The Suffragettes by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241252123
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2016-01-11T05:00:00+00:00

Punch: ‘The Dignity of the Franchise’, 1905 (copyright © the British Library, London, UK/Bridgeman Images).

‘“Votes for Women,” Never!’ Anti-Suffragette handbill from the National League for Opposing Woman Suffrage.

THE OPPONENTS’ VIEW. WOMEN’S NATIONAL ANTI-SUFFRAGE LEAGUE.

BY MRS FREDERIC HARRISON.

The invitation to our league to set forth our views in the Queen comes at an opportune moment, and is in great contrast with the illiberality of many journals, who do their best to close their columns against us. We often hear of the injustice done to that small minority of women who demand the Parliamentary vote; we do not hear of the injustice done to that large majority of women who have conscientious objections to the vote, and feel that in every scheme of franchise as yet set forth a great wrong is intended to the wives and mothers of this country.

The public has hardly had time or opportunity as yet to understand our position. This franchise movement for women is too recent a growth to have become a practical question, and the women who disapproved it, did not feel it their business to oppose or to thwart those other women who sought to convince them and the general public. It is always a painful and an unpleasant task for women to oppose other women who command respect, even though their arguments may not carry conviction.

The constitutional ladies, as I may call them, for they made their demands in a constitutional way, have been swept out of sight by a number of “irresponsibles,” who have. as we think, brought discredit on the cause, and forced us into action. Their appearance on the scene entirely changed the situation, which Mr Asquith’s guarded pronouncement has made acute. The women who did not want the vote were forced into a position of defence, and had to seek some way of putting their case before politicians and the country. Our silence would have implied consent and approval.

As I hope to write with respect and consideration for our opponents, I must say a word in justification of the term “irresponsible.” The somewhat rough gambols of the militant ladies have not, as we think, done much harm, beyond annoying candidates for Parliament, who, as the old Italian vetturino used to say, “sont là pour cela.” The cleverness and energy of these ladies is beyond dispute; so is the fertility of their imagination, though they do not bear imprisonment with the quiet dignity of the passive resisters. But we agree that prison is not a pleasant place.

How, then, do I justify the term irresponsible? I will quote from a well-known Socialist organ, presumably a friend to the cause of woman’s suffrage:

Listening to Miss Christabel Pankhurst the other day … If the limited suffrage for women were passed into law, that is to say, all the disabilities under which women suffer—physical, mental, economic, social: and moral—would all be done away with at a stroke. It is the lack of the vote, so we were given to understand. that renders women liable

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