CHAPTER X

THE DIFFERENCE THE VOTE HAS MADE

"In the United States the grant of women's suffrage has made no difference whatever ... the mere fact that women have a right to vote makes no difference at all."—Viscount Bryce, in House of Lords, December 17th, 1917.

The words quoted above come strangely from the lips of any man who believes in the principles of free representative government. If the vote makes no difference, why have our race all over the world attached such enormous importance to it? It is bred in our bone, and will never come out of the flesh, that the possession of the franchise is the very foundation-stone of political freedom. Our fifty years' struggle for the women's vote was not actuated by our setting any extraordinary value on the mere power of making a mark on a voting paper once in every three or four years. We did not, except as a symbol of free citizenship, value it as a thing good in itself; we valued it, not as a ribbon to stick in our coat, but for the sake of the equal laws, the enlarged opportunities, the improved status for women which we knew it involved. We worked for it with ardour and passion because it was stuff of the conscience with us that it would benefit not women only, but the whole community; this is what we meant when we called our paper the _Common Cause_. It was the cause of men, women, and children. We believe that men cannot be truly free so long as women are held in political subjection.

We have at present—November, 1919—only a very short experience of the actual results of women's suffrage. It is less than two years since the parliamentary battle was won, and less than one year since women voted for the first time, but already the practical results of women's suffrage have surpassed our expectations. It is no exaggeration to say that those most closely in touch with work in Parliament on subjects affecting the welfare and status of women were conscious of a change in the atmosphere of the House immediately after the passing of the Reform Bill of 1918.

One instance of the working of this change will suffice to prove my point. In 1902, after twelve years of hard spade work undertaken by a group of very able and experienced women, an Act was passed to secure that those women habitually practising as midwives should receive adequate training for their calling. The case for such legislation was overwhelming. In over 70 per cent. of the births in this country the mothers were attended by midwives. The death percentage was unnecessarily high, especially from puerperal fever. Remedial legislation on such a matter called forth no party passions; so the case for the training of midwives was extremely simple and free from complication. But a certain amount of opposition was manifested by the least enlightened section of the medical profession; and this for a long time was the chief barrier in the way of getting any Government to adopt the Bill and use their power to pass it. As I said just now, it took twelve years to overcome this obstacle. But the Act was passed in 1902; experience proved that there were many weak places in it. No provision had been made for the payment of doctor's fees where, in difficult cases, it was desirable that the midwife should have the aid of a medical practitioner. Neither had any provision been made for the payment of travelling expenses for members of the Central Midwives Board, and other expenses incidental to the efficient carrying out of the Act. No doubt the promoters of the legislation of 1902 were well aware of these "weak places," but dared not raise a discussion on them for fear of jeopardizing the whole Bill. So matters stood until the passing of the Reform Act in February, 1918. Then, that same year, before any woman had voted, the Government produced the Midwives Amending Act, 1918. Mr. Hayes Fisher, now Lord Downham, was in charge of it in the House of Commons, and explained its object as being not only to amend the "weak places" already referred to, but added that it also aimed at "attracting to this great profession ... a high class of midwives.... We want them more in quantity ... and we want to improve them in status." No one had ever spoken in this tone in Parliament of midwives and their occupation before women were enfranchised. Words of this kind would probably have wrecked the Bill of 1902, as many doctors were extremely jealous of midwives acquiring any professional status at all. But the amending Bill went through rapidly and quietly. The lives of women in childbirth were taken account of by Parliament in quite a different spirit directly women acquired the status of citizens.

It would be easy to give other examples, and I am tempted to add an appendix to this chapter, giving a list of Acts of Parliament specially dealing with the welfare and status of women passed year by year between 1902 and 1919. There are many more entries in the shorter period than in the longer. This in itself indicates some of the difference which women's suffrage has made.

As soon as might be after the Royal Assent had been given to the Reform Bill in February, 1918, the various suffrage societies held their several council meetings to discuss their future action. Some societies dissolved and formed themselves into women citizens' associations. But many resolved to go on working for objects closely allied with their original purpose. The N.U.W.S.S., meeting in council in March, 1918, by a practically unanimous vote resolved to extend its "objects," including in the new programme what had formerly been its sole object—"to obtain the parliamentary franchise for women on the same terms as it is or may be granted to men"; but adding to this two more objects—namely, "to obtain all other such reforms, economic, legislative, and social, as are necessary to secure a real equality of liberties, status, and opportunities between men and women"; and "to assist women to realize their responsibility as voters." The last of these was an indication of the sympathy of the N.U.W.S.S. with the women citizens' associations which were quickly springing into existence.

