Page:The case for women's suffrage.djvu/52

 The presence of the Women's Social and Political Union at by-elections has caused the services of Liberal women election workers to be at a premium. The Liberal Party has evidently come to the conclusion that only women can offer effectual resistance to a women's campaign. Hence the help of Liberal women is in greater demand than ever before.

This fact alone should prove to Liberal women what is their duty at the present time. If they will cease to work for the Liberal Party and begin instead to work against it until the vote is granted to women, the Government will be obliged to yield.

At first sight such course of action seems unthinkable to many Liberal women. Loyalty to Party they think forbids it. One would remind them that fidelity to principle must come before fidelity to Party. The Liberal women by their work at the last General Election have a strong claim upon the Party leaders. Moreover, they constitute a force which those leaders cannot afford to disregard. Having, therefore, the power to claim and win the enfranchisement of their sex they stand in the position of trustees for the women of the nation, and they betray their trust when they prefer Party interests to the interests of the Women's cause.

Liberal women shrink from the idea of taking part in the overthrow of the Government. They need not fear. Long before matters reach such a pass the Government will yield.

The loss of half a dozen seats owing to the opposition of women, while not destroying the power of the Government to carry the reforms to which they