Page:The case for women's suffrage.djvu/159

 RUSADES have almost always come to grief for want of tactics; and this is natural, since tactics require a cool head, and a capacity for compromise, while the crusading spirit is hot and impatient. The movement in favour of Women's Suffrage is in danger now for the same reasons. Because the advocates of Women's Suffrage are stronger than ever in numbers and intelligence, because they include women and men of all shades of political opinion and of every variety of temperament, it is sometimes assumed that the cause must prevail by its own momentum. There could not be a greater mistake. It is a mistake based upon mere blindness to the essential character of political action. Politics are concerned with means, and only those who are able to agree about means can exercise an effective political force. The very greatness of the cause helps to blind us to this; we see that it is a great cause, that no party bias is too strong for it, that social prejudices are levelled by it, and we forget that what is wanted for success is not so much to unite every kind of person in a general sympathy, but to combine the largest possible number in active support of some particular action. Otherwise we may have a million enthusiasts who will produce no more results than that Children's Crusade which nearly seven hundred years ago strewed the plains of Europe with pitiful bones.

What are the chances of such an organised force or such a combination of forces as can alone bring success? There are already as many parties among the supporters of Women's Suffrage as would suffice