We should have acted more logically if at the same time that we enlarged our objects we had also adopted a corresponding change in our name. However, on this matter being put to the vote, the old name was retained by a large majority. Many of our members regarded our name as soldiers regard their flag or regimental badge, and were, from motives of sentiment, averse to giving it up.

However, a year's experience proved that it would be really useful and tend to prevent misunderstandings if we changed our name in accordance with the extension of our objects. Therefore, by formal vote of the council in 1919, as stated on p. 155, the N.U.W.S.S. ceased to bear its old name and became the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship. We hope that the letters N.U.S.E.C. will soon become as well known and be as much beloved by its members as the N.U.W.S.S.

At this same council meeting of 1919 changes were adopted in our method of attacking what had now become our principal work—viz., the achievement of a real equality of status, liberties, and opportunities between men and women. We had learned in the last twelve months that the field thus covered was so vast that success was jeopardized if we scattered our energies over the whole of it. We therefore resolved henceforth at our annual council meetings to select a limited number of subjects deemed ripe for immediate action, and to concentrate on these, so far as practical work was concerned. The first selection for the year 1919-1920 was thus indicated:

1. We demand _equal pay for equal work_. And we demand an open field for women in industrial and professional work.

2. We demand the immediate reform of the _divorce law_ and the laws dealing with solicitation and prostitution. An _equal moral standard_ must be established.

3. The Government is in favour of _widows' pensions_ in principle. By constant pressure we mean to make the House of Commons turn principle into practice. We demand _pensions for civilian widows_.

4. Women must speak for themselves as well as vote. We want to extend the _women's franchise_, and we are determined that _women candidates_ holding our equality programme shall be returned to Parliament at the next election.

5. At present women are not legally recognized as the guardians of their children. We are working to secure _equal rights of guardianship_ for both parents.

6. Lastly, we are demanding the _opening of the legal professions to women_. We wish to enable women to become _solicitors, barristers, and magistrates_.

The walls of our Jericho have not fallen at the first blast of our trumpet, but we have made great progress in promoting the principle of equal pay for equal work, and with the familiarizing of the British public with women as candidates for Parliament. Since the General Election two or three women have been candidates, and one, Lady Astor, has been returned by an immense majority.

Another important success in 1919 remains to be chronicled. It is the inclusion in the Charter of the League of Nations of a clause rendering women, equally with men, eligible to all appointments in connection with the League, including the Secretariat. This clause was inserted during the Paris negotiations after deputations of suffragists from the Allied Nations and the U.S.A. had waited upon all the Plenipotentiaries. They were most cordially and sympathetically received; but the definite success of their efforts was in the main due to the active and whole-hearted support of President Wilson, Lord Robert Cecil, and M. Venizelos.

In the passing by the Government of their Sex Disqualification Removal Act more has been done than we ventured to ask for in the sixth item on our programme—not a bad harvest for one Session, when we remember the twelve years' work necessary to get the Midwives Bill of 1902 passed into law, or the thirty-two years' hard labour before a Nurse's Registration Bill was turned into an Act.

I do not propose in this brief chronicle to enter into a detailed description of the differences between the Government Bill and the Women's Emancipation Bill introduced by the Labour Party, and carried through all its stages in the House of Commons, notwithstanding Government opposition. The Labour Party's Bill after this triumph was torpedoed in the House of Lords, and the Government Bill was pushed forward in its place, and eventually carried into law. The Bill of the Labour Party was much more comprehensive and sweeping; it did what it professed to do, and removed completely every legal inequality between men and women, including placing women on the parliamentary register on the same terms as men. This was probably the reason why the Government objected to its passing into law, and got it defeated in the House of Lords. For, according to all precedent, a large extension of the electorate should be followed as soon as possible by a General Election; and it is not very wonderful that the Government did not desire this under present circumstances, and while the new Parliament had been less than a year in existence. In some respects the Government Bill goes beyond No. 6 in the demands of the N.U.S.E.C. It opens to women, whether married or unmarried, the duty, within certain limits, of sitting on juries and acting as magistrates. It makes it clear to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge that they have the power, when they choose to use it, of admitting women to membership. It opens the legal profession to women. But its most disappointing provision relates to the entry of women in the Civil Service. It opens the Civil Service to them, but with certain restrictions. It does not proceed on the lines of the Government promise of November, 1918, "_to remove all existing inequalities in the law between men and women_." The Government reserve for themselves the right in this matter to proceed by Orders in Council. It is true the Solicitor-General said in the House on October 28th, 1919, that he wanted to "have the power to differentiate somewhat in favour of women in order to give them a better and more equal opportunity than they have at the present time." We are frankly suspicious of these offers of something better than equality. Equality before the law is a hundred times more stable guarantee for justice than favouritism. Women over and over again have said they are not out for privilege, but for equality of opportunity. Major Hills, who was in charge of the amendments to the Bill promoted by the women's societies, said with brutal frankness that the meaning of the clauses promoted by the Government was "that all the higher-paid posts in the Civil Service will continue to be reserved to men." These Orders in Council will have to be closely scrutinized.

