Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-03-20
Miseellaaeuus Readins.
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN ENGLAND.
The Movement Has Reached Proper
fione That Ara Ci1nif,oanf

: tions That Are Significant.
That hell has no fury like a wom-
an scorned" is being brought home to
the Liberal party in England with de-
moralizing force. When the woman
is fighting for the franchise as wild
animals fight to guard their young,
and added to that, when she Is imbued
with a singing sense of the scorn the
party in power has heaped upon her,
the fury becomes something to reck-
on with as we'll as to laugh at.
The women who were first called
suffragettes in satire and are now so
called by choice have a Grievance
(big c. against the present govern
ment and are acting upon it in a way
unique in English history. Their
grievance is this:
For twenty years while the Union
many and various war cries in their
succeeding campaigns. Now the
Unionists made no pretences about
suffrage for women. They would
have none Of 1t and laughed 1t down
and ignored it. But the Liberals who
were busily promising almost any
thing, included the franchise for
women in their platform. And the
women helped them finally to victory.
1t is difficult for Americans to real
iZe how strong a factor women are in
British politics. Women do not hes
titate to go. among the people in a
personal canvass for candidates, using
womanly wiles as we'll as political in
telligence to gain votes. Well, for
forty years much feminine effort was
used to further the Liberal cause and
always the enfranchisement Of woman
was one Of the party's professed prin-
ciples.
The Woman Suffrage Union, the
| Woman's Liberal federation and sew
eral other societies devoted themselves
to the Liberal cause and helped the
party to attain office. In 1903 a new
| organization was formed called the
| Womans Social and Political Union
w. S. P. L. for short.
Mrs. Pankhurst the organizer of
this society, is the widow Of DR.. Pank-
hurst, with whom for thirty years she
worked for the emancipation Of wom-
an. 1t was this DR.. Pankhurst who
drafted and carried through the mar
ried woman's property act by which a
married woman's property remains
her own instead of belonging to her
husband.
With her daughter Christabel, Mrs
Pankhurst founded the w. S. P. U.
| because she was weary of the quiet
efforts of the other woman suffrage
societies and longed for more militant
methods.
At first this new Union supported
| by it's allies, the Liberals, at every bye
election and finally at the general
election in 1906. Two years ago in
came the Liberal party with tremen-
dous majority and an even more tre
| to.
AS soon as the Liberals reached the
zenith Of their hopes and England
was under a Liberal government along
came all the various woman suffrage
unions with polite requests to cabinet
ministers and leading statesmen that
woman's suffrage bill might be talk
ed over, drawn up and carried through
at once. Then did all the cabinet
ministers and members Of Parliament
appear to disregard or quite to forget
their prediction professions. Depu-
tations Of women from various unions
sought interviews with their one-time
allies, but interviews were avoided
and every member of the government
had such a burden Of business Of
state on his shoulders that he had no
time for deputations.
The Woman's Liberal Federation
and the Woman Suffrage Union were
crushed by this treatment, and though
they held agitated meetings and
wrote agitated articles, they were
| beginning to sink back into that lady
| like acquiescence and gentle patience
which has marked their campaign for
years. Then stepped forward the
Gracchi as they are called the three
offspring Of that militant Roman ma
tron Mrs. Pankhurst.
They were young, nourished on the
emancipation Of woman, and with the
blood of the twentieth century college
veins. They refused in downright
terms to submit to such treatment and
proceeded to give the Liberals taste
of new tactics.
At a great meeting in Albert Hall
| in 1906, when many leading Liberals
spoke, Miss Christabel Pankhurst and
Miss Annie Kenney, north of Eng |
land factory worker, rose and waving
large flags with "Votes for Women"
inscribed thereon demanded of the as
tOnished speakers: Are you going to
keep your promises to the women of
England? What about votes for
women?" Instant confusion and hub
bub followed, which ended in the two
women being carried off to Jail for
disorderly conduct.
The next day every newspaper de- |
voted a column of wit to these often |
ders, and as they were not worthy of
being suffragists they became Suffra-
gettes. That was the first taste of the |
fury" but others followed. Every |
Liberal meeting had in the audience
Suffragettes who interrupted impor-
tant speeches with the reiterated and
most incOnvenient question, What
about votes for women?" or course
jeers and rdicule were showered upon |
them, yet their numbers increased and
their campaign funds swelled.
The other wOmen's societies stood |
little aghast at these tactics and dis
soclated themselves from their sister |
union whose members allowed them |
selves such abandon of conduct and |
such disregard of conventiOnalitieS. |
Finally one sympathiZer with the
movement attempted to put bill
| tbro,, pl, a,,lia