NATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN.

White Ribbon, Volume 25, Issue 293, 18 November 1919, Page 5

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN.

PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS

(Continued.) WOMKN IN PARLIAMENT. W hilt* wishful to avoid any en< roachnu*nt on our Secretary's report, I can n<>t refrain from mentioning the pre sent position and prospects of women’s eligibility for Parliament in this Dominion. You will remember that when, more than a quarter of a century ago. we were enfranchised, special care was taken to prevent the electors from choosing any woman to represent them in Parliament. At the moment this seemed to be of little importance, for the prohibition against women being members of Parliament wav so illogical and un fair that it appeared certain that in a short time it must be removed. Net the years have passed while women electors that were young became el derly, and many that were middleaked have grown old, and the frequent efforts for justice that have been made by earnest women and chivalrous men have been met by indifference and a scarcely veiled hos tility. It would not be tight to blame Parliament altogether for the continuance of this injustice. I'nrier our fault> system of Party Government, Parliament, which should be all powerful has really little choice of action. Every member is supposed to belong to, and obey the instructions of, one party or another. And while Governments may come and go, no strong party has yet included justice to women in its programme. Net, as 1 have said, since the war theie has been a stirring of the dry bones. Systems of Government are on theii trial, and the idea of justice may yet become a living force. During the last session of our Parliament a proposal to make women electors eligible for election was favourably received. The proposal was lost on the plea <>t unconstitutional procedure. Mr Massey declared that while he accepted Sir Francis Pell's dictum on the question of procedure, he was not opposed to the reform, and would himself bring the question before the House at its next session, and give members an opportunity of voting upon it. Sii Joseph Waid said that he “felt that women should be admitted to Parliament," while Sir Francjs Bell, replying to a deputation of

women who interviewed him, said that he “needed no deputation to persuade him that what it asked for was just.’ He further said, “It is an accurate and absoiuic fad that if the Lower House had passed the amendment, it would have passed the Legislative Council without question or objection." It would thereiore seem that the ■»< complishment of this long sought for reform is assured. I am glad to note that Mr Massey, in ratification of his promise, has a) loady given notice in the House to ask for leave to introduce the Women s Parliamentary Rights Extension Bill. It may l>e asked by some of the un thinking, “Why this desire to make women eligible for Parliament?" This question may be answered by another, “Why should the electors be denied the right to select as their representative the person they wish to represent them?” (Nr, “If a woman be the Sovereign of our mighty Empire, why should a woman elector he prohibited from being the servant of ,i constituency, if the constituency so desire?" Such a prohibition is not only an inteiference with the liberty of women citizens, but an interference with the men c itizens also, and cannot be defended on reasonable grounds. Further, it is niy belief that the onesided laws which operate against uo-

men and the welfare of the family will not be rejiealed until we have women representatives in Parliament. It may be interesting here to quote from an address given bv Miss Mar\ Mac arthur, a candidate for Parliament, to the electors of Stourbridge, England. •It take's a man and a woman,” she said, “to make an ideal home, and I believe that neither can build the ideal world without the* help of the other. In the* new Parliament, where Lius affecting every household in tin* land will lie framed, the' point of view of the mother, as well as that of the father, should tind expression. If I am returned to the House of Commons I shall try to voice in a serial sense ilk aspirations of the women workers of this land. ... I shall also feel entitled to speak for the woman whose* work nc'ver ends, the woman in the' home who faces and solves every day a multitude* of problems, the woman who has been too often neglected or forgotten by politicians, the mother of the children u|n>n whom the future pride and strength of the nation dr pends." With the wider opportunities for service that seem to la* opening for wo men, there should be a continuous effort to expand their outlook, and to deepen their knowledge of many of the questions whic h call tor legislative action.