Nevertheless, when we remember that between 1902 and 1914 only two really important Acts bearing specially upon the welfare and status of women had been passed—namely, the Midwives Act, 1902, and the group of Acts, dating from 1907 to 1914, dealing with the qualification of women as candidates in local elections—and that since the passing of the Reform Act of 1918 at least seven important measures effecting large improvements in the status of women have rapidly gone through all their stages in both Houses of Parliament, we shall not be slow to appreciate the fact that the women's vote has made a very big difference indeed. The Act which rendered women eligible for Parliament, introduced in the Commons late in the autumn Session of 1918, went through both Houses in about a fortnight. In the Lords it was adopted without opposition.

Not of great importance in itself, but significant in its implications, was the quiet removal of the heavy grille of the Ladies' Gallery of the House of Commons in the summer of 1918, and the opening to women on equal terms of the Strangers' Gallery. Part of the grille has been preserved for the London Museum, and part will be kept in the House itself. It may be hoped that it will be put up in some appropriate place, with waxen dummies behind it revelling in the Oriental seclusion which recommended it to the Commons for about seventy years. One great discomfort of the grille was that the interstices of the heavy brass work were not large enough to allow the victims who sat behind it to focus it so that both eyes looked through the same hole. It was like using a gigantic pair of spectacles which did not fit, and made the Ladies' Gallery a grand place for getting headaches.

Suffragists are not labouring under the impression that because women now have votes no further reform is needed in our representative system. A large proportion of suffragists are probably in favour of proportional representation, and would favour its adoption mainly on the ground that it would secure a much fairer reflection of the whole nation than the present system, which may, and frequently does, result in the practical exclusion from representation of large masses of the voters. A good deal of education and spade work in spreading the principles of proportional representation are necessary on this and other important reforms, but now that women form a very considerable portion of the electorate they have at least the satisfaction of knowing that their views on this and other important political issues count for something, and are actually studied and considered, so that things work out much more rapidly than ever before in the direction they desire.

The enfranchisement of women, especially the immense addition to the women municipal electors, has put the position of women in local elections on quite a new footing. Formerly, when there were only about a million women voters on the municipal registers of the three kingdoms, and these, in considerable numbers, were either aged or on the brink of old age, they were a negligible quantity. They were neither admitted to the men's organizations nor consulted by them; the candidature of women for locally elected councils was cold-shouldered or opposed by all the party organizations; but the situation is quite different now. The women local electors have increased from one million to eight and a half millions, and, besides this, women are also parliamentary electors; the result is that all the parties encourage the candidature of women, and are pleased to have one or more women's names on their own tickets. Thus the number of women elected in the recent borough council elections in London bounded up on November 1st, 1919, to nearly two hundred. Chelsea, which never returned a woman before, now returns ten; Westminster returns seven; Marylebone returns four, and so on; and the results in many of the country towns were equally remarkable. (See the _Common Cause_, November 7th, 1919.)

Some time ago, in one of my controversies with Mrs. Humphry Ward, she lamented the very small number of women offering themselves as candidates in local government elections. I pointed out that the qualification for candidature was such as to exclude, in a large degree, the mass of the younger and more vigorous women; also, that the small number of women holding the local government franchise, coupled with the fact that they had no parliamentary vote, rendered them negligible from the party point of view, and I suggested to Mrs. Ward that the best way of increasing the number and improving the status of women concerned in local government would be to secure the abolition of their political disabilities. Events since February, 1918, have more than justified my argument.

