Meanwhile another body of agitators who had become impatient with the Government's treatment of their own particular question, were preparing to take similar steps. Even in the early summer, there had been signs that the forthcoming winter was to be one of exceptional hardship for the working classes, and the Labour Members of Parliament had then begun to urge upon the President of the Local Government Board the need for making extensive preparations for helping the great numbers of persons whom they foresaw would fall out of employment. The distress that had been foreshadowed was now upon the country, a feeling of general discontent prevailed, and rumours of all sorts of wild doings were beginning to spread. Bodies of unemployed came marching up to London from the provincial towns and held meetings on the Embankment and Tower Hill at which it was announced that there was to be a great gathering of the unemployed in Parliament Square on Monday, October 12th, and that an attempt was then to be made to see the Prime Minister, the President of the Local Government Board and the President of the Board of Trade. On Sunday, October 4th, a meeting for the unemployed was held under the auspices of the Social Democratic Federation in Trafalgar Square, and some very inflammatory speeches were delivered.[29] The words of Mr. Will Thorne, M.P. for West Ham, were milder than those of some others. In the course of his remarks he said:
Next Tuesday the Suffragettes admit that they are going to "rush" the House. There is nothing there. If you want to "rush" anything, you rush where there is something to be rushed; not the House. I say that if you are in earnest, the first thing that you ought to do is to rush the bakers' shops. You ought to rush every bally bakers' shop in London rather than starve. I suppose it means that a few of you will get locked up. You would be better off in prison.
He added that until the unemployed struck "the fear of man" into the hearts of the Government, the Government would do nothing for them. After the unemployed meeting was over, there was some disorder in the neighbourhood of Charing Cross and two or three men were arrested.
On Sunday, October 11th, the Women's Social and Political Union held a meeting in Trafalgar Square at which Mrs. Pankhurst, Christabel Pankhurst, and Mrs. Drummond spoke from the plinth of the Nelson column, whilst the police who were present in great numbers, took notes of all that was said.
On Monday, October 12th, came the day of the unemployed demonstration, but, though much had been feared and expected of it, little happened. Small groups of unemployed began to arrive in the Square at an early hour, but a pacificatory attitude was adopted by the authorities and though the police kept the crowd moving in the thoroughfares they did not prevent the assemblage of a number of people in the centre of the green in front of Westminster Abbey. Many of the men were allowed to enter the House, where Mr. John Burns assured them that within a few days the Prime Minister would make a pronouncement in the House of Commons pledging the Government to provide some measure of relief.
WOMEN'S SOCIAL AND POLITICAL UNION,
4, CLEMENT'S INN.
VOTES FOR WOMEN
MEN & WOMEN
HELP THE SUFFRAGETTES
TO RUSH
THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
ON
TUESDAY Evening, 13th October,
At 7.30.
Printed by St. Clements Press, Ltd., Newspaper Buildings, Portugal Street, W.C.
During the week that had passed, the last before their demonstration, the Suffragettes had been working strenuously. The "rush" handbills had been circulated broadcast, a "Votes for Women" kite had floated constantly over the House of Commons, and a steam launch, decorated with banners and posters announcing the deputation had steamed up and down the river. Everything had gone on without let or hindrance and new recruits, anxious to take part in the demonstration had been eagerly presenting themselves. Yet from day to day there grew the knowledge that the authorities were lying in wait to take some sudden step against the Union and the women began to notice that the police were shadowing all the prominent members of the Committee and were constantly hanging about the offices at Clement's Inn. The blow came in the shape of the following document, a copy of which was served upon Mrs. Pankhurst, Mrs. Drummond, and Christabel Pankhurst about midday on Monday, October 12th:
Information has been laid this day by the Commissioner of Police for that you, in the month of October, in the year 1908, were guilty of conduct likely to provoke a breach of the peace by initiating and causing to be initiated, by publishing and causing to be published, a certain handbill, calling upon and inciting the public to do a certain wrongful and illegal act, viz., to rush the House of Commons at 7:30 P. M. on October 13th inst.