My Two CountriesAstor, Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, Viscountess
General
My Two Countries
Astor, Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, Viscountess
Reconstruction (1914-1939); Women -- Political activity
It takes a good deal of prayer to keep me humble. To be born in
Virginia and to represent Plymouth, is enough to turn a stronger head
than mine. The Good Book tells us to love all men, also the greater
the loving the greater the life. I am fortunate in loving two great
countries, but their greatness will be tested by their attitude to
lesser countries. To-day I am speaking as a woman and not as a Member
of Parliament. The League of Women Voters, I realise, is not the only
political league of women in America, but it has the merit of being
non-party. I, as an outsider, could not come over and speak here as a
party politician, but I come as a woman, speaking to non-party women,
interested in something bigger than any party.
When entering Parliament nearly two years ago, I went as a party
candidate, a Coalition Unionist. The Coalition was a combination of
Unionists and Liberals and Labour, who wanted to coöperate and felt
that Lloyd George was the best man to win the Peace, as he had done
more than any single statesman to win the war. When I got into the
House of Commons I realised that as for certain problems, such as moral
questions which are of vital interest to women, no political party
cared sufficiently or realised how much women cared. As a result,
Liberal and Unionist and Labour men often put such questions in their
programme, but more often they sat down when the time came to stand up
and fight for them.
It is my honest and convinced belief that there are some questions
vital and international, which women see with a more unclouded vision
than men, questions which only women will fight for. That is why I am
so keen about helping women voters, not only in England and America,
but in all countries. There are things bigger than parties, even bigger
than countries, though neither party nor country likes to think that
anything is bigger than itself.
If only we, the new-comers of political life, can keep that greater
vision of bigger things before us, then the world will become more the
sort of place one dreams of and less the kind of nightmare one dreams
in.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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