An editorial in the issue of The Vote, , reflected on the census boycott that the Women’s Freedom League had conducted, and included these remarks:
It must not be supposed that, by regarding the protest as successful, we
imagine that a Votes for Women Bill will be hurried through Parliament. We
know that is not immediately likely, but we also know that we have opened an
avenue of protest which, if followed logically and consistently, cannot fail
to win us victory within a reasonable time. A criterion which is sometimes
used in judging of an individual action is to imagine the action to be
repeated by large numbers of people. How oeven have we heard the remark
uttered in a reproachful voice, “What if everyone were to do that!” as
sufficient condemnation of certain actions. Applying the criterion to this
boycott and to tax resistance, we can imagine the tremendous effect produced
on the politician if the population was returned as consisting of about
twenty-four million males and no females! and if the twenty-five million
pounds sterling now paid by women in direct taxation were withdrawn by the
policy of passive resistance. Were this to happen, women would be enfranchised
this Session. We must aim at rousing in larger and larger numbers of women a
sense of their responsibility in this matter, and to a wide application of
passive resistance along various lines as opportunity offers.
