticism of the militant women is based principally on the fact that good women previously have not often been militant. If we get right down to the justice of the case we would have to acknowledge that the women of England have as much right in this respect to rebel against their government as we had, back in the days of the American Revolution {??] riage at the tender age of 13. Thoughtful women reflect that here all care is given to the proper guarding of stone, mortar, bank notes, but none to the guarding of the soul, mind and body of the women. In England the women are very much more active in politics than are generally our women here. They are of the greatest aid in assisting their candidates get their elections. When the candidate is fully instated in office, then he smilingly greets the women who have worked for him. I heard an English woman tell her story. "We were greatly interested," she said "in having removed from the statutes, some ancient evils. We presented ourselves to our representative and were smilingly welcomed. Every attention that a 'chivalrous' man shows a women was ours. We were pleased to take tea and strawberries on the terrace of the House of Commons, we were offered tickets in the ladies' gallery, that we might hear the speeches of the day, but when it came to any sort of business to any help in wiping out old wrongs, to any bettering of the conditions of women, we were absolutely thrown down. Finally, in desperation, our member flatly refused any help along these lines, and said 'I cannot help you, I cannot give you any more time. I have other fish to fry.' Meaning, of course, that he must be obliging to, and working for those who held the power of the vote." It was only after years of similar experiences that the women of England followed the tactics of the men of England when they are disaffected with their government. Wants to Get at Truth. The writer of this article is a sincere lover of England. It is her wish to state facts, to get at the truth of the matter. She is not writing through prejudice. But in getting at facts we must take into consideration that England is a different country than ours. It is less open to change. It is more confirmed in custom. It would be harder for England to change its habits in regard to the freedom of its women than it would be for a newer, younger country, like ours, to change its. "I think," said Mrs. Pankhurst, simply, in one of her lectures here, "I think that your country is less hidebound than is ours." This is one of the reasons why the women over there have such a tremendous piece of work to induce their government to make any change in the condition of women. But the breath of liberty is just as much to the typical Englishman as it is to the typical American man. And in England when men are disaffected with their government they harass it. They tear down great lengths of fencing, they burn buildings, they throw stones and demolish buildings. And, alas, they have often and often taken human life. The English women, driven to desperation, do indeed imitate their brothers - except that they will not take life. Please note that with them the building burned is an empty building; the thrown stone is carefully aimed not to wound. The bomb is timed to do its work when the crowd has dispersed. Now I do not know that it is ever righ to burn a building, but I do know that stone and wood are not as valuable as human life. I do not know that it is ever right for them to cut a painting, but I do know that not one of the old masters is as precious as the lives of girls and women. I do not know that it is eve right to break the pettiest law, but I do know that a fair living wage for women is more important than the cost of the broken windows. These women are harassing their government. This is the extent of their crime. Their methods may be all wrong - many of our best suffragists hold them to be utterly mistaken - but in justice bear in mind that these means seem to be with them the last court of resort. They but follow the methods of their brothers and of our forefathers in this very country against wrongs no greater than the wrongs of these women. Wants Equal Rights. In this country the writer is only one of a great number of women who earnestly desire to see equal rights for men and women prevail. Nobodyhere wants militancy on the part of women. None of the women want it. It is never thought that in our own country women would have to resort to the methods of our sisters across the water. But I shall tell you the day will come when we shall no longer decry these militant women across the water. They may be mistaken, but the very magistrate who condemned some of them for petty infractions of law acknowledged the absolute "purity of their intentions." English law to the criminal is terrible, inexorable. Do you remember the great criminal cases? Do you remember Dr. Crippen? No trifling over there. No long-drawn out trials, no delay in justice. You are tried, and if you are found innocent you are released. If you are found guilty, you are punished; and you are punished right away, and the thing is over and earthly justice is meted out. Why, then, is such leniency shown to the militant women in the prisons there? If we may call it leniency? To be explicit, why are not the women allowed to die when they go on hunger strikes? Well, I will tell you why. It is' because in the soul of every Englishman, worthy of the name, there burns such a love of freedom, such a never-dying demand for fair play, tht underneath the horrors of the present situation, there is not one of them but that in his inmost soul acknowledges that the cause of the women is right. There is not one of them but who knows - whether he acknowledges it to himself or not - that he is watching a brother fighting, even as he himself as fought in the past, and wrested from his government those precious right and privileges which are now his. Mistaken, or not mistaken, he has no right to cast stones at the militant women of England. A. L. H. Pawtucket, June 16, 1914. MRS. PANKHURST'S SERBIAN MISSION How She Has Helped in the Great War At the outbreak of war in August, 1914, Mrs. Pankhurst, the leader of the Women's Social and Political Union, immediately called a truce to the militant agitation of the Suffragettes. The Government responded by releasing unconditionally a number of women who were then in Holloway Gaol. At that time Mrs. Pankhurst was in France paying a visit to her daughter, Miss Christabel Pankhurst. She saw mobilising of the French Army and the splendid way in which the labour of women everywhere replaced the men called to the colours. She returned to England to conduct a vigorous campaign in favour of national service for men and women. She held big recruiting meetings in Great Britain, some of them under auspices of her own society, and others promoted by prominent public men. During October she made short recruiting speeches at the London Pavilion, one of the largest variety theatres in London. At all these meetings she urged that women should be allowed to render patriotic services as well as men, and that any scheme of national service brought forward should include women. Mrs. Pankhurst has always been interested in the preservation of child life. During the time when the question of War Babies was much before the public Mrs. Pankhurst decided that the Union should adopt several baby girls -- the children of unmarried mothers who were unable to support them. Under her personal supervision these children are now being given the sort of upbringing that will afford them a chance of leading useful and happy lives. She also felt that this action on her part might prove a helpful precedent when the time comes, as it surely must do, for the nation to tackle the problem of the illegitimate child. In the spring of 1915 the official organ of the Women's Social and Political Union was re-issued as a war paper, and advocated patriotism, self sacrifice, and a vigorous prosecution of the war. To impress upon the public mind the willingness of women to serve their country was one of the objects of this paper, as was also the bringing of Great Britain into closer touch with the points of view of the Allied nations. In the early summer the question of munitions because a vital one, and the W. S. P. U. realized that public interest must be aroused to make it understood that women's help was needed in this connection. They then opened a War Service register for