Miss E. B.—presented to the House of Commons by that great Liberal, John Stuart Mill. (Voice: "Mill? Who is he when he's at home?") Bills or Resolutions have been before the House on and off for the last thirty-six years. That, roughly, is our history. We found ourselves, towards the close of the year 1905, with no assurance that if we went on in the same way any girl born into the world in this generation would live to exercise the rights of citizenship, though she lived to be a hundred. So we said all this has been in vain. We must try some other way. How did the working man get the Suffrage, we asked ourselves? Well, we turned up the records, and we saw——
Voices. "Not by scratching people's faces!" ... "Disraeli give it 'em!" "Dizzy? Get out!" "Cahnty Cahncil scholarships!" "Oh, Lord, this education!" "Chartist riots, she's thinkin' of!"
(Noise in the crowd.)
Miss E. B. But we don't want to follow such a violent example. We would much rather not—but if that's the only way we can make the country see we're in earnest, we are prepared to show them.
Voice. An' they'll show you!—Give you another month 'ard.
Miss E. B. Don't think that going to prison has any fears for us. We'd go for life if by doing that we could get freedom for the rest of the women.
Voices. "Hear, hear!" "Rot!" "W'y don't the men 'elp ye to get your rights?"
Miss E. B. Here's some one asking why the men don't help. It's partly they don't understand yet—they will before we've done! (Laughter.) Partly they don't understand yet what's at stake——
Respectable Old Man (chuckling). Lord, they're a 'educatin' of us!
Voice. Wot next?