is election to fill an
extraordinary vacancy for North Adelaide Mr. Glynn promised to
introduce effective voting into the House. This he did in July by
tabling a motion for the adoption of the principle, and we were pleased
to find in Mr. Batchelor, now the Minister for External Affairs in the
Federal Government, a stanch supporter. Among the many politicians who
have blown hot and cold on the reform as occasion arose, Mr. Batchelor
has steadily and consistently remained a supporter of what he terms
"the only system that makes majority rule possible."

When Mrs. Young and I began our work together the question was
frequently asked why women alone were working for effective voting? The
answer was simple. There were few men with leisure in South Australia,
and, if there were, the leisured man was scarcely likely to take up
reform work. When I first seized hold of this reform women as platform
speakers were unheard of. Indeed, the prejudice was so strong against
women in public life that although I wrote the letters to The Melbourne
Argus it was my brother John who was nominally the correspondent. So
for 30 years I wrote anonymously to the press on this subject. I waited
for some man to come forward and do the platform work for me. We women
are accused of waiting and waiting for the coming man, but often he
doesn't come at all; and oftener still, when he does come, we should be
a great deal better without him. In this case he did not come at all,
and I started to do the work myself; and, just because I was a woman
working singlehanded in the cause, Mrs. Young joined me in the crusade
against inequitable representation. For many years, however, the cause
has counted to its credit men speakers and demonstrators of ability and
talent all over the State, who are carrying the gospel of
representative reform into every camp, both friendly and hostile.

It was said of Gibbon when his autobiography was published that he did
not know the difference between himself and the Roman Empire. I have
sometimes thought that the same charge might be levelled against me
with regard to effective voting; but association with a reform for half
a century sometimes makes it difficult to separate the interests of the
person from the interests of the cause. Following on my return from
America effective voting played a larger part than ever in my life. I
had come back cheered by the earnestness and enthusiasm of American
reformers, and I found the p