Besides the positive gains to women and to the whole country which women's suffrage has brought about, it satisfactory to note that none of the disasters so freely prophesied by the antisuffragists have materialized. The prophets themselves seem to recognize that they were the baseless fabric of a vision now utterly vanished even from remembrance.

APPENDIX

A LIST OF ACTS OF PARLIAMENT SPECIALLY AFFECTING THE WELFARE, STATUS, OR LIBERTIES OF WOMEN PASSED IN THE UNITED KINGDOM BETWEEN 1902 AND 1919 (BOTH INCLUSIVE).

1902. _The Midwives Act._—This Act aimed at securing for women in childbirth attended by midwives a reasonable security that these should have received a proper training. The Act was in many ways imperfect, but, such as it was, it took twelve years' hard and absorbing work from a group of able women to get it passed.

1905. _Married Women's Property Amendment Act._—This Act rendered a married woman capable of disposing of a trust estate without her husband, as if she were a _femme sole_.

1907. _Qualification of Women (County and Borough Councils) Act._—A similar Act was passed for Scotland in the same year, and for Ireland, with modifications, in 1911. These Acts removed the disqualification of sex and marriage, and rendered eligible on local councils married women living with their husbands, and daughters living with their parents. Fourteen years' strenuous work up to 1907 was necessary to secure their adoption. The necessary legislation was announced in the King's Speech as part of the Government programme of that year. It was the first time in the 700 years of British parliamentary history that an extension of the civil liberties of women had occupied such a position.

1914. _County and Borough Councils Qualification Act_, and similar Act for Scotland in the same year. These Acts provide for men and women alike a residential as distinct from the rate-paying qualification.

1914. _Affiliation Orders Act_ sought to improve the position of the unmarried mother, but was very imperfect on account of its failure to provide any proper machinery for carrying it out.

1918. _The Representation of the People Act_ (passed in February, 1918).—It placed nearly eight and a half million women upon the registers of voters in parliamentary elections. It also multiplied the number of women local government electors from one million to over eight and a half millions. It applies equally to every part of the United Kingdom.

1918. _Eligibility of Women Act_ (November, 1918) rendered the election of women to the House of Commons a possibility. No work was required to get the Act passed. It was all but unopposed. Owing to the very short time between the passing of the Act and the General Election the opportunity for women to select constituencies and work up their candidature was very inadequate. Nevertheless, there were seventeen women candidates, one of whom, in Ireland, was elected.

1918. _Affiliation Orders (Increase of Maximum Payment) Act_, 1918, amends the Bastardy Laws Act of 1872, which fixed five shillings a week as the maximum which the father could be made to pay towards the maintenance of an illegitimate child, raising this sum to ten shillings a week.

1918. _Midwives Amending Act_, 1918, removes some of the weaknesses of the Act of 1902, and is sufficiently described in the foregoing chapter.

1919. _Sex Disqualification Removal Act._—This Government Act has already been sufficiently described. The wider and more sweeping measure introduced by the Labour Party passed all its stages in the House of Commons, notwithstanding Government opposition.

1919. _The Intestate Moveable Succession (Scotland) Act_ enlarges a Scottish mother's rights of succession to the intestate moveable estate of her children.

1919. _Nurses' Registration Act_, 1919.—Trained nurses without the vote had been working for registration for thirty-two years. The principle of registration was accepted by the Government, and the Act embodying it carried into law the year following the enfranchisement of women.

1919. _The Industrial Courts Act_ was improved by the Government accepting the amendment of the Labour Party that one or more members of these courts should be women.

It will be seen from the foregoing survey of the legislative activity of Parliament in the eighteen years under review that they divide themselves into two unequal portions, 1902-1914 and 1918-1919. The war years are omitted for obvious reasons. In the first and longer period of fifteen years we find five measures of varying importance—that is, at the rate of one to every three years. By far the most important of these measures are the Midwives Act, 1902, and the series of Acts dealing with the qualifications of women for local government elections; both of these were due to years of hard work—twelve in one case, and fourteen in the other—of very active and efficient women's societies. In the second, and far shorter, period, of less than two years—February, 1918, to November, 1919—we find seven Acts of value and importance slipping through Parliament without any trouble at all; ministerial swords leaping from their scabbards to remove impediments from the path of the free citizenship of women. This is the "difference" the vote has made.

FOOTNOTES

[1] This pointed to the probable application of the Parliament Act to the proposed Reform Bill.

