The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY FEBRUARY 1, 1926. HOPE AND REALISATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 26, 1 February 1926, Page 6

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

MONDAY FEBRUARY 1, 1926. HOPE AND REALISATION.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, • And the good that we can do.

Mrs. Pankhurst, the well-known leader of the suffragette movement, confessed in an interview a few days ago that she was somewhat disillusioned in regard to the results of votes for women. She had thought, like all reformers, that a miracle was going to happen, and that women's votes were going to bring Utopia. She found that human nature had not been taken into consideration, and that the result had been to leave things very much where they were before. All reformers start with similar hopes. They believe that an ideal state of humanity can be brought about by some outside effort, forgetting the old Horatian maxim that "Nature will return even though you uproot her with a pitchfork." During the height of the suffragette agitation, nearly all the ills from which the world suffered were ascribed to the fact that men controlled politics and women had no say. It is difficult to gauge the results which have actually followed the granting of votes to women, since we cannot say exactly what the course of politics would have been had these votes not been given. But it is certain that no very drastic change has followed. In certain directions affecting the welfare of women and children, undoubtedly the women's vote has been of considerable influence. It has not brought about a revolution in social i legislation or international outlook. As far as can be judged at present, the tendency of the vote has been in the ! direction of conservatism. English ex- ■ perience shows that an extension of the franchise is liable to have this effect. When the vote was given to agricultural labourers it was predicted that a great triumph would follow for the Radicals. As a matter of fact, the next election after the granting of the vote showed a majority for the Conservative party. Quite possibly newly-enfranchised voters require some education in how to vote in order that they may give expression to their real desires. New voters have to be wooed by all parties at an election, and usually great skill is shown by the practised politician in appealing to small prejudices and side-tracking the main points at issue. During the recent elections in Canada, for instance, great efforts were made by Conservatives and Liberals alike to gain the women's votes by means of some domestic appeal. The women were told that if the Conservatives got in they would pursue a jingoistic policy, and mothers would find their boys conscripted for another war; while the Conservatives declared that they were out to bring back the Canadian boys who had emigrated to the United States and to provide them with work in their own country, and they insisted that a return of the Liberals would mean the closing of the factories where the women's husbands worked. The result was that the women's vote was about equally divided, and government

in Canada is almost at a standstill owing to the difficulty the parties are

experiencing in obtaining a working majority. All reform must be brought about gradually. Mrs. Pankhurst truly says that reformers always fancy a miracle is going to follow some extension of the

franchise or some new piece of legislation. The elder Mill was sure that all would be well with the State when everybody liad a vote. They fail to take into account that element in human nature which makes the near and the personal of far more account to the individual than the future and the mas?. Much can be done with men in the mass.

They can be drilled, organised, paraded;

but they cannot be reformed inwardly.

The old Latin proverb. '"Men change their skies, but not their hearts, when they cross the seas," shows that sonic-

thing more is needed to effect real and lasting reform than some political change of sky. Yet it would be idle to deny the results which have followed each extension of the franchise and each genuine political effort towards reform. Conditions to-day, when compared with conditions a century ago, reveal how much has been done to improve the lot of the workers and to curtail unwarranted privileges of the few. The fact that reform has been slow has not made it any the Ires sure. It may be that women have not exercised their votes quite in the direction ardent suffragettes desired, but in a quiet manner they have succeeded in ameliorating their own lot and that of children in general, and we may be sure that the good work they have commenced in this direction will be extended as they become more conscious both of the possibilities and the limitations of political legislation.