CHERCHEZ LA FEMME.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 65, 16 March 1907, Page 9

CHERCHEZ LA FEMME.

;; ; ; '-._■_ LONDON, February 1. 1 The dispute in the English Ltibour*' Party oyer, the franchise question may perhaps call for a fuller ex- ; planation than the cable messages -onvey. Although Mr. Keir Hardie, the Labour leader, has been defeated by the majority .of his' own party, over this question at the Labour Conference, it must not be inferred ; that .the Labour Party is opposed to female .franchise. On the contrary,; it is and from the first has been in favour of the reform. Where the party is divided is on the question of limited versus universal -female franchise. '. The fwomen : ...who are agitating for the franchise want it. to be granted to women on the same conditions as to men, and Mr. Keir Hardie has promised the leaders of the. .movement, that this reform would be placed first on the Labour Party's Parliamentary programme. This is the rock on which the Labour Party is in danger of striking. The male franchise in this country is a limited franchise, ft is not granted to every man over 21 years of age, as is done in the Colonies. The majority of the Labour Party think that to give women this limited franchise would only serve to increase the power of the propertied classes. '-■'.. : "V." """'

"It must be all or none," they say; "let every man and every Woman over 21 have a vote, or else let us wait, until we are in a- position- to bring about this universal franchise. To extend the franchise to women on a property qualification, and thus place only a section of them qn the roll, would be a retrograde step. Such a franchise would not allow, a married woman to vote at all. Immediately a woman married she would be disfranchised. Such is the view of the majority of the -Labour'"Party-, as.' expressed in the voting at the confer- ! erice. It is felt that there" are many social reforms more lifgently needed thaii the extension of a limited franchise to women. i ■ '■ Mr. Keir Hardie, on the- other hand, is eloquent over the impossibility of dropping the question of female franchise. "The spectacle of women being treated as though they were dogs or pariahs," he says,' "revolts and humilb atesme; their admission to. citizenship on terms of political equality with men is with mc a sacred principle, and I would not wish to be in association with any movement or party which could be guilty of the unfairness and injustice of denying to women those rights which men claim for themselves. . . The Labour party is too. much a part of myself, has too many .of the. best years of my life in it,'to make severance from it a light matter, but I cannot be a pa/ty to an act of injustice. I have stood by my own class, through good report and ill, fair weather and foul, and now if they, are going to treat a sex as they themselves have been treated by. 'the ruling class in the past, then, rather than be guilty of such injustice, 1 would retire from public life altogether. lam not so old but that I could fend for myself somehow."

The _ question is not, says Mr. KeirHardie, whetheror not there is to be a woman suffrage, ',rather what is to be the l-Mlpe^_rT^i^_p&^w party towards it. He takes the -view that the party should, place themselves in: the van of the supporters _1 the.movement, for, with or without., th-tn, tne bound to win in the hot.distant future. "With women safely enfranchised, then the triumph of democracy .is assured. Democracy means the rule of the majority* and the--majority at Belfast, under a misapprehension due to a sense of irritation, I think, pronounced against the enfranchisement of women. But woe betide the day in the life of a nation in which its public men have not the courage to sacrifice place and popularity at the call of conscience. I, at least, shall not be guilty of setting the example. More than -that Xlcannot say at present, nor until I see how events shape themselves at the opening of the session." Mr. Heir Hardies threat, to. resign is not treated seriously, by his. opponents in the Labour party. "We shall be able to bring him to reason;" said a prominent member. But Mr. Keir. Hardie is always terribly in earnest, and unless* they can convince him that he has taken the wrong line, the Labour party. _v..11 in all likelihood have to look out for- a new leader at Westminster. - -