The Ideal State 239 



It is a remarkable fact that many women of un- 

 doubted intellectuality are opposed to this measure. 

 It is nevertheless commonly stated by the suffragist 

 school that all the strong-minded women are on their 

 side. This is a bold statement, but not therefore 

 true. It is argued with pride that nearly all women 

 doctors are in its favour ; but women doctors are not 

 necessarily either strong-minded or of great intellectual 

 calibre, as is proved by the fact that professionally they 

 have not attained to the high position at one time pro- 

 phesied. Mrs. Humphry Ward, forinstance, one of the 

 most intellectual women of this generation, is the head 

 of an organisation whose aim is to prevent the passage 

 of any such measure. In the case of such a woman the 

 explanation is easy ; she has studied observed pheno- 

 mena ; she knows the capabilities of the two sexes, and 

 she is aware of the evil effect such a measure would have 

 in regard to woman from the point of view of sex, and 

 that of the State as a whole. She recognises that there 

 is a sphere for woman in public life, in the administra- 

 tion of Acts already passed concerning women and 

 children, primary education, and to a certain extent 

 higher education, the care of the sick, the insane and 

 the feeble-minded ; conditions bearing on infantile 

 mortality and epidemic disease ; the care of women in 

 childbirth, and the urgent moral questions that arise in 

 our large towns, and in connection with local administra- 

 tion. As she says : "In all these matters we want 

 more good and qualified women to help their own sex, 

 to help children, to help the nation." She urges that 

 women are not only wanted in local government 

 administration, but the education of women voters and 

 the wives of voters must be fostered so as to enable 

 them to take a deeper and more active interest than 

 they do now in the affairs of their own town and dis- 

 trict. The Local Government Committee will specially 



