The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-10-21
THE MILITANT
 MOVEMENT IN
 OLD ENGLAND
How It Was Inaugurated by
 Mrs. Pankhurst, Who Will Address the Suffragists of
 Bridgeport, October 27thI

The convention of the Connecticut Woman Suffrage association is to be held on the 26th and 27th of this month in this city. The event of the convention will be the speech of Mrs. Pankhurst on the evening of Friday, the 27th. Mrs. Pankhurst is well known as leader of the militant suf- frakettes in England.
 From her girlhood. Mrs. Pankhurst had been inspired by stories of the early reform movements, and even before this, at an age when most children have scarcely learnt their al- phabet. her father, Robert Goulden, of Manchester, set her to read his newspaper to him at breakfast and thus awakened her lasting interest in poIftfca
 The Franco-German war was still a mucn-discussed event when Robert Goulden took his 13-year- daughter to school in Paris, placing her at the Ecole Normale, where she became the room-companion of Henri Rochfort's daughter. Noemie. Noemie Rochfort told her little English school fellow much of her own fathers adventur-s ousl career. and Emmeline Goulden soon became an ardent and enthus- tastic Republican. She was now de~ lighted to discover that she had been born on the anniversary of the de- structfon of the Bastille, and was proud to tell her friend that her own grandmother had been an earnest pol itician. and one of the earliest mem bers of the Anti-C Corn Law league, ana that her own grandfather had mar rowly escaped death on the field of Waterloo
 7 This early companionship. and the reformers' blood which flowed in her veins made her turn eagerly toward every means of securing justice for the oppressed. Even in her school days in Paris she had been taken by her mother to a Woman Suffrage meeting. pr. Pankhurst, whom she married at the age of 21, was an earnest advocate of this reform and together.in company with many thou sands of other women, they worked for years for this reform. In 1901 her enthusiasm received fresh stim- ulus from her daughter Christabel, who began to take an active part in the agitation among working girls During Mrs. Pankhurst's active life she had worked in every sort of or ganixation for charitable and civic reform. and the experiences of. her later years had brought. her a keener. insight into the results of the political disabilities of women. She now real jzed more strongly than ever before the urgent and immediate need for
 
 Although Mrs. Pankhurst's society was formed October 10, 1903, it was not until October 13, 1905. that tho first so-called militant action took place. The Liberal government, after many years, was coming into power and Mrs. Pankhurst decided to ask their leaders when thsy intended to put into practice in the case of WOm- | en their fine ideas about justice and self f-government. The first two wom. .en were thrown out of a meeting. Of Liberal candidate because in question time they insisted on an answer to | their question and then when they l held a protest meeting outside they were arrested and given the choice of a hne or Imprisonment. They chose fnaprisonment.
 One of these women was, Christa- bel Pankhurst, Mrs. Pankhurst's cid. est daughter, the other was Annie Kenney, a working girl who had be. gun work in the mill at the age of ten hitting into place the big bob bins and piecing the strands of soft cotton when they broke as they were being spun out finer and stronger. once. as she seized the broken thread in her tiny fingers, one of her fingers was caught and torn off by the flying bobbins. This girl knew we'll of the terrible need which the women of her class had for the protection of the vote.
 The imprisonment of Christabel Pankhurst, a woman lawyer and the daughter of distinguished parents, and Annie Kenney. a working girl and the child of working people. is typical or the militant movement throughout. In the 700 prisoners who have follow ed these two girls, tho richest and the poorest, noble ladies, and working girls. have shared and shared alike. Their members have grown from barf1ful to a host. They have brought woman suffrage from hopelessness to the eve of trfum phant success, ana the woman who all the world ac- knowledges has done this is Mrs. Pankhurst.
 This great leader and successful statesman has returned to America. At her former visit, two years ago. throngs were turned away from her meetings. Bridgeport is fortunate in having this opportunity of hearing her dramatic story from her own Iips. Mrs Pankhurst will speak on the evening of Friday, October 27, at Park City rink. on State street. near vale. All seats are free. The meet ing will he a memorable one.