WHITHER?

White Ribbon, Volume 26, Issue 304, 18 October 1920, Page 1

WHITHER?

THE WUMKN’K INTERNATIONA L (iI'TMHiK.

Il\ .1 »*ssn* Mac K;t > . (Written for »h« <*antprl»ur> rrovincial t ’onventlon.)

The international outlook today. Who ciiii write of a thin;: so vast, so sinister, so I'rotoun > n it* lightning changes? Nowhere is their trust, cohesion. or peace, if not in the longtried, long-sorrowing, long-striving mother-heart of the world’s women. It is our duty to watch this lurid panorama. and try to understand the times in whieh we live. Ignorance is ever the greatest danger, aim every informed thinker, thinking wisely and righteously . is a builder. Instinctively the mind turns to a Continental nature painted daring tie war, the pit-lure of a flying female figure, driven by fears and perils, a dir* -..t ied fugitive, v tliout rest or goal. Is ! .»s w n -ymbol not equally descriptive v> the kind of "peace” in whieh huiratity iinds itself to-day? Is this wild-eyed fugitive however, the true woman soul, disillusioned anti despairing, in the bankruptcy of civilisation and the triumph of anarchy? We who • wear the world-wide badge of the White Ki)>bon cannot depair of Cod's inereasing purpose throughout the ages, however assailed by evil men. We know this up-boiling of long pent fury, defying treaty and reason, anti threatening a second titanic struggle. Is hut the re trihut ion for the sins of the nations, a terrible vindication of long flouted l>i vine Law. The newer good will conn-

out of this, as out of past upheavals, and recompense the peoples lit to embrace the new age. Itut how will this newer good affect l lie institutions and supremacies we thought most paramount? Who can tell? I can but indicate tentatively a few points and possibilities in the pre sent situation. Most people feel that women’s activities, so obvious before and during the war, have almost ceased. Tlmt is not true. Those who are wise enough to read women’s papers know what con stnative work femanists are still doing. Hut the men are making such a noise we cannot hear them. Also, so much was won during the war that many of the old slogans are no more heard. Hut a glance at the great International meetings of the time shows what forces are being brought to !>ear on vital world-problems. Inter-Tm pc rial l»et torment received a strong impulse at the third Conference of the British Mominion.s Women’s Citizenship Pnion in London In 1918. Tn 1919 the international Woman Workers met at Washington during the first Conference ot the International TAbour Organisation created in connection with the League of Nations. T-ast June the In ternational Women’s Suffrage Alliance held its eighth Conference at (Jeneva Wherever these meetings are held every sign of official and national respect is shown, in token of the tangible results achiever! through the deliberattions of llie finest female thinkers of our linn*. \t (lonova. Miss Maude Hoyden, late assistant pastor of the City Temple. London, preached in Calvin’s pulpit’ The same high honours always attend

the meetings of the International Council of Women, delegates from affiliated National Councils. This very Septem her the Council holds its fifth quinquon nisi Conference, in Parliament House. Christiania, Norway. When we remember that Allies and late enemies meet at these Congresses, their recoil eiling influence is seen to add peeiiliai force to their practical bearing on women’s industrial, social, and political standing, on Child Welfare, Education. Hygiene, and all allied problems before humanity today. Already the accepted findings in favour of young women and child workers under the League of Nations Bureau stand 1o l»ecome law as sanctioned hv individual (Sovern merits. The organisation behind the National Councils has translated the resolutions of the International Ihkln hi to a mass of helpful achievement in the past, and women’s organisation has hardened up everywhere during the last six years. Here lot the umazing victories of suffrage since 191 f hr* recorded. Nineteen countries, together with the Zionist coinmuunity in Palestine, have given their women eligibility and the vote. The two vast confederations of Canada and the United States have also conferred the same rights by Federal Amendment that is, Canada has not yet ratified State by State, but is certain to do so. while as I write the triumph of American ratification i*- at last declared. This means that the women of th« North and Centre of Enrols*, in eluding the new Baltic Republics and t '/.echo-SlovaKia. start their new na Bonn I life as the political equals of their men; while in the Inekward Hal

