Brougham Villiers

“ How welcome all this is to those who have for years striven to drive out the early-Victorian attitude towards women from politics it is needless to say. Looking out on a world pregnant with hope from east to west, the friend of democracy finds no part of the great world movement more hopeful than that which the women of England are now carrying on for their own emancipation. ”

“ There is no class whose outlook on life, and consequently on politics, is more central than that of the housekeepers; and in excluding them from direct influence over the destinies of the nation we deprive ourselves of the help of the very pick of the voters. Whether, then, as most suffragists are agreed, the best thing to do is to destroy the sex disability first, or to start with a wider measure, the enfranchisement of all married women is a necessity, not only of just, but of stable politics, and must certainly come in the near future. ”

“ The new policy of the Liberal women, then, though it has done something to advance the suffrage movement within the ranks of the party now in power, lacked the leverage to do as much as it ought; and even now Liberalism is hardly in advance of Toryism on this question. Many years of patient effort have failed to get Women's Enfranchisement recognised as a fundamental item on the Government programme. It is still perfectly possible that the largest Liberal majority for generations may do nothing for women; it is almost certain that it will do nothing unless compelled by outside pressure. ”

“ In the great city, says Walt Whitman again, "outside authority enters always after the precedence of inside authority." The institutions of a people are but the external and visible expression of the inner spirit of the nation and the age. ”

“ Before we proceed further in the work of constructive democracy, it is essential we should get the foundations right, that we should supply women with the only weapon that can secure the attention of politicians. This would secure one thing at least, that whether the forward march of humanity be swift or slow, at least men and women will advance with equal steps towards their common destiny. ”

“ Every politician who knew his business would be "converted" by the accomplished fact; every political and social issue specially interesting to women would be galvanised into new life. In fact, politics would be cleared for ever of the spirit of sex domination and sex exclusiveness. ”

“ Shackleton and others may be on the subject, the vicious atmosphere of British politics already alluded to affects even many of the Labour Party. It is next to impossible for the politician, however conscientious, to keep ever in his eye the needs of a non-voting class. No "interest" with votes behind it will ever be ignored altogether, and those who have felt deeply the falsity of one-sex politics will realise how hard a battle must sometimes be fought even among those theoretically in favour of universal suffrage. ”

“ Confined three years ago to obscure corners of the newspapers, to meetings in private rooms, to the conversation of a select few, the question of woman's emancipation has suddenly become the most insistent political problem of the day. ”

“ Had Liberalism been generous, I might say just enough to allow the Women's Party a straight fight, the Lancashire women might have won their very first contest.
The practical experience of work of a semi-public character gained by the women Trades Unionists and Co-operators of the North of England has indeed had a vastly stimulating effect on their interest in the wider politics of the State. Women Co-operators are among the keenest suffragists, and it is from them we have the most insistent demand for the enfranchisement of married women, of working-men wives. ”

“ Working women, who feel more severely than any one else the pressure of indirect taxation, could not be indifferent to proposals to tax without their consent the bread and meat for which they have such a struggle to pay. ”

“ A grant of the suffrage to women on the same terms as men would only enfranchise a limited number of women, but it would suffice to change for the better the mental outlook of almost every practical politician in the land, while it would have far-reaching effects on the thoughts and feelings of the most commonplace "man in the street." ”

“ Under our eyes, the young democracy is taking shape; it is stating its peculiar problems, and formulating its answers to them. Questions of education, temperance, unemployment, housing, land, poverty, and finance, little regarded by the last generation, form the subject matter of politics in the present, and will do so still more in the immediate future. ”

“ Yet, in the phrase already employed, so long as women remain without direct influence in the life of the nation these things can only come to life in a vitiated atmosphere. The removal of the sex disqualification will bring fresh air into English politics. Every advance made by constructive democracy must touch, never less, often more intimately the lives of women than of men, and the work of the age is constructive democracy. ”

“ There could be no easier task for the present Government with its immense majority than to pass the simple measure introduced into the last Parliament to deal with the question. For this there is a majority ready pledged to their hands, a burning agitation ready to support them in the country, and no probability of serious opposition. It may safely be predicted that the moment a strong Government takes up this measure opposition will collapse, for that will mean the coming into existence for the next election of an actual women's vote ”

“ Our civilisation shows many pathetic figures, one of the most interesting of which is the aged lady grown grey in the cause of justice for her sex. For over forty years the suffrage societies have pleaded for the elementary rights of citizenship before parliaments more amenable to voting pressure than to the claims of justice or chivalry. ”

“ Even the apostles of "Tariff Reform" play a less conspicuous part at bye-elections, even the politics of Labour are less discussed in the public Press than the agitation which then appeared so lifeless. In less than three years the movement for the enfranchisement of women has made greater strides than in the century before, and the seed sown long ago by Mary Wollstonecraft seems at last likely to bear fruit. ”

“ In all Acts relating to the qualifications and registration of voters or persons entitled or claiming to be registered and to vote in the election of members of Parliament, wherever words occur which import the masculine gender the same shall be held to include women for all purposes connected with and having reference to the right to be registered as voters and to vote in such elections, any law or usage to the contrary notwithstanding. ”

“ In Labour politics, then, women have been in the inner circle from the commencement. It should never be forgotten that the million Trades Unionists and others who subscribe to the funds of the party include a large proportion of women. Among the Lancashire cotton operatives, indeed, women are in a great majority ”

“ In the congresses of Labour there may be divergence of method, but not indifference; in the counsels of the older parties there is an angry feeling that at least this is a question that can no longer be ignored. ”

“ It would serve to recast every election address and almost every speech at the next general election. Candidates of all parties would know that there was an actual woman's vote, which might be offended and should be conciliated. We should no longer see candidates selected without consultation with the women of the party, without reference to this woman's vote. Canvassers would be sent round carefully instructed how to appeal to the needs and wishes of women; clever leader-writers would rack their brains over the unaccustomed task of finding reasons why women should support their party ”

“ Nash, the character of the questions recently submitted to the people has been specially calculated to increase the interest of women in politics. Even in Australia, where there is no question of food taxes, I learn from Mrs. Martel, the Australian lady, who, after aiding to win the franchise at home, is now with us battling for the emancipation of her English sisters, women form the backbone of the Free Trade Party. Victoria, where women vote only for the Federal, not for the Colonial Parliament, is the most strongly Protectionist colony ”

“ Keir Hardie voice for us the reflex effect of the movement on masculine letters and masculine politics. In the world outside we may see things no less significant. In Parliament the question is no longer discussed flippantly, but with the gravity due to a matter of practical politics. ”

“ The members of Conservative and Liberal Associations select their candidates almost without consultation with their women comrades, and then invite the Primrose League and Women's Liberal Associations to work for them! ”