The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1913-10-24
IT'S THE GREATEST SPEECH
EVER GIVEN BY A WOMAN

CONTINUED from Page One.)
I am charged with melting.
What l say is that IL It is right
that I should be charged with in
citing voteless women to these
acts, should not those who have
melted us be in the dock by my
side? You have heard my
speeches read in which 1 pointed
out that We had been directly in
cited by members of the govern
ment. If I am to be punished
for melting women to deeds Of
| violence, how is II that members
of his majesty's government are
not in the dock by my side, for
they are equally guilty?
! / have been told that I may not
refer to the provOcation we have
received i'm the administration of
the law, that 1 may not tell you
Of judge of assize who was
found dead in a brOthel.
The judge (indignant) II think
you have committed and been
guilty of a most shameful want of
decorum in making that observa-
ton. stopped you before. You
have done the very thing that l
told you You ought not to do.
Mrs. Pankhurst-It is true, my
lord.
The Judge (angrily)-You are
doing yourself no good, allow me
to tell you.
Mrs. Pankhurst (proceeding)
Gentlemen of the jury, / want
you to understand how women
felt who went before a commits
sion on divorce. I want you to
realize how women feel when
they read reports of cases of pun
ishment inflicted upon men gull
ty even of corrupting the physi-
cal and moral life of their own
little daughters. They are sent
to terms of punishment very
much lighter in many cases than
are inflicted on women found
guilty in this agitation.
l was sent to Holloway prison
the first time for six weeks for
breaking a pane of glass, treated
as an ordinary prisoner, while a
man in city I know very we'll,
occupying a high position, was
sent for six weeks for having
corrupted several little girls.
These are the reasons that have
made women take part in this ag-
itation, and l want to say to you,
gentlemen, that so long as you
allow these things to go on, wom-
en- are driven to take the law in
to their own hands. If there is
in the laws and. the administra-
ton of law so wide a gulf set be-
tween women's feelings and men s
feelings on moral matters, that in
itself is a justification for what
We are doing.
More than 1000 have gone to
prison in the course of this agi-
tation, and not against one of
those women can you find one
word that can be said against her
character or her life.
| Over 1000 women have come
out of prison injured in health,
weakened in body, but not in
spirit. I come to stand my trial
from the bedside of one -'of my
daughters, who has come out OF
Holloway prison, sent there for
two months hard labor for par
ticipating with four other people
in breaking a small pane of glass.
She has hunger-struck in prison.
She submitted herself f1e more
than five weeks to the horrible
ordeal of feeding by force. She
is SO weak that she cannot get
out of bed. And 1 say to you.
gentlemen, that is the Kind of
punishment you are infIicting
upon any woman who may be
brought before you. ask you
If you are prepared to go on do
ing that kind of thing Indefinite
ly, because that is what is going
to happen. There is absolutely
no doubt about 1t.
1 think you know that we are
not notOriety hunters. We could
get that, heaven knows, much
more cheaply IL we sought It. We
are women. rightly or wrongly
convinced that this is the only
way In which we can win power
to alter what for us are intoler-
able conditions.
Well. these are the things that
have made us women determined
to see this thing out to the end,
let 1t cost us what It may. And
II you convict me, gentlemen. I