Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/203

 understanding by the divine right of her humanity with its sense of responsibility to her kind.

Though the spirit of democracy bears witness to the justness of the women's claim, it is urged that, on grounds of expediency, and in the interests both of the women themselves and of the State, a thing which is just in itself must necessarily be withheld. 'It would not be good either for the women or for the State' said a famous politician in the House of Commons quite recently. If this be true the claim of the women ought to be withdrawn. If there is something in the exercise of the franchise which spells damage both to women and the community, and, consequently, to the generations unborn, that fact would justify a refusal of the suffrage to women. Justice, like most of the virtues and all of the vices, is a relative term. A whole view of life would reveal as unjust many things which have been masquerading as the purest justice. Nothing could make it just for women or men to have and hold that which would ultimately prove a curse to humanity. There is no such thing as an absolute right and title, an inborn and inalienable right and title to anything in the world. There is no such thing as the inborn and inalienable right of a man to the vote. The only right that the woman can establish is