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WOMEN AND POLITICS
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disappeared almost entirely from the political arena. The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies struggled as best it could against the prevailing inertia, but its methods were of the sedate and non-exciting order. A circular to candidates at election times, a formal meeting of a dispiriting kind once a year with a few Members of Parliament, a very occasional public meeting, were the beginning and ending of its efforts. Recently, however, a number of women who had received their political training in the Independent Labour Party adopted the militant tactics of that body and applied them to their own particular object. The times were ripe for such a move, and almost immediate success attended their efforts. As a consequence, Woman's Suffrage is again a leading question in practical politics. On this occasion it is not complicated by any demand for an extension of the franchise to men, but is raised as a clear and distinct issue which will have to be dealt with on its own merits. As I have frequently pointed out, the women's movement may eventuate in a demand for Adult Suffrage which would be the logical settlement of the question, but for the moment almost every woman who is active in the sphere of politics limits wisely her demand to the one question of the enfranchisement of her sex on the same terms as men.

In politics it is the strong who receive attention. To be out of sight, is to be out of mind. There are always a few politicians who are moved by a sense of justice or a feeling of pity, and with these the claims of the weak are not overlooked. As