The Daily News. FRIDAY, MARCH 24. THE WOMEN'S FIGHT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 260, 24 March 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, MARCH 24. THE WOMEN'S FIGHT.

Hiss Vida Goldstein, a Victorian reformer and politician, is reported as saying that Australian women approved the methods employed by British woman suffragists in their fight for a vote. Victorian lady politicians do not chase Ministers of the Crown with stockwhips, because there is no need for Victorian ladies. to. flog their way to an electoral equality with man. It is one thing to prescribe medicine for one's fellow and another to take it oneself. The attitude is reminiscent of the attitude of an Australian working man who discovered in a deserted hut a bottle of "eye-water." He and his mate were both suffering from "sandy blight." "Let me pour some of this eye-water into your eyes, mate," he said. "If it doesn't turn you blind, I'll use some myself." There is no doubt, however, that what colonial women have obtained peaceably, and with the full consent and help of mere men, they are, as a body, very little interested in. The interest of the general body of women in politics is not excessive, although their indirect influence is quite as great as, and perhaps greater than, that of the general body of men. The militant aspect of a proportion of women is not an indication of the aspect of all women. The great body of mothers and maids take no violent interest in legislative measures, knowing that such matters are the business of the men, and that their influence counts with men without shouting their opinions from the housetops. The militant woman suffragist attacks politically antagonistic man as if hp were woman's bitterest enemy, but the most militant British suffragist, even if she achieves her goal, is still only half-way. She still must exercise her vote for the benefit of a man. If a sweeping revolution in Britain which gave women equal electoral rights were accomplished, and women proved the value of their methods by sending their sisters to Parliament, the whole aspect would change. But mainly because woman's nature docs not change, her true disposition is to help man to achievement and to influence him before and after with age-old and instinctive methods. Just as the average husband resents the flat-iron or broom-handle style of feminine argument —happily unusual—so will the statesman resent the methods of the minority of enthusiastic souls who endeavor to whip a clear path whereby the great body of their sisters may reach a goal they are not keen on reaching. There is a certain unfeminine nobleness about the Home women who, for the sake of an idea, render themselves liable to insult and imprisonment. The records of ITolloway and the sufferings of the "suffragettes" naturally induce sympathy for women who, as has been proved, will even go to their death in supj port of a principle. That aggressive physical tactics merely defeat the object to be achieved is very plain. There is no doubt in the mind of anyone who is convinced of the unalterable position of the sexes that before the days of the British suffragette, the quiet influence of women was politically and socially more potent than are the latter-day methods, in which women fight but resent being fought. Although colonial women have achieved the boon of a vote without at-

tacks on Ministers or breaches of the law, colonial society contains the same elements as Home society. Thus we find that colonial women help the battle from afar off, or, when in the home of the suffragette, add their fuel to the fire of feminine discontent, a discontent that is never widespread, and which is confined to the section conceiving force to be modern woman's best weapon. It is evident that the suffragette believes her cause is one that gives her the right to make attacks to which there can be no counter. The Home suffragette is particularly averse to the police. On the other hand, one may be sorry for the police who have tjie unthankful task of obeying an order to quell a rising of militant and influential suffragettes. A kicking, screaming marchioness may be as difficult to deal with as ft Billinsgate fish woman, and the policeman's business is "not to reason why" but to do his work. The suffragette retaliates by saying that the "police are coarse, red-faced men," forgetting, of course, that "Family Herald" policemen are not the type of persons who would be useful in dealing with armed anarchists. Suffragette or anarchist, factory girl or spieler, marquis or scavenger, they are' all in the day's work as far as the constable is concerned. Britain at the moment is faced with problems of the most profound nature, and international matters of the most vital importance could not possibly be affected if British women had votes. Aggressive tactics by suffragettes at a time of national concern are likely to be viewed with impatience by statesmen, who, understanding that general relations cannot be altered by the mere award of votes to women, can sec no reason for altering their views on the question. As we have said, the boon of a vote is carelessly received by man as well as woman. If a proportion of men exercise a vote unthinkingly and another proportion do not exercise it at all, it is unlikely that their wives and sisters will he keener than they. There is a story of a New Zealand lady who was on her way to the polling booth to exercise, the right some of her British sisters are fighting for. She met a friend. "For whom are you going to vote?" asked the friend; "Mr. Brown or Mr. Jones?" "Is Mr. Brown that bandy-legged, red-haired little man?" "Yes." "Well, I'm going to vote for Mr. Jones." The feminine instinct is not to vote for a candidate because he happens to be "in favor of" a certain reform or a given line of government. If in the dim future women are admitted to Parliament, many women candidates will lose seats on the style of-a hat or the color of a complexion. Government by men is only good government when woman's influence helps the men to achieve intended results. Women never yet achieved reforms by publicly blaming men, but they have achieved numberless national triumphs by quietly insisting on a high standard of conduct in the men who rule under the guidance and with the consent of both sexes. The value of a politician's work is not indicated by the number of rotes he polls—whether the votes are from women or from men—but by the principles that actuate him. The principles that actuate him do not spring from suffragette assaults or wildeyed oratory, but generally from £h< mother who thought little enough of votes when she was laying down the path for his youthful feet to tread.