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diff --git a/30646.txt b/30646.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..075389b --- /dev/null +++ b/30646.txt @@ -0,0 +1,18598 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Woman under socialism, by August Bebel + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Woman under socialism + +Author: August Bebel + +Translator: Daniel De Leon + +Release Date: December 10, 2009 [EBook #30646] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN UNDER SOCIALISM *** + + + + +Produced by Peter Vachuska, Martin Pettit and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +WOMAN UNDER SOCIALISM + +[Illustration: AUGUST BEBEL] + + +Woman Under Socialism + +_By_ + +AUGUST BEBEL + + +Translated from the Original +German of the 33d Edition +_By_ +DANIEL DE LEON. + + +1917 +NEW YORK LABOR NEWS COMPANY +NEW YORK + + + "The end of social development resembles the beginning of human + existence. The original equality returns. The mother-web of + existence starts and rounds up the cycle of human + affairs."--Bachofen. + + "Since the advent of civilization, the outgrowth of property has + been so immense, its forms so diversified, its uses so expanding + and its management so intelligent in the interests of its owners, + that it has become, on the part of the people, an unmanageable + power. The human mind stands bewildered in the presence of its own + creation. The time will come, nevertheless, when human intelligence + will rise to the mastery over property, and define the relations of + the State to the property it protects, as well as the obligations + and the limits of the rights of its owners. The interests of + society are paramount to individual interests, and the two must be + brought into just and harmonious relations. A mere property career + is not the final destiny of mankind, if progress is to be the law + of the future as it has been of the past. The time which has passed + away since civilization began is but a fragment of the past + duration of man's existence; and but a fragment of the ages yet to + come. The dissolution of society bids fair to become the + termination of a career of which property is the end and aim; + because such a career contains the elements of + self-destruction."--Morgan. + + +Copyright 1904, by the New York Labor News Company + + + + +TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. + + +Bebel's work, "Die Frau und der Socialismus," rendered in this English +version with the title "Woman under Socialism," is the best-aimed shot +at the existing social system, both strategically and tactically +considered. It is wise tactics and strategy to attack an enemy on his +weakest side. The Woman Question is the weakest link in the capitalist +mail. + +The workingman, we know, is a defenceless being; but it takes much +sharpening of the intellect to appreciate the fact that "he cannot speak +for himself." His sex is popularly coupled with the sense of strength. +The illusion conceals his feebleness, and deprives him of help, often of +sympathy. It is thus even with regard to the child. Proverbially weak +and needing support, the child, nevertheless, is not everywhere a victim +in the existing social order. Only in remote sense does the child of the +ruling class suffer. The invocation of the "Rights of the Child" leaves +substantially untouched the children of the rich. It is otherwise with +woman. The shot that rips up the wrongs done to her touches a nerve that +aches from end to end in the capitalist world. There is no woman, +whatever her station, but in one way or other is a sufferer, a victim in +modern society. While upon the woman of the working class the cross of +capitalist society rests heaviest in all ways, not one of her sisters in +all the upper ranks but bears some share of the burden, or, to be +plainer, of the smudge,--and what is more to the point, they are aware +of it. Accordingly, the invocation of the "Rights of Woman" not only +rouses the spirit of the heaviest sufferers under capitalist society, +and thereby adds swing to the blows of the male militants in their +efforts to overthrow the existing order, it also lames the adversary by +raising sympathizers in his own camp, and inciting sedition among his +own retinue. Bebel's exhaustive work, here put in English garb, does +this double work unerringly. + +I might stop here. The ethic formula commands self-effacement to a +translator. More so than well-brought-up children, who should be "seen +and not heard," a translator should, where at all possible, be neither +seen nor heard. That, however, is not always possible. In a work of this +nature, which, to the extent of this one, projects itself into +hypotheses of the future, and even whose premises necessarily branch off +into fields that are not essentially basic to Socialism, much that is +said is, as the author himself announces in his introduction, purely the +personal opinion of the writer. With these a translator, however, much +in general and fundamental accord, may not always agree. Not agreeing, +he is in duty bound to modify the ethic formula to the extent of marking +his exception, lest the general accord, implied in the act of +translating, be construed into specific approval of objected-to passages +and views. Mindful of a translator's duties as well as rights, I have +reduced to a small number, and entered in the shape of running footnotes +to the text, the dissent I thought necessary to the passages that to me +seemed most objectionable in matters not related to the main question; +and, as to matters related to the main question, rather than enter +dissent in running footnotes, I have reserved for this place a summary +of my own private views on the family of the future. + +It is an error to imagine that, in its spiral course, society ever +returns to where it started from. The spiral never returns upon its own +track. Obedient to the law of social evolution, the race often is +forced, in the course of its onward march, to drop much that is good, +but also much that is bad. The bad, it is hoped, is dropped for all +time; but the good, when picked up again, never is picked up as +originally dropped. Between the original dropping and return to its +vicinity along the tracks of the spiral, fresh elements join. These new +accretions so transmute whatever is re-picked up that it is essentially +remodeled. The "Communism," for instance, that the race is now heading +toward, is, materially, a different article from the "Communism" it once +left behind. We move in an upward spiral. No doubt moral concepts are +the reflex of material possibilities. But, for one thing, moral concepts +are in themselves a powerful force, often hard to distinguish in their +effect from material ones; and, for another, these material +possibilities unfold material facts, secrets of Nature, that go to +enrich the treasury of science, and quicken the moral sense. Of such +material facts are the discoveries in embryology and kindred branches. +They reveal the grave fact, previously reckoned with in the matter of +the breeding of domestic animals, that the act of impregnation is an act +of inoculation. This fact, absolutely material, furnishes a +post-discovered material basis for a pre-surmised moral concept,--the +"oneness of flesh" with father and mother. Thus science solidifies a +poetic-moral yearning, once held imprisoned in the benumbing shell of +theological dogma, and reflects its morality in the poetic expression of +the monogamic family. The moral, as well as the material, accretions of +the race's intellect, since it uncoiled out of early Communism, bar, to +my mind, all prospect,--I would say danger, moral and hygienic,--of +promiscuity, or of anything even remotely approaching that. + +Modern society is in a state of decomposition. Institutions, long held +as of all time and for all time, are crumbling. No wonder those bodies +of society that come floating down to us with the prerogatives of +"teacher" are seen to-day rushing to opposite extremes. On the matter of +"Woman" or "The Family" the divergence among our rulers is most marked. +While both extremes cling like shipwrecked mariners to the water-logged +theory of private ownership in the means of production, the one extreme, +represented by the Roman Catholic church-machine, is seen to recede ever +further back within the shell of orthodoxy, and the other extreme, +represented by the pseudo-Darwinians, is seen to fly into ever wilder +flights of heterodoxy on the matter of "Marriage and Divorce." Agreed, +both, in keeping woman nailed to the cross of a now perverse social +system, the former seeks to assuage her agony with the benumbing balm of +resignation, the latter to relieve her torture with the blister of +libertinage. + +Between these two extremes stand the gathering forces of revolution that +are taking shape in the militant Socialist Movement. Opinion among these +forces, while it cannot be said to clash, takes on a variety of +shades--as needs will happen among men, who, at one on basic principles, +on the material substructure of institutional superstructure, cannot +but yield to the allurements of speculative thought on matters as yet +hidden in the future, and below the horizon. For one, I hold there is as +little ground for rejecting monogamy, by reason of the taint that clings +to its inception, as there would be ground for rejecting co-operation, +by reason of the like taint that accompanied its rise, and also clings +to its development. For one, I hold that the smut of capitalist +conditions, that to-day clings to monogamy, is as avoidable an +"incident" in the evolutionary process as are the iniquities of +capitalism that to-day are found the accompaniment of co-operative +labor;--and the further the parallel is pursued through the many +ramifications of the subject, the closer will it be discovered to hold. +For one, I hold that the monogamous family--bruised and wounded in the +cruel rough-and-tumble of modern society, where, with few favored +exceptions of highest type, male creation is held down, physically, +mentally and morally, to the brutalizing level of the brute, forced to +grub and grub for bare existence, or, which amounts to the same, to +scheme and scheme in order to avoid being forced so to grub and +grub--will have its wounds staunched, its bruises healed, and, ennobled +by the slowly acquired moral forces of conjugal, paternal and filial +affection, bloom under Socialism into a lever of mighty power for the +moral and physical elevation of the race. + +At any rate, however the genius of our descendants may shape matters on +this head, one thing is certain: Woman--the race's mothers, wives, +sisters, daughters--long sinned against through unnumbered +generations--is about to be atoned to. All the moral and intellectual +forces of the age are seen obviously converging to that point. It will +be the crowning work of Militant Socialism, like a mightier Perseus, to +strike the shackles from the chained Andromeda of modern society, Woman, +and raise her to the dignity of her sex. + +DANIEL DE LEON. + +New York, June 21, 1903. + + + + +INDEX + + +TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE iii + +INTRODUCTION 1 + +WOMAN IN THE PAST-- + Chapter I--Before Christianity 9 + Chapter II--Under Christianity 47 + +WOMAN IN THE PRESENT-- + Chapter I--Sexual Instinct, Wedlock, Checks and Obstructions + to Marriage 79 + Chapter II--Further Checks and Obstructions to Marriage, Numerical + Proportion of the Sexes, Its Causes and Effects 118 + Chapter III--Prostitution a Necessary Social Institution of + the Capitalist World 146 + Chapter IV--Woman's Position as a Breadwinner, Her Intellectual + Faculties, Darwinism and the Condition of Society 167 + Chapter V--Woman's Civic and Political Status 216 + Chapter VI--The State and Society 235 + Chapter VII--The Socialization of Society 272 + +WOMAN IN THE FUTURE 343 + +INTERNATIONALITY 350 + +POPULATION AND OVER-POPULATION 355 + +CONCLUSION 372 + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +We live in the age of a great social Revolution, that every day makes +further progress. A growingly powerful intellectual stir and unrest is +noticeable in all the layers of society; and the movement pushes towards +deep-reaching changes. All feel that the ground they stand on shakes. A +number of questions have risen; they occupy the attention of ever +widening circles; and discussion runs high on their solution. One of the +most important of these, one that pushes itself ever more to the fore, +is the so-called "Woman Question." + +The question concerns the position that woman should occupy in our +social organism; how she may unfold her powers and faculties in all +directions, to the end that she become a complete and useful member of +human society, enjoying equal rights with all. From our view-point, this +question coincides with that other:--what shape and organization human +society must assume to the end that, in the place of oppression, +exploitation, want and misery in manifold forms, there shall be physical +and social health on the part of the individual and of society. To us, +accordingly, the Woman Question is only one of the aspects of the +general Social Question, which is now filling all heads, which is +setting all minds in motion and which, consequently, can find its final +solution only in the abolition of the existing social contradictions, +and of the evils which flow from them. + +Nevertheless, it is necessary to treat the so-called Woman Question +separately. On the one hand the question, What was the former position +of woman, what is it to-day, and what will it be in the future? +concerns, in Europe at least, the larger section of society, seeing that +here the female sex constitutes the larger part of the population. On +the other hand, the prevailing notions, regarding the development that +woman has undergone in the course of centuries, correspond so little +with the facts, that light upon the subject becomes a necessity for the +understanding of the present and of the future. Indeed, a good part of +the prejudices with which the ever-growing movement is looked upon in +various circles--and not least in the circle of woman herself--rests +upon lack of knowledge and lack of understanding. Many are heard +claiming there is no Woman Question, because the position that woman +formerly occupied, occupies to-day and will in the future continue to +occupy, is determined by her "natural calling," which destines her for +wife and mother, and limits her to the sphere of the home. Accordingly, +whatever lies beyond her four walls, or is not closely and obviously +connected with her household duties, concerns her not. + +On the Woman Question, the same as on the general Social Question, in +which the position of the working class in society plays the chief role, +opposing parties stand arrayed against each other. One party, that which +would leave everything as it is, have their answer ready at hand; they +imagine the matter is settled with referring woman to her "natural +calling." They forget that, to-day, for reasons later to be developed, +millions of women are wholly unable to fill that "natural calling," so +much insisted upon in their behalf, of householders, breeders and nurses +of children; and that, with other millions, the "calling" has suffered +extensive shipwreck--wedlock, to them, having turned into a yoke and +into slavery, compelling them to drag along their lives in misery and +want. Of course, this fact concerns those "wise men" as little as that +other fact, that unnumbered millions of women, engaged in the several +pursuits of life, are compelled, often in unnatural ways, and far beyond +the measure of their strength, to wear themselves out in order to eke +out a meager existence. At this unpleasant fact those "wise men" stuff +their ears, and they shut their eyes with as much violence as they do +before the misery of the working class, consoling themselves and others +with "it has ever been, and will ever remain so." That woman has the +right to share the conquests of civilization achieved in our days; to +utilize these to the easing and improving of her condition; and to +develop her mental and physical faculties, and turn them to advantage as +well as man,--they will none of that. Are they told that woman must also +be economically, in order to be physically and intellectually free, to +the end that she no longer depend upon the "good-will" and the "mercy" +of the other sex?