SPARE HALF HOURS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2009, 25 August 1892, Page 45

SPARE HALF HOURS.

By F. A. Joseph^

WOMAN AHD f fiE FRANCHISE.

Not only in our own country, but also in England, the question of extending the Parliamentary franchise to woman is exercising the minds of men. This question is now before our own Parliament, and whether the privilege of: voltog for Parliamentary elections be given to the women of New Zealand this session or .not, it cannot be withheld long. In England, where manhood suffrage ha 3 not yet been conceded, the agitation in favour of woman suffrage is more pronounced than in our colony. The most potent factor in the movement at Home is the conscious power of the trade unions. Before the principle of collectivism was recognised among the British workers, their condition was infinitely worse than it is at the present time. Individually, the working man was helpless in the hands of his employer, who could dictate terms which had to be accepted unconditionally. The drift of individualism among the workers wa3 towards a maelstrom into which they might sink in hopeless despair, but no ray of that brighter sunshine of today oarae into their lives. Drifting apart, tvith no interests in common, the British working man had sunk to the level of a chattel slave, whose right to existence depended entirely upon the crumbs that he was permitted to pick up from the rich man's table.

As soon, however, as the trade guilds were formed, and their power for good recognised, the conditions became rapidly better. Working men learned that by combination they were enabled to obtain redress, and eventually they secured a change in the laws which made combination unlawful. The unions then set about regulating the waged for which the units were permitted to work. Thus, instead of the individual bargaining about the wages and the hours of labour, the unions fixed these for him. This was the first great step in the emancipation of the labourer.

When, in 1885, Mr Gladstone was successful in materially extending the franchise, the union movement among the working men received a new impetus, and the movement hai grown with rapid strides since that time. As soon as the members of the unions oame to recognise that they had a voice in the government of the country through the agency of the ballot box, the principle of unionism became with them something like a religious tenet. It is, cf course, greatlj to be deplored that open conflict has taken place between the union and the employers of labour, but the latter have, in the majority of cases, been so tenacious of their old power to dictate their own terms that no otber means of redress have baen available. With the formation of the unions " strikes " became the new political factor whereby the worker sought to vindicate bis position. In many cases strikes have ended disastrously to the worker, who has been forced to surrender unconditionally after crippling his employer to no purpose ; and where employers have been short-sighted punitive impositions have been placed upon the workers. It is an every-day occurrence to hear of large employers of labour refusing to employ members of a union, hoping thereby to set back the advancing tide of unionism ; but they might as well try, like King Canute of old, to stem back the rolling tide of ocean by word of command. The power of unionism has bsen too fully demonstrated to be suppressed, no matter how powerful a combination may be brought to bear against it. The great dock strike of 1889, led by Mr John Burns, was the first successful effort of unskilled combination, and the result has been a material improvement in the conditions of labour in the docks.

Until manhood and womanhood suffrage is granted, strikes will afford the only means whereby the workers can emphasise their demands. With the extension of the franchise to all classes, strikes would soon come to be recognised as a clumsy metbod of warfare. There are those who view the granting this concession with unfeigned alarm, and predict all eoits of evils as the result ; but I have no such fears, feeling confident, as I do, that the influence of women will be thrown in the balance on the side of right. As soon as universal suffrage is conceded, strikes will become obsolete, and will be laid aside with the clubs and spears of our ancestors. The nnited voice of the people as expressed through the ballot box will be that vox populi which is vox Dei. The right to a voice ih the Government of a country cannot be denied to women on the basis of the common rights of humanity. Self interest alone can lead men to oppose the movement. In social legislation especially the voice of woman is sadly needed, as woman suffers most from the glaring anachronisms of our social system, and surely those who suffer wrongs are the proper persons to raise their voice and lend their influence against these very wrongs. All the tall talk about the domestic duties of woman, and the incompatibility of the domestic and the political is mere subterfuge. The duties of domesticity and maternity surely cannot debar women from the exercise of the higher duties of the common weal. Those men who would relegate women to the pots and pans of the household take but a low estimate of the stern duties of life. The subjection of women means the sinking of the race, for " the woman's cause is man's ; they rise or 6ink together, dwarfed or godlike, bond or free." But the emancipation of woman means the fullest advancement of the race ; for the noble wo men of our times, like the Spartan mothers of eld, will gird on with their own hands the swords wherewith their sons are to win the conquest of the world. Hope rises eternal in the human breast, and out frora the confusion and turmoil and strife, hope's bright beams come, in fitful flashes it may be, but dimly at anyrate we see tbe rising of the sun of righteousness, which heralds the dawn of that bet* or day when the whole human family will rise in their might emancipated.

— How rapidly a man loses all interest in politics and national finance when he shuts the door on his own thumb.