aside the fact that
politicians are sufficiently converted already. The primary task of
women suffragists is to convert their own sex. Indeed it may be said
that that is their whole task. Whenever the majority of women are
persuaded that they ought to possess the vote, we may be quite sure that
they will communicate that persuasion to their men-folk who are able to
give them the vote. The conversion of the majority of women to a belief
in women's suffrage is essential to its attainment because it is only by
the influence of the women who belong to him, whom he knows and loves
and respects, that the average man is likely to realize that, as Ellen
Key puts it, "a ballot paper in itself no more injures the delicacy of a
woman's hand than a cooking recipe." The antics of women in the street,
however earnest those women may be, only leave him indifferent, even
hostile, at most, amused.

It may be added that in any case it would be undesirable, even if
possible, to bestow the suffrage on women so long as only a minority
have the wish to exercise it. It would be contrary to sound public
policy. It would not only discredit political rights, but it would tend
to give the woman's vote too narrow and one-sided a character. To grant
women the right to vote is a different matter from granting women the
right to enter a profession. In order to give women the right to be
doctors or lawyers it is not necessary that women generally should be
convinced of the advantage of such a step. The matter chiefly concerns
the very small number of women who desire the privilege. But the women
who vote will be in some measure legislating for women generally, and it
is therefore necessary that women generally should participate.

But even if it is admitted--although, as we have seen, there is a
twofold reason for not making such an admission--that the suffragettes
are justified in regarding politicians as the obstacles in the way of
their demands, there still remains the question of the disadvantage of
their method. This method is by some euphemistically described as the
introduction of "nagging" into politics; but even at this mild estimate
of its character the question may still be asked whether the method is
calculated to attain the desired end. One hears women suffragettes
declare that this is the only kind of argument men understand. There is,
however, in the masculine mind--and by no means least when it is
British--an element which strongly o