--forthwith their patience is at end; their anger is +kindled; and there follows a torrent of violent charges against the +"craziness of the times," and the "insane emancipational efforts." + +These are the Philistines of male and female sex, incapable of finding +their way out of the narrow circle of their prejudices. It is the breed +of the owls, to be found everywhere when day is breaking, and they cry +out in affright when a ray of light falls upon their comfortable +darkness. + +Another element among the adversaries of the movement cannot shut its +eyes before the glaring facts. This element admits that there was hardly +a time when a larger number of women found themselves in so +unsatisfactory a condition as to-day, relatively to the degree of +general civilization; and they admit that it is therefore necessary to +inquire how the condition of woman can be improved, in so far as she +remains dependent upon herself. To this portion of our adversaries, the +Social Question seems solved for those women who have entered the haven +of matrimony. + +In keeping with their views, this element demands that, to unmarried +woman, at least, all fields of work, for which her strength and +faculties are adequate, shall be opened, to the end that she may enter +the competitive field for work with man. A small set goes even further, +and demands that competition for work be not limited to the field of the +lower occupations, but should also extend higher, to the professions, to +the field of art and science. This set demands the admission of woman to +all the higher institutions of learning, namely, the universities, which +in many countries are still closed to her. Their admission is advocated +to the classes of several branches of study, to the medical profession, +to the civil service (the Post Office, telegraph and railroad offices), +for which they consider women peculiarly adapted;, and they point to the +practical results that have been attained, especially in the United +States, through the employment of woman. The one and the other also make +the demand that political rights be conferred upon woman. Woman, they +admit, is human and a member of the State, as well as man: legislation, +until now in the exclusive control of man, proves that he exploited the +privilege to his own exclusive benefit, and kept woman in every respect +under guardianship, a thing to be henceforth prevented. + +It is noteworthy that the efforts here roughly sketched, do not reach +beyond the frame-work of the existing social order. The question never +is put whether, these objects being attained, any real and thoroughgoing +improvement in the condition of woman will have been achieved. Standing +on the ground of bourgeois, that is, of the capitalist social order, the +full social equality of man and woman is considered the solution of the +question. These folks are not aware, or they slide over the fact that, +in so far as the unrestricted admission of woman to the industrial +occupations is concerned, the object has already been actually attained, +and it meets with the strongest support on the part of the ruling class, +who as will be shown further on, find therein their own interest. Under +existing conditions, the admission of women to all industrial +occupations can have for its only effect that the competitive struggle +of the working people become ever sharper, and rage ever mere fiercely. +Hence the inevitable result,--the lowering of incomes for female and +male labor, whether this income be in the form of wage or salary. + +That this solution cannot be the right one is clear. The full civic +equality of woman is, however, not merely the ultimate object of the +men, who, planted upon the existing social order, favor the efforts in +behalf of woman. It is also recognized by the female bourgeois, active +in the Woman Movement. These, together with the males of their mental +stamp, stand, accordingly, with their demands in contrast to the larger +portion of the men, who oppose them, partly out of old-fogy narrowness, +partly also--in so far as the admission of woman to the higher studies +and the better-paid public positions is concerned--out of mean +selfishness, out of fear of competition. A difference in principle, +however, a class difference, such as there is between the working and +the capitalist class, does not exist between these two sets of male and +female citizens. + +Let the by no means impossible case be imagined that the representatives +of the movement for the civic rights of woman carry through all their +demands for placing woman upon an equal footing with man. What then? +Neither the slavery, which modern marriage amounts to for numberless +women, nor prostitution, nor the material dependence of the large +majority of married women upon their marital lords, would thereby be +removed. For the large majority of women it is, indeed, immaterial +whether a thousand, or ten thousand, members of their own sex, belonging +to the more favored strata of society, land in the higher branches of +learning, the practice of medicine, a scientific career, or some +government office. Nothing is thereby changed in the total condition of +the sex. + +The mass of the female sex suffers in two respects: On the one side +woman suffers from economic and social dependence upon man. True enough, +this dependence may be alleviated by formally placing her upon an +equality before the law, and in point of rights; but the dependence is +not removed. On the other side, woman suffers from the economic +dependence that woman in general, the working-woman in particular, finds +herself in, along with the workingman. + +Evidently, all women, without difference of social standing, have an +interest--as the sex that in the course of social development has been +oppressed, and ruled, and defiled by man--in removing such a state of +things, and must exert themselves to change it, in so far as it can be +changed by changes in the laws and institutions within the frame-work of +the present social order. But the enormous majority of women are +furthermore interested in the most lively manner in that the existing +State and social order be radically transformed, to the end that both +wage-slavery, under which the working-women deeply pine, and sex +slavery, which is intimately connected with our property and industrial +systems, be wiped out. + +The larger portion by far of the women in society, engaged in the +movement for the emancipation of woman, do not see the necessity for +such a radical change. Influenced by their privileged social standing, +they see in the more far-reaching working-women's movement dangers, not +infrequently abhorrent aims, which they feel constrained to ignore, +eventually even to resist. The class-antagonism, that in the general +social movement rages between the capitalist and the working class, and +which, with the ripening of conditions, grows sharper and more +pronounced, turns up likewise on the surface of the Woman's Movement; +and it finds its corresponding expression in the aims and tactics of +those engaged in it. + +All the same, the hostile sisters have, to a far greater extent than the +male population--split up as the latter is in the class struggle--a +number of points of contact, on which they can, although marching +separately, strike jointly. This happens on all the fields, on which the +question is the equality of woman with man, within modern society. This +embraces the participation of woman in all the fields of human activity, +for which her strength and faculties are fit; and also her full civil +and political equality with man. These are very important, and as will +be shown further on, very extensive fields. Besides all this the working +woman has also a special interest in doing battle hand in hand with the +male portion of the working class, for all the means and institutions +that may protect the working woman from physical and moral degeneration, +and which promise to secure to her the vitality and fitness necessary +for motherhood and for the education of children. Furthermore, as +already indicated, it is the part of the working-woman to make common +cause with the male members of her class and of her lot in the struggle +for a radical transformation of society, looking to the establishment of +such conditions as may make possible the real economic and spiritual +independence of both sexes, by means of social institutions that afford +to all a full share in the enjoyment of all the conquests of +civilization made by mankind. + +The goal, accordingly, is not merely the realization of the equal rights +of woman with man within present society, as is aimed at by the +bourgeois woman emancipationists. It lies beyond,--the removal of all +impediments that make man dependent upon man; and, consequently, one sex +upon the other. Accordingly, this solution of the Woman Question +coincides completely with the solution of the Social Question. It +follows that he who aims at the solution of the Woman Question to its +full extent, is necessarily bound to go hand in hand with those who have +inscribed upon their banner the solution of the Social Question as a +question of civilization for the whole human race. These are the +Socialists, that is, the Social Democracy. + +Of all existing parties in Germany, the Social Democratic Party is the +only one which has placed in its programme the full equality of woman, +her emancipation from all dependence and oppression. And the party has +done so, not for agitational reasons, but out of necessity, out of +principle. _There can be no emancipation of humanity without the social +independence and equality of the sexes._ + +Up to this point all Socialists are likely to agree with the +presentation made of fundamental principles. But the same cannot be said +on the subject of the manner in which we portray the ultimate aims to +ourselves; how the measures and special institutions shall be shaped +which will establish the aimed-at independence and equality of all +members of the sexes, consequently that of man and woman also. + +The moment the field of the known is abandoned, and one launches out +into pictures of future forms, a wide field is opened for speculation. +Differences of opinion start over that which is probable or not +probable. That which in that direction is set forth in this book can, +accordingly, be taken only as the personal opinion of the author +himself; possible attacks must be directed against him only; only he is +responsible. + +Attacks that are objective, and are honestly meant, will be welcome to +us. Attacks that violate truth in the presentation of the contents of +this book, or that rest upon false premises we shall ignore. For the +rest, in the following pages all conclusions, even the extremest, will +be drawn, which, the facts being verified, the results attained may +warrant. Freedom from prejudice is the first condition for the +recognition of truth. Only the unrestricted utterance of that which is, +and must be, leads to the goal. + + + + +PART I + +WOMAN IN THE PAST + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +BEFORE CHRISTIANITY. + + +Woman and the workingman have, since old, had this in +common--_oppression_. The forms of oppression have suffered changes in +the course of time, and in various countries. But the oppression always +remained. Many a time and oft, in the course of the ages, did the +oppressed become conscious of their oppression; and such conscious +knowledge of their condition did bring on changes and reliefs. +Nevertheless, a knowledge, that grasped the actual feature of the +oppression by grasping its causes, is, with woman as with the +workingman, the fruit of our own days. The actual feature of society, +and of the laws that lie at the bottom of its development, had first to +be known, before a general movement could take place for the removal of +conditions, recognized as oppressive and unjust. The breadth and +intensity of such a movement depends, however, upon the measure of the +understanding prevalent among the suffering social layers and circles, +and upon the measure of freedom of motion that they enjoy. In both +respects, woman stands, through custom and education, as well as the +freedom allowed her by law, behind the workingman. To this, another +circumstance is added. Conditions, lasting through a long series of +generations, finally grow into custom; heredity and education then cause +such conditions to appear on both sides as "natural." Hence it comes +that, even to-day, woman in particular, accepts her subordinate position +as a matter of course. It is no easy matter to make her understand that +that position is unworthy, and that it is her duty to endeavor to become +a member of society, equal-righted with, and in every sense a peer of +man. + +However much in common woman may be shown to have with the workingman, +she leads him in one thing:--_Woman was the first human being to come +into bondage: she was a slave before the male slave existed._ + +All social dependence and oppression has its roots in the _economic +dependence_ of the oppressed upon the oppressor. In this condition woman +finds herself, from an early day down to our own. The history of the +development of human society proves the fact everywhere. + +The knowledge of the history of this development is, however, +comparatively new. As little as the myth of the Creation of the +World--as taught us by the Bible--can be upheld in sight of the +investigations of geographers and, scientists, grounded as these +investigations are upon unquestionable and innumerable facts, just so +untenable has its myth proved concerning the creation and evolution of +man. True enough, as yet the veil is far from being lifted from all the +sub-departments of this historical development of mankind; over many, on +which already light has been shed, differences of opinion still exist +among the investigators on the meaning and connection of this or that +fact; nevertheless, on the whole, there is agreement and clearness. It +is established that man did not, like the first human couple of the +Bible, make his first appearance on earth in an advanced stage of +civilization. He reached that plane only in the course of endlessly long +lapses of time, after he had gradually freed himself from purely animal +conditions, and had experienced long terms of development, in the course +of which his social as well as his sexual relations--the relations +between man and woman--had undergone a great variety of changes. + +The favorite phrase--a phrase that the ignorant or impostors daily smite +our ears with on the subject of the relations between man and woman, and +between the poor and the rich--"it always has been so," and the +conclusion drawn therefrom--"it will always be so," _is in every sense +of the word false, superficial and trumped-up_. + +For the purposes of this work a cursory presentation of the relations +between the sexes, since primitive society, is of special importance. It +is so because it can thereby be proved that, seeing that these relations +have materially changed in the previous course of human development, and +that the changes have taken place in even step with the existing systems +of production, on the one hand, and of the distribution of the product +of labor, on the other, it is natural and goes without saying that, +along with further changes and revolutions in the system of production +and distribution, _the relations between the sexes are bound to change +again_. Nothing is "eternal," either in nature or in human life; eternal +only is change and interchange. + +As far back as one may go in the development of human society, the horde +is found as the first human community. True enough, Honeger mentions in +his "General History of Civilization" that even to-day in the little +explored interior of the island of Borneo, there are wild people, living +separately; and Huegel likewise maintains that, in the wild mountain +regions of India, human couples have been discovered living alone, and +who, ape-like, fled to the trees as soon as they were met; but there is +no further knowledge on the subject. If verified, these claims would +only confirm the previous superstition and hypothesis concerning the +development of the human race. The probability is that, wherever human +beings sprang up, there were, at first, single couples. Certain it is, +however, that so soon as a larger number of beings existed, descended +from a common parent stock, they held together in hordes in order that, +by their joint efforts, they might, first of all, gain their still very +primitive conditions of life and support, as well as to protect +themselves against their common enemies, wild animals. Growing numbers +and increased difficulties in securing subsistence, which originally +consisted in roots, berries and fruit, first led to the splitting up or +segmentation of the hordes, and to the search for new habitats. + +This almost animal-like state, of which we have no further credible +antiquarian proofs, undoubtedly once existed, judging from all that we +have learned concerning the several grades of civilization of wild +peoples still living, or known to have lived within historic times. Man +did not, upon the call of a Creator, step ready-made into existence as a +higher product of civilization. It was otherwise. He has had to pass +through the most varied stages in an endlessly long and slow process of +development. Only via ebbing and flowing periods of civilization, and in +constant differentiation with his fellows in all parts of the world, and +in all zones, did he gradually climb up to his present height. + +Indeed, while in one section of the earth's surface great peoples and +nations belong to the most advanced stages of civilization, other +peoples are found in different sections standing on the greatest variety +of gradations in development. They thus present to us a picture of our +own past history; and they point to the road which mankind traversed in +the course of its development. If but certain common and generally +accepted data are established, that may serve everywhere as sign-posts +to guide investigation, a mass of facts will follow, throwing a wholly +new light upon the relations of man in the past and the present. A +number of social phenomena--unintelligible to us to-day, and attacked by +superficial judges as nonsensical, not infrequently even as +"immoral"--will become clear and natural. A material lifting of the +veil, formerly spread over the history of the development of our race, +has been effected through the investigations made, since Bachofen, by a +considerable number of scientists, like Tylor, MacLennan, Lubbock and +others. Prominently among the men who joined these was Morgan, with his +fundamental work, that Frederick Engels further substantiated and +supplemented with a series of historical facts, economic and political +in their nature, and that, more recently, has been partly confirmed and +partly rectified by Cunow.