Mrs. Cobden Sanderson.
In the course of a well-reasoned speech, Mrs. Cobden-Sanderson said: We live
in revolutionary times. The will of the people must prevail. The Portuguese
Royal Family fell because it did not consider this. Berlin has also revolted,
and the revolt there would have been more sanguinary had it not been for
women, who placed themselves in the front — themselves and their children — and it takes much self-sacrifice to sacrifice your child. Here the women are
also in revolt against the social and economical condition of things, for
similar grievances prevail here to those which prevail in Tariff Reform
Germany.
Mr. Lloyd George will be attacked more severely. Hitherto he has had some
unpleasant moments; now we are going to attack his pocket. We are going to
have our say in the spending of twelve millions on Dreadnoughts, and also on
the reform of Poor Law system. I am a Poor Law guardian, but I am almost
ashamed to own it, for I find the whole system of Poor Law administration is
rotten to the core, and I work harder as such than in presenting petitions
at Downing Street.
Our next move is to pay no taxes. It is the most direct and unanswerable
method. If we are not good enough to vote, we are not good enough to pay. No
vote, no tax. Those little income-tax forms, Form Ⅳ. or Ⅵ., or some other
number, will be just thrown into the basket and not returned. Everyone who
perhaps has not an income to be taxed can have a dog, and then refuse to pay
tax.
We all at the bottom of our souls know that we want a betterment of affairs,
and we women are going to try to alter things and improve conditions of men
and women, and then the exports and imports will go up by leaps and bounds.
There are starving women in this richest country in the world, and therefore
we are going to revolt and make a revolution among the women, and the
revolution is sure to succeed if we give our lives and time and money to
bring it about.
Mrs. Ayres Purdie A.L.A.A.
Mrs. Purdie spoke about the disabilities and handicap of women in professions
due to their lack of status. She was once the object of a Bill which, if it
passed, would have made her liable to a fine of £10 and £1 per day
thereafter so long as she continued practising her profession. It was absurd
to suppose women were going to pay
M.P.’s to
pass Bills such as these. Women would never break down the barriers which
kept them from advancing in the professions while they were denied
representation.
Mrs. [Margarete Wynne] Nevinson.
Mrs. Nevinson… in the course of her speech said: The Conciliation Bill is a
first instalment of justice, the first righteous thing that we accept and
that we are willing to take. If anybody owed you £1,000, and said, “I cannot
give the whole amount to you now, but will pay you £100 on account and the
rest later on,” every wise person having anything to do with finance would
say, “All right, I will take the £100 now and the rest as soon as you can let
me have it.” Women are naturally becoming very indignant with the Budget,
which has put Women’s Income Tax up to
1s.
2d. in the £. Before the
war we only paid 6d. Women had
nothing to do with the causes involving increased taxation, and yet we now
have to pay 1s.
2d.
Income-Tax Courtesy.
Here I have one of Mr. Lloyd George’s wonderful forms, with its numerous
questions, to answer which intelligently I should require, apparently, the
training of a lawyer and surveyor, and a fund of universal knowledge which I
do not possess. I am asked to answer those questions, but am not considered
fit to vote for a member of Parliament. This Form is addressed to me because
I have a little freehold property, but it starts off with “Sir.” I am sending
it back, pointing our that I must be addressed as “Madam,” and not “Sir,” and
that as I have not vote, I do not see what this matter has to do with me. If
you think of it, it is rather an insult to all women property holders to be
addressed as “Sir,” and not by their proper title of courtesy. The State
seems to take for granted that there can be no free women or women
freeholders in the country, but that all the land must be owned by men.
No Vote, No Taxes.
The Women’s Freedom League for the last three years has preached and
practised tax resistance as a protest against unenfranchisement. It is,
therefore, very gratifying that the sister militant society has now decided,
in the event of the Conciliation Bill not becoming law this session, also to
adopt this form of protest. It is to be hoped that the Women’s Tax Resistance
League will succeed in persuading all the other Suffrage Societies to unite
on this logical policy of refusing supplies until our grievance is redressed.
