Page:Women and the State.djvu/16

14 Although taxation is a drain upon our individual resources, it is nevertheless necessary, for it provides the machinery for the working of the State. We derive many benefits from the money we pay in taxation, the protection of life and property, education, and defence being among the number.

Under our stysem [sic] of taxation it is obvious that the bulk of the money for Government must come from the pockets of those who are fairly well-to-do or rich. There is nothing in Australia corresponding to what existed in France prior to the revolution. There the poor people were taxed to support the rich; here a poor man may pay no direct tax at all, while he may and does receive many privileges at the expense of the community. This is, no doubt, in accord with the spirit of Fraternity, but it has unfortunately given rise to a serious menace to our peace. The extremists, who have nothing to lose if their experiments turn out to be disastrous failures, are eager to grasp the entire wealth of the community and venture upon the wildest of experimental legislation. It therefore becomes a matter of the supremest importance for us to keep in power a Responsible Government that will act cautiously, especially as the meeting of our necessary obligations through the war must in any case impose a heavy burden upon the family purse, and therefore upon women, for a generation to come.

HOW POLITICS AFFECT OUR EVERYDAY LIFE. Even primitive man gave over the realm of the home to women. The most conservative of present-day people agree that woman's sphere is home. Therefore, women are