France. At Washington they told us why it had to be. "They were going," the President himself explained, "to fight for Democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority, to have a voice in their own government." In the name of liberty, we too pass under the rod. But we fall in line to catch step with the women's battalions of the world. We shall see them moving triumphantly even on the very strongholds against which the woman's cause of yesterday dashed itself most vainly.
The tasks of the world were one by one being handed over to women by men who were taking up arms instead. By solemn proclamation of church and state, the patriotic duty of thus releasing every possible citizen for military service was profoundly impressed on the women of every nation. Only there was still one function that no country was asking them to assume. In England a thoughtful woman filling in her registration paper stating the national service that she could render, wrote down her qualifications like this: "Possessed of a perfectly good mentality and a University training, prepared to relieve a member of Parliament who wishes to go to the front."
But the lady wasn't called. Whole brigades of women swung out across the threshold of the home into industry. Regiment after regiment went by into commerce. Companies passed into the professions. Cohorts even crossed the danger zone for duty right up to the firing line. But government was still reserved for men. Could a woman vote?