women eager to do munitions and other forms of war service. The numbers soon rose to many thousands, and women of all grades flocked to Lincoln's Inn House to register their names for some sort of war work. In addition to this the W. S. P. U. organized a monster Procession of women eager to serve the State which marched through London on Saturday, July 17th. A deputation marched in front, headed by Mrs. Pankhurst, and was duly received by Mr. Lloyd George, the Minister of Munitions. Mrs. Pankhurst put the women's case before his and he gave a sympathetic reply, promising that women should be largely used in the future for munition work. As a result of this thousands of women are now engaged in munition making in all the large industrial centres of the country. The response made by British women to this, as to every other patriotic call has been magnificent and has shown people all over the world that women are prepared to do in the time of their country's need. Ever since the outbreak of the war the position amongst the South Wales Coal Miners has caused some anxiety. These men had it in their power to paralyze the British Navy by stopping the output of coal. Mrs. Pankhurst decided to hold a campaign in the mining districts to explain to them their great responsibility and the magnitude of the issues at stake. Everywhere she met with an enthusiastic reception and made many friends amongst the warm hearted Welsh miners. The uncompromising spirit shown by Serbia has always been held up to the admiration of the W. S. P. U. while her geographical importance to the Allies has never been lost sight of. After the national tragedy which befell Serbia in spite of the heroic stand her army made against overwhelming odds, Mrs. Pankhurst saw the urgent necessity of saving the remnants of this brave nation. Without Serbia standing for the independence of the Balkans, Germany's road to the East would be established. It is because Mrs. Pankhurst realized the great debt of gratitude owing to Serbia that she accepted Mr. Miyatovich's invitation to accompany him on his mission of relief to the people of the United States. Mrs. Pankhurst's Serbian Mission ******** How She Has Helped in the Great War ******** At the outbreak of war in August, 1914, Mrs. Pankhurst, the leader of the Women's Social and Political Union, immediately call-ed a truce to the militant agitation of the Suffragettes. The Gov-ernment responded by releasing unconditionally a number of women who were then in Holloway Gaol. At that time Mrs. Pankhurst was in France paying a visit to her daughter, Miss Christabel Pankhurst. She saw the mobolising of the French Army and the splendid way in which the labour of women everywhere replaced the men called to the colours. She returned to England to conduct a vigorous campaign in favour of national service for men and women. SHe held big recruiting meetings in Great Britain, some of them under the auspices of her own society, and others promoted by prominent public men. During October she made short recruiting speeches at the London Pavilion, one of the largest variety thea-tres in London. At all these meetings she urged that women should be allowed to render patriotic service as well as men, and that any scheme of national service brought forward should include women. Mrs. Pankhurst has always been interested in the preserv-tion of child life. During the time when the question of War Babies was much before the public Mrs. Pankhurst decided that the Union should adopt several baby girls -- the children of unmarried mothers who were unable to support them. Under her personal supervision these children are now being given the sort of upbringing that will afford them a chance of leading useful and heppy lives. She also -2- felt that this action on her part might prove a helpful precedent when the time comes, as it surely must do, for the nation to tackle the problem of the illegitimate child. In the Spring of 1915 the official organ of the Women's Social and Political Union was re-issued as a war paper, and advo-cated patriotism, self sacrifice, and a vigorous prosecution of the war. To impress upon the public mind the willingness of women to serve their country was one of the objects of this paper, as was also the bringing of Great Britian into closer touch with the points of view of the Allied nations. In the early Summer the question of munitions became a vital one, and the W.S.P.U realized that public interest must be aroused to make it understood that women's help was needed in this con-nection. They then opened a War Service register for women eager to do munitions and other forms of war service. Te numbers soon rose to many thousands, and women of all grades flocked to Lincoln's Inn House to register their names for some sort of war work. In addition to this the W.S.P.U. organized a monster Procession of women eager to serve the State which marched through London on Saturday, July 17th. A deputation marched in front, headed by Mrs. Pankhurst, and was duly received by Mr. Lloyd George, the Minister of Munitions. Mrs. Pankhurst put the women's case before him and he gave a sympa-thetic reply, promising that women should be largely used in the future for munition work. As a result of this thousands of women are now engaged in munition making in all the large industrial cen-tres of the country. The response made by British women to this, as to every other patriotic call has been magnificent and has shown people all over the world whatwomen are prepared to do in the time - 3 - of their country's need. Ever since the outbreak of war the position amongst the South Wales Coal Miners has caused some anxiety. These men had it in their power to paralyze the British Navy by stopping the output of coal. Mrs. Pankhurst decided to hold a campaign in the mining districts to explain to them their great responsibility and the magnitude of the issues at stake. Everywhere she met with an en-thusiastic reception and made many friends amongst the warm hearted Welsh miners. The uncompromising spirit shown by Serbia has always been held up to the admiration of the W.S.P.U while her geographical importance to the Allies has never been lost sight of. After the national tragedy which befell Serbia in spite of the heroic stand her army made against overwhelming odds, Mrs. Pankhurst saw the urgent necessity of saving the remnants of this brave nation. Without Serbia standing for the independence of the Balkans, Germany's road to the East would be established. It is because Mrs. Pankhurst realizes the great debt of grat-itude owing to Serbia that she accepted Mr. Miyatovich's invitation to accompany him on his mission of relief to the people of the United States. Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government 535 Mapleten St. Bxxbxx P04D2 SPEECH OF MRS. EMMELINE PANKHURST Columba Theatre, Washington, D. C. Sunday, November 23, 1913 [Mrs. Pankhurst and Miss Paul appeared on the stage, and were greeted with oud applause.] MISS ALICE PAUL-Ladies and Gentlemen: Mr. Charles Edward Russel, who was to have been the chairman for this afternoon, has just sent us word that he is unavoidably detained in Chicago. There has fallen to me, therefore, the very great honor of introducing to you Mrs. Pankhurst. I am very glad, and we are all very glad (I am speaking for the Congressional Union), that Mrs. Pankhurstcould come here to tell us about the English mili-tant movement We know that there are some in this audience who have gained all their knowledge of this movement from distorted accounts in the daily papers, and consequently they have not the sympathy with this movement that they will have after Mrs. Pankhurst has given them some knowledge and understanding of it. I know that when this meeting is over every one of you will go away feeling the same hearty sympathy that I feel for this move-ment. I now desire to introduce to you Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst, the leader of the English militant movement. (Prolonged applause.) MRS. PANKHURST'S ADDRESS. MRS. EMMELINE PANKHURST-Ladies and Gentlemen: Miss Paul has told you that I am to talk to you this afternoon about the militant movement for woman suffrage in Great Britain, but I cannot tell you my story without making some reference to the situation of the suffrage movement in Washington; and I want also to make some reference, since Washington played a very great part in the matter, to my coming to the United States on this present visit. 