The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-29
The Position OF Woman Suffrage In
Great Britain.

Great Britain.
The British friends Of woman suffrage
are naturally disappointed at the state
ment made by the Prime Minister, Sir
II. OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES that it will
be impossible TO find time during the
present session of Parliament to deal
with the Women's Enfranchisement bill
introduced by Mr.. kerr HARDIE, the
Laborite leader. Nothing else, how
ever, could have been expected. It has
come to be the custom Of all British gov
ernments to postpone franchise ques-
tions to their final session, or the ground
that il the electorate is to be altered
Parliament cannot do it without forth
with dissolving and requesting a new
mandate from the enlarged constituency.
1t is manifest that the existing electorate
would be greatly increased by woman
I suffrage, even if this were based on a
property qualification. That is a plausi-
BILE reason for deferring a discussion of
the demand put forward by the woman
s~uffragists.
If, however, this were the final instead
Of being an early session of the Banner
man Parliament, it is far from certain
that the specific demand of the woman
suffragists would be granted by the pres
ent House OF Commons in a separate bill.
Many members who are strongly OPP
posed to the exclusion of women from
the franchise believe that their emanci-
patton should be a part of a compre-
zz.. 49, - Nha an,F.,ra rrA,aA
should aim at giving n 10 every
! adult, and at making such drastic alter
atoms in the registration law az would
minimize the number of votes lost by
change of residence. OF course, the
| leaders of the woman suffrage movement
object to the indefinite adjournment of
their claims on such a plea, which is
equivalent to telling them, they say, to
wait for the millennium. They do not
dispute the existence Of defects and in
equalities in the existing franchise law,
but they say that whatever these may
be, sex disqualification should not be
added. Sex disqualification is obviously
a discrimination of a different kind
from any to which a male adult may
be subjected by the present franchise
and registration laws. II a man loses
his vote because he has changed his resi-
dence within a specified period he knows
that the loss may be remedied at the next
election, whereas a woman who finds
herself disqualified because Of her sex
has no such consolation.
Whether the woman suffrage move
ment is stronger in Great Britain to-day
than it was in the time of JOHN STUART
MILL is a question about which observers
differ, but the evidence for the affirma-
tive seems to preponderate. The will
ingness Of a militant group of r~esolute
! propagandists to undergo Imprisonment
and gross humiliation for the cause has
! aroused the sympathy Of many educated
women who hitherto were indifferent,
and the extent to which the demand for
woman suffrage has come to be sup
ported by the working classes has been
demonstrated by the concurrent resolu-
| tions of women's labor unions. 1t il,
indeed, the existence Of this support that
accounts for the appearance of Mr.. kerr
HARDIE as the Parliamentary champion
| Of the woman s~uffragists. Their most
influential and outspoken advocate in the
London press, however, the Tribune,
| maintains that the extent of the demand
is not a vital question. It holds that a
theoretical democrat who believes that
representative government should re-
feet the will of all who can be affected
by government can have in a modern
community no valid ground for exclud-
ing women. II any woman, married or
single, desires the ballot it is an injustice
to withhold it, as she is affected by the
government and has therefore a right to
take part in shaping 1t.
There is another thing to be considered.
II, as we are sometimes told, only
a few women desire the ballot and the
many are Indifferent, then the proba-
bility is that only the few will exercise
IT,. The result would be, in all likelihood,
that the few women who did exercise the
franchise would represent, on the aver
age, a higher level of citizenship and in
telligence than the mass of male voters.
On these grounds the London Tribune
asserts that the indifference of many
women is rather an argument for the suf-
frage than against it. The same paper
is disposed to think that the numerical
Importance Of the vote that would he cast
by women. in the beginning at all events.
has been exaggerated, and expresses a
doubt whether it would exercise much
direct influence in politics. 1t IL the
denial Of the vote that is regarded as
serious, and serious mainly because it
reacts on the mind and character of those
who suffer by it. II is indeed beyond
dispute that if the exercise Of citizenship
and the thought which citizenship alone
can stimulate sbott some Of the larger