September 21, 1912, To the Editor of The Newcastle Weekly Chronicle,
“Latest Phase of a Democratic Struggle”
Once more Davison raises her pen to refute charges that militant tactics have impeded
women’s progress toward suffrage. In responding to “Mary’s” letter, Davison uses
her second paragraph to articulate her message about the cost of militancy to
suffragettes, and the courage needed for the first advocates of woman suffrage merely
to speak in public to plead for their political rights. She moves on in the rest of the
letter once more to position the struggle for woman suffrage within the wider suffrage
struggles Britain has witnessed, and to charge the enfranchised electorate with failure
to support women’s just cause. Supported or friendless, she avers that suffragettes will
persevere because they know their cause is just, and because they read history, both
Christian and secular, as a record which assures them that finally right triumphs over
brute force, no matter how dark the future seems. Once more she invokes the trope of
the Christian martyr and vows, “The price will…be paid, if exacted.”
Sir, — In the column on ‘Home and Fashion’ in your issue of September 7 there
is a small paragraph headed ‘Women and the Vote,’ in which the writer declares
that ‘it needs some courage for a woman to say she thinks she ought to have
the Parliamentary vote, owing to the change brought about in the minds of the
average man by the fierce measures pursued by the very militant section of
Suffragists.’
As one of the militants to whom ‘Mary’ refers, will you allow me to reply
that whatever courage may be needed by her to express even a wish for the
Parliamentary vote, far more courage is needed by our militants to face personal
ill-treatment, vindictive sentences, to say nothing of the mental, moral and
physical torture of forcible feeding, and not even thinking of the terrible
misunderstanding, misrepresentation, insult, and obloquy to which they are
subjected by open foes and half-hearted friends? Does ‘Mary’ ever consider for
one moment what every active militant has to undergo? Every single one who
puts militancy into practice has to make some enormous sacrifice. The sacrifice
varies according to the circumstances. It may be loss of livelihood, position,
wealth, friends, relations, and not less commonly loss of health, and even
possibly risk of life itself. Are such sacrifices lightly made? In all this no mention
is made of the personal shrinking which every woman feels as a matter of
certainty from being thrust into publicity, especially such unpleasant publicity,
which is parallel to the feeling which ‘Mary’ herself represses in just asking for
Votes for Women. This was the repugnance which the pioneers of the
movement had to overcome, when they did what in those days was quite as
horrifying and shocking as is our militancy now—namely, presented the then
extraordinary spectacle of women speaking on a public platform.
But who is to blame for the present position? Certainly not the women. It
is the voters themselves, who are responsible for the excesses (!) of militancy,
and who will be to blame if worse things follow. The extension of the vote to
women is acknowledged by such skilled Parliamentarians as ‘P.W.W. as
inevitable (vide the recent article last month in the ‘Daily News and Leader,’ and
also the one by him in the ‘Englishwoman.’) Why then delay it? If the electorate
had shown any decided attitude on the question in 1867, in 1884, and still more
in 1910 and 1911, the matter would have been settled, and settled without any
display of real militancy, except a very mild amount of stone-throwing. But the
electorate has hitherto failed to grasp how completely this is a people’s battle—
the latest phase of a democratic struggle—and so we women have to struggle on
to the best of our ability. This lays a fearful burden upon us, especially as the
Government have always cruelly adopted the attitude of trying to crush the
movement by brute force, a thing which women have always dreaded. The
result is that we had either to submit to brute force (which according to the anti-
Suffragist is the real basis of Government), or use a certain amount of brute
force in order to go on with the struggle. But what we have behind us, and our
movement is something far higher than brute-force—moral force. It is that which
is enabling us to carry on this terrible struggle which entails as great suffering for
us as had to be faced by the early Christians. Of course, we could not carry it on
if we did not know that we have Right on our side. That moral force will make
our victory sure but how quickly the victory is to be won or at how small a cost
lies with the people of England. For the sake of the public conscience it is to be
hoped that the people will soon assert their sovereign power; otherwise, the
victory will be won at a serious cost to the national honour. The price will,
however, be paid if exacted.
‘Mary’ shows great intelligence in pointing out how contemptible is the
attitude of those people, who, because of some (wonderfully few) excesses, the
causes of which they have not troubled to examine and understand, would
condemn a whole sex to remain un-enfranchised. There were plenty of such
faithless friends in 1867, and again in 1884, but the Reform Bill went through all
the same. When Woman Suffrage has been established for a few years, the
fanatics and zealots of to-day will be looked upon as the clear-headed,
progressive statesmen of the past. –I am, etc.,
EMILY WILDING DAVISON
Longhorsley, Northumberland