1 First, I want to say how interesting it is to me to come to Washington at so critical a time in the history of the woman suffrage movement in the United States, on the eve of the moving for an amendment to your Constitution. It seems strange to me, as an onlooker, that it should be necessary to have an amendment to your Constitution at all to admit women to citizenship. It seems t me that it is imbedded in the Constituion itself (applause), and all that is necessary is a right interpretation of your Constitution. (Applause.) If an amendment is necessary to rightly inter-pret the spirit of your Constitution, then I wish that amendment all success, and I feel that if it does not succeed it will not be for lack of intelligent political work done in Washington, because I know from personal experience how splendidly capable are the two women who stand most prominently as workers for this amend-ment to your national Constituion-Miss Alice Paul and Miss Lucy Burns. (Applause.) I take a great pride in them because, in a way, there are my children. They learned a great deal of organization work in the ranks of the Woman's Social and Political Union, the organization I have te honor to represent to-day, the organization which, in the minds of many of you, is associated only with violent acts, but which is a political organization of women so highly organized, so successful in that organization, so successful in carrying out great political demonstrations, that many men's organizations in my country wish they could secure organizers as capable and as clever as are in the ranks of the woman's army for equal suffrage. (Applease.) Now, I would like to say a word of congratulation to Washington, because in Washington recently was repeated once more the American declaration that America's doors are freely open to aliens who ar enot guilty of moral turpitude. (Laughter and applause.) When I was at Ellis Island my stay there was considerably enlivened by the discussions I had with the officials as to the meaning of the words "moral turpitude." (Laughter.) I had a very interesting discussion with one of the commissioners who had decided to deport me on the ground of moral turpitude. He very kindly put himself at my service, and showed me the working of that wonderful immigration system of yours, and as he took me around through the kitchen, dining-rooms, dormitories and exercise grounds it dawned upon me that he was one of the three men who had decided that I should be deported on account of moral turpi-tude. So I asked him if he would be good enough to tell me how he came t decide that I was guilty of moral turpitude. "For," I said, "you could not believe that, because you would not be walking 2 with me to-day if I were such a person. Surely you, a moral and upright man, would decline to associate with me, just as I would decline to associate with you if you were guilty of moral turpitude." (Laughter.) Well, we would not come to any agreement as to the meaning of the words "moral turpitude." In fact, he seemed to be of the opinion, as were all his colleagues, that it was not their business to decide that question, but simply to refer it to higher authorities than themselves in Washington. Now, I believe that you will agree with me that he was mistaken; that the conditions under which aliens enter or are refused entry are defined in such a way that it makes it the duty of the commissioners to settle the question of who is or who is not guilty of moral turpitude. But these gentlemen did not seem to think that it was necessary for them t even study the dictionary meaning of "moral turpitude;" they seemed to think that they must make the order for deportation and then shelve the whole responsibility, casting it upon the shoulders of other people. Well, I believe they were mistaken, but I am not at al sorry that they took that action, because it gave the American people an opportunity once more t express their opinion on the question. We in England have recently had passed, in the face of much protest and in the face of much anxiety and disquietude of mind, the alien's bill, and when it was being discussed many of us, who have been proud tat our country has stood as one ready to give welcome to exiles for conscience's sake from other lands, feared that under the narrow interpretation of officials that measure might be used not only to keep out undesirables, but also people who had come to seek refuge from tyranny on the shores of a country that has long boasted of its freedom. I think the moral to be drawn from my experience is this: That, although you may have wise laws, intended to be used only against te wrong-doer, unless the mind of the public is alert, unless the eyes of the citizens are always watching hose towhome they have entrusted great powers, injury and injustice are liable to be done. None of us can get rid of our responsibilities, and that I apply chiefly to the men here, because, unfortunately, women may have responsibilities, but they have no corresponding rights and privileges; so if wrong is done to people from other countries, it is not the women who are to blame, but the men citizens who are to blame, because, having power and privilege, they do not sufficiently exercise that power and privilege to safeguard the interests of others. However, I am very glad that it all came out for the best, as it did, and that my detention, so far form injuring my cause or 3 prejudicing the cause of woman suffrage in America, did, at very small cost and inconvenience to me, arouse interest in and advance the cause of woman suffrage in America. Now, as I was coming in the train to Washington this morning I had put into my hands a number of Sunday papers, and naturally I turned to the foreign intelligence. I mean that intelligence which you call foreign, but which, to me, is native. I turned to read the news of countries outside of the United States, and in doing so the first news I saw was an account of an act in a civil war. It was the blowing up of two railway trains and the probably killing of 1,500 people. That was not in Great Britain in the woman's revolution, but it was in another revolutionary movement in Mexico. I dare say the American people felt a thrill of horror when they read that, but I do not supposed anybody, either in England or the United States, ever questioned the right of revolutionary leaders, leaders in civil wars, or generals in any warfare between nations, to order the destruction of trains containing human beings. It is an incident in war. The destruction of railroads, of towns and villages, of national property and of personal property are accepted as incidents of warfare when waged by men. It is only when warfare is waged by women, when women, by a revolution, have sought to secure those rights which men have fought and died to obtain and defend, that men and women are sometimes shocked at the inci-dents in that warfare, however mild they may be. One of the results of that detention of mine in Ellis Island which I have not yet referred to was the bringing about of the acknowledgement by the representatives of your great country that our warfare in England is a revolution ; that the acts done in that revolution are not wanton acts of damage done from personal motives, like the acts of damage done by students in my country and in yours as a manifestation of irrepressible animal spirits, but these acts on the part of women, so unlike what women are expected to do that the hearing of them shocks you, are characteristic of a revolutionary movement and incidents of a civil war. Had the President of the United States decided that the actions for which I accepted responsibility were irresponsible acts of malice, then he would have been justified in considering me as an unbal-anced, dangerous person, and he would have been right in ordering my deportation. But since he admitted my right to come in to tell the American people why we English women are doing these things and what it is all about. he acknowledged that, so far as he was concerned-and a great many people agree with him-these acts are revolutionary acts, carried out in pursuance of the inalien- 4 able right of rebellion on the part of people suffering from an intol-erable injustice. (Applause.) I have often wondered why it was necessary from women to explain these acts so much. I have tried by long thought to find out why men never question the right of men to rebel, why they accept as a matter of course the fact