[1] + +By means of these expositions--especially as clearly and lucidly +presented by Frederick Engels, in his support of Morgan's excellent and +fundamental work,--a mass of light is shed upon hitherto unintelligible, +partly seemingly contradictory phenomena in the life of the races and +tribes of both high and low degree of culture. Only now do we gain an +insight into the structure that human society raised in the course of +time. According thereto, our former views of marriage, the family, the +community, the State, rested upon notions that were wholly false; so +false that they turn out to be no better than a fancy-picture, wholly +devoid of foundation in fact. + +All that is said and proved about marriage, the family, the community +and the State holds good especially with regard to woman, who, in the +various periods of development did likewise fill a place, that differs +materially from the "eternal," imputed to her. + +Morgan, whom Engels agrees with in this, divides the history of mankind +into three main epochs:--savagery, barbarism and civilization. Each of +the two first ones he again divides into an under, a middle and an upper +period, each distinguishing itself from the other by certain innovations +and improvements, predicated in each instance upon the control over +subsistence. Morgan, accordingly, exactly in the sense of the +materialist conception of history, as established by Karl Marx and +Frederick Engels,--perceives the leading characteristics in the +development of society to be the changes that, in given epochs, the +conditions of life are molded into; and he perceives the changes to be +due to the progress made in the process of production, that is to say, +in the procurement of subsistence. Summed up in a few words, the lower +period of savagery constitutes the infancy of the human race, during +which the race, partly living in trees, is mainly nourished by fruits +and roots, and during which articulate language takes its inception. The +middle period of savagery commences with the acquisition of a fish +subsistence, and the use of fire. The construction of weapons begins; at +first the club and spear, fashioned out of wood and stone. Thereby also +begins the chase, and probably also war with contiguous hordes for the +sources of food, for domiciles and hunting grounds. At this stage +appears also cannibalism, still practiced to-day by some tribes and +peoples of Africa, Australia and Polynesia. The upper period of savagery +is characterized by the perfection of weapons to the point of the bow +and arrow; finger weaving, the making of baskets out of filaments of +bark, the fashioning of sharpened stone tools have here their start, and +thereby begins also the preparation of wood for the building of boats +and huts. The form of life has accordingly, become many-sided. The +existing tools and implements, needed for the control of a plentiful +food supply, make possible the subsistance of larger communities. + +The lower period of barbarism Morgan starts with the invention of the +art of pottery. The taming and domestication of animals, and, along with +that, the production of meat and milk, and the preparation of hides, +horns and hair for various purposes of use, have here their start. Hand +in hand therewith begins the cultivation of plants,--in the West of +maize, in the East of almost all known cereals, maize excepted. The +middle period of barbarism shows us, in the East, the ever more +extensive domestication of animals; in the West, the cultivation of +maize and plants by irrigation. Here also begins the use of adobe-bricks +and of stone for house-building. The domestication of animals promotes +the rearing of herds, and leads to the pastoral life. The necessity of +larger quantities of food for men and beasts leads to field agriculture. +Along therewith, the people begin to be localized; food increases in +quantity and diversity, and gradually cannibalism disappears. + +The upper period of barbarism begins finally with the smelting of iron +ore, and the discovery of the phonetic alphabet. The iron plow-share is +invented, making possible agriculture on a larger scale; the iron axe +and spade are brought into requisition, making easy the clearing of the +forests. With the preparation of iron, a number of fields are opened to +activity, imparting to life a new form. Iron utensils help the building +of houses, vessels and weapons; with the preparation of metals arises +skilled handwork, a more perfect knowledge of weapons, and the building +of walled cities. Architecture, as an art, then rises; mythology, poetry +and history find support and expansion in the discovery of the phonetic +alphabet. + +The Orient and the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, +particularly Egypt, Greece and Italy, are those in which the last +sketched stage of life principally unfolded; and it laid the foundation +for the social transformation that in the course of time exercised a +determining influence on the social development of Europe and of the +whole earth. + +As a matter of course, the social development of the human race through +the periods of savagery and barbarism had also its peculiar sexual and +social relations, differing materially from those of later days. + +Bachofen and Morgan have traced these relations by means of thorough +investigations. Bachofen, by studying closely all ancient and modern +writings, so as to arrive at the nature of phenomena that appear +singular to us in mythology, folk-lore and historic tradition, and that, +nevertheless, seem to be re-echoed in incidents and events of later +days, occasionally even of our own. Morgan, by spending decades of his +life among the Iroquois Indians, located in the State of New York, and +thereby making observations, through which he gained new and unexpected +insight into the system of life, the family and the relationships of the +said Indian tribe, and, based upon which, observations made elsewhere, +first received their correct interpretation and explanation. + +Both of them, Bachofen and Morgan, discovered, each along his own line +of research, the latter, however, far more clearly than the former, that +the relations of the sexes during primitive times of human development +were substantially different from the relations existing in historic +days, and among the modern civilized peoples. Especially did Morgan +discover--thanks to his many years' sojourn among the Iroquois of North +America, and grounded upon comparative studies, which he was moved to by +that which he there observed,--that all the existing races, that are +still materially backward, possess systems of family and consanguinity +that are totally different from ours, but must be similar to those once +prevalent among all races during the previous stages of civilization. + +Morgan found, at the time that he lived among the Iroquois, that among +them there existed a system of monogamy, easily dissolvable by both +parties, and which he designated as the "pairing family." He also found +that the terms for the degrees of consanguinity--father, mother, son, +daughter, brother, sister--although, according to our conception, there +can be no doubt as to their application, were there, nevertheless, +applied in quite different sense. The Iroquois calls not only his own +children "sons" and "daughters," but also the children of all his +brothers; and their children call him "father." Conversely, the female +Iroquois calls not only her own children "sons" and "daughters," but all +those of her sisters, and likewise do their children call her "mother." +On the other hand, she calls the children of her brothers "nephews" and +"nieces," and these call her "aunt." The children of brothers call one +another "brothers" and "sisters;" likewise the children of sisters. +Finally, the children of a woman and those of her brother call one +another "cousins." Accordingly, the singular spectacle is seen of the +terms of relationship going, not as in our sense, by the degree of +consanguinity, but by the sex of the relative. + +This system of relationship is in full force, not only among all the +American Indians, as well as among the aborigines of India, the tribes +of Dekan and the Gaura tribes of Hindostan, but, according to the +investigations that have taken place since Bachofen, similar conditions +must have existed everywhere in primitive times, as they still exist +to-day among many peoples of Upper and Further Asia, Africa and +Australia. When, in connection with these investigations and established +facts, the investigation will be everywhere taken up on the sex and +family relations of wild and barbarous nations still living, then will +the fact transpire that, what Bachofen still confusedly found among +numerous peoples of antiquity, and rather surmised than otherwise; what +Morgan found among the Iroquois; what Cunow found among the +Austral-Negros, are but social and sexual formations, that constitute +the _groundwork of human development for all the peoples of the earth_. + +The investigations of Morgan bring, moreover, other interesting facts to +light. Although the "pairing family" of the Iroquois starts in +insolvable contradiction with the terms of consanguinity in use among +them, it turns out that, as late as the first half of the 19th Century, +there existed on the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) a family-form that +actually tallied with that which, among the Iroquois, existed in name +only. But the system of consanguinity, in force in Hawaii, failed, in +turn, to tally with the family-form actually in existence there. It +referred to an older family-form, one still more primitive, but no +longer extant. There, all the children of brothers and sisters, without +exception, were "brothers" and "sisters." Accordingly, they were not +considered the common children of their mothers and of the sisters of +these, or of their fathers and of the brothers of these, but of all the +brothers and sisters of their parents, without distinction. The Hawaiian +system of consanguinity corresponded, accordingly, with a stage of +development that was lower than the family-form still actually in +existence. Hence transpires the curious fact that, in Hawaii, as with +the Indians of North America, two distinct systems of consanguinity are, +or rather, at a time, were in vogue, which no longer tallied with actual +conditions, but were both overtaken by a higher state. On this head +Morgan says: "The family represents an active principle. It is never +stationary, but advances from a lower to a higher form as society +advances from a lower to a higher condition, and finally passes out of +one form into another of higher grade. Systems of consanguinity, on the +contrary, are passive; recording the progress made by the family at long +intervals apart, and only changing radically when the family has +radically changed." + +The theory,--even to-day generally considered conclusive, and which is +stubbornly upheld as irrefutable by the representatives of the _status +quo_--to the effect that the existing family-form has existed since time +immemorial, and, lest the whole social fabric be put in jeopardy, must +continue to exist forever, turned out, accordingly, after these +discoveries of the investigators, to be wholly false and untenable. The +form, under which the relations of the sexes appear and the situation of +the family is raised, depends rather upon the social conditions, upon +the manner in which man controls his subsistence. The form changes with +the changed degree of culture at each given period. + +The study of primitive history leaves now no room for doubt that, at the +lowest grades of human development, the relation of the sexes is totally +different from that of latter times, and that a state of things resulted +therefrom, which, looked at with modern eyes, appears as monstrous, and +as a sink of immorality. Nevertheless, as each social stage of human +development has its own conditions of production, so likewise has each +its own code of morals, which is but the _reflection of the social +condition_. That is moral which is usage; and that, in turn, is usage +which corresponds with the innermost being, i. e., the needs of a given +period. + +Morgan reaches the conclusion that, at the lower period of savagery, +there was sexual intercourse between the several grades or generations, +every woman belonging to every man, and every man to every woman,--in +other words, promiscuity. All men live in polygamy and all women in +polyandry. There is a general community of women and of men, but also a +community of children, Strabo reports (sixty-six years before our +reckoning) that, among the Arabians, brothers cohabited with sisters and +with their own mother. On any route other than that of incest, the +increase of population is nowhere possible, if, as alleged in the Bible +also, descent from one couple is granted. The Bible itself contradicts +itself on this delicate point. It is stated there that Cain, after he +had murdered his brother Abel, took a wife of another people. Whence +came that other people? The theory of promiscuity in primitive times, +that is to say, that the horde was endogamous, that sexual intercourse +was indiscriminate, is furthermore supported by the Hindoo myth, +according to which Brahma married his own daughter Saravasti. The same +myth turns up again among the Egyptians and the northern Edda. The +Egyptian god Ammon was the spouse of his own mother, and boasted of it. +Odin, according to the Edda, was the mate of his own daughter Frigga.[2] +Morgan proceeds from the principle that, from the state of promiscuity, +soon a higher form of sexual intercourse took shape. He designates this +the consanguine family. Here the groups, that stand in sexual relation, +are separated by grades or generations, so that grandfathers and +grandmothers, within an age group, are husbands and wives. Their +children, likewise, constitute a group of common couples; likewise the +children of these, so soon as they have reached the requisite age. +Accordingly, in contrast with the sex relations of the rawest period, in +which promiscuity of sexes exists without distinction of age, now one +generation is excluded from sexual intercourse with another. Sexual +intercourse, however, exists between brothers and sisters, male and +female cousins of the first, second and third remove. All of these +together are brothers and sisters, but towards one another, they are all +husbands and wives. This family-form corresponds with the system of +consanguinity that still existed in Hawaii during the first part of the +19th Century, in name only, but no longer in fact. On the other hand, +according to the American Indian system of consanguinity, a brother and +sister can never be the father and mother of the same child--a thing, +however, permissible in the Hawaiian family system. Probably the +consanguine family was the state that, at the time of Herodotus, existed +among the Massagetae, on the subject of which he reports: "Each man +received a wife, but all were allowed to use her." And he continues: "At +any time a man desires a woman, he hangs his quiver in front of his +wagon, and cohabits, unconcerned, with her.... He at the same time +sticks his staff into the ground, a symbol of his own act.... +Cohabitation is exercised in public."[3] Similar conditions Bachofen +shows have existed among the Lycians, Etruscans, Cretans, Athenians, +Lesbians and Egyptians. + +According to Morgan, the consanguine family is supervened by a third and +higher form of family relationship, which he designates as the Punaluan +family. _Punalua_, "dear friend," "intimate companion." + +Cunow, in his above named book, takes exception to Morgan's views that +the consanguine family, which rests on the organization of marriage +classes by generations, preceded the punaluan family as an original +organization. Cunow does not see in the consanguine family the most +primitive of all social forms, until now discovered. He sees in it +merely a middle form, that takes its origin in the generation groups; a +transition stage toward the pure gentile organization, on which, as a +graft, the division in age classes, belonging to the consanguine family +system, still continues for a time in altered form, along with the +division in totem-groups.