Page:The Woman Socialist - Snowden - 1907.djvu/69

 becomes theirs. It is a problem which goes down to the very roots of our civilisation; threatening, if it be not solved, to rot the roots of the tree, to poison the fountain at its source. But it will be solved. Men alone cannot solve it, but men and women together can, and must, do something for wedded and unwedded wives, for fallen womanhood whether within or without the bonds of marriage.

It is because it is seen that the coming of women into politics will mean a much less comfortable time for themselves that so many men violently oppose the granting of the Parliamentary franchise to the sex. They will not be so secure in the indulgence of their vices. They see sex ceasing to become a purchasable commodity. They see a hundred problems of the streets brought before their guilty notice, with demands for an immediate solution. They see their vices stripped bare and their cruelties exposed. And they are afraid—afraid of losing their power, their indulgences, and their reputations.

Although it is by no means commonly recognised and understood, there can be no doubt as to the real cause of the