Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/196

 development of public spirit and the sense of public responsibility, has been little short of marvellous. The co-operative principle has been established as the working principle of life by the large majority of the thinking people of the country. A sense of the responsibility of each for all and of all for each has seized the minds and hearts of the better sort of people. Hence the legislation of the country has largely ceased to be in the material interests of the private individual. Of all the great interests of land and capital which were vested in a comparatively small number of the population, not one, unless the Press be excepted, retains the power, and the strength to maintain the power, it once had. Privilege is rapidly breaking down before the advance of a rational and humane public opinion. The legislation of Great Britain to-day concerns itself far less with the ends of the earth and far more with the homes of its people than it previously did. Legislation to-day is social and domestic.

In this fact lies one of the arguments for the political enfranchisement of women. Domestic affairs are the special concern of women. In olden times the argument that because woman's special sphere was the home she ought not to be concerned with politics had in it some weight and authority. To-day, the same argument is on the other