The Daily News FRIDAY, MAY 25. BRITISH WOMEN AND THE FRANCHISE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8119, 25 May 1906, Page 2

The Daily News FRIDAY, MAY 25. BRITISH WOMEN AND THE FRANCHISE.

Antique, almost moss-grown custom is dearer to a largo class of English peoplo than anything elso. The b isis of society remains practically the s:ime in tho Old Land century after century. Reforms como slowly. Reformers aro looked upoi as a nuisance. Most reformers peg away at their reforms until the schemes are plaoed before the House of Lords—and then tho refor-

mer's heart breaks. Britons never shall be slaves, except to custom. The peers of Britain aro tho custom. How dare the mere Commons pass a Bill in that House i)v the compensation of

workmen injured at their callings. No wonder their Lordships threw such a Bill out with great emphasis. It gives the lowly Briton a chance as

well as the Briton who is not lowly. This at any time is enough to make a peer turn pale and slay a Bill. # # # #

A moke important subject even than compensation to workers was recently brought before the Prime Minister of Britain by a deputation of women. The deputation presented a petition signed by seven hundred and fifty thousand people, praying for the consideration of the question of granting the franchise to the women of Great Britain. The Prime Minister advised patience. Patience slew Gordon in Egypt Patience killed thousands of British in the Crimea. Patience, dilatoriness, procrastination have been times without number the curse of the Old Land. The London " Times " tells the women of Britain to wait and watch the effect of women's franchise in Australasia, and what the " Times " tells the people to do is exactly what the retrogressives —the peers—would advise. Never let it be said that England, the home of the free and the land of the brave, ever did anything on its own. Never let it be said that the mothers of the nation should have a say in the conduct of the people they bear. * # # •# Wiutevbr effect the female franchise would have on Britain, the granting of it would be only common justice, and by no stretch of imagination can it be said that the fact of giving women votes would have an ill effect on the politics of the country. The great question is agitating America at this

moment, and a very largo number of .vomen are extremely averse to the granting of the privilege to them. Their chief argument in disfavor is that participation in politics would possibly corrupt women as it has corrupted men. On the other hand, it might purify politics. Womeu have a habit of "keeping on, kcepiug on," until they obtain what they are fighting for. The female franchise lady who had to be rooted out of sixteen places in the House of Commons had a habit of kcoping on, and there is not the slightest doubt that the habit will spread among women at Home, until the land echoes with the demand to be heard at the ballot box. Women are, perhaps, most affected by the deeds or misdeeds of the Government, and, this being so, it is merely reasonable that women shall have a say in the selection of men who help to govern a country not entirely peopled by males. The political female is usually drawn by male comic artists as a masculine looking person, on the yergc of insanity, and wearing more or less masculine attire. Obviously tho artistic idea is that the woman who has a vote must

nccessarily be an unprepossessing ogress, a little bit gouc in the head. # # * #

But a woman may exercise a vote without rushing on to a platform wearing spectacles and a large umbrella We fail to sec the harm the woman vote in New Zealand has caused. There are not two dozen women politicians in the colony although there are many thousand women voters, who, as equals with the men of this country, have always had a moral right to help.to guide the destinies of the land, but only of late years the hardly conceded legal right, The prevalent idea that women are coerced —or " guided," if you like it better —in the matter of political voting by their husbands, lovers or brothers, won't altogether hold water. For instance, do you think there are any women in New Zealand who have voted differently from their men-folk on the licensing question ? And if the womons' vote his in any way affected this one matter, don't you think that the women who bear the brunt of any evil that exists, have a right to free themselves at the ballot box if possible '/

* * * * And if the franchise has been of benefit to tho women of New Zealand, if it has made our mothers and our wives and our sisters any freer, or happier or wiser, if it has given any of them an opportunity of quietly effecting reforms, don't you think that those women's kin in the land we still call ' Home ' arc entitled to the consideration extended to women in this distant outpost of the Empire ? Tho American ladies, before referred to, assorted, as thousands of other people have asserted, that a woman's duty is to her husband, her home, her children and the couutry. If anyone will point out how the more possession oE a vote will interfere with any of the duties enumerated we shall be glad to know. The possibilities are tint a universal franchise for women would have the very best effect on the morals, politics and conduct of any people. The idea prevalent among n certain class of men that woman is inferior intellectually is only gradually dyin; niv.iy. In cducitional matters the average colonial girl is Far a'icad of tho average colonial

boy. Slio has more patience and application. The same thing is at present remarked in Britain, America, Germany and France. Now, if the women of England arc capable of applying their reasoning faculties to the passing of stiff examinations, is ife not feasible that they might, without any advice from the " lords of creation " be sensible enough to exercise a vote without making a bungle of it ? Man has been so used to regard woman as an inferior kind of human article, that he resents (anything that deposes him from his self-erected and lofty pedestal. There seems lo be every reasonab'e hope that the women of Britain will p?g away at the question of sexe (uality at the ballot box. It is only justice, and may justice be done soon.