Meanwhile another body of agitators who had become impatient with the Government's treatment of their own particular question, were preparing to take similar steps. Even in the early summer, there had been signs that the forthcoming winter was to be one of exceptional hardship for the working classes, and the Labour Members of Parliament had then begun to urge upon the President of the Local Government Board the need for making extensive preparations for helping the great numbers of persons whom they foresaw would fall out of employment. The distress that had been foreshadowed was now upon the country, a feeling of general discontent prevailed, and rumours of all sorts of wild doings were beginning to spread. Bodies of unemployed came marching up to London from the provincial towns and held meetings on the Embankment and Tower Hill at which it was announced that there was to be a great gathering of the unemployed in Parliament Square on Monday, October 12th, and that an attempt was then to be made to see the Prime Minister, the President of the Local Government Board and the President of the Board of Trade. On Sunday, October 4th, a meeting for the unemployed was held under the auspices of the Social Democratic Federation in Trafalgar Square, and some very inflammatory speeches were delivered.[29] The words of Mr. Will Thorne, M.P. for West Ham, were milder than those of some others. In the course of his remarks he said: Next Tuesday the Suffragettes admit that they are going to "rush" the House. There is nothing there. If you want to "rush" anything, you rush where there is something to be rushed; not the House. I say that if you are in earnest, the first thing that you ought to do is to rush the bakers' shops. You ought to rush every bally bakers' shop in London rather than starve. I suppose it means that a few of you will get locked up. You would be better off in prison. He added that until the unemployed struck "the fear of man" into the hearts of the Government, the Government would do nothing for them. After the unemployed meeting was over, there was some disorder in the neighbourhood of Charing Cross and two or three men were arrested. On Sunday, October 11th, the Women's Social and Political Union held a meeting in Trafalgar Square at which Mrs. Pankhurst, Christabel Pankhurst, and Mrs. Drummond spoke from the plinth of the Nelson column, whilst the police who were present in great numbers, took notes of all that was said.