Woman Suffrage.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 2 August 1910, Page 4

Woman Suffrage.

THE NEW BILL AND ITS POSPECTS. (R.v Mrs Humphrey Ward, in the London Times.) Alter a long lull in tho woman suffrage campaign there ore now signs of fresh activity. There were recently published thy outline of yet another woman suffrage Bill, 'destined. I imagine, to go the way of all its predecessors as yet- another proof of the insuperable difficulties that surround the practical working out of the. suffrage programme. This is not. the occasion on which to examine its details. I only desire no<w to call attention to the amusing, though no doulit politic and intentional, blindness shown by tho promo'tkTS of the Mill, in their explanatory memorandum, to tho progress and strength of the anti-suffrago movement among women themselves, ■and to tilie very great probability that, it will ultimately contract the field here and decide the issue; as it lias done and is doing in America. The writers of the memorandum are pleased, to assume that the forces which will determine the fate of Mrs or any suffrage Mill are merely the forces of friendly host divided among themselves as in methods and machinery.

VIOLENCE AND OUTRAGE. New, <vhat are the real leading fa:'ts wii.!:< •:i. , .<iard to the suflrago (|iii.st : on in the last two years In the lirst place, these years have seen the development of a movement of violence and outrage among women, which iin the opinion of the general public, and of very many among the older generation of suffragists, has seriously nut back", it' not wholly ■extinguished. ftlhe hope of woman suffrage. That rash movement is now either suspended or .at an end; but it has left an indelible impression. And in the next place—to tin* deep impulses of disgust and indignation which it aroused may be traced the rapid growth throughout England of tli; 1 anti-,suffrage -jcanipaign. The Women's National Anti-Suffrage League lias now 15.000 paying men - hers and 110 branches; a Scottish league has been formed, affiliated to the English Leagle and a, similar organisation is being formed in Ireland, where a resolution in favour of woman suffrage was emphatically rejected by ti!:-e last National Convention. The league sent up to Parliament last year the largest petition on the subject of the suffrage ever prese-nted in a single year, containing upwards of 320,()()() signatures of women of all classes, but especially o!' the working class, protesting ■against the concession of the Parliamentary franchise to women. Meanwhile a General Election was held, in which hv common consenit the question of woman suffrage played no serious part whatever; and when the new Parliament met the general conviction was and is still—that the suffrage (-ause had lost heavily in Parliamentary strength. IF PARLIAMENT PASSES THE BILL? We have much- .reason, then, for doubt as to the -100 memliers of Parliament who arc said to be supporting the latest Suffrage Bill. But supposing that by some clever stratt'g\ the apparently irreconcilable differences in the suffrage cam)) can bo sufficiently patched up for united Parliamentary action; supposing---what we believe to be extremely improbable—that another second reading . majority can be snatched in a House of Commons, comfortably suspecting. like other Houses that have preceded it, that nothing more would come of it, the suffrage victory would not be a whit the nearer. The forces against the movement are infinitely stronger and better organised than they were 'two years ago. While not M per cent of the women of the United Kingdom have shown theii desire for the vote by joining the various propaganist programmes, the anti-suffrage movement, steadily spreads, and at the smallest sign of real danger could be immensely, and, 1 think 1 may say, startlingly developed. There i.s, in my belief, no doubt whatever that t.lie great, the overwhelmingly majority of English women are opposed to the interference which woman suffrage would involve with the executive power of men, and therefore with the strength and .safety of our country, in a complicated and dangerous ,world, and we can assure Hie -100 supporters oi this new Hill, if' -100 there are. that this majority of English women, are not going to .submit tamely to the weakening of England and the lasting injury to women, whinh they believe would lie involved in the parsing of any such measure. Machinery exists which did not exist two years ago. and it would ho use:!. Roth poiitird parties are deeply divided on t?!:■• subject. Tho Unionist Party, as some of us bavu good reason to know, would ho rent from top to bottom by any really serious attempt by Unionist, members or a Unionist Ministry to impose woman suffrage on England. And the Liberal Party, though apparent Iv more favourable, is in truth scarcely less divided.

TIIK 'AXTI-SUFbWGIC POLICY

While we push on resistance we must also push on the positive reforming policy which is to many of us an essential, perhaps the most essential, part of the anti-suffrage policy. In tlx; field of local government. becoming every year more iin per tan t to this nation, women arc.ii their right, and the nation had given them powers of which they iiave scarcely as yet used a fraction. Their progress in this direction has been checked by tlv» perversities of the suffrage movement. What we want now—we are glad to see the beginnings of it i many places-is a strong local government movement among women, wholly dissociated iii cm the franchise movement, and opposed to it. Women's local government societies of this kind are now beginning to spring up. The more widely they can be diffused the more will women realise the clear and strong dividing line, which exists between the local government and the I'arliamentary votes; the more plainly will they gee that in a wise renouncement' lies their .strength, tiliat i leaving to men the work and the responsibilities which aro rightfully and specially theirs, t.liey are not curtailing but strengthening their own influence with the nation.