loyers. Those
who have read Charles Reade's novel, "Put Yourself in his Place," have
not forgotten the terrible scenes depicted. While those starving men
sometimes bettered their condition financially, they never made a ripple
on the surface of political thought. No member ever championed their
cause on the floor of Parliament. If spoken of at all, it was as our
politicians used to speak of the negroes before the war, or as they
speak of the Chinese today--as nuisances that ought to be suppressed.

But at length, through the persistent demands of a little handful of
reformers, there was introduced into the British Parliament the
"household suffrage" bill of 1867. John Stuart Mill not only championed
that bill as it was presented, but moved an amendment to strike out the
word "man" and substitute therefor the word "person," so that the bill
should read, "every person who shall pay a seven-pound rental per annum
shall be entitled to the franchise." You will see that Mr. Mill's motive
was to extend the suffrage to women as well as men. But when the vote
was taken, only seventy-four, out of the nearly seven hundred members of
the British Parliament, voted in its favor.

During the discussion of the original bill, the opposition was
championed by Robert Lowe, who presented all the stock objections to the
extension of the franchise to "those ignorant, degraded workingmen," as
he called them, that ever were presented in this country against giving
the ballot to the negroes, and that are today being urged against the
enfranchisement of women. Is it not a little remarkable that no matter
who the class may be that it is proposed to enfranchise, the objections
are always the same? "The ballot in the hands of this new class will
make their condition worse than before, and the introduction of this new
class into the political arena will degrade politics to a lower level."
But notwithstanding Mr. Lowe's persistent opposition, the bill became a
law; and before the session closed, that same individual moved that
Parliament, having enfranchised these men, should now make an
appropriation for the establishment and support of schools for the
education of them and their sons. Now, mark you his reason why! "Unless
they are educated," said he, "they will be the means of overturning the
throne of England." So long as these poor men in the mines and factories
had not the right to vote, the power to make and unmake the laws and
law-makers, to