that in Ireland to-day, although those men have votes, they are daily drilling, preparing to take human life because they do not like a Home Rule measure which has been imposed upon them by a majority ; nobody questions or misunderstands what those men are doing; nobody questions or misunderstands them, even if they disapprove of the work the men are doing. All over the United Kingdom to-day they are having industrial strikes and the workingmen are adopting strong action in order to try to win the legislation which they desire, doing deeds of extreme violence. Everybody understands that, yet when women do these things, even to the very mildest extent, hands are held up in pious horror ; an outcry is made that women are unsexed ; they are characterized as hysterical and even as a disgrace to their sex. I have tried to find the reason for all this inconsistency, and I have found that there is only one reason, and it is this-it is hard to say in this twentieth century, but it is nevertheless true: That women have not yet, even in countries as enlightened as this, come to be accepted in the minds of men as human beings like them-selves. (Applause.) Some men look upon us as something superhuman, try to treat us as if we were superhuman, too fine, too delicate for this rough-and-tumble world. They are sentimentalists, because it is senti-mental in a world like ours to-day to take that attitude and maintain it. To-day women are playing their parts in everything that happens in life. You cannot pick up a daily paper or go into a business house in your city or out in the street without realizing that women are working early and late, having to face all the dangers and difficulties of life exactly like the men, yet handicapped by their weakness, which some people say is an actual weakness and which many people are coming to think is the consequence of countless ages of subjection and lack of development. (Applause.) Yet the sentimental gentlemen go on talking as if they want to put into effect that old nursery rhyme, that women should "sit all day on a cushion and sew a fine seam, and live upon nothing but strawberries and cream." (Laughter.) I remember meeting an old gentleman on the train near Phila-delphia, and he found out that I and my friend who was traveling with me were suffragists, and he introduced himself to us and 5 began to argue against woman suffrage. He said: "Ah, I want every woman to be like my wife. I give her a beautiful home, and then I go out and work all day to earn the money to provide that home with all that it needs, and my wife and I are just exactly like two love-birds on a perch." "Yes," I said, "with this difference: That you get off the perch whenever you want to and leave her permanently on it" (applause and laughter), "and you would very much object if she insisted on inquiring what you did and how you spent your time when you were off the perch." (Laughter.) That is the sentimentalist. That gentleman very well expressed the sentimental attitude toward women in a world that is not at all sentimental, when some women have no men in their family, no means of their own, and do not belong to that small minority of women who are made really comfortable by men and whose chains are gilded so that they do not realize that they wear them. Then there are the men who look upon women in a subjective sense, as sub-human, as being created for the convenience of men, to be the mothers of their children or the drudges to do all the unpleasant work, all the underpaid work. Both of these classes of men are wrong. absolutely wrong. Women are neither super-human nor sub-human. They are human beings exactly like men. and it has been left to the twentieth century-and I want to say this with all submission to the woman suffragists in America-it has been left to the militant women of the twentieth century to initiate a new departure in the agitation for women's rights. (Applause.) We are the first suffragists who paid men the compliment of treating them as reasonable human beings. (Laughter.) Yes, and in so doing we have won our own self-respect. Some of us older women-I plead guilty to it myself-tried all the other methods: we tried the method of treating men as if they were grown-up children and not reasonable human beings prepared to do justice because it was right and just. We used to cajole and persuade them and do everything possible to avoid the risk of offending them. We tried to tell them how pleasant it would be to have the vote, and how grateful we were every time a man said on a platform that he was actually in favor of women suffrage, but they never did anything. All those days are gone now, so far as the militant movement in England is concerned. Now we look men in the face and say, in substance, by our attitude toward them: "Gentlemen, we are demanding the citizenship of women because we perform the duties of citizenship, because we conform to all the laws which decide what shall entitle a subject to citizenship. We ask that this justice, long 6 delayed, shall be done. If you refuse to do it, we put another question to you and say: 'Who gave you the right to say that women should or should not have the vote? (Applause.) How did you get that right? You got it exactly as despotic monarchs got their rights-by taking it. If you will not give it to us because it is right and just and in accordance with the highest principles of the Constitution of this country, then, like you, although we are women and not as strong as you, we will do as you did and take our rights for ourselves.'" (Applause.) I want to say that that attitude toward me, and that attitude toward men, that human, self-respecting attitude toward men which the militant woman of England adopts, is a very good thing for and a very good thing for the men. I believe it has made more real men friends for woman suffrage than all the fifty years of pleading that preceded it. In those days, even among the best of our friends and sympathizers, there was a patronizing air, as if they thought they were condescending to do something for somebody of an inferior class. Now, the men who stand at our sides treat us as comrades. We have won freedom in a way because in our souls we are free. In our hunger-strikes we are free as birds, because we have lost all fear of authority, all fear of punishment, all fear of consequences. We are free women, fighting for the freedom of the women who are still enslaved. (Applause.) I believe that if justification for rebellion is needed, the condition against which people rebel is perhaps the best justification of them all. If you are rebelling wrongfully, if you are fighting against just conditions, then you deteriorate and become smaller and meaner human beings than before the fight. If, on the other hand, there is justification for your fight, you are stronger, more vigorous, your mind is clearer and your soul is freer. But we women in England, though we have justification, are slow to move, very slow to rebel. I was very glad to see in one of your papers this morning the remarks of a woman Senator from one of your States where the men are enlightened that they have done justice to women very quickly. They have not only given women the vote almost before they asked for it-because there never could have been an agitation comparable to tat in Great Britain in this comparatively newly populated part of the world-but men in Colorado gave women the vote almost before they asked for it-because there never could have been an agitation comparable to that in Great Britain in this comparatively newly populated part of the world-but men in Colorado gave women the vote almost before they manifested a desire to obtain it. They not only did that, but they also recognized that they wanted to have women representatives, since they have helped to elect a woman State Senator. I was very glad to read in a New York paper a very condensed account of a recent speech of hers. She set forth in a plain, direct, common-sense way exactly the woman's point of 7 view with regard to these great public questions. She made it plain what the fight for woman suffrage is about. She explained away he kind of argument that women want the vote ad wan to have the rights of citizenship in order that they may become superior to men. She made it clear that what we want the vote for is to contribute something to the common weal, to the public welfare, something that is ever lacking a which can never be had except through woman