[2] In view of the promise which had just been exacted of me not to use violence towards the Chancellor, the presence of his wife and daughter might have been explained on the hypothesis that in the event of assault and battery on our part they could have flung their persons between their husband and father and his assailants. But this possible explanation of the presence of these ladies did not occur to me at the time.

[3] Antisuffragists in the country had taken up the campaign of calumny against us, and had spoken of suffragists as "purveyors of vile literature," disseminators of "pestilential doctrines," and had used other flowers of rhetoric of the same description.

[4] See correspondence in the _Morning Post_, January 14th to 21st, 1918.

[5] The Bill was named the Franchise and Registration Bill, not a Bill to Amend the Representation of the People.

[6] Of these 8,654,467, more than 7,000,000 were white men enlisted within the British Empire. (See Report of War Cabinet published in August, 1919.)

[7] In March, 1919, the Council of the N.U.W.S.S. changed the name of our society to the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship, and elected Miss Rathbone as its president.

[8] The report of the Speaker's conference was dated January 27th, 1917. The clause recommending woman suffrage ran as follows:

VIII. WOMAN SUFFRAGE.

The conference decided by a majority that some measure of woman suffrage should be conferred. A majority of the conference was also of opinion that if Parliament should decide to accept the principle, the most practical form would be to confer the vote in the terms of the following resolution:

"Any woman on the Local Government Register who has attained a specified age, and the wife of any man who is on that register, if she has attained that age, shall be entitled to be registered and to vote as a parliamentary elector."

Various ages were discussed, of which thirty and thirty-five received most favour. The conference further resolved that if Parliament decides to enfranchise women, a woman of the specified age who is a graduate of any University having parliamentary representation shall be entitled to vote as a University elector.

INDEX

Aberconway, Lord, 151-152

Acland, Mr. F. D., 32-48

Alberta, province of, returns a woman member of L.A., 119

Anderson, Dr. L. G., 97

Antisuffrage press, 71

Antisuffragist Association, 11, 41, 43

—— —— meeting, 70

_Antisuffragist Association Review_, 71

Antisuffragists, calumnies of, 26 _n._

—— rapid conversion of, 117-118

Archbishops, the, support women's suffrage, 149

Asquith, Mr. H. H., rooted hostility to women's suffrage, 1, 11, 12, 13, 14, 27, 44

