It was believed then that woman suffrage would soon be carried in all the Western States, but at this time there began a period of complete domination of politics by the commercial interests of the country, through whose influence the power of the party “machines” became absolute.  Temperance, tariff reform, control of monopolies, all moral issues were relegated to the background and woman suffrage went with the rest.  To the vast wave of “insurgency” against these conditions is due its victory in Washington and California.  As many women are already fully enfranchised in this country as would be made voters by the suffrage bill now under consideration in Great Britain, so that American women taken as a whole can not be put into a secondary position as regards political rights.  While women householders in Great Britain and Ireland have the municipal franchise, a much larger number in this country have a partial suffrage—­a vote on questions of special taxation, bonds, etc., in Louisiana, Iowa, Montana, Michigan, and in the villages and many third-class cities in New York, and school suffrage in over half of the States.

GREAT BRITAIN

The situation in Great Britain is now at its most acute stage.  There the question never goes to the voters, but is decided by Parliament.  Seven times a woman-suffrage bill has passed its second reading in the House of Commons by a large majority, only to be refused a third and final reading by the Premier, who represents the Ministry, technically known as the Government.  In 1910 the bill received a majority of 110, larger than was secured even for the budget, the Government’s chief measure.  In 1911 the majority was 167, and again the last reading was refused.  The vote was wholly non-partizan—­145 Liberals, 53 Unionists, 31 Nationalists (Irish), 26 Labor members.  Ninety town and county councils, including those of Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, and those of all the large cities sent petitions to Parliament to grant the final vote.  The Lord Mayor of Dublin in his robes of state appeared before the House of Commons with the same plea, but the Liberal Government was unmoved.

In the passing years petitions aggregating over four million signatures have been sent in.  Just before the recent election the Conservative National Association presented one signed by 300,000 voters.  In their processions and Hyde Park gatherings the women have made the largest political demonstrations in history.  There have been more meetings held, more money raised, and more workers enlisted than to obtain suffrage for the men of the entire world.