The Twin Falls times. [volume] (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1905-1916, 1913-06-03

90 lAcy otylc Tue FTlIuc MINISTER, LAS
omitted to give the measure that I'M
qualified support they were led to ex-
pect, because, as he remarked, the
question had never yet been before the
people in the form of an election issue.
One member, Sir c. -Rickett,
objected to the bill because he said
would be as likely to riot and break
windows, or throw brickbats and
bombs in the House, as they had been
doing outside of it. Mr.. Asquith spoke
among the nays, and said of the sex
difference sometimes urged against
women's acknowledgements:
Nov l go back to the general prin-
ciple. Let me point out here, what |
think is truism, that the whole bur-
den of proof is on those who assert
that the distinction of sex in regard to
the exercise of political rights which
has hitherto, with a very few excep-
tons, been universally recognized
even in the most democratic commune
ties, should in this country under this
bill be ignored. 1t is not a question
Of the inferiority of one or the SUI
periority of the other, either in in
tellect. character, temperament, or
anything else. 1t is a question of the
appropriateness or otherwise of par
ticular function, which is totally
different thing. Nor is it, in my view,
question of the application or the
exclusion of democratic principles.
Democracy aims at the obliteration of
arbitrary and artificial distinctions.
Democracy has no quarrel whatever
with distinctions which nature has
created and experience has sanctioned.
l will put in one sentence what seems
to me to be the gist and the core of
the real question the House has to an
swer, and it is this: Would our politi-
cal fabric be strengthened, would leg
islation be more respected, would our
public and domestic life be enriched,
would our standard of manners-and
in manners l include the old-fash-
Toned virtues Of chivalry and courtesy
and of the reciprocal Difference and
reliance of the two sexes; would this
standard be raised and refined if wom-
en- were politically enfranchised?
Cheers, and voice-It has been in
Australia.O I am not talking about
Australia. l am talking about Great
Britain, the country in which we live
and which we know. l want an an
swer to the question, would it or
would it not be the case? Every man
must answer that question as his
judgment and experience teaches. /
answer it in the negative. l believe
such negative answer to be in no
wise derogatory to the honor and dig
nifty of the other SEX"
Mr.. Snowden, Laborite member
for one of the great industrial cen
ters of Lancashire, Blackburn, famous
for its cottonmills, argued that 'it
would be for the good of the commun-
ity if women had the power to VOTE"
The action of the militants does not
seem to him to impair the force of the
argument in favor of enfranchising
women. Nor does he think, either,
that Parliament ought to be intimi-
dated into saying yea to their demand.
He observed:
"The members who declare that they
will vote against the bill because they
will not be intimidated by violence are
allowing themselves to be intimidated
from doing what they believe to be
right because one woman in thou
sand has done something of which
they disapprove. The courageous
thing for those members to do is to
do what is right, and if they do that
they can depend upon it that rebellion
and revolution will cease, because
revolution can not continue unless
based upon justifiable sense of
grievance. Is the House of Commons
to go on forever hooking the women
by its professions of sympathy? | APP
peal not to the sympathy, but to the
of the House, and to it's
sense of justice, and / hope that a |
large majority of the members will de-
clare by their votes that the time has
come when self-respecting House of
Commons demands that this question |
BE finally settled in harmony with |
hose principles of democratic self
government on which alone the great
less and stability of Parlia m ON any