CP Scott was a supporter of women’s suffrage, but did not approve of the militant tactics and protests used by the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) to further their cause. Scott’s role as a mediator between the cause’s supporters and detractors is evident in his correspondence with Winston Churchill in 1909.
Churchill, President of the Board of Trade and at that time a Liberal member of parliament, was not in favour of giving women the right to vote. In 1905, as part of their protest strategy, WSPU members began to interrupt the speakers of political meetings, a previously unheard of action which generated increased publicity for the cause. Churchill’s views on women’s suffrage and his public visibility marked him out as a target for WSPU protests. In fact, so many of his speeches and visits were interrupted by women’s suffrage campaigners that he was moved to write to Scott and urge him to take precautions against protests at an upcoming speech at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester.
Scott did not support these protests, but he believed that it was the responsibility of a newspaper to provide full and accurate information. Therefore, while the Manchester Guardian reported that there were no interruptions during Churchill’s speech, an article entitled Suffragists and Mr Churchill was also published giving an account of the crowd of suffragists who gathered at the train station and outside the Free Trade Hall, and of the multiple women who approached Churchill during his visit with the enquiry: ‘When are you going to give votes to women?’. There is reference to arrests for stone throwing and struggles between suffragists and the police. The article also refers to unnamed women who had hidden themselves around the Free Trade Hall, under the stage and the press table, and even a woman who had attempted to gain admittance disguised as a man.
Also available in Scott’s correspondence are letters exchanged with supporters and campaigners for women’s suffrage. Notable among these correspondents are Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst, leaders of the WSPU. The correspondence between Scott and the Pankhursts shows that he made direct and repeated pleas to halt the interruption of meetings, arguing that these protests would ‘ruin the women’s suffrage movement’ and suggesting that they have had a negative impact upon the number of politicians who were prepared to speak in Manchester.
In the excerpt of the letter below, Scott is discussing a proposal for a meeting at the Manchester Free Trade Hall to support the Conciliation bill, extending the right of voting to women.
It is clear from Christabel Pankhurst’s responses that Scott’s requests may not be granted; she intimates that lack of interruption is entirely dependent on the nature of the speeches given. There are also references in the correspondence to the escalation of WPSU tactics to include members chaining themselves to railings, damaging public property and using explosive devices. Christabel Pankhurst justified these strategies by noting that if men committed such acts, they would not be met with the same levels of hostility.
A further illustration of Scott’s connection with the women’s suffrage movement is the letter written by Emmeline Pankhurst to Scott, informing him of the death of her sister on Christmas Day, 1910. Mary Jane Clarke, a member of the WSPU, was arrested for throwing a stone at a police station when refused permission to see Emmeline Pankhurst, who was being held there following her own arrest. Clarke was forcibly fed whilst in prison, and died a few days after her release. In the letter, alongside her grief at the death of her sister, Pankhurst’s belief in Scott’s influence and ability to obtain the vote for women can be clearly seen.
The Manchester Guardian would publish a report on the death of Mary Jane Clarke and make reference to her arrest, but not to the force-feeding to which she was subjected. Scott was, however, strongly opposed to the forcible feeding practiced on women in prison, and would write several letters of protest to the prime minister, HH Asquith.
Scott’s attempts to mediate between prominent and influential figures on both sides of the women’s suffrage debate met with limited success. Though not condoning the tactics of the WSPU, he also did not ignore them, and his support for the cause of women’s suffrage in the Manchester Guardian was unceasing. When women householders over the age of 30 gained the right to vote in 1918, a Manchester Guardian article declared: ‘The adoption of women’s suffrage is the signal victory of an electoral struggle stretching over two generations, and represents the greatest triumph in our day of a generous good sense.’
Scott also celebrated. In a speech given at the Manchester Reform Club, he maintained that this victory was ‘not merely the beginning of legislative justice, but of a great social change ... to remove artificial restraints and disabilities was to enable women to become not less but more themselves’.
Scott’s general and editorial correspondence, which provides evidence of Scott’s contributions to the campaign, can be found in the Guardian archive held at the University of Manchester in the John Rylands Library. The later records of the Guardian are held in the GNM Archive in London.
Further reading:
Helena Swanwick and Evelyn Sharp - pioneering Guardian journalists (archive teaching resource)
Emily Davison Derby coverage (archive teaching resource)
Mary Jane Clarke, an Unsung Hero (John Rylands Library Special Collections Blog)
Women and the vote workshop (GNM Education Centre information for teachers)