kun regions, Serbia and Koumania have at le*ost grunted municipal suffrage, and Greece, under the enlightened Veneaelos, promises speedy enfranehisement. Italy is all but won. Of the great European Towers. France alone has gtanted her women nothing a test of the militaristic political reaction doinin ant in Paris. Suffrage, we too often forget, is not an end. but a beginning, iviimark leads the way by her achievement of equal pay for equal work and equal status in marriage. Other nations have already justified suffrage by improvements in the* legal and economic position of women. England has trimmed up her archaic marriage and illegitimacy laws to some extent. Both in Britain and in Continental countries (Italy’s rapid progress being very notable). the* door of official and profess sional opportunity has opened to women: in Germany. Austria, and Russia, together with the* Ukraine*, the* Crimen, and Czechoslovakia, women's political standing, as It sol id i flee and extends, must be the prelude to gentler, wider, and wiser counsels. Poland hts shown little* fruits of suffrage yet. an I though Russia is said to have women on its Councils. 1 have met with no record of the*ir names or their works. Rritish East Africa has given a r.oble* lead, under its noble* (iovernor, Sir Harry Johnston. to South Africa, where suffrage pro.spe-e.-ts brighten. In America, under all strike and ejection turmoil, a tremendous number of domestic- reform measure** have l>ecn put through since the- war; and since the women's cause in Canada and the* United State's marche*s with achieved Prohibition, it is to North America that the world now looks for social progress. Gratifying beginnings are made in Britain, however, where- w’omen police and women Magistrates have received definite standing, though as yet In small numbers. And the professional recognition of women lawyers has followed the immense impulse given to wonnn’s standing In medicine* and surgery during th«* war. The wholemagnificent organisation of women in relief, healing. fe*eding, and reconstruction. from 1914 to 1920. has won a century’s recognition pressed into naif a elecaele. Even the* sacrosanct (?) region of diplomacy is invaded. Little Urn gua> sent us a woman Consul, if not a fullblown Ambassador. omc seasons ago. and enlighte-ne-d Norway this year semis the* first.woman delegate to the-

League of Nations. The League, we note, has from the- first opened its doors to women as secretaries, officials, and delegates. Fight months ago it start ed work in enrolling four great Committees to advise* on Armament, Inter national Health. Transit, and Waterways. and International Just Is*. Through the Re-el Cross, the- Health Committee is fighting typhus in Poland. An official has be-e-n appointe*el te> watch the* white slave- traffic. In Britain, despite- a cold-he-niled hustling out of the* much praises! wo men war-workers, the volume* ejf unemployment now is nothing like- the* volume of unemployability tiefore* the war. From the opening of ljucen Mary's work-rooms, the- training of wo men has gone on in all branches, and sines* it is not anticipated that wages will <>ver drop to the disgraceful prewar level, there* is ground for re-sting on the* hopeful testimony that fails to s« e the* e»lei signs of abject poverty in British crowds to-day. With tin* vocational training of which I have spoken has gone* a notable* impulse in e*ducation for wome n. Some will m>te* with special jo> the- breaking elow’ii of se-x disability at Oxford an.l Cambridge; others will speciall> hail Pie opening of a working wom«*n’s colle-ge- at <fiie-shunt. aiiei Ixith will prais* the* c.telision of the- Workers’ Educatimial Association. which is taking firm holel in New Zealand. Here we may stop to is-affirm the* magnificent Prohibition victories of America and Canada, which already have se*t the* se*al of permanence on North American progress. It v< Australasia that comes next in hopeful review. New Zealand has already won a moral victory at the polls, with the dice eloubly loaded against us. in thesubmission of the impracticable* and immoral State Control issue*, and in organisation of a subterranean sort which need not here be furthe r defined. Our ehanee wall recur in 1922; meantime Prohibition will have been voted upon in most of the Australian States. In Australasia. leading thinkers recognise that Prohibition and power march tindividecl in the new age. Europe has not grasped this. England has not graspe*d this, and we dare* not face* the* moral and political outlook if she is driven to State Control, put forth to counter the* huge* obstacle* of compensation, wfith which England was saddles] in 1901.

