Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/131

 felt by many at the time to be simple folly to win powers and privileges for women when at any time, by the careless act of men in Parliament not responsible to women, one or another of those powers might be taken away. This is what happened in 1899 and again in 1902. In 1899 was passed the London Government Act, which created a number of Boroughs in London to take the place of the Vestries. Up to that time women had been doing excellent work on the London Vestries, but they were ineligible for Borough Councils at the time the new Act was passed, and thus they were automatically turned off by the operation of this Act. In 1902, by the abolition of School Boards in England, and the substitution of Education Authorities, which were to be Committees of the County or Borough Councils, women, being eligible for School Boards, but ineligible for the new Education Authorities, were put out of positions in which they, also, were confessedly making themselves exceeding useful. These matters have, of course, been put right by the Act of 1907, but they illustrate how easily a hard-won privilege may be lost when direct representation in Parliament is denied to those concerned.

Very few people of intelligence in this country to-day would deny the usefulness of the woman on public administrative bodies.