I have written upon this question in its bearings upon the women of France more fully in another chapter; but it may be stated here that such important feminists as Madame Verone, the eminent avocat, and Mlle. Valentine Thompson, the youngest but one of the ablest of the leaders, while doing everything to help and nothing to embarrass their Government, never permit the question to recede wholly to the background.  Mlle. Thompson argues that the men in authority should not be permitted for a moment to forget, not the services of women in this terrible chapter of France’s destiny, for that is a matter of course, as ever, but the marked capabilities women have shown when suddenly thrust into positions of authority.  In certain invaded towns the wives of imprisoned or executed Mayors have taken their place almost automatically and served with a capacity unrelated to sex.  In some of these towns women have managed the destinies of the people since the first month of the war, understanding them as no man has ever done, and working harder than most men are ever willing to work.  Thousands have, under the spur, developed unsuspected capacities, energies, endurance, above all genuine executive abilities.  That these women should be swept back into private life by the selfishness of men when the killing business is over, is, to Mlle. Thompson’s mind, unthinkable.  In her newspaper, La Vie Feminine, she gives weekly instances of the resourcefulness and devotion of French womanhood, and although the women of her country have never taken as kindly to the idea of demanding the franchise as those of certain other nations, still it is more than possible that she will make many converts before the war is over.

These are not to be “suffrage” chapters.  There is no doubt in my mind that the women of all nations will have the franchise eventually, if only because it is ridiculous that they should be permitted to work like men (often supporting husbands, fathers, brothers) and not be permitted all the privileges of men.  Man, who grows more enlightened every year—­often sorely against his will—­must appreciate this anomaly in due course, and by degrees will surrender the franchise as freely to women as he has to negroes and imbeciles.  When women have received the vote for which they have fought and bled, they will use it with just about the same proportion of conscientiousness and enthusiasm as busy men do.  One line in the credo might have been written of human nature A.D. 1914-1917:  “As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be.”

But while suffrage and feminism are related, they are far from identical.  Suffrage is but a milestone in feminism, which may be described as the more or less concerted sweep of women from the backwaters into the broad central stream of life.  Having for untold centuries given men to the world they now want the world from men.  There is no question in the progressive minds of both sexes that, outside of the ever-recurrent war zones, they should hereafter divide the great privileges of life and civilization in equal shares with men.