BOOKS.
WOMAN ADRIFT:*
Tins book covers, and covers most ably, practically the whole ground of argument—political, biological, social—against granting the Parliamentary franchise to women. We trust that it will do much good service in reclaiming from hesita- tion those who seem temperamentally only too willing to let the question of "votes for women" go by default. Mr. Owen says that he "reserves his worst Billingsgate." in Mr. Glad. stone's phrase, for those who allow themselves to think that in a question of such vast import to the future of the nation indifference is excusable. We heartily agree that it is in- excusable. No patriotic man has a right to say, "This is not a party question. I will let those who are interested in it fight it out, and see what happens." If he is only so much as con- vinced that the harm to his country would be rather greater than the good it is his duty to do what he can to prevent the arrival of woman suffrage.
We are sorry that Mr. Owen has said very little about the National League for Opposing Woman Suffrage, for this League is, and must be, the rallying ground of those who are determined to defeat woman suffrage. The League has done splendid work in spite of widespread apathy, and in our judgment it is absolutely necessary to insist that here is the organization in which alone individual efforts can be concen- trated and through which alone they can be made operative. We need not be surprised at the general apathy which has existed for years and only now show signs of being dispersed in response to the sound of crashing windows.
It is' much more exhilarating to lead an attack than to conduct a defence, and the suffragists are, of course, the attacking party. It is only natural that the greater part of the shouting and the waving of banners should be on the side of the assault. The anti-suffragists are in the position of those who defend a mighty fort that has never been seriously attacked. The garrison are so confident in their saLe-17.
security that they are somnolent and cannot believe that the _
• Woman Adrjfe. By Harold Owen, Loudon: Stanley Paul and Co, [Gs.,).
=small vociferous band outside the walls, some of whom are %allaying like whirling Dervishes, have the least chance of =success. They of the garrison shrug their shoulders and 'smile, but very few look to their weapons and remind them- 'selves that apparently invulnerable positions have sometimes lallen in a moment of negligence. The suffragists sneer at the efigures published by the National League for Opposing Woman Suffrage to prove that women themselves do not want
vote, but every one with an open mind knows that these ,figures are not a delusion ; that the answers given to a simple -question on postcards cannot be explained away. They show 'that there is an enormous majority among women themselves 'who are deeply opposed to the idea of woman suffrage. These 'results are, of course, only in accordance with current ex- perience. The assertion that the country is converted to naoman suffrage is more insolence. One has only to keep one's -ears open in the street, the railway-carriage, the theatre, =to be assured that there is a profound and even bitter -dislike — instinctive, perhaps, but none the worse for that—for the very thought of woman suffrage. Mr. Owen is perhaps unaware of the considerable mass of =literature published by the National League for Opposing Woman: Suffrage. "A book," he says, "was badly needed by =somebody or other to explain some of the main considerations ctlaat govern the most vital question now current." Having xead his book carefully, however, we cannot discover that it anakes any addition to the arguments published in numerous zforms by the League. Mr. Owen might dismiss Professor Dicey's book on woman suffrage as a "pamphlet," but it alone -contains virtually all the arguments to be found in Woman Adrift. The difference is that Mr. Owen's method is much more ample. It says nothing new, but says everything more dully. We have written thus only because we are most anxious ;that Mr. Owen's book should help the anti-suffragist cause- -for it is, of course, a positive cause, not a mere negation, as :suffragists absurdly pretend—as much as possible; and we 'therefore desire that, so far as we can ensure it, no one who is 'moved by Mr. Owen's book to recognize the need for abandon- ing neutrality should be at a loss how and where to apply his energy.
Having made that clear we can freely say that Woman Adrift is very agreeably as well as intelligently written, and is an important acquisition to the intellectual battery of anti- 4uffragists. It is written in the right—the essentially right- =sipirit, because it never says a word in dispraise of women. It Lid dedicated to a' woman—to the memory of the author's another—and ennobles and glorifies women, reprobating the agitation for votes. for women because it attaches, in the antlior's happy phrase, "too much importance to votes and not enough importance to women." Mr. Owen very truly says that such questions as Tariff Reform become insignifi- -cant beside a social revolution that would change the whole relation of the sexes. Society is at present based on the assumption that woman being physically weaker is entitled rto protection. Man is her representative. No doubt he is afot yet an adequate representative, but he is proud to hold ?the office, and it is the fault of woman's influence—how
ent ly yet invisibly that influence can be exerted I—if he dbes not become a better representative. The alternative is the full political equality of men and women and the inevitable 'Withdrawal by men of the habit of deference, of protection, and of all the practical expressions of a chivalrous spirit.
The vast majority of women do not desire that =change. They would regard it as the abolition of their irivileges. Unhappily, as Mr. Owen insists, the suffrage 'movement has become largely an anti-man movement. Suffragists pretend that man regards woman as his inferior, and interpret even his deepest emotions towards woman as a =sort of patronizing perpetuation of her subjection. They describe affection as petting, and idealization as intellectual disparagement. Was there ever such a preposterous perversity P No decent man regards woman as inferior.
ale regards her as different from himself and as his com- plement, and for the rest as his guide, his consoler, and his Inspiration.
Mr. Owen is particularly plain and firm in his statement of the truth, so often blurred over by confused thinking, that the .aPpeal of the women must be, and ought to be, only to the -electors. It seems sometimes to be thought that justice suggests an appeal to women themselves, and it is said that a Referendum on woman suffrage (which Mr. Owen advocates) would be "unfair," because it would consult only men. But, of course, it is not only absolutely fair, but absolutely necessary, that every decision to extend the franchise should belong to those who are trustees for the existence of the State ; in short, to the existing electorate. There is no such thing as a " right " to a vote. The good of the Commonwealth is the only condition of the conferment of fresh powers to vote.
We notice a few points where Mr. Owen appears to be inad- equately informed. He says, for example, that the human race has absolutely no experience to guide it in estimating the effects of the political equality and economic self-sufficiency of women. But both Sparta and Rome gave the world a short lesson in this matter. Finally, Mr. Owen could have strengthened his argument if he had known that the by-election at Wimbledon was by no means the only instance of a candidate standing on the suffrage 'question alone. In the other experiments by suffragists the results were uniformly crushing.
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