[4] Cunow explains further: The division in +classes--every individual, man or woman, carries the name of his or her +class and generation group totem--does not serve to exclude sexual +intercourse between collateral, but to prevent cohabitation between +relatives in the ascending and descending line, between parents and +children, aunts and nephews, uncles and nieces. Terms such as "aunt," +"uncle," etc., he designates as grade-names. + +Cunow furnishes the proofs for the correctness of the views in which he +differs from Morgan on some points. But, however he may differ from +Morgan in single instances, he emphatically defends him against the +attacks of Westermann and others. He says: + +"Although here and there a hypothesis of Morgan may have proved itself +false, and some others may be allowed only a qualified approval, that +merit none can gainsay him that he has been the first to establish the +identity of the North American totem-group with the gentile organization +of the Romans; and, secondly, to demonstrate that our modern systems of +consanguinity and family-forms are the result of a long process of +development. In a measure he has thereby first made recent +investigations possible; he has first built the foundation on which we +may build further." In the introduction also to his book he says +expressly that his own work is partly a supplement to Morgan's book on +primitive man. + +The Westermanns, the Starckes, the Zieglers--the latter of whom, in his +book, criticized in the introduction to the twenty-fifth edition of this +work, refers mainly to the first named, in order to attack our +statements with theirs--will have to submit, with good grace or bad, to +the fact that the rise and development of the family has not taken the +course that fits in with their bourgeois prejudices. The refutation +that, in the last part of his work, Cunow bestows upon Westermann and +Starcke, Ziegler's authorities, are calculated to enlighten their most +fanatic followers upon the value of their caviling criticisms of, and +arguments against, Morgan. + +According to Morgan, the punaluan family has its start with the +exclusion of consanguineous brothers and sisters, on the mother's side. +Where a woman has several husbands, the evidence of paternity is +impossible. Paternity becomes a fiction. Even to-day, under the rule of +strict monogamous marriage, paternity, as Goethe, in his +"Apprenticeship," lets Frederick say, "rests only upon faith." If with +monogamy, paternity is often doubtful, it is impossible of proof in +polygamy: only descent from the mother is certain and unquestionable. +Accordingly, descent from the mother afforded the only criterion. As all +deep-reaching transformations in the social relations of primitive man +are accomplished only slowly, the change of the so-called consanguine +into the punaluan family must unquestionably have engaged vast periods +of time, and been broken through by many relapses, still noticeable in +much later days. The proximate external inducement for the development +of the punaluan family was, possibly, the necessity of splitting up the +strongly swollen membership of the family, to the end that new grounds +could be occupied for cattle ranges and agriculture. Probably, also, +with the reaching of a higher grade of civilization, a sense gradually +asserted itself of the harmfulness and indecorousness of sexual +intercourse between brothers and sisters, and close relatives. In favor +of this theory stands a pretty tradition, that, as related by Cunow, +Gaston found among the Dieyeries, one of the South Australian tribes, on +the rise of the "Mordu" consanguine group. He says: + +"After creation, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers and other near +relatives married promiscuously among one another, until the evil +effects of such connections showed themselves clearly. A conference of +leaders was held, and it was considered in what way this could be +avoided. The outcome of the conference was a request to the Muramura +(Great Spirit); and he ordered in his answer that the tribe be divided +into several branches, and that, in order to distinguish them, they be +called by different names, after animate or inanimate objects. For +instance: after the dingo, the mouse, the emu, the rain, the +iguana-lizard, etc. The members of one and the same group could not +marry another. The son of a Dingo could not, for instance, marry the +daughter of a Dingo; each of the two could, however, enter into +connections with the Mouse, the Emu, the Rat, or any other family." + +This tradition is more sensible and natural, by a good deal, than the +Christian tradition, taught by the Bible. It shows plainly the rise of +the consanguine groups. Moreover, Paul Lafargue, makes in the "Neue +Zeit" the sagacious, and, we think, felicitous point, that names, such +as Adam and Eve, are not names of individual persons, but the names of +gentes, in which, at the time, the Jews were joined. Lafargue solves by +his argument a series of otherwise obscure and contradictory passages in +the first Book of Moses. Again, M. Beer calls attention, likewise in the +"Neue Zeit," that, to this day, it is a conjugal custom among Jews that +the bride and the bridegroom's mother _may not carry the same name_, +otherwise--thus runs this belief--a misfortune will befall the family: +sickness and death will pursue them. In our opinion, this is a further +proof for the correctness of Lafargue's theory. The gentile organization +forbids marriage between persons that descend from the same gens stock. +Such a common descent must be considered to exist, according to gentile +principles, between the bride, that carries the name of "Eve," and the +bridegroom's mother of the same name. Modern Jews, of course, have no +longer the remotest suspicion of the real connection between their +prejudice and their old gentile constitution, which forbade such +marriages of relatives. The old gentile order had for its object to +avoid the degenerating consequences of in-breeding. Although this +gentile constitution has for thousands of years been destroyed among the +Jews, tradition, as we see, has continued to live in superstition. + +Quite possible, the experience, made at an early day with the breeding +of animals, revealed the harmfulness of in-breeding. How far this +experience went transpires from the manner in which, according to the +first Book of Moses, chap. 30, verse 32 and sequel, Jacob understood how +to outwit his father-in-law Laban, by knowing how to encompass the birth +of eanlings that were streaked and pied, and which, according to Laban's +promises, were to be Jacob's. The old Israelites had, accordingly, long +before Darwin, studied Darwinism. + +Once upon the subject of the conditions existing among the old Jews, a +few other facts are in order, clearly proving that, among them, descent +in the female line was actually in force of old. True enough, on the +subject of woman, I Moses, 3, 16, runs this wise: "And thy desire shall +be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee;" and the verse also +undergoes the variation: "the woman shall leave father and mother, and +cleave to her husband." In point of fact, however, I Moses, 2, 24, has +it this way: "_Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and +shall cleave unto his wife_, and they shall be one flesh." The same +language recurs in Matthew 19, 15; Mark 10, 7, and in the Epistle to the +Ephesians 5, 31. The command sprang, accordingly, from the system of +descent in the female line, and the exegetists, at a loss what to do +with it, allowed it to appear in a light that is utterly false. + +Descent in female line appears clearly also in IV Moses, 32, 41. It is +there said that Jair had a father, who was of the tribe of Judah, but +his mother was of the tribe of Manasseh, and Jair is expressly called +the son of Manasseh, and he inherited in that tribe. Another instance of +descent in the female line among the Jews is met in Nehemiah 7, 63. +There the children of a priest, who took to wife one of the daughters of +Barzillai--a Jewish clan--are called children of Barzillai; they are, +accordingly, not called after the father, who, moreover, as a priest +occupied a privileged position, but after the mother. For the rest, +already in the days of the Old Testament, accordingly, in historic +times, the father-right prevailed among the Jews, and the clan and tribe +organization rested on descent in the male line. Accordingly, the +daughters were shut off as heirs, as may be seen in I Moses 31, 14-15, +where even Leah and Rachel, the daughters of Laban, complain: "Is there +yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house? Are we not +counted of him strangers? for he has sold us, and hath quite devoured +also our money." + +As happened with all peoples where descent in male replaced descent in +female line, woman among the Jews stood wholly bereft of rights. Wedlock +was marriage by purchase. On woman the obligation was laid of the +strictest chastity; on the other hand, man was not bound by the same +ordinance; he, moreover, was privileged to possess several wives. Did +the husband, after the bridal night, believe to have found that his wife +had, before marriage, lost her maidenhood, not only had he the right to +cast her off, she was stoned to death. The same punishment fell upon the +adultress; upon the husband, however, only in case he committed adultery +with a married Jewish woman. According to V Moses 24, 1-4, the husband +had also the right to cast off his newly-married wife, if she found no +favor in his eyes, even if only out of dislike. He was then to write her +a bill of divorcement, give it in her hand, and let her out of the +house. An expression of the low position that woman took later among the +Jews is furthermore found in the circumstances that, even to this day, +woman attends divine service in the synagogue, in a space strictly +separated from the men, and they are not included in the prayers.[5] + +The relations of the sexes in the punaluan family consisted, according +to Morgan, in one or more sisters, belonging to one family group, +marrying jointly one or more brothers of another group. The consanguine +sisters, or the first, second and more remote cousins were wives in +common with their husbands in common, who could not be their brothers. +These consanguine brothers, or cousins of several degrees, were the +husbands in common of their wives in common, who could not be their +sisters. With the stopping of in-breeding, the new family-form +undoubtedly contributed towards the rapid and vigorous development of +the tribes, and imparted to the tribes, that had turned to this form of +family connection, an advantage over those that still retained the old +form of connections. + +In general, the physical and intellectual differences between man and +woman were vastly less in primitive days than in our society. Among all +the peoples, living in the state of savagery or barbarism, the +differences in the weight and size of the brain are slighter than among +the peoples in civilization. Likewise, in strength of body and agility, +the women among these peoples are but little behind the men. This is +attested not only by the testimony of the ancient writers on the peoples +who clung to the mother-right. Further testimony is furnished by the +armies of women among the Ashantees and of the King of Dahomey in West +Africa, who distinguished themselves by special bravery and ferocity. +Likewise does the opinion of Tacitus on the women of the old Germans, +and Caesar's accounts of the women of the Iberians and Scots confirm the +fact. Columbus had to sustain a fight before Santa Cruz with an Indian +skiff in which the women fought as bravely as the men; and we find this +theory further confirmed in the passages from Havelock Ellis's work, +"Man and Woman," which Dr. Hope B. Adams-Walther deals upon in Nos. 39 +and 40 of the "Neue Zeit." He says: + +"About the Andombis of the Congo, Johnson relates that the women work +hard as carriers and in other occupations. All the same, they lead a +perfectly happy life. They are often stronger and more handsomely built +than the men; not a few of them have positively magnificent figures. +Parke styles the Manynema of the same neighborhood 'fine animals,' and +he finds the women very stately. They carry burdens as heavy as the men +and with equal ease. A North American Indian chief said to Hearne: +'Women are created for labor; a woman can carry or drag as much as two +men.' Schellong, who published a painstaking study on the Papuans of New +Guinea in the Ethnologic Journal, issued in 1891, is of the opinion that +the women are more strongly built than the men. In the interior of +Australia, women are sometimes beaten by men out of jealousy; but it +happens not infrequently that it is the man, who, on such occasions, +receives the stronger dose. In Cuba the women fought shoulder to +shoulder with the men. Among some tribes in India, as well as the +Pueblos of North and the Patagonians of South America, the women are as +tall as the men. Even among the Arabians and Druses the difference in +size is slight; and yet nearer home, among the Russians, the sexes are +more alike than is the case among the western Europeans. Accordingly, in +all parts of the earth there are instances of equal or approximately +equal physical development." + +The family relations that flow from the Punaluan family were these: The +children of my mother's sisters are her children, and the children of my +father's brothers are his children, and all together are my brothers and +sisters. Conversely, the children of my mother's brothers are her +nephews and nieces, and the children of my father's sisters are his +nephews and nieces, and they, all together, are my cousins. Again, the +husbands of my mother's sisters are her husbands also, and the wives of +my father's brothers are also his wives; but my father's sisters and my +mother's brothers are excluded from family relationship, and their +children are my cousins.[6] + +Along with arising civilization, sexual intercourse is proscribed +between brothers and sisters, and the proscription gradually extends to +the remotest collateral relatives on the mother's side. A new group of +consanguinity arises, the gens, which, in its first form, is made up of +a series of consanguine and more remote sisters, together with their +children and their consanguine and more remote brothers on their +mother's side. The gens has a common female ancestor, from whom the +female successors descend in generations. The husbands of these women +are not of the consanguine group, the gens, of their wives; they are of +the gens of their sisters. Conversely, the children of these men belong +to the family group of their, the children's mother, descent being in +the female line. The mother is the head of the family; and thus arises +the "mother-right," which for a long time constitutes the basis of the +family and of inheritance. In keeping therewith--so long as descent was +recognized in the female line--woman had a seat and voice in the +councils of the gens; they voted in the election of the sachems and of +the military chiefs, and deposed them. + +About the Lycians, who abided by the mother-right, Herodotus says; +"Their customs are partly Cretan, partly Carian. They have, however, a +custom that distinguishes them from all other nations in the world. Ask +a Lycian who he is, and he answers by giving you his own name, the name +of his mother, and so on in the female line. Aye, if a free-born woman +marries a slave, her children are citizens, but if a free man marries a +stranger, or takes a concubine, even if he be the highest person in the +State, his children forfeit all citizen rights." + +In those days, "matrimonium" and not "patrimonium," "mater familias" +and not "pater familias" were the terms used; and the native land is +called the "dear motherland." As with the previous family-forms, so did +the gens rest upon the community of property, and had a communistic +system of household. The woman is the real guide and leader of this +family community; hence she enjoys a high degree of respect, in the +house as well as in the affairs of the family community concerning the +tribe. She is judge and adjuster of disputes, and frequently performs +the ceremonies of religion as priestess. The frequent appearance of +Queens and Princesses in antiquity, their controlling influence, even +there where their sons reigned, for instance, in the history of old +Egypt, are results of the mother-right. Mythology, at that epoch, +assumes predominantly