suffrage. She explained that what she was doing was to represent the opinion of the women in the State Senate ; she was not particularly anxious to increase the opinions of the men. (Laughter.) It is just because what she represents in the government of Colorado is lacking that women find such justification and such need for woman's civil war in England to-day. It is because the woman's point of view is left out, and in consequence of that the woman's point of view if left out, and in consequence of that the women have grievances so appalling and so long neglected that it needs a revolution to even call attention to the grievances, and then it needs a civil war to deal effectively with these grievances. I am not going to suggest its afternoon how many of these grievances obtain in the United States that the women of England suffer from. That is the task of American women ; they can deal wit them in their own way and overcome them themselves. I am only going to show you how much greater, by comparison, is the woman's need for representation to-day tan was the need of your forefathers we generations ago hey decided that they would no longer consent to be governed by a Parliament in London. t is the same fight against an obstinate British government that your fore-fathers had. I have been traveling up and down the United States. I have been in the cradle of your Revolution. I have been in Boston and in the city of Providence, in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. and I find there is a friendly competition or friendly rivalry going on between these two cities. The people of Boston claim that they started the Revolution when they destroyed tea, private property, by throwing it into the harbor. The people of Providence say that they started the Revolution when they burned the ship, also private property, at Providence. I am glad to remind you that it was private property, because a great deal of stress is laid on that point in criticising the militant revolution in England, whereas in your forefathers' day the idea was that to strike at government you must strike through private property. They were very wise indeed, because it is through the owner of property that you can bring force to bear on the government to do justice when it will not do it in any other way. Now, there were many grievances in Boston and Providence 8 in those days that led them to take the action they did, and the grievances they most felt and most talked about were certain grievances which touched the pockets of the American colonists. That is the way with men. They accept many human grievances quite quietly, especially if they injure other human beings than themselves, but directly their pockets or business interests are touched they become alert, and the American colonists, when the stamp duty was imposed on them, considered that a sufficient excuse for rebellion, revolution, and destruction of private property. I do not believe that either the American or English women would ever rebel because of attacks upon private property. If that were so, I think the women of America would be in rebellion to-day. (Applause.) An income tax has been imposed upon the citizens of this country without consulting the women. Their consent was never asked at the ballot box. Nobody ever said : What do the women think about it? What do the women say about it? In fact, I dare say, your legislators never realized that women had anything whatever to do with it. If women were ever mentioned, it is probable they said it was our business to pay. Of course, we are always willing to pay and look as pleasant as possible when the process is going on. (Laughter.) Although in England women have refused to pay income tax and have gone to prison for it. The last woman who went there was called upon to pay an income tax on a man servant who had a vote. She employed a gardener, who lived in a cottage in her garden, and since he was a man servant and man servants are not, they being considered unworth of having a tax imposed upon them (laughter), this lady who paid her gardener's wages, thereby enabling him to become a parliamentary voter, refused to pay the tax. She said: "If my man servant, having a vote, cannot pay his taxes, then I, having no vote, ought not to pay mine." Then they put her in prison because she would not pay it. Now, a great many women have refused to pay taxes, but none has yet broken a window because she had to pay taxes. There are reasons very much greater than the payment of taxes that have led women to broken lives ; they have said: "Beter broken windows than broken lives." And if we, by breaking windows, can win control of legislation and save more lives by it, then give me a stone and I will go out and break a window. (Laughter and applause.) The woman's revolution was started not because of unjust taxation, althought we felt that injustice very bitterly, but because the social conditions all over the country affecting women have been getting steadily worse and worse, and we have found that through 9 the poverty and degradation of women very evil consequences have fallen, not only upon women but upon their children and the whole race. In fact, our revolution in England is a life-saving, race-saving revolution and we believe that only through revolutionary movements can we repress the very rapid progress of race degeneration in our country. Several times in the last few years the standard for enlistment in the British army had to be reduced. Her industrial population that you get recruits for the army. The prevalence of diseases of all kinds, especially the race diseases, brought about by improper conditions, is fostered largely by the miserable poverty of the women. They are getting so bad that at last, even in England, where everything that is unsightly has to be covered up, there has come from the medical profession, which, I think, in England is the most conservative in the world, a demand for a Royal commission to inquire into these terrible scourges which are ravaging our race. That demand has come largely because of the militant agitation for woman suffrage, have because we have been demonstrating that the duty which we are told is our highest duty, that of carrying on the race, keeping it in health, and bringing up children cannot be properly performed under present social conditions. It is such a big question that it would take several meetings to follow it through all its ramifications. We have in England an industrial system under which over 5,000,000 women have to earn their own living. Many of them are mothers, many of them are young girls who will be mothers later on. They begin work as early as 11 years of age under this half-time system which prevails quite through the cotton districts of our country, the districts where the cotton that comes from the United States is woven and spun into calico in the mills. Little girls 11 years of age go to work at 6 o'clock in the morning and work until noon and go to school in the afternoon. Under alternate conditions they go to school at 9 o'clock, stay there till noon and then go to the mills and work till 6 o'clock. These girls are growing up absolutely unfit to perform the duties of motherhood. (Applause) They are ruined in health before they grow up. If I could take you into what we call a tram-car, what you call a trolley-car, in the suburbs of one of our manufacturing cities between the hours of 5 and 6 o'clock in the evening when the mill men release the people they employ, and show you these cars filled with young girls, some of them 18 or 19 years of age, beginning from 11 years of age, which I have mentioned, you would hardly find one of these girls looking more 12 or 13 years of age. The women doctors who are now more and more becoming inspectors of factories, although the number of women inspectors 10 is far from adequate, find in examining these girls in the mills, in school or in our poor-law institutions, that they are very often unhealthy, most of them suffering from spinal curvature, and nearly all of them suffering from anemia, or bloodlessness, chiefly on account of being sent to work too early and kept at work too long in the unhealthy atmosphere of mills. In spite of the factory legislation to restrict the hours of labor of women and children, you will find that men, through the vote, and trades unions' efforts, without legislation have got their house of labor reduced to between 8 and 9 hours a day, while women are working 10 hours a