Deeds Not Words | Tag Archives: Newcastle Daily Journal http://emilydavison.org The Emily Wilding Davison Letters Wed, 16 Jul 2014 18:44:51 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.7.1 The Canadian Premier and the Suffragists http://emilydavison.org/the-canadian-premier-and-the-suffragists/ http://emilydavison.org/the-canadian-premier-and-the-suffragists/#comments Wed, 28 Aug 1912 00:01:50 +0000 http://alfven.org/cpc/?p=313 Canada, the United States, and Woman Suffrage: An Exchange

From the end of August through mid-September, 1912, Davison engaged in a

protracted correspondence in the pages of The Newcastle Daily Journal and The

North Mail about Canadian, American and British attitudes toward woman suffrage.

She repulses any hint that Canada is not pro-suffrage and uses Canadian and

American enthusiasm to paint England as laggard and backward in its attitudes. Her

characteristic rhetoric of modern times and forward thinking, typical of the 1911

letters, appears once more in these letters. In her scrapbook the exchange begins with

the following news story from The Newcastle Evening Chronicle:

August 26, 1912, The Newcastle Evening Chronicle , “Mr. Borden and Woman

Suffrage”;“Canadian Premier to Receive a Deputation”

Mr. Borden has consented to receive a deputation from the Women’s

Social and Political Union, and from those interested in the cause of woman

suffrage in Canada. The W.S.P.U. representatives will wait on the Canadian

premier at the Savoy Hotel, London, at 10 a.m. on Saturday.

When first approached on the subject, Mr. Borden refused to receive any

deputation on the question, but subsequently he changed his mind and wired an

acceptance. The primary object of the W.S.P.U. is to obtain a statement as to

what steps the Canadian Premier is prepared to take for the furtherance of the

cause of Female Suffrage Bill in Canada.

Emily Davison wasted no time in responding; the day she read this story she wrote

the following letter praising the forward thinking of the Canadian and American

governments, and castigating the British as backward:

August 28, 1912, To the Editor the Newcastle Evening Chronicle,

“The Canadian Premier and the Suffragists”

Sir, –In an interesting paragraph in your issue to-night, you announce that Mr.

Borden, the Canadian Premier, now in London, has consented to receive a

deputation of the W.S.P.U. on women suffrage next Saturday. This gentleman

is evidently one of those who can read the signs of the times, a remark which

applies equally to his go-ahead neighbour, Mr. Roosevelt, who, as we all know

well, is so ‘previous’ that he has actually put woman suffrage on the forefront of

the presidential programme. ‘Uncle Sam’ and his friendly rival, ‘Cousin Robert, ‘

are evidently wide awake, and as ready as ever to ‘lick creation,’ and give a

playful twist to the tail of the sleepy old British lion, whose attitude to the female

of his species seems to be as hoary as his constitution. ‘Wake up, England!’ is

the rousing motto painted in large plain letters on the bright blue driving-cart

of Mr. Graham White’s up-to-date water-plane. ‘Wake up! Wake up!!’ we

suffragist women cry, ‘Oh, beloved country, or thou will certainly find thyself in the

rearguard instead of the vanguard of progress!!’ Yours, etc.,

EMILY WILDING DAVISON

Longhorsley, Aug. 26, 1912

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