Rather do we turn with hope to Gotland’s magnificent liattle* to-day under her new* TiOcal Option law. Returning to the march of women just recorded, w’e might conclude* that we* had little to do hut sing paeans e»f gratitude. Alas! paper victories can beas empty as paper mone y emc the normal realities of exchange* break down. We* must not undervalue these recent gains, seeing they represent a tremendous revolution In the minds of men. But before we* count immediately on their vita! results we must transfer our attention to the fields still under man’s single* control. To all intents the counsels of Igilmur are still shapes! by men, though mafilly in a spirit sympathetic with women. To most minds, the Igil»our conditions of the world spell lurid chaos, suspicion, sabotage, strikes, locknuts, and riots prevail where the old ’e-lations of Capital and Igibour remain, in Russia, where aienir- Capita! has he*en definitely* abolishe-d, personal free-dom has admittedly disappeared, bloodshed and violence have been rife, but strikes !o not occur. he*cause the workers are whipped to order. America is expiating ’’graft” and sweating in a series of turmoils, aggravated by the colour problem and election excitement. In Britain. the* Party, which stoeed so nobly for pity and freedom during the war. is stormilv feeling its way towards nationalisation e*f industries and the steppage- of all wars not <»f defence, and all war-policies shaped bv the- hidden hand of diplomacy. British l«al>oiirite*s in the main are* steady and eame»st. and are working, like* the women, for a living wage and open eh-aling. On the Continent, the spend re of Bolshevism. e»r the material triumph of manual labour over all other classes and institutions. stalks everywhere from the open grave of freedom in Russia. If Bolshevism was a conspiracy against th«e ivilisation we have known. good and kid. an equally blame-worthy conspiracy against Russia’s freedom to choose her own form of government was hate bed by the- worst forces of capitalism, afraid of losing the old privileges and d’.vi-de-nds under Czarism. ami of ihe uprising of workmen at home. This campaign e»f war and slander has donemuch to alienate earnest reform and to harden up the lawless forcer of “1.W.W.-ism.” On the- otlie*i hand, actual coe*re ion, torture, and murder in Russia, the* fact that its nearest neigli-

Itour*. like the Letts ami Poles, seem ta fear Bolshevism most, and the signifl eanec of Russia’s trying to create by treaty an armed Soviet tiovei nnietit in Poland have gone far to stifle labour's rightful demands and stultify its normal development. In Africa, even under our own Aug, the outlook of laibom is dark indoeel; the tragedies of race and colour helping to create anew coinli lions of virtual slavery. But the real, terrible world-problem of laibour is as yet hardly mentioned either by its own leaders or by capitalists. The shameless land and concession grabbing to secure oil. minerals, and food-Acids, which is turning Asia against the West, has blinded our race to at least one colossal peril of the century—the tin checked sweating of men. women, and children in the new factories of the Ear Hast. I*et us strip all fatuous veilings from this question, and face tie* fact that up to this year, when the new Home Rule Bill for India is coming into operation, our own factory system m India placed us in th° front rank ot sweaters and child-destroyers. It must lx* the work of loyal Impeiiulists Jo s<*c that India's new charter Is not to »h---------come a scrap of paper for those toiling millions of ours in field and factory those dumb millions whose average lib* is now counted at the appalling span of years! 'Phis shows one side of the picture Asia exploited for the lieneflt ot the West. A trenchant mission article in the August issue of the “White Ribbon" has already placed the other l»efore you Phina and Japan, notably Japan, exploiting their own people to dominate and overwhelm Western in dustry. Yes, while insisting on race equality at the Peace Ponference. Japan was cynically refusing all League agreements on the regulation of labour for women and child workers. Phina. too. has learned the material technique of the West without that partial regard for the toiler which has shaped the factory laws of the West. Here the mis slonuries. tied by obvious reasons from political meddling, can and will speak. If Western diplomacy and Western l«c bour do not heed their voice, the conse quences will Is* incalculable. Here comes in organised labour's fatal weakness. l T p to the present it has failed in part to think inter-Imperially. and utterly failed to think inter-racially . While making demands on Western Papital shading from timely and Just to

service only, and not too much of tliat, fatuous and predatory, it has given lip to the infinitely worse-treated toilers of the Kast. Many who laugh at Pockethandkerchiefs for the heathen see no irony of limiting their official sympathies to “trade unionists'* in treating of Asiatic Lalsiur. The game* people* swear by the fetish of a “constitution” for Aral) bandits and nuked tribesmen! May I note that, while the* gratitude of thinking women is due? to the Parliamentary J*ubour Party for its stand agiinst indentured Phineae in Samoa, the prevalent opinion seemed to favour throwing both Samoa and the problem Ijack on th«* distracted British officials and taxpayers, and that racial brotherhood dries up in a flash at the* sight of a Hindu with a pick and shovel. (To he Pontinued.)