As time went on this question of the vote for women seemed more and more important to Miss Beale. She became a Vice-President of the Central Society for Women’s Suffrage, besides being a regular subscriber.
Naturally, Miss Beale hoped for reform by means of the cultivation of the mind. Much evil she considered came from want of proper interests and from deficient knowledge of life, such as even good reading could to some extent supply. ‘Give them literature lessons,’ she said to an old pupil who had a large class of intelligent Yorkshire factory girls. A letter to another worker shows in what way she hoped women school managers might help to hinder the spread of corruption. It has the additional interest of suggesting a measure akin to one lately adopted by the educational authorities in some counties:—
‘(circa) 1889.
‘Perhaps I ought not to say much; my own vineyard I must keep. It does seem to me that both men and women who are wanting to mend things ought to take municipal offices and all sorts of legal and government work.
‘Schools ought to be able to keep children longer and gradually reduce school time, and could not one get a law that children without employment should be at school? They must have in clerical language a “title” to leave school control by showing their parents are able to look after them or that they have an employer. This wholesale feeding does seem a serious matter, as weakening the sense of parental responsibility. I do hope we shall not go in for pauperising in Bethnal Green. I feel sure we shall not under Miss Newman....
‘The monstrous evil is, however, hydra-headed, and one’s courage sometimes sinks; but there is, no doubt, a much higher public opinion than there was.’
Miss Beale’s pity for the helpless was not confined to women. She felt deeply the needs of discharged prisoners, and more than once sent donations of money to one of her old girls who was in a position to help them. She also supported Miss Agnes Weston’s work for sailors.
Another class whose needs she fully recognised was that of poor gentle people. Impoverished Irish ladies, governesses, and others, she was always anxious to help, and frequently maintained the duty which richer members of their own class owed to them. Those who asked her aid for these often found her unexpectedly generous. It has been shown how much she undertook, both in money payment and trouble, for girls who could not afford an education befitting their position. Outside this, indeed, her interests may have been held to have been comparatively few; but when she did permit herself to study the problems of her day, she made it evident that the force of mind and will which she concentrated on her own work could also have effected great results in other fields of labour.