female characters: Astarte, Ceres, Demeter, +Latona, Isis, Frigga, Freia, Gerdha, etc. Woman is considered +inviolable; matricide is the blackest of all crimes: it summons all men +to retribution. The blood-feud is the common concern of all the men of +the tribe; each is obliged to avenge the wrong done to a member of the +family community by the members of another tribe. In defence of the +women the men are spurred to highest valor. Thus did the effects of the +mother-right, gyneocracy, manifest themselves in all the relations of +life among the peoples of antiquity--among the Babylonians, the +Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, before the time of the Heroes; +among the peoples of Italy, before the founding of Rome; among the +Scythians, the Gauls, the Iberians and Cantabrians, the Germans of +Tacitus, etc. Woman, at that time, takes in the family and in public +life a position such as she has never since taken. Along these lines, +says Tacitus in his "Germania": "They (the Germans) even suppose +somewhat of sanctity and prescience to be inherent in the female sex; +and, therefore, neither despise their counsels, nor disregard their +responses;" and Diodorus, who lived at the time of Caesar, feels highly +indignant over the position of women in Egypt, having learned that +there, not the sons, but the daughters, supported their aging parents. +He contemptuously shrugs his shoulders at the poltroons of the Nile, who +relinquish household and public rights to the members of the weaker sex, +and allow them privileges that must sound unheard-of to a Greek or a +Roman. + +Under the gyneocracy, a state of comparative peace prevailed in general. +The horizon was narrow and small, life primitive. The different tribes +separated themselves from one another, as best they could, and respected +their mutual boundaries. Was, however, one tribe attacked by another, +then the men were obliged to rush to its defence, and in this they were +supported by the women in the most vigorous fashion. According to +Herodotus, the women joined in battle among the Scythians: as he claims, +the maid could not marry before she had slain an enemy. What _role_ +women played in battle among the Germans, Iberians, Scots, etc., has +already been stated. But in the gens also did they, under given +circumstances, command a strong regiment:--woe to the man who was either +too lazy or too unskilled to contribute his share to the common support. +He was shown the door, and, either he returned to his own gens, where it +was with difficulty he was again received with friendliness, or he +joined another gens that was more tolerant toward him.[7] + +That conjugal life still bears this character in the interior of Africa, +Livingstone learned to his great surprise, as he narrates in his +"Missionary Travels and Researches in Southern Africa," London, 1857. On +the Zambesi he ran across the Valonda--a handsome, vigorous negro tribe, +devoted to agriculture--where he found confirmed the informations +received from the Portuguese, and which at first seemed incredible to +him, with regard to the privileged position enjoyed by women. They sit +in council; the young man who marries must move from his own, to the +village of his wife: he thereby pledges himself to furnish the mother of +his wife for life with kindling wood: if he divorces, the children +remain the property of the mother. On the other hand, the wife must see +to the sustenance of the husband. Although, occasionally, slight +disagreements break out between man and wife, Livingstone found that the +men did not retaliate, but he discovered that the men, who offended +their wives, were punished in the most sensitive manner--through their +stomachs. The husband, he says, comes home to eat, but one woman sends +him off to another, and he gets nothing. Tired and hungry he climbs a +tree in the most populous part of the village, and announces in woeful +tones: "Hear! Hear! I thought I had married women, but they are witches +to me! I am a bachelor; I have not a single wife! Is that right towards +a man like me?" If a woman gives physical expression to her anger at a +man, she is sentenced to carry him on her back from the court of the +chieftain to her own house. While she is carrying him home, the other +men scoff at and jeer her; the women, on the contrary, encourage her +with all their might, calling out to her: "Treat him as he deserves; do +it again!" + +Similar conditions still exist in the German colony of Cameroon in West +Africa. A German ship's doctor, who studied the country and its people +by personal observation, writes us thus: + +"With a large number of tribes, inheritance is based on maternity. +Paternity is immaterial. Brothers and sisters are only the children of +one mother. A man does not bequeath his property to his children, but to +the children of his sister, that is to say, to his nephews and nieces, +as his nearest demonstrable blood relatives. A chief of the Way people +explained to me in horrible English: "My sister and I are certainly +blood relatives, consequently her son is my heir; when I die, he will +be the king of my town." "And your father?" I inquired. "I don't know +what that means, 'my father,'" answered he. Upon my putting to him the +question whether he had no children, rolling on the ground with +laughter, he answered that, with them, men have no children, only women. + +"I can assure you," our informant goes on to write, "that even the heir +of King Bell in Cameroon _is the King's nephew, and not one of his +sons_. The so-called children of King Bell, several of whom are now +going through training in German cities, are merely children of his +wives, _whose fathers are unknown_; one of them I might, possibly, claim +for myself." + +What say the adversaries of the theory of descent in the female line to +this sketch drawn from the immediate present? Our informant is a man +with eyes open, who probed things to the very bottom. How many of those +who live among these semi-savage races, do as much? Hence the wild +accounts about the "immorality" of the natives. + +Furthermore, there come to our notice the memorials of the Imperial +Government, submitted to the Reichstag on the German colonies (Session +of 1894-95). In the memorial on the Southwestern territory of Africa +there occurs this passage, p. 239: "Without their advice--the oldest and +wealthiest--he (chief of the tribe in principal village) can not render +the slightest decision, and not the men only, _but quite often the women +also_, even the servants, _express their opinion_." + +In the report of the Marshall Islands, p. 254 of the memorial, it runs +thus: "The ruling power over all the islands of the Marshall group never +rested in the hands of a single chieftain.... _Seeing, however, that no +female member of this class (the Irody) is alive, and only the mother +conveys nobility and rank to the child, the Irodies dies out with their +chieftain._" The expression used, and the descriptions made, by +reporters betray what an utter blank are to them the conditions that +they refer to: they can not find their bearings among them. + +With an increasing population, there arise a number of sisters, which, +in turn, produce daughter gentes. Over and against these, the mother +gens appears as phratry. A number of phratries constitute a tribe. This +social organization is so firm that it still constituted the foundation +for the military organization in the old States, after the old gentile +constitution had fallen to pieces. The tribe splits up into several +tribes, all of which have the same constitution, and in each of which +the old gentes are reproduced. However, seeing that the gentile +constitution forbids the intermarriage of brothers and sisters, and of +relatives on the mother's side to the furthest degree, it undermines its +own foundation. Due to the evermore complicated relations of the +separate gentes with one another--a condition of things that the social +and economic progress promotes--the inhibition of marriage between the +several gentes, that descend from the mother's side, becomes in the +long run impracticable: it breaks down of itself, or is burst asunder. +So long as the production of the means of subsistence was still at the +lowest stages, and satisfied only simple wants, the activity of man and +woman was essentially the same. Along with an increasing division of +labor, there came about, not merely a division of functions, but also a +division of occupations. Fishing, the hunt, cattle-raising,--demanded +separate knowledge; and, to a still higher degree, the construction of +tools and utensils, which became mainly the property of the men. Field +agriculture expanded materially the circle of activities, and it created +a supply of subsistence that satisfied the highest demands of the time. +Man, whose activity stood in the foreground in the course of this +development, became the real lord and owner of these sources of wealth, +which, in turn, furnished the basis for commerce; and this created new +relations, and social changes. + +Not only did ever fresh causes of friction and conflicts arise for the +possession of the best lands, due to the increase of population, and the +need of wider domains for cattle-raising and agriculture, but, along +with such increase of population, there arose the need of labor power to +cultivate the ground. The more numerous these powers, all the greater +was the wealth in products and herds. These struggles led, first, to the +rape of women, later to the enslaving of conquered men. The women became +laborers and objects of pleasure for the conqueror; their males became +slaves. Two elements were thereby simultaneously introduced into the old +gentile constitution. The two and the gentile constitution could not, in +the long run, get along together. + +Furthermore, hand in hand with the increasing differentiation of +occupations, owing to the growing need of tools, utensils, weapons, +etc., handicraft rises into existence. It follows its own course of +development and separates itself from agriculture. As a consequence, a +distinct population, one that plies the trades, is called into life; and +it splits off from the agricultural population with entirely different +interests. + +According to the mother-right, i. e., so long as descent followed only +in female line, the custom was that the gentile relatives inherited from +the deceased gentile fellow-members on the mother's side. The property +remained in the gens. The children of the deceased father did not belong +to his gens, but to that of the mother: accordingly, they did not +inherit from the father; at his death his property fell back to his own +gens. Under the new conditions, where the father was the +property-holder, i. e., the owner of herds and slaves, of weapons and +utensils, and where he had become a handicraftsman, or merchant, his +property, so long as he was still considered of the gens of his mother, +fell after his death, not to his own children, but to his brothers and +sisters, and to the children of his sisters, or to the successors of +his sisters. His own children went away empty-handed. The pressure to +change such a state of things was, accordingly, powerful;--and it was +changed. Thereupon a condition arose that was not yet monogamy, but that +approximated it; there arose the "pairing family." A certain man lived +with a certain woman, and the children, born of that relation, were that +couple's own children. These pairing families increased in the measure +in which the marriage inhibitions, that flowed from the gentile +constitution, hampered marriage, and in which the above mentioned +economic grounds rendered desirable this new form of family life. +Personal property accorded ill with the old condition of things, which +rested upon the community of goods. Both _rank_ and _occupation_ now +decidedly favored the necessity for the choice of a domicile. The +production of merchandise begot commerce with neighboring and foreign +nations; and that necessitated money. It was man who led and controlled +this development. His private interests had, accordingly, no longer any +real points of contact with the old gentile organization, whose +interests often stood in opposition to his own. Accordingly, the +importance of the gentile organization sank ever more. The gens finally +became little more than the center of the religious functions for the +family, its economic significance was gone. The complete dissolution of +gentile organization became only a question of time. + +With the dissolution of the old gentile organization, the influence and +position of woman sank rapidly. The mother-right vanished; the +father-right stepped into its shoes. Man now became a private +property-holder: he had an interest in children, whom he could look upon +as legitimate, and whom he made the heirs of his property: hence _he +forced upon woman the command of abstinence from intercourse with other +men_. + +At the same time man assumed the right of taking unto himself, beside +his own wife, or several of them, as many concubines as his condition +allowed; and the children of these concubines were likewise treated as +legitimate. On this head we find two valuable illustrations in the +Bible. In I Book of Moses, chapter 16, verses 1 and 2, we read: "Now +Sarai, Abram's wife, bare him no children: and she had a hand-maid, an +Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, +the Lord has restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my +maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened +to the voice of Sarai." The second remarkable illustration is found in I +Book of Moses 30, 1 and sequel: "And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob +no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me +children, or else I die. And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel; +and he said, Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit +of the womb? and she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and +she shall bear upon my knees that I may also have children by her. And +she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her." + +Jacob, accordingly, had not only the daughters of Laban, two sisters, +simultaneously for wives, they also helped him to their maids, all of +which, according to the usage of the times, was wholly free from taint +of impropriety. The two principal wives he had bought, as is well known, +by serving Laban seven years for each. The purchase of a wife was at the +time common among the Jews, but, along with the purchase of wives, whom +they were compelled to take from among their own people, they practiced +on an extensive scale the rape of women from among the peoples that they +conquered. The Benjaminites raped the daughters of Silos.