of the clergy over woman; but woman's lag in Switzerland comes of the Swiss woman's own indifference to this purely political side. And I should like to say here a special word, in this connection, about the country which today preserves the utmost degree of personal liberty and true democracy, and which has not granted woman her full rights. The Swiss woman enjoys every possibility and every civil right; her opinion is sought, and she is represented in a non-governmental capacity on the various committees; she is responsible for organizing the juvenile courts, the prisons, and the reformatories; and her opinion is taken first of all in the field of education and instruction and in matters touching social problems. Were the Swiss woman to obtain the right to vote, it would not add a hair's breadth to the ample share of true freedom she enjoys, nor would it bind the wise political order along which this blessed country moves. When all the governments of the world become like the government of Switzerland, woman will have no more demands and no more desires; her single care will be to remain in understanding with the man who respects her as she respects him, and believes in her as she believes in him... But how shall we come by this, we who are still in a backward feudal age — an age ruled not by the wise, conscious man but by the grasping, usurping man, and in a nation governed not by enlightened action but by raging, clamorous nerves.
Woman's Fundamental Wish
In most countries of the world woman has obtained her political freedom, whole and undiminished; she has played the part of minister and of deputy and has passed through all the principal offices. But her essential work is still incomplete, because she has not been able to secure peace in a world still driven by man's greed and his grasping.
Woman's office, her fundamental desire today, is not to jostle man in post after post and to compete
with him in the fields of business; it is to obtain that longed-for world — the world of goodness, peace, and righteousness, under a society that holds high principles sacred, where the strong feels with the weak and the master with the mastered, in a world where blessings are distributed with much justice and wisdom, and where the citizen receives care as an individual with his place in a respected nation. And we here, sons of the Arab lands in general and sons of Lebanon in particular — what is our concern in this constructive movement? It concerns us first of all to attain a degree of progress befitting the other nations; for we, like the other young nations, wish to secure the good things that come of a movement aiming at the universal good.
I am one of those who hope that woman will be given her full rights in Lebanon — not because every woman deserves it, just as not every man deserves it, but because there is in Lebanon in particular a vital feminine element that has fought, more than the man, and goes on fighting, for social justice. And the truth, as I see it, is that the great mass of men and women in Lebanon will not be able to vote in an atmosphere of disinterested knowledge and assured sincerity until a period of practical trial has passed.
But let woman vote; let her flounder as man flounders in this deep abyss of swaying, unsettled standards. Let her throw herself into this wide flood whose depth has no bounds, which we are crossing as a young nation at the beginning of its life — let her err,
and perceive her error, and correct it, and walk in the darkness until the darkness turns to light. Come, let us bear together the burdens of the responsibilities of power; come, let us try our luck in this raging arena — perhaps we shall see what you have not been able to see. I do not doubt for a moment that among the weakest foundations of government in our country is what we touch every day: the indifference toward the good, productive elements that are the pillar and substance of the nation; the injustice and oppression we touch in the order of marriage, home, and family; the misery we touch in the life of the cherished child, and the scattered forces and talents sacrificed on the altars of neglect. And there is no doubt whatever that woman, if given the right to share in government, will create that bond between people and government, reminding the men of power of the purely human duty laid upon their shoulders and proclaiming before them that power is a charge, not an honor, and that governing is work and sacrifice.
And can we hope for good except in common, productive work — in work where efforts join hands for the universal good?
But let me warn woman of one thing I regard as very grave in this campaign she is leading. I should like to remind her that every shade of freedom she obtains has a heavy price, and every blessing she enjoys has its particular tax. The wiser course is that she not demand her political rights before she is certain that she can pay the price of these rights — and that she can keep them even after the price is paid.
Ronson
All Lebanon, without a ballottage, has elected Ronson
RONSON
WORLD'S GREATEST LIGHTER
The lighter that never misses!