day in the factory have to go home at night and do their domestic work as best they can. (Applause) There you see a very fruitful cause for degeneration of the race in England. Worse than that, all these five and a half million women have to work for their living and earn their living, and I count among them the women teachers because they have grievances too ; the woman teacher in my country gets a wage that does not compare with that of the unskilled man laborer whose education is not of the best, whose prospects are nothing. He gets a better wage, yet the woman who has had an expensive education, who is entrusted with what is perhaps the most serious task of any woman, that of educating the young of the country, has to be content with what in some cases is but a miserable pittance in comparison with the work she does. If you make a summary of the wages of all these women, from the school teacher down to the poorest sweat-worker, you will find that the average wage of them all is about two dollars a week. I ask the men in this meeting if they can name any class of men where such conditions of living prevail. If such a scale of wages prevailed among men, and if they had the domestic responsibilities of women, would you not think them justified in revolting against conditions such as these? (Loud applause.) You wax sentimental in America, just as we do at home, when you hear of young girls being decoyed and sold into white slavery. You go to the theaters and you are moved and affected, and it is right that you should be. You see the moving pictures, you read a story of some girl gone astray and you are affected but do you realize that it is women who allow that to go on? I say without fear of contradiction that if we could give women the same opportunity for technical instruction as men, the same opportunities for earning an honest living and getting enough to live on decently, it would be practically impossible to find any women, at any are, ready to go into that awful trade because they would be able to live honestly without it. (Applause.) It is literally a fact that 11 what makes it possible for that business to flourish is the condition of the women in my country, who are turned out into the world unprotected and have to earn their own living in the face of adverse circumstances. "Well," you say, "arouse the conscience of the civilized world and the women will be protected." No, gentlemen, we have had enough of efforts to try and rouse the conscience of the civilized world to protect women. We went for women the power to protect themselves. (Applause.) We know there are men, we know here are even politicians who are anxious to have laws for the protection of women and we say that the only just thing for them to do is to put women in a position to get the right kind of legislation. We are afraid of sentimental legislation. In England we have had so much of it and we know what is has done. We have had some sentimental legislation to "protect" girls from selling flowers on the street. They made it so that no girl under 18 years of age can sell flowers or anything else on the street. The streets, they say, are not fit for young girls. We know, to the cost of many young girls, that they are not, but what is to happen to them if they are not allowed to sell anything on the street? There are no drawing-rooms or other places for the poor girls have to go to. No: they have to go to the streets, because are the only playgrounds the poor have. But there is a trade which every girl in my country can enter into, under the law, at the age of 16, the trade of prostitution. She can enter that trade at the age of 16, by Act of Parliament, so you see these sentimental politicians have actually made it harder for them to live honestly than it was before they passed the law. (Applause.) When we women went to the House of Commons with petitions and protests in our hands we were thrown into prison and called unwomanly women and told that it was our place to stop at home. We have come to the conclusion that until every woman, every mother, every daughter, has a reasonable chance of a decent home to live in; it is our duty to live outside our homes in order to get what is necessary. (Applause.) And some of us have gotten rid of our homes entirely. (Laughter.) Because if you have a home it has to be properly looked after, and we think that by getting rid of homes altogether until we attain our ends we are doing our best for the community as a whole. Now, I must say just a few words to you about the legal excuse we have for revolution. I told you about a new law, which has added fuel to the flames, a very well intentioned law, but I dare say that many members were surprised at its effect. It has made us very much more anxious for the vote, because we have had so many of those things with which we are told a certain place is paved. (Laughter.) The members may have good intentions but 12 they have not the time to attend to certain necessary and serious things while they are making all these well-intentioned sentimental laws. The age at which a girl ceases to be protected from selling herself is 16. We have laws of marriage which are made for the woman who is about to enter that great and noble calling of wirehood and motherhood. By English law a girl is fit for marriage at the age of 12. She can marry and her marriage is good and cannot by broken except in a very difficult way. If she marries at 16, there again you find a fertile field for the white-slave trafficker. You can imagine a man who would do it. Fortunately for women, the men who would do that are in a minority but there is a substantial minority in some places who are quite ready to take every legal advantage to profit by the moral and physical degradation of the women of the poor. One of the fertile causes of prostitution in England is the fact that a reprobate disgraceful man can marry a girl when she is very young indeed-at 12-and his marriage holds good and he can terrorize her and use the protection that the marriage laws of England give to him. There are other marriage laws that are equally unjust to women. It is a well known saying that men are made to protect their wives and families but that is not so in England. If a man belongs to a class where there is no social position to compel him to do his duty when he is unwilling to do it, and if his wife is penniless, then she has no way to make him maintain her and her children. He can leave her and she cannot go into court and get a maintenance order against. The only thing she can do is to pauperize herself and children and go to the poor-law institutions, and she is separted from her children and her home is broken up. Then the poor-law authorities can take action against him, not to compel him to support his family, but to make him pay the cost to the comunity for taking care of his wife and children. That is one way the marriage laws of England take care of a deserted wife. If a woman toils all her life, helping her husband to save money,-she may even have worked in business to help him pay expenses, for in many places in my country most of the work is done by the wife and children, that is, other than domestic work which they do at night when they come home-and if her husband chooses to make a will disinheriting her and her children he can do it and the will is absolutely good and she has no redress. If he has made her a housekeeping allowance and she does not spend it all but lays some of it aside for a rainy day, and if the man finds it out and insists on her giving it to him then she has to do it. That is, when the agreement as to the amount of allowance has been entered into before marriage, and he finds that she has been saving 13 up some of it, even though he is a dissipated drunkard, the law compels her to hand over to him the money she has saved out of her household expenses. That happened in England only recently and that is one of the causes that led to the militant movement in Eng-land. They said, "If this is all the protection our marriage laws give us the more we do to make them better the better it will be for our women, our children and our country, and we are going to take some action, and keep it up until we get some action by Parliament." Under the English laws women have no rights of guardianship during the husband's lifetime. As long as he is alive, unless she has been given a divorce with custody of the children. It is exceedingly difficult for a woman to get a