The Auckland Star. WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News,Morning News and The Echo. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1909. THE WOMEN'S VOTE.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 253, 23 October 1909, Page 4

The Auckland Star. WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1909. THE WOMEN'S VOTE.

For tlie cause that lacks aanisiance. For the wrong that needs reuUtanvn, For the future in the distance. And the good that v>6 can do.

During -hi 3 stay in New York, ou* Premier was asked by one of America's indefaxigable interviewers to make a public pronouncement on the Woman's Suffrage Question; and he rose to the occasion with commendable courage. He frankly confessed that he felt a strong antipathy to the methods pursued by the British '-Suffragettes," ■mhich were just then strongly in evidence; but he declared his emphatic belief <that "woman suffrage all over the world is inevitable in time." So far as New Zealand was concerned, lie pointed out that it had never been found necessary to employ violent and disorderly maa-ns to persuade men that women ougbt to be allowed to vote. The women said Sir Joseph Ward simply educated the men gradually, but effectually, to see what an advantage it -would be for the country for women to share men's political privileges. The success of the experiment is now assured, ?-nd Sir Joseph Ward even went so far as to say that he doubted if there was a man in Xew Zealand today who would deny women the right to vote, or would take away the ballot from them, if such a. step were contemplated.

Of course, our Premier was compelled to admit that there is still a certain amount of criticism directed even here against female franchise, but he pointed out that it comes almost entirely from the lew women who imagine that in some mysterious way the right to vote depreciates the dignity of their sex. But the average intelligent man realises clearly that the predictions of strife and failure so confidently made by the opponents of the movement for women's political emancipation years ago have all been falsified by the result. Women's suffrage has not brought dissension into our homes; it has not made our women less womanly, nor has it lowered them in the public esteem. As the Premier told the "Evening World" interviewer with pardonable pride, not even in America is more respect shown k>r the rights and the dignity of womanhood than in Xew Zealand. And Sir Joseph very justly derided the vague apprehensions about the effect of political privileges upon women and upon family life which' played a large part in the-anti-suffrage campaign here years ago, and which are still recited, with mechanical reiteration, by all the most bigoted and illogical opponents of the women's . vote in America and in England to-day.

But in spite of prejudice and conservatism, the movement in favour of extending the suffrage to women is gathering force steadily in" every civilised country; in fact, it is no exaggeration to term it world-wide. There is an International Woman Suffrage Alliance, which holds conferences, at the last of which delegates from 21 separate countries assembled. There is an International Council of Women, to which delegates are sent from all the Women's National Councils in countries as far apart as Australia, Argentina, Iceland, Persia, South Africa, and Greece. The French Council numbers 75,000 members; in Austria the National Council has 50 societies affiliated to it; in Holland there are 35, and in Switzerland 64 allied societies; and in Great Britain there are no less than 426 women's societies directly engaged in working for "the vote." And the International Council stands for no less than, eight million women who to-day, in every civilised country I throughout the world, are demanding the ■right-to share those legislative privileges i which few Governments now' ver.ture to i refuse to any men who are not either lunatics or criminals.

It must not be imagined that ail these societies concern themselves solely with the'pursuit of the franchise. The Ameri can General Federation of Women includes twelve committees, dealing with the Industrial Conditions of Women and Children, Civil Service Reform, Forestry, Pure Food, Public Health., Education, Civics, Legislation, Arts and Crafts, and Household Economics. And throughout the world there are similar organisations engaged nor. only in encouraging women thus to take an active though unofficial

share in the government and administration of tnelr countries, but giving practical proof that women have the brain and the will to share tie burdens of men, and to help in directing the destinies of the race. No doubt wherever

women receive the right, to vote they make an appreciable difference in the character and tone of legislation; but this, so far as the world's experience has gone, eeems to be unifor Jily a change for the better. Not all the legislatures in the Southern States, says a recent American article on the subject, can convince the Southern women that the prosperity of their country depends upon young children labouring in mills and mines. When the Supreme Court of New .York declared that "the United States Constitution stands in the way oi a law prohibiting the night woik of wo-

men," the Women's Clubs of New York replied thai, the Constitution must be altered. No one can doubt that the influence of women in the political scale is almost invariably thrown on the side of Humanism, of Altruism, of those fundamental Democratic principles which form, tbe groundwork of a progressive and enlightened civilisation. We may besi-

tate to telieve that the International Council of Women will easily achievei the great objects which it has placed in the forefront of its programme —Removal of Women's Legal Disabilities, Social Purity, Peace and Arbitration. But we can at least be certain that these are lofty and ennobling ideals, that the world would be infinitely the better for their realisation, and tha-t nothing is 60 likely to promote their attainment as the concession to -women of the fight to vote on the same footing and under tine same responsibilities as men.