—— becomes Prime Minister, 2

—— announces intention of bringing in a Reform Bill, 2, 39, 49

—— characteristic blow from, 7, 8

—— speech on second reading of Reform Bill, 1912, 27

—— _Punch's_ pictures of, 16, 52

—— promises regarding women's suffrage, 5, 49

—— deputations to, of suffragists, 8, 17, 18, 61

—— —— of antisuffragists, 11

—— questions addressed to him by N.U.W.S.S., 9

—— forms Coalition Government, 124

—— compares himself to Orpheus, 15

—— —— —— to Stesichorus, 144

—— ceases to be Prime Minister, 139

—— contrasted with the third Duke of Devonshire, 52, 53

—— conversion of, to women's suffrage, 133, 144

—— speech on the death of Edith Cavell, 115

—— moves women's suffrage resolution in House of Commons, 144

—— speech on Women's Clauses of Representation of the People Bill, 144

—— Miss Violet (now Lady Bonham Carter), 17

—— Mrs., 17

Astor, Lady, returned as M.P. for Plymouth, 162

Balfour, Mr. A. J., 32, 114, 121-122, 124

—— of Burleigh, Lord, 148

Bath, Mr. Lloyd George speaks on women's suffrage at, 1912, 24

Beaconsfield, Earl of, 32, 143. See also Disraeli

Blair, Dr. Mary, 100

Brailsford, Mr. H. N., 5, 37

Bright, Mr. John, 64, 107

Bryce, Lord, 148

Bull, Sir W., M.P., 138

Burnham, Lord, 149

Burton, Mr. W., M.P., 73

Camborne, 57

Campbell-Bannerman, Sir H., 14, 32

—— deputation to, 14

Canada, women's suffrage granted in, 118, 119

Carson, Sir Edward, 74

"Cat and Mouse" Act, 65

Cave, Sir George, 147

Cecil, Lord Robert, 31-2, 74, 124, 132

Chamberlain, Mr. A., 4

Chaplin, Lord, 149

Church Congress, 75

Churchill, Mr. W., 4, 112

Coalition Government formed, 1915, 124

"Common Cause" quoted, 7

Conciliation Bill and Committee, 4

Conciliation Bill, full-dress debate on, in House of Commons, 4

—— —— second reading carried, 1910, 1911, 5

—— —— defeated, 1912, 20, 23, 29

Conservative and Unionist Women's Franchise Association, 80

Courtney, Lord, 149

Crewe by-election, 1912, 35

Curzon, Lord, 11, 114

—— Chairman of Antisuffrage League, 114

—— speaks in House of Lords, 72, 73, 151, 152

Czech woman returned to Diet in Bohemia, 1912, 41

_Daily Telegraph_, 78, 145

Davidson, Miss Emily, 66-67

Davies, Miss Emily, LL.D., 16

Deputations to Ministers, 1-19, 61-64, 131, 143, 146

Devonshire, third Duke of, 52, 53

Dickinson, the Rt. Hon. Sir W., 45, 138

Disraeli, see Beaconsfield, 32, 143

Election-fighting policy, 30-38

—— —— put in force at by-elections, 1912, 13, 35

Electoral Reform Conference, 137

—— —— —— report of, 140-142

Fawcett, Mrs., sends message to societies of N.U.W.S.S., August, 1914, 88

Federal amendment carried with S.A. House of Representatives, 150

Finlay, Lord, 149

Foch, Field-Marshal, quoted, 30

Forcible feeding, 65

Ford, Miss I. O., 16

Franchise difficulties arising from war, 121-126

Friends, annual epistle of Society of, 76

Garvin, Mr., editor of the _Observer_, 134

George, Mr. Lloyd. See Lloyd George

Gilhooley, Mr., M.P., 23

Goldstone, Mr., M.P., 138

Goschen, Lord, 62

Grey, Earl, 149, 157

—— Sir Edward (now Viscount of Fallodon), 6, 13, 20, 32, 44

Haldane, Lord, 149

Halsbury, Lord, 149

Hanley by-election, 35

Harley, Mrs., 53, 58-61

—— killed at Monastir, 59

Healy, Mr. Timothy, M.P., 23

Henderson, Rt. Hon. A., 7, 45, 125, 132

Henry, Sir C., M.P., 11

Hills, Major, M.P., 165

Holmfirth by-election, 35

Horticultural Hall, W.L.F. meeting, 13

Hutchinson, Dr. Alice, 101

Inglis, Dr. Elsie, 95, 101

—— life of, by Lady F. Balfour, 95

—— her services to Serbia, 100

Insurance Act, 69

—— —— memorial from Antisuffrage Society, 68

International Woman Suffrage Alliance meets at Buda Pest, 83

Irish Nationalist vote on suffrage question, 23, 44

Ivens, Dr. Frances, of Royaumont, 103

Joffre, General, 99

Keogh, Surgeon-General Sir Alfred, 97

Labour Party support for women's suffrage, 3, 31, 33, 45, 73, 163

—— —— members absent from division in 1912, 22

Ladies Gallery, removal of grille from, 166

Law, Mr. Bonar, 124, 131

League of Nations Charter recognizes sex equality, 162

Legislation specially affecting women, periods before and after women's suffrage conferred, 169-172

Lloyd George, the Rt. Hon. D., supports women's suffrage, 6, 10, 11, 13, 32, 132, 139, 145

