The Progress of the World. 



605 



sistent support officially given by the Labour 

 Party to the cause of female franchise, the 

 National Union has decided to take this 

 fact into strategic consideration, and to 

 " support individual Labour candidates, 

 especially in constituencies now represented 

 by LibcraU whose record on suffrage is 

 unsatisfactory." This is an adroit move, 

 which may turn a cold douche on the 

 transports of some Liberal Memliers who 

 cheered the defeat of the Conciliation Bill 

 so frantically. There is one Cabinet 

 Minister who owes his seat princi])ally 

 to Labour votes who would find him- 

 self in an awkward position were a Labour 

 candidate to be run against him at the next 

 election, supported by all the forces that 

 the organised womanhood of the nation 

 could place at his disposal. The apostate 

 Liberals who jeer at woman alone will adopt 

 a very different tone when they find Labour 

 and woman combining to bring them 

 to book. Another demonstration of the 

 advance of woman was afforded by the 

 great procession of 8,000 white-robed 

 women which filed through the streets of 

 New York, and took about two hours to 

 pass, in support of votes for women. 

 Further, Mr. Roosevelt's triumph at the 

 " primaries " of California is said to be due 

 to the woman's vote in that State. 



The Ladies' National As- 

 "A Memorial sociation for the promotion 



to /- • 1 ■ 



w T StcaJ." "' social purity, to men- 



.tion one among many 



bodies, have by resolution put on record — 



ihcit sense of the irreparable loss sust.iincd in the <lcatli of 

 William Tiiomav Stead, and their earnest hope that tin- 

 Government will ailcipt as a Government measure the Criminal 

 Law Amendment (While Slave Traffic) Bill, which has been 

 already approved liy the Home Ofiicc, as a monument to tin: 

 man who, by his br.ive self-sacrifice, seciircl \hr i,i,,iiii' ..! i In- 

 Criminal I-aw Amendment Act, 1885. 



The chief |)r(>visions of the meaMiic are 

 summarised a^ follows: — 



"Women First.' 



To give power to the Police to arrest " procurers ' caught in 

 the act, without the delay of obtaining a warrant (as they can 

 arrest a pickpocket). To strengthen the law dealing with 

 keepers of brothels. To provide that if a house is used as a 

 brothel, the tenancy may be terminated by the landlord, and 

 that if he does not terminate the tenancy, he shall be held liable 

 for any future similar use of the house. To amend a paragraph 

 in the Vagrancy Act, 1898, which deals with solicitation by 

 male persons for immoral purposes, by making it clear that it 

 includes soliciting persons of cither sex. To extend the defini- 

 tion of cases in which a man inay be presumed to be living on 

 the earnings of immorality. 



Resolutions demanding immediate legisla- 

 tion are being passed at various meetings 

 throughout the country. A great mass 

 meeting of men will be held at the Guild- 

 hall on Monday the loth inst. to enforce 



the appeal. 



The perils to which poor 



"iris are exposed ought 

 alone to be sufficient 

 ground for prompt en- 

 actment. There is scarcel\- any more 

 diabolic deed conceivable than that of the 

 procurer who for gain traps innocent and 

 trustful women to their ruin. Mere murder 

 is morally a far less damnable offence. Yet 

 to stand by and see murder committed, 

 without seeking to prevent it, is in law to 

 share the guilt of the murderer. One hopes 

 that the British (Government will not, by 

 standing by inactive, contract the deeper 

 shame of sharing in the procurer's crime. 

 Serious opposition is not anticipated. In 

 Chicago a ])rorit of three millions sterling 

 per annum is drawn from the houses of 

 ill-fame, which are fed by a well-organised 

 bodv of jirociirers. But in our country 

 " vested interests " of this kind are, one 

 would hope, nothing like as large or as 

 bold. Any Member of Parliament who 

 opposetl tills Bill might look for short 

 thrift from Mouse and constituency. We 

 ail know tin.- congestion of business in this 

 Session. But surely, where tlie honour of 

 Iter (laugliters competes even with measures 

 of the first Constitutional importance, (Jreat 



