When the last Reform Act gave votes to women but
imposed an age-limit of thirty, it made a compromise which was obviously illogical and unlikely to endure. No one was surprised, therefore, when the House of Commons on Friday week gave a second reading to a Labour Member's Bill which would give an equal franchise to women and men. Dr. Addison, speaking for the Government, admitted that no good reason could be assigned for denying the vote to a woman of twenty-one while granting it to a woman of thirty. The proposal of the Bill to assimilate the local government and the Parliamentary franchises stands on a different footing. We see no reason for the abolition of the principle that the ratepayers should control through their elected representatives the expenditure of the rates, especially in these days of spendthrift Labour Councils. The further proposal to abolish the business qualification for a Parliamentary vote is in direct violation of the compromise arranged two years ago. But the enfranchisement of the younger women, five millions in number, will evidently cause no serious controversy. Nor will the Labour Party benefit, as it hopes, from this final extension of the franchise. The recent by-elections have shown that the women electors are not so easily gulled as the Labour Party thinks.
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