—— —— opposes the Conciliation Bill, 4, 22

—— —— praises women's national work, 112

Liberal associations' hostility to women's suffrage, 73

Liberal Men's Association for Women's Suffrage, 73

Lichfield, Bishop of, 75

Local Government Register, 147, 167

London, Bishop of, 149

London School of Medicine for Women, 114

Long, Mr. Walter, 114, 115, 136, 138

Loreburn, Lord, 149

Lyttelton, Hon. Alfred, 45

Lytton, 5, 6, 72, 125, 149

MacAdams, Miss, returned for L.A. of Alberta, 119

Macassey, Sir Lynden, article by, in _Quarterly Review_, 113

Markham, Miss Violet, 11, 117

Martindale, Dr. Louisa, 24

McKenna, Rt. Hon. R., 24-26, 60

McLaren, Mr. Walter, M.P., 31

McLaren, Mrs. Priscilla, 151

Manners, Lord John, 32

Maternity benefit paid to husbands, 69

Midlothian by-election, 1912, 35

Midwives Act, 1902, 157

—— —— amended, 1918, 158

Militantism, 5, 65, 67, 97

Mill, John Stuart, 32, 153

Milner, Lord, 149

Montagu, Rt. Hon. E., 112

Motor Traffic Legislation, 40-41

Murray, Dr. Flora, 97

_Nineteenth Century and After_, 81

Norway, women's franchise in, 143

Nurses, registration of, 163, 171

N.U.W.S.S., intrigues in House of Commons against, 24, 26

—— organization of, 54, 55

—— addresses letter to Mr. Asquith on franchise situation, 1916, 127, 8

—— recasts election policy, 29, 30-38, 43

—— changes its name, 155, 160

—— enlarges its objects, 161

—— indignation of, on fiasco of Government Reform Bill, 1913, 50-53

—— action on outbreak of war, 86-105

—— medical units for Russia, 104, 105

N.U.W.W. (now National Council of Women), Hull meeting, 76

O'Brien, Mr. W., support of women's suffrage, 23

Obscene literature, trumped-up charges in House of Commons, 24-26

_Observer_, conversion of the, 132

Palmer, the Hon. Robert, 81

Palmerston, Viscount, 62

Parliament Act used against women's suffrage, 22

Parliamentary intrigues against women's suffrage, 23, 26, 48-49

Pilgrimage, the, suggested by Mrs. Harley, 54-58

"Posts," the Three, 79, 145

Pott, Miss Gladys, 97

Press support of women's suffrage, rapid growth of, 117, 145

Prothero, Mr. R. (now Lord Earle), on Insurance Act, 69

_Punch_ quoted, 78

Qualifications for Parliamentary Franchise, 122

_Quarterly Review_, 113

Queen Mary's interest in women's war work, 92

Rackham, Mrs., 61

Rathbone, Miss Eleanor, 131, 147, 155

Redmond Mr. John, 44

Reform Bill, Government, fiasco over, 39-53

Registration (Parliamentary) neglected during the war, 122

Registration of Nurses Act, 163, 171

Revelstoke, Lord, on women's labour, 114

Robertson, Miss Margaret, 61

Royal College of Surgeons, 41

Royaumont, hospital at the Abbaye de, 95, 98, 102

Royden, Miss A. M., 39, 61, 75

Salisbury, the late Marquis of, 32

Scott, Mr. MacCallum, M.P., 11, 12, 21, 81

Scottish women's hospitals, 95-105

Selborne, Earl of, services to suffrage in House of Lords, 72, 125, 149, 151

—— —— praises women's work in agriculture, 113

—— Countess of, 80

Serbian tribute to Mrs. Harley, 59

Sex Disqualification Removal Act, 1919, 163-165

Simon, Sir John, M.P., 32, 48, 134-135

Simpson, Rev. Canon, 57

Speaker, the, 49, 50, 137, 138

Speaker's Conference on Electoral Reform, 137

Special Register Bills, 120, 129, 133, 139

Sterling, Miss Frances, 16

St. Paul's, service in, 57

Strachey, Lady, 16

Sweden, women's suffrage in, 31, 32

_The Times'_ opposition to women's suffrage, 4

—— —— —— gradually weakened, 82

—— —— supplement on Pacific Coast of U.S.A., 82

Trades Union support of women's suffrage, 3

Troyes, Scottish women's hospital at, 100

Tullibardine, Marquis of (now Duke of Atholl), 24

Ulster Unionist Council, 74

U.S.A. victories for suffrage, 41, 150

—— _questionnaire_ addressed to, 80-81

Venizelos, M., 163

Villiers, the Hon. Charles, 32

War, outbreak of, in 1914 and women's work, 86-105

Ward, Mrs. Humphry, 11, 41-43, 71, 76-77, 97, 150-151

Waste in Training Camps, 107

Weardale, Lord, 149

Weinberg, Dr., in Royaumont, 102-103

Williams, Mr. Aneurin, M.P., 138

Winchester, Bishop of, 156

Wollstonecraft, Mary, 154

Women's suffrage, a short history of, by Mrs Fawcett, 1

—— —— growing support of, by Press, Pulpit, Stage, etc., 77-85

—— —— victories in House of Commons, 146-148

—— —— victory in House of Lords, 148-153

—— Emancipation (Labour Party) Bill, 1919, 163

Years before and after suffrage compared, 169-172

BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD, ENGLAND

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Transcriber's Notes

Minor punctuation and printer errors repaired.

Italic text is denoted by _underscores_