want to vote, the inference
being that women are never given anything that they do not want. It
sounds so chivalrous and protective and high-minded. But women have
always got things that they did not want. Women do not want the liquor
business, but they have it; women do not want less pay for the same
work as men, but they get it. Women did not want the present war, but
they have it. The fact of women's preference has never been taken very
seriously, but it serves here just as well as anything else. Even the
opponents of woman suffrage will admit that some women want to vote,
but they say they are a very small minority, and "not our best women."
That is a classification which is rather difficult of proof and of no
importance anyway. It does not matter whether it is the best, or
second best, or the worst who are asking for a share in citizenship;
voting is not based on morality, but on humanity. No man votes because
he is one of our best men. He votes because he is of the male sex, and
over twenty-one years of age. The fact that many women are indifferent
on the subject does not alter the situation. People are indifferent
about many things that they should be interested in. The indifference
of people on the subject of ventilation and hygiene does not change the
laws of health. The indifference of many parents on the subject of an
education for their children does not alter the value of education. If
one woman wants to vote, she should have that opportunity just as if
one woman desires a college education, she should not be held back
because of the indifferent careless ones who do not desire it. Why
should the mentally inert, careless, uninterested woman, who cares
nothing for humanity but is contented to patter along her own little
narrow way, set the pace for the others of us? Voting will not be
compulsory; the shrinking violets will not be torn from their shady
fence-corner; the "home bodies" will be able to still sit in rapt
contemplation of their own fireside. We will not force the vote upon
them, but why should they force their votelessness upon us?

"My wife does not want to vote," declared one of our Canadian premiers
in reply to a delegation of women who asked for the vote. "My wife
would not vote if she had the chance," he further stated. No person
had asked about his wife, either.

"I will not have my wife sit in Parliament," another man cried in
alarm, when he was asked to sign a petition