divorce in England. The husband is the absolute dictator as to what shall be done with the children. Even the religion of the children is decided by the husband. There have been cases where a pre-nuptial agreement has been entered into that the girls shall be brought up in the religion of the mother and the boys in the religion of the father, and if the husband afterward repudiates that and wants to bring the girls up in his religion the courts uphold him. The law in England is very consistent because not only does it decide that children born in marriage shall have but one parent, the father, but it also decides that children born out of marriage shall have but one parent, the mother,-not the father, but the poor unfortunate mother, who has all the responsibility of the children's future put upon her shoulders. Out of that terrible state of affairs have grown many evils. I want to say to to the men in this meeting that if women had all the power to make laws and the men had none, we might have done many things that you would think unjust to men but I do not think we would ever have done so barbarous and anomalous a thing as to say that little children should come into the world prejudiced by being deprived of one parent. I think we should have decided that the sins of the father should not be visited upon the children in that respect and that every child should have two parents equally responsible for its future welfare in the world. (Applause.) Then in England our laws of inheritance are onesided. If a man dies and leaves real estate his eldest child inherits, and the interpretation placed upon the words "eldest child" does not include women. A man may have 10 children, all girls, but if a boy be born they are all passed over and he is called the "eldest child" and the women accept it. You see, we have accepted things so long as a matter of course, but this 20th century is an age of questioning and women of course, but this 20th century is an age of questioning and women are now asking themselves if it is just-and we are not sure that it is-that the fact of being born first carries with it the 14 privilege of inheritance, but we do not want to have an injustice of primogeniture in addition to injustice of sex. If a child dies before reaching the age of 21 years, or without making a will, dies after 21, the legal heir of that child is the father. The mother who risked her life that it might come into the world, who cared for it in infancy, who nursed it in sickness and did far more for it than the father was able to do, is not recognized; only the father inherits in a case like that. I could go on telling you of case after case after law after law, but to sum it all up, all these conditions have grown out of the subjection of women, these laws have come down from the time when women were property. Of course, they are property still, but nobody admits that ; it is only registered in the laws, and women have to fight it out when they come into conflict with them. Today women are beginning to realize that things are not what they should be ; that some things are not what they are thought to be. Gentlemen, the initial mistake men made was allow women to learn the alphabet. (Laughter and applause.) Directly we learned that, why, it became impossible to stop the progress of women any longer. I remember the time when they used to say all the things about women having an education that they now say about women having a vote. (Laughter and applause) It was always that idea that women were a species apart, who had come into the world for one purpose only. You see, Nature did not take that view of us ; Nature gave us brains. (Laughter.) And we showed that we had as good brains as men. (Renewed laughter.) And sometimes a little better. (Applause.) Then they said it would be a terrible thing for the race for women to get physical culture, to have gymnastic exercises and develop themselves. Now, we are being told that government rests upon force and women being so much weaker than men they could never win their rights by resort to force. Now we know that government does not rest upon force, but upon the consent of the governed. You cannot govern any people without their consent. (Applause.) You may do very pleasant things to them, but you cannot govern them without their consent. In order to enforce consent in my country very unpleasant things have been done to women. You may kill people, you may hurt them very much, but you cannot compel an intelligent human being to consent to injustice by force. Now, I want to call your attention, in regard to the suggestion that evolution will eventually make physical force and revolutionary methods unnecessary, to an appalling thought. It is possible that in the near future whole armies may be annihilated by simply touching 15 a button. That is one of the reasons why women are wanting to bring into the affair of the world women's methods of settling disputes, and we women are adopting men's methods, which we do not care for, in order to bring women's methods into the settlement of human affairs. Is it not appalling to think that it might soon be the case that by touching a button you can annihilate an army? Think of the person touching the button. If it was a war between us, don't you think, if it is a question of quickness, that we are liable to be quicker than you? (Laughter.) But while men may have human ingenuity at their disposal we women in England have feminine ingenuity and we are proving that it can terrorize. (Laughter.) I saw a cartoon in the paper this morning,-and probably the editor of that paper has an entirely mistaken idea of our revolution,-showing women drilling in England. It shows a row of camp beds, and some of the women are looking under the camp beds, presumably to see whether there is a rat or a burglar there. It demonstrated how absolutely mistaken is that editor's idea of the situation in England. It is not the women who are looking under the beds. It is the Cabinet ministers and heads of police. (Prolonged laughter and applause.) And business men and owners of property who are looking out for the ubiquitous elusive suffragette. (Laughter.) And they cannot find her, or at least they find very few of her. (Renew laughter.) She has made up her mind not to be found. When we were willing to go to prison as an object lesson we used to stand still and let them take us. That was in the days when there was no violence and when we thought that by going to prison we could arouse the conscience of the country, but we have realized that we have to touch pockets, we have to damage not railways but houses and inanimate property, and today the suffragette is indistinguishable. You may picture yourself in the position of Mr. Asquith going out to attend a public meeting, guarded like the Czar of Russia and if he sees anything in feminine attire he is afraid of her. (Laughter.) these men say they believe in government of the people, by the people and for the people, and yet when they go forth to a meeting to proclaim that fact they are surrounded by policemen in uniform, and when they go to a dinner party they look anxiously around in fear, that a suffragette is going to pop up from somewhere saying: "When are you going to give us the vote?" (Laughter.) I hope the American men are never going to get themselves in the position in which the English men are today. How can you distinguish me from Miss Paul, for instance? I am militant : Miss Paul is not-so far. (Laughter) I am not branded in any way. Suppose you are on the lookout for someone with a 16 box of matches going to set fire to a house. You cannot arrest every woman you see in the street. When a business man sits down to breakfast with his wife and daughters there is a very uncomfortable feeling in his mind as to whether the delay in his mail the day before may not have been caused by his daughter. Yet they go on saying that government rests upon force, forgetting that government rests upon the consent of the governed. Last May they gave me a sentence of 3 years' penal servitude, and I am here. It cost me nearly my life to be here, but I am here, and I have proved that all the force in civilization cannot keep me in prison any longer than I intend to remain there. (Applause.) "Let them die in prison!" they say. If they did, it would have altered the case. We should not be in prison ; we should have escaped from prison. So you see that women, even the very weakest of them, have courage and