[8] In such +wars, it was originally customary that all the men who fell into the +hands of the vanquisher were killed. The captured woman became a slave, +a concubine. Nevertheless, she could be raised to the dignity of a +legitimate wife so soon as she had fulfilled certain conditions of the +Jews: she had to cut her hair and nails; to lay off the dress she was +captured in, and exchange it for another that was given her; thereupon +she had to mourn a whole month for her father and mother: she was, in a +manner to be dead to her own people, become estranged from them: then +could she climb into the conjugal bed. The largest number of wives had +King Solomon, as is known. According to Kings 1, 11, not less than 700 +wives and 300 concubines are ascribed to him. + +With the rule of the father-right and descent in the male line in the +Jewish gentile organization, the daughters were excluded from +inheritance. Later this was, however, changed, at least when a father +left no sons. This appears from IV Book of Moses 27, 2-8, where it is +reported that, as Zelaphehad died without sons, and his daughter +complained bitterly that she was to be excluded from her father's +inheritance, which was to fall back to the tribe of Joseph, Moses +decided that, in that case, the daughters should inherit. But seeing +that she contemplated marrying, according to custom, in another tribe, +the tribe of Joseph complained that thereby the inheritance would be +lost to it. Thereupon Moses decided further (4, 36) that heiresses, +though free in the choice of a husband, were bound to marry in the tribe +of their own father. For the sake of property, the old ordinance was +overthrown. Similarly, in Athens, did Solon decree that an heiress had +to marry her nearest male agnate, even though both belonged to the same +gens, and, according to former law, such a marriage was forbidden. Solon +ordered also that a property-holder was not compelled as thitherto, to +leave his property to his own gens in case he died childless; but that +he could by testament constitute any one else his heir. From all this it +is obvious:--man does not rule property, property rules him, and becomes +his master. + +With the rule of private property, the subjection of woman to man, her +bondage was sealed. Then came the time of disregard, even of contempt +for woman. + +_The reign of the mother-right implied communism; equality for all; the +rise of the father-right implied the reign of private property, and, +with it, the oppression and enslavement of woman._ + +It is difficult to trace in detail the manner in which the change was +achieved. A knowledge of the events is lacking. Neither did this _first +great revolution_ in the lap of mankind come into force simultaneously +among the ancient nations; nor yet is it probable that it was +accomplished everywhere in the same manner. Among the peoples of old +Greece, it was Athens where the new order of things first prevailed. + +Frederick Engels is of the opinion that this great revolution was +accomplished peacefully, and that, after all the conditions for the new +rights were at hand, it only required a simple vote in the gens in order +to rear the father in the place of the mother-right. Bachofen, on the +contrary, grounding his opinion upon more or less reliable information +from the old writers, holds that the women offered strong resistance to +this social transformation. He, for instance, sees in the legends of the +Amazonian Kingdoms, which re-appear under manifold variations in the old +history of Asia and the Orient, and also have turned up in South America +and in China, proofs for the struggle and resistance which the women +offered to the new order. We leave that as it may be. + +With the rule of man, women lost their position in the community; they +were excluded from the councils and from all leading influence. Man +exacts conjugal fidelity from her, but claims exemption for himself. If +she violates that, she is guilty of the most serious deception that can +afflict the new citizen; she thereby introduces into his house +stranger's children as heirs of his property. Hence, among all ancient +nations, the breach of conjugal fidelity on the part of woman is +punished with death or slavery. + +Notwithstanding women were thus removed from their position as leaders, +the customs connected with the old system of morals continued for +centuries to sway the public mind, although the meaning of the surviving +customs was gradually lost to the people. It is only in modern times +that pains are being taken to inquire into the original meaning of these +old customs. In Greece, for instance, it remained a religious practice +that Greek women prayed only to goddesses for advice, help and favors. +Likewise, the yearly recurring celebration of the Thesmophoria owed its +origin to the days of mother-right. Even in later days, the women of +Greece celebrated this festival for five days in honor of Demeter; and +no man was allowed to be present. It was similarly in old Rome with a +festival in honor of Ceres. Both Demeter and Ceres were considered +goddesses of fertility. In Germany also such festivals, once customary +in the heathen days of Frigga, were held, deep into the Middle Ages, +Frigga being considered the goddess of fertility among the old Germans. +According to the narratives, women gave a free reign to their +frolicsomeness on the occasions of these festivals. Also here men were +excluded from participation in the festival. + +In Athens, where, as already stated, the mother-right made earliest room +for the father-right, but, as it seems, under strong opposition from the +women, the transition is portrayed touchingly and in all the fullness of +its tragic import, in the "Eumenides" of Aeschylus. The story is this: +Agamemnon, King of Mycene, and husband of Clytemnestra, sacrifices his +daughter, Iphigenia, upon the command of the oracle on his expedition +against Troy. The mother, indignant at the sacrifice of her daughter, +takes, during her husband's absence, Aegysthos for her consort. Upon +Agamemnon's return to Mycene, after an absence of many years, he is +murdered by Aegysthos with the connivance of Clytemnestra. Orestes, the +son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, avenges the murder of his father, at +the instigation of Apollo and Athene, by slaying his mother and +Aegysthos. The Erinnyes, as representatives of the old law, pursue +Orestes on account of the murder of his mother. Apollo and Athene, the +latter of whom, according to mythology, is motherless--she leaped +full-armed out of the head of Jupiter--represent the new law, and defend +Orestes. The issue is carried to the Areopagus, before which the +following dialogue ensues. The two hostile principles come here into +dramatic vividness of expression: + + + Erinnyes--The prophet bade thee be a matricide? + + Orestes--And to this hour I am well content withal. + + Erinnyes--Thoul't change that tune, when judgment seizes thee. + + Orestes--My father from his tomb will take my part; I fear not. + + Erinnyes--Ay, rely on dead men's aid, + When guilty of matricide! + + Orestes--She, that is slain, + Was doubly tainted. + + Erinnyes--How? Inform the court. + + Orestes--She slew her wedded lord, and slew my sire. + + Erinnyes--Death gave her quittance, then. But thou yet livest. + + Orestes--And while she lived, why did you not pursue her? + + Erinnyes--No tie of blood bound her to whom she slew. + + Orestes--But I was tied by blood-affinity + To her who bare me? + + Erinnyes--Else, thou accursed one, + How nourished she thy life within her womb? + Wouldst thou renounce the holiest bond of all? + + +The Erinnyes, it will be noticed, recognize no rights on the part of +the father and the husband; to them there exists only the right of the +mother. That Clytemnestra slew her husband is indifferent to them; on +the other hand, they demand punishment for the matricide, committed by +Orestes: in killing his mother he had committed the worst crime +imaginable under the old gentile order. Apollo, on the contrary, stands +on the opposite principle. Commissioned by Zeus to avenge the murder of +his father, he had led Orestes to the murder of his own mother. Apollo +now defends Orestes' action before the judges, saying: + + + That scruple likewise I can satisfy. + She who is called the mother of the child + Is not its parent, but the nurse of seed + Implanted in begetting. He that sows + Is author of the shoot, which she, if Heaven + Prevent not, keeps as in a garden-ground. + In proof whereof, to show that fatherhood + May be without the mother, I appeal + To Pallas, daughter of Olympian Zeus, + In present witness here. Behold a plant, + Not moulded in the darkness of the womb, + Yet nobler than all scions of Heaven's stock. + + +According to Apollo, the act of begetting confers the superior right; +whereas, according to the views in force until then, the mother, who +gives to the child her blood and its life, was esteemed the sole +possessor of the child, while the man, the father of her child, was +regarded a stranger. Hence the Erinnyes reply to the strange notions of +Apollo: + + + Thou didst lead astray + Those primal goddesses with draughts of wine, + O'erturning ordinance. + Young, thou wouldst override our ancient right. + + +The judges, thereupon, make ready for the sentence. One half stand by +the old, one half by the new right; a tie is threatened; thereupon +Athene seizes the ballot from the altar and dropping it in the urn, +says: + + + To me it falls to give my judgment last. + Here openly I give it for Orestes. + No mother bore me. To the masculine side + For all save marriage my whole heart is given,-- + In all and everything the father's child. + So little care I for a woman's death, + That slew her lord, the guardian of her home. + Now though the votes be even, Orestes wins. + + +The new right won. Marriage with the father as head, had overpowered the +gyneocracy. + +Another legend represents the downfall of the mother-right in Athens +this way: "Under the reign of Kekrops, a double miracle happened. There +broke forth simultaneously out of the earth an oil-tree, and at another +place water. The frightened king sent to Delphi to interrogate the +Oracle upon the meaning of these happenings. The answer was: 'The +oil-tree stands for Minerva, the water for Neptune; it is now with the +citizens after which of the two deities they wish to name their city.' +Kekrops called together the assembly of the people in which men and +women enjoyed the right of suffrage. The men voted for Neptune, the +women for Minerva; and as the women had a majority of one, Minerva won. +Thereupon Neptune was angered and he caused the sea to wash over the +territory of the Athenians. In order to soothe the wrath of the god, the +Athenians placed a threefold punishment upon their women:--_they were to +forfeit the suffrage, children were no longer to carry their mother's +name, and they themselves were no longer to be called Athenian +women_."[9] + +As in Athens, the transition from the mother to the father-right was +everywhere achieved so soon as a certain height was reached in social +development. Woman is crowded into the house; she is isolated; she is +assigned special quarters--the gynekonitis--, in which she lives; she is +even excluded from intercourse with the male visitors of the house. +That, in fact, was the principal object of her isolation. + +This change finds its expression as early as the Odyssey. Telemachus +forbids Penelope's, his mother's, presence among the suitors. He, the +son, orders his mother: + + + But come now, go to thy bower, and deal with such things as ye can; + With the sock and the loom be busy, and thine handmaids order and + teach, + That they speed the work and the wearing; but for men is the word + and the speech; + For all, but for me the chiefest, for here am I the might and the + power. + + +Such was the doctrine already common in Greece at that time. It went +even further. Woman, even if a widow, stands so completely under the +rule of the nearest male relative, that she no longer has even the +choice of a husband. The suitors, tired of long waiting, due to the +cunning of Penelope, address themselves to Telemachus through the mouth +of Antinous, saying: + + + But for thee, do we the suitors this answer to thee show, + That thou in thy soul may'st know it, and that all the folk may know, + _Send thou thy mother away, and bid her a wedding to gain_ + _With whomso her father willeth, of whomso her heart may be fain_. + + +It is at an end with the freedom of woman. If she leaves the house, she +must veil herself not to awaken the desires of another man. In the +Orient, where, due to the warm climate, sexual passion is strongest, +this method of seclusion is carried even to-day to extreme lengths. +Athens becomes in this a pattern for the ancient nations. Woman shares, +indeed, her husband's bed, but not his table; she does not address him +by name, but "Sir;" she is his maid-servant; she was allowed to appear +nowhere openly; on the street she was ever veiled and clad with greatest +simplicity. If she committed adultery, she paid for the trespass, +according to the laws of Solon, with her life, or with her freedom. The +husband could sell her for a slave. + +The position of the Greek woman at the time when Greece was rushing to +the zenith of her development comes into plastic expression in the +"Medea" of Euripedes. She complains: + + + Ay, of all living and of all reasoning things + Are women the most miserable race: + Who first needs buy a husband at great price, + To take him then for owner of our lives: + For this ill is more keen than common ills. + And of essays most perilous is this, + Whether one good or evil do we take. + For evil-famed to women is divorce, + Nor can one spurn a husband. She, so brought + Beneath new rule and wont, had surely need + To be a prophetess, unless at home + She learned the likeliest prospect with her spouse. + And if, we having aptly searched out this, + A husband house with us not savagely + Drawing in the yoke, ours is an envied life; + But if not, most to be desired is death. + And if a man grow sick to herd indoors, + He, going forth, stays his heart's weariness, + Turning him to some friend or natural peer; + But we perforce to one sole being look. + But, say they, we, while they fight with the spear, + Lead in our homes a life undangerous: + Judging amiss; for I would liefer thrice + Bear brunt of arms than once bring forth a child. + + +Wholly otherwise stood matters for the men. Although with an eye to the +begetting of legitimate heirs for his property, he imposed upon woman +strict abstinence from other men, he was, nevertheless, not inclined to +lay a corresponding abstinence upon himself. + +Hetairism sprang up. Women distinguished for their beauty and intellect, +and who, as a rule, were aliens, preferred a free life in intimate +intercourse with men, to the slavery of marriage. Nothing objectionable +was seen in that. The names and fame of these hetairae, who held +intimate intercourse with the leading men of Greece, and participated in +their learned discourses, as well as in their revels, has come down to +our own days; whereas the names of the legitimate wives are mostly +forgotten and lost. Thus the handsome Aspasia was the intimate friend of +the celebrated Pericles, who later made her his legitimate wife; the +name of Phryne became in later days the generic designation of those +women that were to be had for money. Phryne held intimate relations with +Hyperides, and she stood for Praxiteles, one of the first sculptors of +Greece, as the model for his Aphrodite. Danae was the sweetheart of +Epicurus, Archeanassa that of Plato. Other celebrated hetairae, whose +names have reached our days, were Lais of Corinth, Gnathanea, etc. There +is no celebrated Greek, who had no intercourse with hetairae. It +belonged to the style of life of distinguished Greeks. Demosthenes, the +great orator, described in his oration against Neara, the sexual life of +the rich men of Athens in these words: "_We marry a woman in order to +obtain legitimate children, and to have a faithful warder in the house; +we keep concubines for our service and daily care; and hetairae for the +enjoyment of love._" The wife was, accordingly, only an apparatus for +the production of children; a faithful dog, that watched the house. The +master of the house, on the contrary, lived according to his _bon +plaisir_, as he willed. + +In order to satisfy the demand for venal women, particularly with +younger males, there arose that which was unknown under the rule of the +mother-right,--_prostitution_. Prostitution distinguishes itself from +the free sexual intercourse that customs and social institutions +rendered a matter of course under primitive conditions, and, +accordingly, freed from objectionableness, in that the woman sells her +body, either to one man or to several, for material benefit. +Prostitution, therefore, exists so soon as woman makes a trade of her +charms. Solon, who formulated the new law for Athens, and is, +consequently, esteemed the founder of the new legal status, was also the +founder of the public houses for women, the "deikterion,"--official +houses of prostitution--, and the price to all the customers was the +same. According to Philemon it amounted to one obolus, about four cents +of our money. Like the temples with the Greeks and Romans, and the +Christian churches in Middle Ages, the deikterion was inviolable: it +stood under the protection of the Government. Until about a hundred and +fifty years before our reckoning, the Temple of Jerusalem also was the +usual place of gathering for the _filles de joie_. + +For the benefit that Solon bestowed upon the Athenian male population, +in founding the deikterion, he was praised in song by one of his +contemporaries in these words: "Hail to you, Solon! You bought public +women for the benefit of the city, for the benefit of the morality of a +city that is full of vigorous young men, who, in the absence of your +wise institution, would give themselves over to the disturbing annoyance +of the better women." We shall see that, at the close of the nineteenth +century, justification is sought for the regulation of houses of +prostitution by Government, and for the necessity of prostitution +itself, upon the identical grounds. Thus, actions, committed by men, +were recognized by legislation as a natural right, while, committed by +women, were held to be shameful, and a serious crime. As is well known, +even to-day not few are the men who prefer the company of a pretty +female sinner to that of their own wives, and who not infrequently +belong to the "Props of the State," the "Pillars of Order," and are +"guardians of the sanctity of marriage and the family." + +True enough, it seems, that the Greek women often revenged themselves +upon their marital-lords for the yoke placed upon them. If prostitution +is the supplement of monogamy, on the one side, adultery among women and +the cuckoldry of men is its supplement, on the other. Among the Greek +dramatic poets, Euripides is the woman-hater: he loved to make women the +object of attacks in his dramas. What all he twitted them with appears +best from the speech that a Greek woman flings at him in the +"Thesmophoria" of Aristophanes. She says among other things: + + + With what slanderous dirt does not he (Euripides) besmirch us? + When does the slanderer's tongue hold its peace? In short: + Wherever there is an audience, tragedies or choruses, + There we are called corner-loafers, anglers for men, + Fond of the wine-cup, treasonable arch-gossips, + Not a good hair is left us; we are the plague of men. + Therefore, soon as our husbands return to us home from the + benches,[10] + Eyes of suspicion upon us they cast, and look about + Whether a place of concealment conceal not a rival. + Whereupon, none of the things, at first by us done, + Now is allowed us: Such stuff against us + Does he in the men's heads stick, that, if a woman + Is weaving a garland, she is held to be in love; or when, + While hustling the household to keep, something drops, + Forthwith the husband inquires: "Whom are those fragments meant for? + Plainly, they are meant for the guest from Corinthos." + + +We can understand that this ready-tongued Greek woman should serve the +assailer of her sex in such manner; nevertheless, Euripides could not +very well have made these accusations, nor could he have found credence +with the men, if they knew not but too well that the accusations were +justified. To judge by the concluding sentences of this address, the +custom--met later in Germany and many other countries--had not yet been +naturalized in Greece, that the host placed his own wife or daughter at +the disposal of his guest for the night. Murner writes on this custom, +prevalent in Holland as late as the fifteenth century, in these words: +"It is the custom in the Netherlands, when the host has a dear guest, +that he lets his wife sleep with him on faith."