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REVIEW OE REVIEWS. 



October 1, 191S. 



LLOYD GEORGE ON MILITANT SUFFRAGETTES. 



Hearsts Magazine contains an article 

 on Woman Suffrage from the pen of 

 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, a man 

 who, despite his warm advocacy of the 

 ■ for women in (ireat Britain, has 

 been subjected to violent personal per- 

 secution by the " Militants." 



A CONVINCED ADVOCATE OF WOMAN- 

 SUFFRAGE. 



His writings have the same clear 

 directness as his speech, and within 

 the compass of three pages he contrives 

 to state the case of the supporters of 

 Woman Suffrage against militant 

 methods succinctly and with force. 



I have long been a convinced advocate of 

 Woman Suffrage and am now firmer than 

 ever in supporting it. It seems to mo a neces- 

 sary and desirable consequence of the vast 

 extension of the functions of Government 

 which the past century and a-half has wit- 

 nessed. The State nowadays enters the 

 homes of the people, and insists on having a 

 voice in questions that individual men and 

 women, acting together, taking counsel to- 

 gether, used to settle for themselves in their 

 own way. Education and the training and 

 feeding of children, the housing and sanita- 

 tion problems, provision against old age and 

 sickness, the prevention of disease all these 

 are questions that formerly were di alt with, 

 of course in a very isolated and inadequate 

 way, by co-operation and discussion between 

 the heads of each household. What reason is 

 why the same co-operation should not 

 continue now that these matters have been 

 d to the sphere of legislative enactments 

 ind official administration ? 



WOMEN WOULD SWEEP AWAY SLUMS. 



Laws to-day affect the interests of 

 women just as deeply as they do the in- 

 terests of men. Some, indeed, more 

 gravely and intimately. Mr. George 

 does not believe it possible to trust the 

 welfare of a class or a sex entirely to 

 another class or sex. 



It is not that their interests are not identi- 

 cal, but that their point of view is different. 

 I • the housing problem. A workingman 

 leaves home in the morning within half-an- 

 hour he wakes. Be is nol there all 



day. He turns up in the evening and does 

 not always remain there. If the house is a 

 poor, uncomfortable, dismal one. he very 

 often seeks consolation in the glue and 

 warmth of the nearest public-house, but he 

 takes very good care that his wife shall not 

 do as he docs. Site has got to stay at home 



all day, however wretched her surroundings. 

 Who can say that her, experience, her point 

 oi \ i. w, i.s not much better worth consulting 

 than her husband's on the housing problem? 

 Ip to the present the only and the whole 

 share oi women in the housing question has 

 I, ecu suffering. Slums are ofton the punish- 

 ment oi the man. They are almost always the 

 martyrdom of the woman. Give_ women the 

 vote, give them an effective part in the fram- 

 ing and administration of the laws which 

 touch no; merely their own lives, but the lives 

 of their children, and they will soon, I be- 

 lieve, cleanse the land of these foul dens. 



WHEN WOMEN GET THE VOTE. 



The Chancellor points out that al- 

 though all sorts of women's interests 

 were affected by the National Insurance 

 Act, four million women workers and 

 seven million married women have come 

 under the operation of the Act, yet not 

 one of them was given the opportunity 

 of making their opinions known and 

 felt through a representative in the 

 House of Commons. The drunken 

 loafer who has not earned a living for 

 years is consulted by the constitution on 

 questions like the training and upbring- 

 ing of children, the national settlement 

 of religion in Wales and elsewhere, and 

 as to the best method of dealing with 

 the licensing problem. But the wife 

 whose industry keeps him and his house- 

 hold from beggary, who pays the rent 

 and taxes which constitute him a voter, 

 who is therefore really responsible for 

 his qualification to vote, is not taken 

 into account in the slightest degree. Mr. 

 George gives other cases of glaring in- 

 justice, and says : — 



When women get the vote the horizon 

 of the home will be both brightened and ex- 

 panded, and their influence on moral and 

 social and educational questions, especially on 

 the temperance question, and possibly on the 

 peace of nations, will be constant and human- 

 ising. 



BILLS AND BILLS. 



This stalwart Radical has been greatly 

 attacked because he has not always 

 voted for Woman Suffrage in the House 

 of Commons. ;< I favour women having 

 the vote," he says, " but T do not there- 

 fore hold myself bound to either speak 

 or vote for any and every Suffrage Bill 



