people exercising their highest national privilege. When the contention, that women should not be entitled to vote because they cannot bear arms, is used by one whose mother could only make his life and citizenship possible by passing through pain and danger greater than the average soldier has to face, it becomes inconsistently ridiculous. Besides, many men (clergymen, government officials, etc., etc.), are exempt from actual military service, and that fact has never been used to deprive them of a vote. The main argument, however, which weighed with us, was that of right, of abstract right. If the foundation of government is the consent of the governed, it appears monstrously unfair that one half of the population should not be represented or have any share in it. Therefore, after long and grave consideration, we gave our women an equal right with men in deciding on the qualifications of candidates to represent them in Parliament.
We have no reason to regret the decision. I feel confident that if any great crisis in national morals should arise, the women's vote would press with irresistable weight in the direction of clean, honest and efficient legislation. New Zealand has not repented having abolished set disqualifications among those men and women who have unitedly helped to build the foundations of a nation. I write as one who advocated the extension of the franchise to women before my entry into Parliament twenty years ago. I have always supported it in Parliament, and, while closely watching its effect, have never seen any genuine cause for believing that it has not worked for the good of the Dominion."
Similar testimonials have been given by the governors of all Western States of the Union.
Governor Bryant B. Brooks of Wyoming said: "Nothing can be so far from the truth as the idea that Woman Suffrage has the slightest tendency to disrupt the home. Indeed it has the very opposite effect. As a result of it politics is talked freely in the family circle, and political questions are settled by intelligent discussion. This has a great and good influence on the growing generation. The children grow up in an atmosphere that encourages intelligent consideration and debate of public problems, and are thus better equipped to deal with public questions when they reach voting age."
Governor Shafroth of Colorado said: "Our State has Woman Suffrage for many years, and has found it of inestimable benefit to her people," and Governor James H. Brady of Idaho said: "Woman Suffrage has been an unqualified success, not only in Idaho, but in all Western States adopting the principle."
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