New-York tribune., 1918-01-12
By P. w. Wilson
Of "The London Dailu Neaus'

IN Congress on woman's suffrage will
be Of immense interest. coming as it
does at this particular moment. There
are many respects in which your situa-
ton differs from ours. yet, on both
sides of the Atlantic the cause of full
representation for both sexes makes
steady Roadway.
The first and most startling distinc-
ton between our politics is that while
VIC are ready to give the vote by itself,
without any right to sit in the House
or commons, you assume. as a matter
OF course, that if a woman is on the
register she must be eligible to legis-
late; you admit Miss Rankin, where we
would exclude her. My own view is
That every elected body ought to CON
tam a certain number of women. Ques-
tlons constantly arise in modern
state, questions affecting child life,
motherhood, marriage. employment of
girls, housing and SO on, on which
women ought to be heard. Moreover,
women Of leisure are often more avail
able than men of business for public
work
can imagine modern state in
women manage the home and the par
liaments That would be a model COM
munlty and would preserve us from the
professional politician, >~ho may be
unknown IN your country but is some
times heard about in ours. | have been
told that in the happiest areas of the
Malay Peninsula this is the system Of
government. except that there the
women do the industry as we'll.
hot
have been settling this question by
what we shall call local option, or state
decisions. We always insist that any
change in the franchise shall be made
applicable to the whole country at
once. We cannot imagine your case
where, as it were, women vote IN
Lancashire but not in Yorkshire.
Whether for local or national cleo
tions. we have one rule all round.
England Has Had Good Queens
On the other hand, we are perhaps
ahead of you in one respect. our
Presidents are all men-at least, be-
lIeve so-but we do from time to time
run a Queen for the throne, and some
of them have been very good Queens.
Elizabeth and Victoria should be an
encouragement to Miss Rankin. and,
indeed, to all women who aspire to
occupy the White House.
You seem to be working up to
national suffrage for women, and here
you are free from one difficulty which
has long disturbed us Nothing inn
presses English students OF your af-
fairs more deeply than the power cX-
crcised by your Presidents. They may
dismiss their ministers like office boys,
and the business goes on just the
same. Now. with us, a whole Cabinet
has to be consulted about any lmpor-
tant bill, and il one member is recall
citrant he may defeat the wishes OF
all his colleagues. Possibly he may
! be ono of those men who cannot be
allowed to resign because he is i'm
portant in other ways, and there is no
doubt at all that the personal prestige
Of MIR. Asquth, an antisutlragist, de-
layed cnfranchisement for years.
| think he was mistaken. Possibly
he thinks SO himself, nowadays. Any
way, he is a convert to the vote, and
the only pity is that he did not
reconcile it with his conscience to side
with the angels years ago. You Will
see that, however hard it may be for
Mrs. Chapman Gait to secure a two
thirds majority in both legislatures,
she is. at any rate, free from the com
plication that if she wins or loses the
President viii be embarrassed into
resignation. You have real lcgls lativc
unity in these matters, whereas, in our
House OF Commons, votes are often
stulttied because it is made "matter
of confidence in the government of the
day. The whips are put on, and un-
less you want to turn out the govern
ment you must vote as you are told.
Had TO Do Something
What ultimately happened with us
was that the boot got onto the other
leg-as it were! The time came when
something had to be done about votes,
not fer women only, but for men.
These mon were fighting for the coun-
try and could not get on to the resi-
Dental lists because they were resid-
ing abroad. There were millions of
them so situated. The number Of male
half its normal figures. The situation
became impossible. But there were
many people who said that it would
be grossly unjust to remedy mer's
grievances without giving satisfaction
to women also. And then it happened
that the unity Of the Cabinet worked
quite the other way-that is, in favor
Of some compensation for women.
Something had to be done, and We
persuaded the Speaker, who usually
takes no part in controversy, to preside
OVcI Il SOiiISiCliIC NiilSli ii->N' u - i'i'
of really conclusive peace between
Adam and Eve The final difficulty was
the number of the women. They had
that advantage over the men, and g
register with majority Of women was
held to be impossible.
:. never worried myself very much
over this, because it has always seemed
to me that women will disagree with
one another in politics, as in other
things, including dress and their ages
which will mean that Bertha Will vote
against Maud and so cancel out But
there were men who failed to take this
comforting view, and for their sakes
two plans we're proposed. One was, II
effect, to leave out wives, but this dice
a violent death.
Rivalry of Matron and Maid
There is no more terrible rivalry II
the human race than the rivalry be
tween matron and maid. To ignore tho
matron and promote the maid woulo
have meant war, only differing from
Lincoln's war in that it would not have
been civil. To reduce numbers, there
fore, we had to fall back on age. l he
vote IS granted to every woman who
will admit and declare, despite all ap
pearances to the contrary, that she Is
over thirty OF my own acquaintance
} I do not know Of more than one or two
: who will agree to fulfil the condition
l. =