Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/746

 730 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE at them. It was an exceptionally difficult situation and that we won through as well as we did was due to the solid loyalty to constitutional and law-abiding methods of propaganda of the great mass of suffragists throughout the country. We quoted the American proverb, "Three hornets can upset a camp meeting," and we determined to hold steadily on our way and not let our hornets upset us. Our societies multiplied rapidly both in num- bers and in membership. For instance, the number forming the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies increased from 64 in 1909 to 130 in 1910 and went on increasing rapidly until just before the war in 1914 they numbered more than 600, with a revenue of over 42,000 pounds a year. More important in many ways than the "militant" movement was the emergence at the General Election in 1906 of the Labour Party. Mr. Keir Hardie, Mr. Philip Snowden and others of its leaders were very strong supporters of women's suffrage and it was not long before the party definitely made the enfranchise- ment of women on the same terms as men a plank in its plat- form. In anticipation of the first General Election of 1910, the N.U.W.S.S. addressed the leaders of the three British parties, Conservative, Liberal, and Labour, asking them what they were prepared to do for Women's Suffrage. Mr. Asquith gave his answer at an Albert Hall meeting in December, 1909. He re- iterated his intention, if returned to power, of bringing in a Reform Bill, and he promised to make the insertion of a Women's Suffrage amendment an open question for the House of Com- mons to decide. He added: "The Government . . . has no disposition or desire to burke the question ; it is clearly an issue on which the new House ought to be given an opportunity to express its views." This meant that the Government whips would not be put on to oppose the enfranchisement of women. Mr. Balfour replied to our memorial that it was a non-party question on which members of the Unionist Party could exer- cise individual freedom of action. Mr. Arthur Henderson, for the Labour Party, told us that it had already placed the enfran- chisement of women on its programme. The Labour Party was not large but it was an important advantage to us to have even a small party definitely pledged to our support. There were two