Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/138

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THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT

these worthy representatives of the rural inhabitants.

Parish Councils have the power, also, to compel neglectful higher authorities to do their duties as the Sanitary Authorities for the district in which the areas of the Parish Councils lie. Miss Jane Escombe, of the Parish Council of Penshurst, illustrates this in her own interesting experience. Through this lady's initiative the Parish Council of which she was a member took steps to compel the District Council to provide an Isolation Hospital which was very much needed. Appeals to the Council, the local Sanitary Authority, had been in vain; but the County Council found that the District Council had failed in its obvious duty, and appointed a special committee to look into the matter, with the result that the Hospital was eventually provided. Miss Escombe was also instrumental in securing a pure and untainted water-supply for her village, and was the pioneer of decent, cheap, sanitary cottages for country workpeople. In the experience of this woman councillor, women are needed on boards of administration most because of their knowledge of detail, their tendency to economy in expenditure, and their intimate acquaintance with the needs of ordinary everyday life.

Few will dispute the title of women to