Nellie Alma Martel

“ Surely this democratic Parliament—the greatest democratic majority England has ever had—will stand by its constitution that taxation and representation must go hand-in-hand, and will put into effect its own boasted superiority over the other party which says to the people, "You trust us." The Liberal Party is supposed to "Trust the People."
Well indeed has this determination of the women to get their votes succeeded. They have looked on the younger colonies of the Empire, and have seen that where women have the vote social laws and their industrial position have greatly improved. ”

“ It would be unjust to allow 750,000 more women than men to vote, but evidently, from his standpoint, it is no injustice to withhold the vote from all women! He is a member of that great Democratic Party now sitting at Westminster, and an advocate for Peace and Arbitration, but has not yet learned the golden rule laid down by the Nazarene, and the principle on which Peace with Justice must be maintained, viz., to "Do unto others as you would have them do to you." No Party will suffer by a righteous action, and to enfranchise the women is right. ”

“ New Zealand enfranchised her women, and in 1893 they used their votes for the first time. The result of the first Parliament elected by women and men was the introduction of old age pensions; every man over the age of sixty-five was entitled to seven shillings a week; every woman over sixty-five was entitled to seven shillings a week. That is a notable fact that where men and women are political equals they are treated equally. So well did the old age pensions work that less than two years ago they were raised to ten shillings a week the man, and ten shillings a week the woman. ”

“ Horace Smith, do not look after the young girls in the right way; it is because there are such disgraceful laws on the statute-book of this country—these one-sided laws—that we are fighting for the votes for women. We should very much like to see our girls, the girls of the working classes, in the schoolroom until they are sixteen; but alas! poor souls, many of them have to be in the factories, the mills, and the shops two years before that age, and many have to earn money in other ways long before they are fourteen and before they leave school. ”

“ Public-houses are closed all day on Sundays, early closing and half-holiday for shop assistants, women factory inspectors, police matrons—and many other things which make life bright and endurable for our workers. The Wages Board of Australia has acted so well in putting down sweating that this same Government, which sent 140 women to prison for asking for the vote to help put down this gigantic evil, has sent a Commissioner to Australia to inquire into its working, with a view of solving the evil which exists in Britain. ”

“ The great people, the great masses, are awakening to the bare justice of our demand; there is a sign of a great rebellion, a great revolt, for the people are beginning to stir from their long sleep of indifference, and are asking healthy questions as to our methods and reasons for them. ”

“ First, we are independent of all party politics, and we go to all by-elections to work against the Government nominee, until the Government will find a place on its programme for our Bill. We get the people's ears, and the justice of our cause appeals to them—we never hold a meeting without making converts, We are reaching the women as well as the men; we show plainly that every law which affects men also affects women; we prove to them we are taxed and not represented; we point out the great reforms effected in the colonies by the women's votes ”

“ The pension is proof that the aged citizen has done his or her duty to the country, and the country acknowledges it, just as the British Parliament pensions its ex-Admirals, ex-Generals, ex-Cabinet-Ministers, and others who were supposed to have served their country well, and who were well paid during their service. Ruskin tells us "every man (or woman) who has done well to his parish or country deserves well from that parish or country," and so we say. The women’s vote helped to bring about this old age pension in New Zealand. ”

“ The women, having more to do with homes than men, and having to spend most of their time there, would make this a live question, and if there were a spare room in the homes where tired fathers might rest undisturbed by crying children they would not want to go to the public-house; children, too, are less peevish when they can play and not be in "mother's way." ”

“ Those people who say the enfranchisement of women will stop all Social Reforms will be surprised to learn that the very reforms they are talking of have been brought about with the aid of the women’s vote. ”

“ Germany owes her progress not to her Protective policy but to the way she deals with her children. Her supervision and care of illegitimate, neglected or deserted children is indeed magnificent; her system of technical schools and municipal control could be copied for the advantage of Great Britain. South Australia is making a good second in her care of the child-life. Smoking and other habits of vice are suppressed by Acts of Parliament, and if children should break the law there are separate courts for their trial. ”

“ It has emptied the House of Commons once before; it has given freedom to the slaves; it has put down the tyrants from high places. Our movement is on the crest of that great wave, and no power can stop it! ”

“ The Factories Act, 1901, of New Zealand is one of the most perfect and complete laws to be found. A maximum forty-five hours a week for women and youths is insisted on, except in woollen mills, where they may work 48 hours. All bakehouses and laundries, if only two persons be employed, are classed as factories to bring them under the Factories Act inspection. In shops a weekly half-holiday is compulsory, and to all young persons a minimum wage of 5s. per week must be paid, with an increase of 3s. per week until they are twenty years old. ”

“ We are fighting for Liberty and Freedom; we know not defeat, we may "fall to rise," strengthened every time. Our army is growing, growing daily; women are drawing nearer each other, and in so doing are getting nearer the Great Father of all; they are understanding each other better than before; classes and masses banded together in the great Women's Social and Political Union, making this great cause their religion—the religion of Humanitarianism.
↑ I make a point of quoting this from page 199 of Year Book because we are often told the women did not want the vote, and do not use it. ”

“ If only our legislators would think of that sometimes when they are dealing with the questions relating to children and the homes of our workers! We know what the slums and rookeries of crowded cities have turned out, and yet these same slums and rookeries exist and the same characters are being turned loose on the world; the lessons learned in those slums, of vice, cruelty, and degradation are being repeated day after day and year after year, and we only hear of the "Housing Problem." ”

“ If women had the votes here in Britain do you think this would continue to go on?
What our wise (?) legislators spent in the South African war alone would have been enough to buy up all the slums and make houses and homes worthy of the name for our workers to live in, and the money saved in gaols, lunatic asylums, police and magistrates, &c., would be enormous. The people often sin because "the means to do ill-deeds make ill-deeds done." ”

“ The education, too, of the children at the Public Schools is free and purely secular, doing away with the sectarian controversy. There are a great many other reforms of which I have written but do not wish to refer to them here, so will pass on to the first State of Australia which followed New Zealand in giving her women the vote. South Australia enfranchised her women in 1894, and the following are a few of the Social and Industrial Acts of Parliament passed since that date:—Married Women’s Protection Act ”

“ In young countries women are in greater demand, their opinions are sought after because the country begins with the homes, and wherever the women's help has been sought, the results have proved that the natural housekeeper can become the national housekeeper, as nation-keeping is only house-keeping on a larger scale. The Isle of Man enfranchised her women in 1884, and those M.P.'s who now predict most terrible disaster to England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales if women should be enfranchised forget to look to that peaceful little island so near for an example. ”

“ Smith; carry it into effect for the poor unprotected working women's daughters who are subjected to all kinds of temptation in coming and going, aye and even in their work. Protect the poor girls' good names at least as long as you protect the rich girls' property. In the States which gave women the vote the first reform was to raise the age of consent; in fact, to look after the welfare of the future mothers. What could be better than that? South Australia brought in many Bills to deal with the children. It is with the children every country should help to reform itself. ”

“ Το prevent children becoming criminals is much greater than reforming them, and to keep their minds pure is of infinitely more importance to the future generations than schools of correction, reformatories, and prisons, which are all needed in later life through the lack of attention in the right direction when the mind is most susceptible. ”

“ Yet the law of this land—the man-made law—says in effect that a girl of sixteen and a day is quite old enough to decide on what is right or wrong as to acts of morality. A man may ruin a young girl of sixteen and one day, and if the girl says she consented to her own ruin nothing is done to the man, although the poor "child," as Mr. ”