Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/208

 to the full rights of citizenship is for the advantage of every one concerned.' Lord Morley of Blackburn, Lord Courtney of Penwith, Sir Edward Grey, and Sir John Simon are well-known and distinguished advocates of the principle of woman suffrage.

On the other side in politics the most famous supporters are Mr Balfour and Mr Bonar Law. Mr Balfour, speaking in the House of Commons, in 1892, made short work of the argument that politics is degrading for women. He said: 'We have been told that to encourage women to take an active part in politics is degrading to the sex It has received the assent of almost every speaker to-day. I should think myself grossly inconsistent and most ungrateful if I supported that argument in this House, for I have myself taken the chair at Primrose League meetings, and urged to the best of my ability the women of this country to take a share in politics, and to do their best in their various localities to support the principles which I believe to be sound in the interests of the country. After that, to come down to the House and say I have asked these women to do that which degrades them appears to me to be most absurd I think I may take it that every section in this House is only too glad to use the services of women when they think they can profit by them, and