El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-04-16
Suffragettes Of England
HOW WOMEN FORMED MILITANT ORGANIZATION
III-Votes for Women.

but for every one OF the conservatives
who deserted the banner of the cause,
there was gained score of Boadiceas
who are battling for the sheer love Of
the strife.
Mrs. Pankhurst and her daughter,
Miss Christabel Pankhurst, are the tit
ular and actual leaders of the suffra-
gette movement They defy in ---eir
persons and in the manner of their or
ganization every known British prece-
dent, except the selection of a long
name for their society.
The ordinary British society for the
| amelioration of the condition of the
mice in the south side of Soho Square
does not appeal to the popular magma
tfon unless it has for its honorary
president a noble earl, or at the very
least the wife of a barOneI- Mrs Pank-
bursts organization is made up of
countesses and charwomen, of Ouch
esses and drudges. of noble ladies and
factory girls. 1t is the most catholic
! and democratic political society known
/. to the history of the country, and yet
there is not titles on the list of the
principal officers of the union
Fidelity to Faith.
Suffragettes of high and low degree,
daughters of belted earls and daughters
of humble cooks. have proved their fl
deity to the faith that is within them
by eheerfully going TO prison and by
multiplying the horrors of prison life
merely to protest against their govern
ment
In this great personal sacrifice, fool
ish though it may seem to some of us
and Intellectual as it has proved to be.
the women OF England, for the first time
have made breaches in. the partition
walls which separate class from class
in British society. In fact the suffra-
ninf -rho
they actually condemn the ingrained-
British habit of snobbery and, what is
even more wonderful, they actually live
up to their pretentions of equality.
The woman suffrage movement in
England. as has been said, has been on
foot ever since the reform bill agitation
of 1882 For 40 years the demand has
been expressed annually, and for the
past 20 years. the demand for votes
for women" has been much more gen
eral and much stronger than the demand
for votes for farm laborers and other
men who are disenfranchised by reason
of the property qualifications.
During all these years leading states
men Of both parties were accustomed
from time to time, to give their consent
and approval to the woman suffrage
cause, when they were not in position
to do anything. Great Tory leaders
have come out boldly in favor of votes
for women; lord BeaconsfIeld in 1873,
the marquis of Salisbury in 1883. and
the right honorable A J. Balfour in
1892 II. will be observed that these
great Conservative leaders were heartily
in favor of woman suffrage at such
times as the Liberal party was in
power.
Great Liberal statesmen. John Bright,
William Ewart Gladstone and David
Lloyd George also were open advocates
Of sniff hut al
found public expression only when the
Conservative party had control of the
government
Women Aroused
After many years the women awoke
to the fact that, whatever party was IN
power their demands always received
hearty support from the opposition
benches. the while being trained with
silent disdain by those statesmen occu-
pying the ministerialist side of the
house They resolved to have no more
of this blowing hot and blowing cold
and. under the leadership of Mrs. Pank-
hurst, the militant movement was or
gained.
The present organization professedly
seeks 10 bind voters whom it may in
fluence to promise not to support the
candidate of any party for the house
of commons until such time as women
chise on an equal basis withs men.
To impress their views upon a stony
hearted government they adopted tactics
which brought them into collision with
the police and which placed many of
them behind prison bars The natural
result Of this was to inflame the angry
passions of the suffra gettes against the |
ministry then in power. which happened !
to be the Liberal AS a result the suf- |
fragettes in the recent election in Great |
Britain used all their Influence affirm |
atively against the Liberal candidates |
and. therefore. negatively in behalf of |
the Conservative nominees.
Factions Developed.
1t was one of the curious features of |
that exceedingly curious campaign that |
the suffra gettes supported the Con- !
sentative candidates., as did also the |
-Suffragist cohorts led by Mrs. !
Humphrey Ward. Mrs. Ward and Tory i
women generaIlys oppose the Liberals !
because they think the Liberals may in !
troduce citizenship suffrage into Eng
land and thereby interfere with the sa- /
cred rights and privileges of the prop
erty holding classes
Mrs. Pankhurst and her suffragette
followers supported the Tories for the |
simple reason that the Liberals are
perfectly horrid.
IV-Suffra gettes in Prison
!