MR ISRAEL ZANGWILL AND THE SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2752, 5 March 1910, Page 4 (Supplement)

MR ISRAEL ZANGWILL AND THE SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT.

Mr Zangwill gaily confesses himself to be “a suffragette in trousers.” He 'has not yet, however, qualified for Holloway or chained 1 himself even to the doorscraper of the Prime Minister’s house, but he is so alert, and resourceful that he may be able to .give points to the suffragettes in petticoats. He has already made one peaceful proposition to the effect that women suffragists should take Lady-day for their own, much as the Labor movement has seized upon May Dayand that at the same hour on March 25, a suffrage procession should be organised in every town in Great Britain.

The distinguished novelist and dramatist made his maiden speech on behalf of woman suffrage at the Exeter Hall meeting which followed the women’s march .through London early in 1907, and his witty handling of the question was a welcome relief to commonplace arguments. This was no meteoric flash of genius, for Mr Zangwill has allied Ihimself most thoroughly with the movement, and was one of the chief \promoters tilic Men s League for Women’s Suffrage. He can always ibe relied upon to approach the subject from a novel and humorous standpoint, ■and carries his audience with laughter. A suffragette in trousers has a distinct .advantage, for he can ridicule his own sex who, are opposed to women s suffrage in a way that his sister in petticoats would hardly attempt. Mr Zangwill gives the male opponent no quarter, (he lashes him wit-h liumor, sarcasm and invective, and serenely Avalks home to his flat m the Temple without a (policeman. LLe speaks with compassion of the women anti-suffragists, and mildly wonders wily they exert themselves to get up meetings all over the country to prove that women are the inferiors of men and therefore unfitted' to exercise the franchise. He is particularly struck by their admiration of Queen Victoria, and yet had that great monarch, who: stood at the helm of State for more than sixty years, been a private lady, she would have been denied the vote permitted to her coachman. Mr Zangwill has contributed many l admirable public speeches to the suffrage propaganda, amongst them “Old

Fogeys and Old Bogeys.” Mrs Zangwill is a valued speaker for the “Women’s Freedom League.”