Page:The case for women's suffrage.djvu/20

 their own control. Hence the General Election of 1906 saw another novelty, but little regarded at the time. Miss Gore-Booth recalls the candidature of Mr. T. Smith for Wigan, an attempt that would probably have been successful but for the obtrusion of an official Liberal rival, whose presence served only to split the progressive vote and preserve a seat for the reaction. The figures of this election were:—

Thus the Conservative obtained a majority of 1,368. Had Liberalism been generous, I might say just enough to allow the Women's Party a straight fight, the Lancashire women might have won their very first contest.

The practical experience of work of a semi-public character gained by the women Trades Unionists and Co-operators of the North of England has indeed had a vastly stimulating effect on their interest in the wider politics of the State. Women Co-operators are among the keenest suffragists, and it is from them we have the most insistent demand for the enfranchisement of married women, of working-men wives. There is no class whose outlook on life, and consequently on politics, is more central than that of the housekeepers; and in excluding them from direct influence over the destinies of the nation we deprive ourselves of the help of the very pick of the voters.