[11] + +The increasing struggles between the classes in the several states of +Greece, and the sad state of many of the smaller communities, gave +occasion for Plato to inquire into the best constitution and the best +institutions for the State. In his "Republic," set up by him as ideal, +he demands, at least for the first class of his citizens, the watchers, +the complete equality of woman. Women are to participate in the +exercises of arms, the same as the men, and are to fill the same duties +as these, only they are to attend to the lighter ones, "owing to the +weakness of the sex." He maintains that the natural inclinations are +equally distributed among the two sexes, only that woman is in all +matters weaker than man. Furthermore, the women are to be common to the +men, and vice versa; likewise are the children to be common, "so that +neither the father may know his child, nor the child his father."[12] + +Aristotle, in his "Politics," is satisfied with less. Woman should have +a free hand in the selection of her husband, but she is to be +subordinate to him; nevertheless, she should have the right "to give +good advice." Thucydides expresses an opinion that meets with the +applause of all modern Philistines. He says: "That wife deserves the +highest praise of whom, outside of her home, neither good nor bad is +heard." + +With such views, respect for woman was bound to sink to a low level; +fear of over-population even led to the avoidance of intimate +intercourse with her. Unnatural means of satisfying sexual desires were +resorted to. The Greek states were cities with small territories, unable +to supply the usual sustenance to a population in excess of a given +number. Hence the fear of over-population caused Aristotle to recommend +to the men abstinence from their wives, and pederasty, instead. Before +him, Socrates had praised pederasty as the sign of a higher culture. In +the end, the most promising men of Greece became adherents of this +unnatural passion. Regard for women sank all the deeper. There were now +houses for male prostitutes, as there were for female. In such a social +atmosphere, it was natural for Thucydides to utter the saying that woman +was worse than the storm-lashed ocean's wave, than the fire's glow, than +the cascade of the wild mountain torrent. "If it is a God that invented +woman, wherever, he may be, let him know, that he is the unhallowed +cause of the greatest evil."[13] + +The male population of Greece having become addicted to pederasty, the +female population fell into the opposite extreme: it took to the love of +members of its own sex. This happened especially with the women of the +island of Lesbos, whence this aberration was, and still continues to be +named, "Lesbian love," for it has not yet died out: it survives among +us. The poetess Sappho, "the Lesbian nightingale," who lived about six +hundred years before our reckoning, is considered the leading +representative of this form of love. Her passion is glowingly expressed +in her hymn to Aphrodite, whom she implores: + + + "Glittering-throned, undying Aphrodite, + Wile-weaving daughter of high Zeus, I pray thee, + Tame not my soul with heavy woe, dread mistress, + Nay, nor with anguish." + + +A still more passionate sensuousness is attested in her hymn to the +handsome Atthis. + +While in Athens, along with the rest of Greece, the father-right ruled, +Sparta, the rival for supremacy with Athens, still continued under the +mother-right, a condition that had become wholly foreign to most Greeks. +The story runs that one day a Greek asked a Spartan what punishment was +meted out in Sparta to the adulterer. He answered: "Stranger, among us +there are no adulterers." "But if there should be any?" "For +punishment," the Spartan replied, sarcastically, "he must donate an ox, +so large as to be able to reach over Taygetus with his head, and drink +out of Eurotas." Upon the startled question, put by the stranger, "How +can an ox be so large?" the Spartan answered laughing: "How is it +possible that there could be an adulterer in Sparta?" At the same time +the self-consciousness of the Spartan woman appears in the proud answer +given a stranger by the wife of Leonidas. On his saying to her: "You +female Lacedaemonians are the only women who rule over your men," she +answered: "So are we the only women who bring men into the world." + +The free condition of women under the mother-right promoted her beauty, +raised her pride, her dignity and her self-reliance. The judgment of all +ancient writers is to the effect that, during the period of the +gyneocracy, these qualities were highly developed among women. The +constrained condition that later supervened, necessarily had its evil +effect upon them. The difference appears even in the garb of the two +periods. The garb of the Doric woman hung loose from her shoulders; it +left the arms free, and thighs exposed: it is the garb of Diana, who is +represented as free and bold in our museums. The Ionian garb, on the +contrary, concealed the body and hampered its motion. The garb of woman +to-day is, far more than usually realized, a sign of her dependence and +helplessness. The style of woman's dress amongst most peoples, down to +our own days, renders her awkward, forces on her a sense of weakness, +and makes her timid; and this, finally, finds its expression in her +attitude and character. The custom among the Spartans of letting the +girls go naked until marriageable age--a custom that the climate +allowed--contributed considerably, in the opinion of an ancient writer, +to impart to them a taste for simplicity and for attention to decency. +Nor was there in the custom, according to the views of those days, aught +offensive to decorum, or inciting to lust. Furthermore, the girls +participated in all the bodily exercises, just as the boys, and thus +there was reared a vigorous, proud, self-conscious race, a race that was +conscious of its own merit, as proved by the answer of Leonidas' wife to +the stranger. + +In intimate connection with the mother-right, after it had ceased to be +a ruling social principle, stood certain customs, which modern writers, +ignorant of their meaning, designate as "prostitution." In Babylon, it +was a religious duty with the maid, who had reached puberty, to appear +once in the temple of Mylitta in order to offer her maidenhood as a +sacrifice, by surrendering herself to some man. Similarly happened in +the Serapeum of Memphis; in Armenia, in honor of the goddess Anaitis; in +Cyprus; in Tyrus and Sidon, in honor of Astarte or Aphrodite. The +festivals of Isis among the Egyptians served similar customs. This +sacrifice of virginity was demanded in order to atone with the goddess +for the exclusive surrender of woman to one man in marriage:--"Not that +she may wilt in the arms of a single man is woman arrayed by nature with +all the charms at its command."[14] The continued favor of the goddess +had to be purchased by the sacrifice of virginity to a stranger. It was +likewise in line with the old idea that the Lybian maids earned their +dower by prostituting their bodies. In accord with the mother-right, +these women were sexually free during their unmarried status; and the +men saw so little objection in these pickings, that those were taken by +them for wives who had been most in demand. It was thus also among the +Thracians, in the days of Herodotus: "They do not watch the maidens, but +leave them full freedom to associate with whom they please. The women, +however, they watch strictly. They buy them from their parents for large +sums." Celebrated were the Hierodulae of the temple of Aphrodite at +Corinth, where always more than one thousand maidens were gathered, and +constituted a chief point of attraction for the men of Greece. Of the +daughter of King Cheops of Egypt, the legend relates that she had a +pyramid built out of the proceeds of prostitution of her charms. + +Conditions, similar to these, prevail down to now, on the Mariana, the +Philippine and the Polynesian islands; according to Waitz, also among +several African tribes. Another custom, prevalent till late on the +Balearic islands, and indicative of the right of all men to a woman, was +that, on the wedding night, the male kin had access to the bride in +order of seniority. The bridegroom came last; he then took her as wife +into his own possession. This custom has been changed among other people +so that the priest or the tribal chiefs (kings) exercise the privilege +over the bride, as representatives of the men of the tribe. On Malabar, +the Caimars hire patamars (priests) to deflower their wives.... The +chief priest (Namburi) is in duty bound to render this service to the +king (Zamorin) at his wedding, and the king rewards him with fifty gold +pieces.[15] In Further India, and on several islands of the great ocean, +it is sometimes the priests and sometimes the tribal chiefs who +undertake the function.[16] The same happens in Senegambia, where the +tribal chief exercises, as a duty of his office, the deflowering of +maids, and receives therefor a present. Again, with other peoples, the +custom was, and continues here and yonder, that the deflowering of a +maid, sometimes even of a child only a few months old, is done by means +of images of deities, fashioned expressly for this purpose. It may also +be accepted as certain that the "jus primae noctis" (the right of the +first night), prevalent in Germany and all Europe until late in the +Middle Ages, owes its origin to the same tradition, as Frederick Engels +observes. The landlord, who, as master of his dependents and serfs, +looked upon himself as their chief, exercised the right of the head of +the tribe, a right that he considered had passed over to himself as the +arbiter of their lives and existence. + +Echoes of the mother-right are further detected in the singular custom +among some South American tribes, that, instead of the lying-in woman, +the man goes to bed, there acts like a woman in labor, and is tended by +the wife. The custom implies that the father recognizes the new born +child as his own. By imitating the pains of child-birth, the man fills +the fiction that the birth is also his work; that he, therefore, has a +right to the child, who, according to the former custom, belonged to the +mother and the mother's gens, respectively. The custom is said to have +also maintained itself among the Basques, who must be looked upon as a +people of primitive usages and customs. Likewise is the custom said to +prevail among several mountain tribes in China. It prevailed until not +long since in Corsica. + +In Greece likewise did woman become an article of purchase. So soon as +she stepped into the house of her marital lord, she ceased to exist for +her family. This was symbolically expressed by burning before the door +the handsomely decked wagon which took her to the house of her husband. +Among the Ostiaks of Siberia, to this day, the father sells his +daughter: he chaffers with the representative of the bridegroom about +the price to be paid. Likewise among several African tribes, the same as +in the days of Jacob, the custom is that a man who courts a maid, enters +in the service of his future mother-in-law. Even with us, marriage by +purchase has not died out: it prevails in bourgeois society worse than +ever. Marriage for money, almost everywhere customary among the ruling +classes, is nothing other than marriage by purchase. Indeed, the +marriage gift, which in all civilized countries the bridegroom makes to +the bride, is but a symbol of the purchase of the wife as property. + +Along with marriage by purchase, there was the custom of marriage by +rape. The rape of women was a customary practice, not alone among the +ancient Jews, but everywhere in antiquity. It is met with among almost +all nations. The best known historic instance is the rape of the Sabine +women by the Romans. The rape of women was an easy remedy where women +ran short, as, according to the legend, happened to the early Romans; or +where polygamy was the custom, as everywhere in the Orient. There it +assumed large proportions during the supremacy of the Arabs, from the +seventh to the twelfth century. + +Symbolically, the rape of woman still occurs, for instance among the +Araucans of South Chile. While the friends of the bridegroom are +negotiating with the father of the bride, the bridegroom steals with his +horse into the neighborhood of the house, and seeks to capture the +bride. So soon as he catches her, he throws her upon his horse, and +makes off with her to the woods. The men, women and children thereupon +raise a great hue and cry, and seek to prevent the escape. But when the +bridegroom has reached the thick of the woods, the marriage is +considered consummated. This holds good also when the abduction takes +place against the will of the parents. Similar customs prevail among the +peoples of Australia. + +Among ourselves, the custom of "wedding trips" still reminds us of the +former rape of the wife: the bride is carried off from her domestic +flock. On the other hand, the exchange of rings is a reminiscence of the +subjection and enchainment of the woman to the man. The custom +originated in Rome. The bride received an iron ring from her husband as +a sign of her bondage to him. Later the ring was made of gold; much +later the exchange of rings was introduced, as a sign of mutual union. + +The old family ties of the gens had, accordingly, lost their foundation +through the development of the conditions of production, and through +the rule of private property. Upon the abolition of the gens, grounded +on mother-right, the gens, grounded on the father-right first took its +place, although not for long, and with materially weakened functions. +Its task was mainly to attend to the common religious affairs and to the +ceremonial of funerals: to safeguard the mutual obligation of protection +and of help against violence: to enforce the right, and, in certain +cases, the duty of marrying in the gens, in cases when rich heiresses or +female orphans were concerned. The gens, furthermore, administered the +still existing common property. But the segmentation of handicraft from +agriculture; the ever wider expansion of commerce; the founding of +cities, rendered necessary by both of these; the conquest of booty and +prisoners of war, the latter of which directly affected the +household,--all of these tore to shreds the conditions and bonds of eld. +Handicraft had gradually subdivided itself into a larger number of +separate trades--weaving, pottery, iron-forging, the preparation of +arms, house and shipbuilding, etc. Accordingly, it pushed toward another +organization. The ever further introduction of slavery, the admittance +of strangers into the community,--these were all so many new and +additional elements that rendered the old constitution of society ever +more impossible. + +Along with private property and the personal right of inheritance, class +distinctions and class contrasts came into existence. Rich +property-owners drew together against those who owned less, or nothing. +The former sought to get into their own hands the public offices of the +new commonwealth, and to make them hereditary. Money, now become +necessary, created thitherto unknown forms of indebtedness. Wars against +enemies from without, and conflicting interests within, as well as the +various interests and relations which agriculture, handicraft and +commerce mutually produced rendered necessary complicated rules of +right, they demanded special organs to guard the orderly movement of the +social machinery, and to settle disputes. The same held good for the +relations of master and slave, creditor and debtor. A power, +accordingly, became necessary to supervise, lead, regulate and harmonize +all these relations, with authority to protect, and, when needed, to +punish. _Thus rose the State, the product, accordingly of the +conflicting interests that sprang up in the new social order._ Its +administration naturally fell into the hands of those who had the +liveliest interest in its establishment, and who, in virtue of their +social power, possessed the greatest influence,--the rich. Aristocracy +of property and democracy confronted each other, accordingly, even there +where externally complete equality of political rights existed. + +Under the mother-right, there was no written law. The relations were +simple, and custom was held sacred. Under the new, and much more +complicated order, written law was one of the most important +requirements; and special organs became necessary to administer it. In +the measure that the legal relations and legal conditions gained in +intricacy, a special class of people gathered shape, who made the study +of the law their special vocation, and who finally had a special +interest in rendering the law ever more complicated. Then arose the men +learned in the laws, the jurists, who, due to the importance of the +statutory law to the whole of society, rose to influential social rank. +The new system of rights found in the course of time its classic +expression in the Roman State, whence the influence that Roman law +exercises down to the present. + +The institution of the State is, accordingly, the necessary result of a +social order, that, standing upon the higher plane of the subdivision of +labor, is broken up into a large number of occupations, animated by +different, frequently conflicting, interests, and hence has the +oppression of the weaker for a consequence. This fact was recognized +even by an Arabian tribe, the Nabateans, who, according to Diodorus, +established the regulation not to sow, not to plant, to drink no wine, +and to build no houses, but to live in tents, because if those things +were done, _they could be easily compelled to obey by a superior power_ +(the power of the State). Likewise among the Rachebites, the descendants +of the father-in-law of Moses, there existed similar prescriptions.