October 6, 1912, To the Editor of The Sunday Times
The letter below is arguably Davison’s most sustained effort in irony among those
collected in the scrapbook. It shows her ability to match style for style, as she takes
Mr. Edward Grout at his word in his Swiftian plan to simplify forcible feeding. The reference
she makes to Jonathan Swift’s Tale of a Tub is more properly a reference to his A
Modest Proposal, which lays out a plan for the efficient feeding of the population
of Ireland by eating infant children. Swift’s argument concludes with the point
that the English have treated the Irish so inhumanely that they might as well eat
their children, they have taken away everything else from the Irish. It’s notable that
Davison feels she can use irony to refer to force-feeding, a practice she had vigorously
criticized all through the letters. The mask of satire allowed her the freedom of a
more trenchant persona.
Sir, –Your correspondent, Mr. Edward H. Grout, is surely taking a leaf out of the
book of the renowned Dean Swift and things [?] to produce the ‘Tale of a Tube’ in
emulation of ‘The Tale of a Tub’! Hence he welcomes, in neo-Swiftian style, the
prospect that ’much time, energy, and expense will be saved’ to his household
by the use of tube-feeding. To argue from the effect of tube-feeding upon Mary
Leigh and others of our comrades, released at one time at the rate of twenty-
two in a day from the various prisons of the country, we should all agree with him
that the result to his household would be absolutely efficacious and to judge from
the effect upon Suffragist women, the system would be even more successfully
applied to children! If the system could be applied to the whole nation, all the
domestic, social and political problems which harass and distract the country
would find a complete and final solution! Mr. Grout’s invaluable panacea could
then no longer be adequately described by so modest a title as ‘League to
Popularise Simple Feeding.’ No lesser nomenclature would fit it than “League
to Settle the Affairs of the Nation,’ and (if not too effective) a memorial would
certainly have to be erected to the modern Robespierre, the saviour of the
country. Yours, etc.
EMILY WILDING DAVISON
Longhorsley, Northumberland, October 3