some of them can set fear at defiance, But you cannot do that unless you believe as our women do and as your forefathers did, that we are fighting a revolution for something much better than ourselves, for the thing that makes human life worth living,-liberty. (Applause.) We are fighting for that and nothing less than that. We know what it is to go prison. You are sentenced with all the majesty of the law, and there is a great deal of it in England ; there is the judge in scarlet robes and the swearing in of the jury, and all these men who are your political superiors are brought in to overawe you. Finally all the cumulative evidence is brought forward, and a good deal of it is manufactured. You refuse to have counsel and you defend yourself on the ground of justification. You know what it is all settled before the trial, even to what prison you are going to be sent to. I have been through it all. We go through it all and then, exhausted in body and very, very tired we are taken to prison. I have seen American prisons but so far I have not seen one as awe-inspiring as Holloway Prison in England. It is built like a medieval castle with thick, massive walls. You are taken through long dark corridors and finally pushed into a stone cell and hear the iron door clang behind you. I have heard that certain men have asked to be allowed to remain in a cell over night to know what it feels like, but they have no sooner been locked in than they knock on the door and ask to be let out. If you take to "hunger-striking" you are not allowed to go out of your cell. There you are, alone, because you have broken the regulations they have taken away your books. Three times a day food is set before you and you have to find courage to let it lie there untouched from one meal to another. That goes on from day to day, and then the Doctor comes in and tells you how every organ in your body is going to be injured, and if you get out-he does not think you are 17 going to get out-you will be a physical wreck. Then the chaplain comes in and appeals to you to think about your family, your children, and you have to live through it all. There have been attempts to make prisoners serve their full sentences by forcible feeding, and it is not the forcible feeding that they give to insane patients in a hospital. It is a sane woman being held down by 12 people while food is forced down her throat. They are in a hurry because there are others to feed and they pass on the next cell, using the same instrument here. They do that all day, day after day. My girl Sylvia has 5 weeks of it, twice a day, and she did not give in. (Loud applause.) They had to let her go at the end of that time, before her sentence had expired, and they had her back 4 times since then, all on account of some broken glass worth not over a few shillings. I want to make you feel that this fight of ours is in dead earnest Women would not do these things if they were not desperately in earnest with a cause behind them to carry them through. I do not think there is any doubt in anybody's minds as to this being a fight to a finish and as to who is going to win. (Applause.) We are going to win. (Renewed applause.) I want you to say to those who question our methods that so far as England is concerned it is the only way to win. "Wait for evolution!" some people say, but while we are waiting for evolution thousands of women's lives and little children's lives are being sacrificed. I believe, as a woman who has spent a long life working for the public good, that we have had our revolution only just in time to save our race. I believe that we have been on the down grade and I am supported in my belief by men high in the scientific professions, by medical men and surgeons, who agreed with me that our civilization was doomed unless something was done to turn back the swelling tide of degeneracy. I believe it is a case of "women to the rescue." I want to make it very plain to the men who are anxious to reform the health of the community that it can only be done by raising an equal code of morals for men and women. (Loud applause.) Though it is a hard way for men who for all ages have felt they were justified in doing things and living in ways that they would repudiate if women did the same, yet it is the only way. Prevention is the only cure. It is of no avail for doctors to talk about vice being made safe. It cannot be made safe, and it is not right that it should be. Women to-day are saying: "We will submit no longer to what has been called a 'necessary evil.'" (Applause.) "We are not going to have civilization based on the moral and physical subjection of a large section of ou sex. We are not going to have even the health of men,-it is not true, but if it 18 were true,-preserved at the expense of some women." (Applause.) "Some better way must be found. If it were true"-I do not believe it is, I believe it comes of generations of wrong thinking-"that men are not like women in their physical needs, then they must set to work to find out some way that does not involve the degradation and subjection of women. (Applause.) "And what is of more consequence, through that degradation the physical ill-health and moral ill-health of the whole race." And I think moral ill-health is worse for the race than physical ill-health. So this fight of ours is for a very much greater thing than merely votes; it is to make it possible for us together, the men and women, to make a better beginning of things so that we may have a greater sense of responsibility toward unborn generations that are to come after us, than we have to-day. I was asked, when I came here, what right had I to come in from the outside and ask help from the American people. That reminded me of a time, many many years ago, just after the close of your Civil War, when some of your men and women came over to my native city asking for help. You were trying to recover from the effects of that war. You had emancipated another section of our race from slavery, who were in need of clothes and other. My father rendered all the assistance he could. He was on a committee to help arrange for the relief of those people, and my mother had meetings of her friends in the house ; she had sewing parties, and finally, they had a great bazaar to raise money to send over here. I was then but a child, and one of my earliest recollections is going up and down the aisles of the big Free Trade Hall in Manchester with a lucky-bag on my arm, asking people to buy a dip in my lucky-bag. Those people had a right to ask for that help, just as the women of England are asking for help to-day in the fight they are making ; and we are having a desperate fight. I neglected to say that one method adopted by the enemy to harrass us is to threaten us financially, to threaten us with legal proceedings for publishing our newspaper, and try to get the men into trouble who publish the paper. When I left France to come here, after recovering from five hunger-strikes in England, I sent a message to a friend in England, something like: "While I am away you are raising money for the great meeting that is to be held in London, and you will do as you have always done-pour money into the your political treasury to fight out political bills for next year. While you are raising money at home, I shall go to America on a lecture tour-I have been there before-and while I cannot give much help, as long as I am able to speak I am going to do it. I shall 19 travel all night and all day, and I shall bring back as much money as I can. Not only shall I ask the people to buy seats, but I shall also take up a collection, in order that the people who feel so disposed may show the only sympathy that is worth having--and that is practical sympathy." And so, ladies and gentlemen, to-day I make no apology for asking you to help us. I thank you for letting me tell you what our movement is and how our women are carrying it on, and how unselfish it is. I think I can appeal to you for aid, for although you may not quite like all we do, yet I know you are in sympathy with our objects and realize that, so far as England is concerned, our way is the only way in which English women can deal with the situation there. So I ask you, ladies and gentlemen, to give us something to enable us to continue our fight until this victory, which is certain to come, is finally assured. (Prolonged applause.) The Carnahan Press 14 Washington, D. C. Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.