THE NEED OF MILITANT METHODS.

Evening Star, Issue 15066, 24 December 1912, Page 5

THE NEED OF MILITANT METHODS.

WHY LADY STOUT DEFENDS THEM. "I have just returned from mv first trip to England, whore I spent" three years and mno months. Three vears ngo (said Lady Stout to a representative of tee Sydney ' Telegraph ' on her arrival in that city) only three societies were pledged to support the. women's franchise. Now there are over 30, which include the National Franchise Union, headed by Mrs Fawcett, LL.D.; Women's Social and Political .League, with Mrs Pankhurst as leading light; Conservative Women's Suffrage League, with the Countess of SelBourne as president; the Freedom League, presided over-by Mrs Despai-d, a daughter Of Major-general French; the English Church Society, whoso president (the Bishop of Lincoln) holds special services for suffragettes previous to a meeting; the Free Church Society, under the Rev. Fleming Williams; the' Roman Catholic League; the Actresses' Franchise League, with famous actresses as members; and the Women Writers' League. Some of these societies are militant, and others non-militant. Members of all the militant ones, including the Church societies, have Buffered imprisonment for the cause. There axe also three men's societies, and the men belonging to them have gone to prison -and been forcibly fed. When the suffragettes have a procession these men carry the banners. You would be astonished at the prominent people that favor militancy. Mrs Plowden, wife of the London Magistrate, approves of it. Several Anglican clergymen's wives have refused to do any church work till they get tho voto, and their husbands uphold them. The two daughters of the late General Blackenbury, and his widow, who is over 80, have all been in prison for militancy. I managed to keep out of prison because I never broke any windows. • I only broke the opposition to the franchise. Of course. I was a free lance. Besides, I thought it was better to be out of prison, speaking for those who were in it. I have spoken in all sorts of places, even from a lorry in the park, and have converted numbers to the cause. All.classes of people speak in the parks on the suffrage. You will sometimes see an immaculately-dressed Cambridge ' student holding forth there on votes for women. Window-smashing is the only way to get prominence in tho Press. For instance, wc had an enormous meeting, at which £10,500 was collected, and tho Press only gave us a few lines, whereas when a sixpenny window was smashed we got' two paragraphs. —John Bull Asleep.—

" Nothing short of a shock will rouse English people from their apathy. You no doubt have noticed how they walk along the street, in one groove as it were, never looking to the right or left of them and 6bserving nothing. Thev badly need rousing. When Miss Barbara Wylie, a nice-looking, neatly-dressed little- Scotch woman, who has now gone to Cannda in the suffrage cause, was asked by the Judge why a woman of her sweet' appearance should be guilty of window-smashing, she replied : ' John Bull is sound asleep; it is his fault, not ours/ that he requires so much arousing.' Women in Australia have no idea of how things are in the Old Country. —Census Evaders.— "I must tell you what happened at time. A number of us spent the night in the skating rink to evade it for we were determined not to be counted among the citizens if we had not the right of citizenship. When we went into the rink in- the evening the policeman smiled at us. and smiled again when we came out' in the morning. We heard some workingmen remark : ' Them there ladies don ? t want to tell their ages, and they try to make out it's for 'igh and mighty reasons ' The comradeship of British women is really beautiful. In the suffrage procession, countesses walked hand in hand with factory girls, and in the Home Eule procession Koman Catholic and Orange women clasped hands. Once when I "spoke at Birmingham the president of the National Union, in introducing me, denounced militancy, but I replied , that all pioneer women had been denounced for organising any. movement ahead of the times. 'What about Elizabeth Fry?' I said, 'andJosejm me Butler, who was stoned for trying to bring in legislation to protect young girls ? Also Florence Nightingale, who was cut by her family and friends and called an "indecent hussy" because she put off her crinoline and put on nurse's uniform?' They talk about the franchise destroying home life in New Zealand and Australia, but we are far more capable and versatile domestically than our English sisters, who always express surprise at the number of things we can do. When my daughter Janet, who is with me, announced in a London drawing room one dav that I was a great gardener, and loved my garden so well that I even did digging, an old dowager adjusted her eyeglasses, stared at her, and exclaimed in horrified tones - Digging did I understand you to sny?' —Platform Planks.— "The planks of our platform are the abolition ot the white slave traffic, sweating of women in trades, the liquor traffic, secret references, and wo demand equal pay for equal work. Do jfou know wonW were working in London Ait chain-making for 4s 6d a week, and when they struck for an increase, of 6d it was refused them ? —Personal.— '• Lord Meath has given me permission to start in New Zealand a Duty and Discipline Club. This embodies a new rnetnod of training children. I also intend to establish a Women's Sick and Wbuwtal Convoy Corps, which in war time fills up the space between the ambulance and the hospital. Among other things the women will be taught how to carrv ambulances over ditches and rough cointrv. Lady Liverpool has promised her assistance in both_ movements. My daughter Janet, who is just out of the schoolroom, is going in for a domestic science course, and her great desire is to be a children's nur*e I am determined that she shall do something, and do it well."