To the Editor of the 'Labour Leader' by T. D. Benson
AssociatedAssociated with
Caroline Phillips
(Aberdeen, Scotland, 1874 - 1956)
Object NameLetter
Mediumpaper and ink
ClassificationsSocieties
Dimensions22.4 × 14.1cm
AcquisitionPresented in 1988.
LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub
Object numberABDMS082748
About MeThis is part of a collection of documents relating to Caroline Phillips (1874-1956), an Aberdonian journalist who was involved in the women's suffrage movement. The collection contains important correspondence between Phillips and key leaders in the suffrage movement, including Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst.The Suffragettes and their Unruly Methods
To the Editor of the Labour Leader
Dear Sir - Having had, through illness, plenty of time on my hands this last week, I have made a calculation of the number of year which the lady suffragettes have put back their movement. I find that it amounts to somewhat about 235 years. The realisation, therefore, of their aims is, according to this mode of chronology, as far off in the future as the Plague and the Fire of London are in the past. Nevertheless I shall not be surprised if they succeed within the next twelve months, or two or three years at the most.
Of course, when men wanted the franchise, they did not behave in the unruly manner of our feminine friends. They were perfectly constitutional in their agitation. In Bristol, I find they only burnt the Mansion House, the Custom House, the Bishop's Palace, the Excise Office, three prisons, four toll houses and forty-two private dwellings and warehouses all in a perfectly constitutional and respectable manner. Numerous constitutional fires took place in the neighbourhoods of Bedford, Cambridge, Canterbury and Devizes. Four men were respectably hanged a Bristol and three in Nottingham. The Bishop of Lichfield was nearly killed, and the Archbishop of Canterbury was insulted, spat upon, and with great difficulty rescued from amidst the yells and execrations of a violent and angry mob. The suffragists in those days had a constitutional weakness for bishops, and a savage vandalism toward cathedrals and bishops' palaces. A general strike was proposed, and secret arming and drilling commenced in most of the great Chartist centres. Wales broke out even into active rebellion, and nine men were condemned to death. At London, Bradford, York, Sheffield, Liverpool,
Chester, Taunton, Durham and many other towns, long sentences of penal servitude were passed. In this way males set a splendid example of constitutional methods in agitating for the franchise. I think we are well qualified to advise the suffragettes to follow our example, to be respectable and peaceful in their methods like we were, and then they will have our sympathy and support.
- Yours
T.D. Benson
[reprinted from the LABOUR LEADER, the official organ of the Independent Labour Party, I the only party and paper that support the Women's Franchise movement]
