HOW WE'VE USED THE FRANCHISE.

White Ribbon, Volume 30, Issue 362, 18 August 1925, Page 1

HOW WE'VE USED THE FRANCHISE.

The story of “How we won the Franchise” was told in the January issue of the “White Ribbon.’* “Well begun is half done,” says the old proverb; and it was a good beginning when as the result of great and ceaseless extort, the rijiht to vote was conferred upon the women of this I>ominion. Manhood Suffrage had been the pride of the young colony, but it lifted itself to a higher plane when, by the Act of 1893, it advanced to Adult Suffrage. Then men and women had the equal right to work and vote for the upbuilding of a righteous nation. We are thrilled as we read of the fight these pioneer women made to secure their right of citizenship; how they worked and waited, prayed and twdievcd. until at last the day came when the law broke the triple chord of lunatics, criminals, and women —the three classes who had no right to vote —and placed women upon an equal plane of citizenship. Equal, did we say? Not qui*e, for over a quarter of a century rolled by P fore to the right to vote was added the further right to be voted for. What we owe to our pioneers! How they endured ridicule nnd contempt; how cheerfully they tramped the weary miles to S' cure signatures to their petitions; how patiently they took the many rebulTs they met; how, when almost to the very last the issue hung in the halance, they fa red the situation with courage undaunted and faith unfaltering. They were well organised they were magnificently led, but in the final It was nei-

ther leader nor organisation that won the victory; it was the faithful, earnest work of every individual member of the great woman’s army. Then, when they had done all they could, when fate hung trembling in the balance, they obeyed the command, “And having done all things, stand.” They fought, they stood ready to fight again, they won. We ask ourselves, are we worthy of such pioneers? Are they satisfied with the use we have made of the prize they won for us at such a cast? “And should we who are honoured to hear The standard so nobly upreared. Prove recreant, wavering less loyal than they?” If these pioneers can say of their successors : “For them the shade of trees that now W’e plant, The safe, smooth journey and the final goal, Yea, birthright in the land of covenant — For us day labour, travel of the soil!” Yet they can also say with equal truth: “And yet the road is ours as never theirs! Is not one joy on us alone bestowed? For us the Mfister-Joy, O Pioneers — We shall not travel, but we make the Road.” And over the road which they have made our feet have travelled. They have lagged, it Is true, but taken on the w'hole, they have moved forward.

To the influence exerted by the women's vote we owe the many humane Acts placed upon our Statute Book. Conditions of labour have been improved in factory and in workshop; our prison system has been reformed until now it aims at reformation rather than punishment. Youthful offenders have been given a chance to reform before they are classified as criminals by the Probation Act and by the power allowed to the Magistrate to forbid them being branded by the publication of * their names. Those poor, unwanted children born out of wedlock have had some measure of justice meted out to them. The subsequent marriage of their parents can remove the bar sinister from their scutcheon; they are allowed to take their father’s name and to share in the estate of a deceased parent. The aged have been provided for by the Old Age Pension, and in the Epidemic Widows’ Pension the principle has been acknowledged which, followed out, should give us Mothers’ Pensions. The helpless babe has been safeguarded by the Infant Life Protection Act. All these things mark advances along the road, but in some matters we have advanced slowly. “Festina lente" may be good advice, but it is possible to hasten so slowly that no progress is made. It took nearly 30 years for the enfranchised women of this Dominion to win the right to be elected as M.P.’s. And to this day, 32 years after we had our first vote, that vote has returned no woman to represent us in Parliament. In many places, where women have

only lately been enfranchised, they have women police, women magistrates, and women on the juries. Had the women of this Dominion been alert enough, they should, ere this, have removed every sex disqualification. They should have secured by law the right for women to hold any position they are qualified for. These reforms have been asked for, but refused by our male representatives in Parliament. Why? There is a lesson in the old story of the driver who could use his whip to such good effect that he was able to flick a fly off the leaf o? a tree. When asked to try his skill upon a nest of hornets by the roadside, he replied, with a grin, “Hornets are organised.'

The unorganised fly was fair game, but the well-organised hornet was to be left alone, because nobody likes to bring a hornet’s nest about his ears. The women’s vote wants organising as a woman’s vote. We hear much talk about the Brotherhood of Man, but we ought to organise a Sisterhood of Women. If that sisterhood was a real thing, would doctors and M.P.’s speak of the flapper prostitute as if these children were responsible for all the immorality (aye, even for the Red Plague)? Would they dare to ask for power to deal with these children, and yet say no word about the respectable (?) married men who are debauching not only the girlhood, but the childhood of our land? Not one word of blame is given to them so far as we have read these utterances. If some woman with a large mother heart had been in Parliament, would she not have demanded that these men be detained in custody for the safeguarding of our children. In one particular has the woman’s vote failed us as badly as the man’s vote. Not yet has it outlawed the drink traffic. The evils of this traffic are glaring; there is no shadow of reason for its existence. Revenue producing, you say! Well, since the U.S.A. outlawed the traffic it has become the wealthiest nation in the world. It produces revenue only for those monopolists who hold a license to make and sell it. And the whole country is taxed to pay revenue to the liquor-seller. It turns its victims over to others, and we cheerfully pay large staffs of police, magistrates, Judges, hospitals and gaols to take care of the ruined bodies of Its devotees. The law issues prohibition orders, which the trade winks at. and sells drink to a prohibited man and

turns him loose in the city, with his hand on the stearing wheel of a motor car. Accidents follow, and the people pay the cost. The law enjoins closing of bars at 6 o'clock, and the trade is always in Court for serving after hours. We try to protect our youth by forbidding sale to young people under 21. But they get it, and occasionally some member of the trade gets fined for selling it to them. Surely women can see that the only logical thing to do is to outlaw a traffic which refuses to be regulated.

Hut the future lies before us; “the past —let It sleep;

Its lessons alone are the things we should keep.”

The vote is not only a privilege, it is a responsibility. It is ours. Whether we wanted it or not, it is ours, and we must use it. It has been put into our hands to use as a weapon against evil. Refuse to vote, and you brand yourself as a shirker.

The vote is a personal one. No other person, be he husband or brother, lover or friend, has a right to dictate how we should vote. Women must think for themselves, and decide which way to cast their vote. The casting of a ballot should be as sacred a thing as the preaching of a sermon or the founding of a mission.

” We need the Cromwell fire to make us feel The common burden and the public trust To be a thing as sacred and august As the white vigil where the angels kneel. We need the faith to go a path untrod, The power to be alone and vote with God.”

Women are great missionaries. Do they ever realise that it is as necessary by their vote to keep the liquor from the native races as it is to send them the Gospel? As Christians, they send the glad message to heathen and foreign lands; as Christian citizens they fail to use their vote to keep the demon of alcohol away from these same people. The missionary has done noble, selfsacrificing work; the rumseller has followed, and undone much of it. Mighty is the power of the vote; mightier still will it be when an organised, consecrated womanhood

stands behind it. Write it or. youH banner, carry it with you in your heaitM V The organised womanhood of this I>oH minion can outvote the Liquor Trade. But it wonts evtrj I vote. Vote yourself, and help your lesfl enthusiastic neighbour to the poll. “Wise men ne’er sit and wail their loss* But cheerily seek how to redress thei,fl| harms. What though the mast be blown over* board, The cable broke, the holding anclioiß Ibst, And half our sailors swallowed in tht» flood — Yet lives our Pilot still."