LABOUR PARTY AND SUFFRAGETTES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 77, 30 March 1912, Page 12

LABOUR PARTY AND SUFFRAGETTES.

The 'British Labour Party will leave no stone unturned to give women the 'vote on precisely the same terms as men. They are even prepared to turn out the Government rather than see women cheated of the franchise. This and a denunciation of the Referendum on womanhood suffrage formed the chief points of an eloquent speech delivered recently by Mr. J". Ramsay Macdonald, M.P., as chairman of a crowded meeting in favour of adult suffrage held in the Albert Hall, London, under the joint auspices of the Labour Parfy, the Independent Labour Party, and the Fabian Society. When the member for Leicester made the declaration that "the House of Commons must accept responsibility for this Bill," he was interrupted with the query, "Will you turn out the Government on it?" "Certainly," replied Mr. Macdonald; "I have said so all along. The Labour Party has made its position perfectly clear. Situations unforeseen by the party will,ariEe, and the party alone can face those' situations when they arise ; but you may deped upon it that tho Labour Party will use every particle of influence it possesses to see that the Bill which is to, be introduced will leave the House of Commons an Adult Suffrage Bill." _, The time had' arrived. Mr. Macdonald declared, when the basis of democracy must be broadened, and, in the broadening of that basis, the Labour Party would not be satisfied if men alone were included in the new Reform Bill. THE WORKING-MAN'S WIFE. > "It is fashionable to jeer at the intelligence of the working-man's wife," eaid Mr. Macdonald. "But the intelligence of the working-man's wife is as conspicuous as the intelligence of the finely dressed West End lady. That most remarkable example of human capacity and human skill in management, the woman who has got to bring up a family on the niggardly wage that a working man can. Bring home, can contribute to the experience of the State an intelligence and a personal experience far richer than any finely dressed lady. I'The working-man's wife, with her magnificently rich experience of joy and sorrow, of woe_ and hope, of hardship and gladness, is precisely the woman whom the State should consult in solving its problems." THE REFERENDUM. Speaking of the Referendum, Mr. Macdonald condemned it as "one of those gaudy toys that are offered to distract the attention of the democracy when the democracy takes its coat off to do real solid work." With thp Referendum they could have a vast majority of the people sincerely anxious for a change, but they would never get a majority in favour of any one method of carrying out that ohange. Their reactionary friends know that, and that was why they favoured the Referendum.