second half of his speech, offered ‘an elaborate apology for the difficulty he felt
in translating his words into action’.^30 Emmeline heard the news calmly and
quietly, grateful that her trust in the Prime Minister had not been misplaced.
Lloyd George invited her to breakfast, to talk over the victory, and she ardently
told him of the Women’s Party’s schemes to help women use their hard-won
citizenship effectively. The food problem should be tackled immediately since
inflated prices were making the lives of poor women a misery; there must be
compulsory food rationing and public cost-price restaurants to lighten the
burden of hard-pressed mothers who were working in men’s jobs outside the
home.^31 But the shadow of the war and the activities of the socialist pacifists
who were ‘actually talking about and wanting revolution in England’^32 hung
heavily over her hopes for the future, as she explained in a letter to Ethel:
I breakfasted with the P.M. He has worked hard for us and we owe him
much. Now we must work harder than ever to keep women out of the
clutches of R. MacDonald & Co., who are making bids for them.
Constructionversusdestruction is our plan of campaign in home affairs,
and I believe we shall carry the best elements in the working class with
us when we show them how high production can be reconciled with
good pay, short hours, and a share in all that is good in life. We are full of
plans and schemes, tackling the food and domestic service problems.^33But it was not just politics that occupied Emmeline’s thoughts at this time.
Helen Archdale had sent her a letter she had recently received from Adela.
Grateful to know how her youngest daughter was faring, Emmeline wrote to
Helen, thanking her and giving her own news, that Vida Goldstein had written
to her saying that Adela’s husband ‘is worthy & respected’. That is ‘something
to be thankful for’, opined Emmeline. ‘Miss Goldstein has been very good to her
... & will keep an eye on her in future. Let us hope her husband will continue
the “mothering” without which Adela is helpless.’^34
But there was no time for Emmeline to be sad and reflective about Adela.
Back on the campaign trail, she often received great ovations as she spoke of
the critical condition of affairs both on the war and home fronts. ‘[W]omen ...
should take up their responsibilities as citizens and save their country from the
enemy abroad and from revolution at home’, she told an enthusiastic audience
in the Midlands. In particular, she hoped that the women workers in the muni-
tions factories would assert themselves ‘and put a stop to the irresponsible
behaviour’ of those young men, whom she regarded as ‘the Bolsheviks of
Britain’, who organised go-slows at work which led the way to the destruction of
industry and national prosperity. What the Women’s Party had developed was a
policy that would bring ‘national safety, national prosperity and national great-
ness’, goals that could be achieved through ‘wise legislation’ and ‘wise
arrangements’ that would give ‘greater prosperity to the people who worked
with their hands – more comfort, more leisure, and better pay’.^35 The finer
LEADER OF THE WOMEN’S PARTY