WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE IN 1912.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1326, 2 January 1912, Page 9

WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE IN 1912.

SOME WOMEN IF MOST MEN. (By Mrs. Margaret. Hoitla'nd.) ■ We who have striven all our lives for the enfranchisement of women felt on the 7th of this month (November),.and still feel, the shock of suprejio indignation. We learnt from the Prima Minister that the Government intended to bring.in a •Bill for. the enfranchisement of .almost ail men who are not no.iv.vclcp.toi'Sii.and to leave out of that Bill any ; womehy : .how-. evor great their.services:to. the .State; or however urgent their need-of legislative self-protection. Here was the answer to argument, to eloquence, to justice, to the political, economic, and social needs of our time, and here, ..too,- tho answer .to the 255 members of Parliament who, by their votes last May, testified that tho Houso of Commons intended to give the suffrage to women householders. Yet, even as a death gives tho survivors a deeper sense of life, so this threatened denial, of the ■strength of our demand made that strength still more/apparent. It brought at once an accession'of-force to our movement. Quiet men and women all-over the country, who : had : hitherto- said./little, : raiscd their voices ;in [protest.\--!>o Jongvas : many 'men- were voteless they had not actually resented the fact that .all. women, should bu in the same plight.- To persons, however, of this type—and they are extremely numerous in all classes—Mr. Asnuith's declaration was the thing too much. It was, in slang phrase, "the limit." Being Britons, they demand a rough, workable justice rather than an equity that shall bo absolutely- logical ..and. exact to a hair's breadth.. ; And this sense of rough, workable j ustiee was "utterly baulked and liega- . tived by a proposal so' to' legislate that; the 'meanest male drunkard, bully',' or sot'who ." bad" lived'for" a few months at : one address should, be given mare_pDwer_±o_ .get a . member of Parliament to do what he wished than a woman \vho. .had.save'd lives as "surgeon, physician, ojLjvursp, who had increased.the wealth of human.knowledge) by scientific- discovery; who had 'swelled ' the. volume of'our industry,, had' tended young ,aiid old, or. had. clothed-, -fed; and .educated the inheritors.of'.'this Empire. ! It"was'unthihkabler impossible that. such, a state.of "things should.-'.bb ;.tolerated. . Adult suffrage nnight' not -be—and -by;, tho persons.io whom I refer is not—desired; .but if.'the Government' intends to-push through -a scheme, for male adult suffrage, then somo women, : at all'events,.must be enfranchised at the same time. -Such, I believe, to bo the opinion of a- great mass of people who are,, and rather pride themselves, on being, "'non-extremists.''-They are the people, none the. loss, Who,. ,w : hen they dp rouso themselves, give the wrord of command to Governments.

To us of the National "Union 1 , as well, I believe, as. to' members of-most 'of the other women's suffrage organisations, it seems '.now almost a certainty that the year l') 12 "must,bring':us some, form of Parliamentary representation. ' Either women householders alone will obtain the vote, or these and others) but not-all women. In a country where there are more womcn;thaii uien, und' where no woman has iu recent centuries ' been deemed qualified to exercise tho. _ Parliamentary vote (with the sole potential exception of Mrs. Lees as returning officer at the Oldham election),.it is political folly to demand that more women lltfin men shall suddenly acquire that, right. But there are other, forms .of .suffrage than tho household or adult type. There is, as the Prime Minister remarked- to the .deputation, tho form of franchise advocated by Mr. Dickinson in the Bill which bore his name. This would give- the vote to women who were qualified cither as householders or as wives of electors. By such a scheme, it is estimate-!, about seven million women would become enfranchised. Tho Dickinson scheme would doubtless be- welcomed by very many persons who iu recent years havo iirged the claims of married women as being (for reasons) which I do not profess ■to understand) stronger than those of women who have not yet married or who havo survived their" husbands." It nicets the. objections of the two parties—those who shrink from adult suffrago and tho-:e who feel that tho claim to representation of married women is exceptionally strong, l-'or myself; I do not pick and choose among my female follow .creatures. Much more than absolute equality, which human beings can never get, I desire what is attainable—tho lessening of artificially imposed inequality; For any such lessening—be it only in a small degree—l will work, and so "will thousands who are abler, and stronger than I. -- - . To got overa-wall, climbing should Rtft b» tried, railing that, we, may eco U

haply wo can loosen a few of the stones. Absolutely tbe last.plan of all is to run one's head against it. hi tbe past, strong provocation to lake this final course of desperation has several times been offered. One of these was when Parliament settled that women were to help pay for tho salaries of its members out of their own incomes and earnings, and yet were to have no vote. But the present— and I write at the beginning of tlio week, not knowing what tho days may bring forth—is no moment for tho knocking of heads against walls. "Wo have made our own stepping stones. We have at numberless by-elections secured that tho members returned should bo pledged td help our cause; wo hnvo used our municipal votes to secure the s'uoport of city and town councils; we have long had the help of many political, professional, and industrial organisations. The Government, to make assurance doubly sure, has added to its promise of time for our Bill this second promise of the open door for our entry into its.own Bill of next year. From 1912 we hope all that we have most craved, the beginning of freedom for women.