[17] +Aye, the whole Mosaic system of laws is aimed at _preventing the Jews +from moving out of an agricultural state, because otherwise, so the +legislators feared, their democratic-communistic society would go +under_. Hence the selection of the "Promised Land" in a region bounded, +on one side, by a not very accessible mountain range, the Lebanon; on +the other side, South and East, by but slightly fertile stretches of +land, partly by deserts;--a region, accordingly, that rendered isolation +possible. Hence came the keeping of the Jews away from the sea, which +favored commerce, colonization and the accumulation of wealth; hence the +rigid laws concerning seclusion from other peoples, the severe +regulations against foreign marriages, the poor laws, the agrarian laws, +the jubileum,--all of them provisions calculated to prevent the +accumulation of great wealth by the individual. The Jewish people were +to be kept in permanent disability ever to become the builders of a real +State. Hence it happens that the tribal organization, which rested upon +the gentile order, remained in force with them till its complete +dissolution, and continues to affect them even now. + +It seems that the Latin tribes, which took a hand in the founding of +Rome, had long passed beyond the stage of the mother-right. Hence Rome +was built from the start as a State. The women that they needed they +captured, as the legend tells us, from the tribe of the Sabines, and +they called themselves after their Sabine wives,--Quirites. Even in +later years, the Roman citizens were addressed in the Forum as Quirites. +"Populus Romanus" stood for the free population of Rome in general; but +"Populus Romanus quiritium" expressed the ancestry and quality of the +Roman citizen. The Roman gens was of father-right stamp. The children +inherited as consanguineous heirs; if there were no children, the +relatives of the male line inherited; were none of these in existence, +then the property reverted to the gens. By marriage, woman lost her +right to inherit her father's property and that of his brothers. She had +stepped out of her gens: neither she nor her children could inherit from +her father or his brothers: otherwise the inheritance would be lost to +the paternal gens. The division in gentes, phratries and tribes +constituted in Rome for centuries the foundation of the military +organization, and also of the exercise of the rights of citizenship. But +with the decay of the paternal gentes and the decline of their +significance, conditions shaped themselves more favorably for woman. She +could not only inherit, but had the right to administer her own fortune. +She was, accordingly, far more favorably situated than her Greek sister. +The freer position that, despite all legal impediments, she gradually +knew how to conquer, caused the elder Cato, born 234 before our +reckoning, to complain: "If, after the example of his ancestors, every +head of a family kept his wife in proper subjection, we would not have +so much public bother with the whole sex."[18] + +So long as the father lived, he held in Rome the guardianship over his +daughter, even if she were married, unless he appointed another guardian +himself. When the father died, the nearest male of kin, even though +declared unqualified as an agnate, came in as guardian. The guardian had +the right at any time to transfer the guardianship to any third person +that he pleased. Accordingly, before the law, the Roman woman had no +will of her own. + +The nuptial forms were various, and in the course of centuries underwent +manifold alterations. The most solemn nuptials were celebrated before +the High Priest, in the presence of at least ten witnesses. At the +occasion, the bridal pair, in token of their union, partook together +from a cake made of flour, salt and water. As will be noticed, a +ceremony is here celebrated, that bears great resemblance to the +breaking of the sacramental wafer at the Christian communion. A second +form of nuptials consisted in possession. The marriage was considered +accomplished if, with the consent of her father or guardian, a woman +lived with the chosen man a whole year under one roof. A third form of +nuptials was a sort of mutual purchase, both sides exchanging coins, and +the promise to be man and wife. Already at the time of Cicero[19] free +divorce for both sides was generally established; it was even debated +whether the announcement of the divorce was necessary. The "lex Julia de +adulteriis," however, prescribed that the divorce was to be solemnly +proclaimed. This decree was made for the reason that women, who +committed adultery, and were summoned to answer the charge, often +claimed to have been divorced. Justinian, the Christian[20] forbade free +divorce, unless both sides desired to retire to a monastery. His +successor, Justinian II, however, found himself obliged to allow it +again. + +With the growing power and rising wealth of Rome, mad-brained vices and +excesses took the place of the former severity of manners. Rome became +the center from which debauchery, riotous luxury and sensuous +refinements radiated over the whole of the then civilized world. The +excesses took--especially during the time of the Emperors, and, to a +great extent, through the Emperors themselves--forms that only insanity +could suggest. Men and women vied with one another in vice. The number +of houses of prostitution became ever larger, and, hand in hand with +these, the "Greek love" (pederasty) spread itself ever more among the +male population. At times, the number of young men in Rome who +prostituted themselves was larger than that of the female prostitutes. + +"The hetairae appeared, surrounded by their admirers, in great pomp on +the streets, promenades, the circus and theatres, often carried by +negroes upon litters, where, holding a mirror in their hands, and +sparkling with ornaments and precious stones, they lay outstretched, +nude, fan-carrying slaves standing by them, and surrounded by a swarm of +boys, eunuchs and flute-players; grotesque dwarfs closed the +procession." + +These excesses assumed such proportions in the Roman Empire that they +became a danger to the Empire itself. The example of the men was +followed by the women. There were women, Seneca reports, who counted the +years, not as was the usage, after the consuls, but after the number of +their husbands. Adultery was general; and, in order that the women might +escape the severe punishments prescribed for the offense, they, and +among them the leading dames of Rome, caused themselves to be entered in +the registers of the Aediles as prostitutes. + +Hand in hand with these excesses, civil wars and the latifundia system, +celibacy and childlessness increased in such measure that the number of +Roman citizens and of patricians ran down considerably. Hence in the +year 16 B. C., Augustus issued the so-called Julian Law,[21] which +offered prizes for the birth of children, and imposed penalties for +celibacy upon the Roman citizens and patricians. He who had children +had precedence in rank over the childless and unmarried. Bachelors could +accept no inheritance, except from their own nearest kin. The childless +could only inherit one-half; the rest fell to the State. Women, who +could be taxed with adultery, had to surrender one-half of their dower +to the abused husband. Thereupon there were men who married out of +speculation on the adultery of their wives. This caused Plutarch to +observe: "The Romans marry, not to obtain heirs, but to inherit." + +Still later the Julian Law was made severer. Tiberius decreed that no +woman, whose grandfather, father or husband had been or still was a +Roman Knight, could prostitute herself for money. Married women, who +caused themselves to be entered in the registers of prostitutes, were +condemned to banishment from Italy as adulteresses. Of course, there +were no such punishments for the men. Moreover, as Juvenal reports, even +the murder of husbands by poison was a frequent occurrence in the Rome +of his day--the first half of the first century before Christ. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Bachofen's book appeared in 1861 under the title, "Das Mutterrecht" +(Mother-right) "Eine Untersuchung ueber die Gynaekokratie der Alten Welt +nach ihrer religioesen und rechtlichen Natur," Stuttgart, Krais & +Hoffmann. Morgan's fundamental work, "Ancient Society," appeared in a +German translation in 1891, J. H. W. Dietz, Stuttgart. From the same +publisher there appeared in German: "The Origin of the Family, of +Private Property and the State, in support of Lewis H. Morgan's +Investigations," by Frederick Engels. Fourth enlarged edition, 1892. +Also "Die Verwandtschafts-Organisationen der Australneger. Ein Beitrag +zur Entwickelungsgeschichte der Familie," by Heinrich Cunow, 1894. + +[The perspective into which the Pleiades of distinguished names are +thrown in the text just above is apt to convey an incorrect impression, +and the impression is not materially corrected in the subsequent +references to them. Neither Bachofen, nor yet Tylor, McLennan or Lubbock +contributed to the principles that now are canons in ethnology. They +were not even path-finders, valuable though their works are. + +Bachofen collected, in his work entitled "Das Mutterrecht," the +gleanings of vast and tireless researches among the writings of the +ancients, with an eye to female authority. Subsequently, and helping +themselves more particularly to the more recent contributions to +archeology, that partly dealt with living aborigines, Tylor, McLennan +and Lubbock produced respectively, "Early History of Mankind;" +"Primitive Marriage;" and "Pre-Historic Times" and "Origin of +Civilization." These works, though partly theoretic, yet are mainly +descriptive. By an effort of genius--like the wood-pecker, whose +instinct tells it the desired worm is beneath the bark and who pecks at +and round about it--all these men, Bachofen foremost, scented sense in +the seeming nonsense of ancient traditions, or surmised significance in +the more recently ascertained customs of living aborigines. But again, +like the wood-pecker, that has struck a bark too thick for its bill, +these men could not solve the problem they were at. They lacked the +information to pick, and they had not, nor were they so situated as to +furnish themselves with, the key to open the lock. Morgan furnished the +key. + +Lewis Henry Morgan, born In Aurora, N. Y., November 21, 1818, and +equipped with vast scholarship and archeological information, took up +his residence among the Iroquois Indians, by whom, the Hawk gens of the +Seneca tribe, he was eventually adopted. The fruit of his observations +there and among other Indian tribes that he visited even west of the +Mississippi, together with simultaneous information sent him by the +American missionaries in the Sandwich Islands, was a series of +epoch-making works, "The League of the Iroquois," "Systems of +Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family," and "Ancient Society," +which appeared in 1877. A last and not least valuable work was his +"Houses and Houselife of the American Aborigines." A solid foundation +was now laid for the science of ethnology and anthropology. The problem +was substantially solved. + +The robust scientific mind of Karl Marx promptly absorbed the +revelations made by Morgan, and he recast his own views accordingly. A +serious ethnological error had crept into his great work, "Capital," two +editions of which had been previously published in German between +1863-1873. A footnote by Frederick Engels (p. 344, Swan, Sonnenschein & +Co., English edition, 1886) testifies to the revolution Morgan's works +had wrought on the ethnological conceptions of the founder of Socialist +economics and sociology. + +Subsequently, Frederick Engels, planted squarely on the principles +established by Morgan, issued a series of brilliant monographs, in +which, equipped with the key furnished by Morgan and which Engels' +extensive economic and sociologic knowledge enabled him to wield with +deftness, he explained interesting social phenomena among the ancients, +and thereby greatly enriched the literature of social science. + +Finally, Heinrich Cunow, though imagining to perceive some minor flaws +in some secondary parts of Morgan's theory, placed himself in absolute +accord with the body of Morgan's real work, as stated later in the text +in a quotation from Cunow; and, following closely in Morgan's footsteps, +made and published interesting independent researches on the system of +consanguinity among the Austral-Negros.--THE TRANSLATOR.] + +[2] In his book against us, Ziegler ridicules the idea of attributing to +myths any significance whatever in the history of civilization. In that +notion stands betrayed the superficial nature of so-called scientists. +They do not recognize what they do not see. A deep significance lies at +the bottom of myths. They have grown out of the people's soul; out of +olden morals and customs that have gradually disappeared, and now +continue to live only in the myth. When we strike facts that explain a +myth we are in possession of solid ground for its interpretation. + +[3] Bachofen: "Das Mutterrecht." + +[4] Totem-group means generation-group. Each grade or generation has its +own totem-animal. For instance: Opossum, emu, wolf, bear, etc., after +which the group is named. The totem-animal frequently enjoys great +honor. It is held sacred with the respective group, and its members may +neither kill the animal, nor eat its flesh. The totem-animal has a +similar significance to the patron saint of the guild in the Middle +Ages. + +[5] In the oldest ward of the city of Prague, there is a small synagogue +that comes down from the sixth century of our reckoning, and is said to +be the oldest synagogue in Germany. If the visitor steps down about +seven steps into the half-dark space, he discovers in the opposite wall +several target-like openings that lead into a completely dark room. To +the question, where these openings lead to our leader answered: "To the +woman's compartment, whence they witness the service." The modern +synagogues are much more cheerfully arranged, but the separation of the +women from the men is preserved. + +[6] Frederick Engels, "The Origin of the Family." + +[7] Frederick Engels, _ubi supra_. + +[8] Book of Judges, 20, 21 and sequel. + +[9] Bachofen: "Das Mutterrecht." + +[10] Of the theater, to which women had no access. + +[11] Johann Scherr, "Deutsche Kultur-und Sittengeschichte:" Leipsic, +1887. Otto Wigand. As is known, Suderman deals with the same subject in +his play, "Die Ehre." + +[12] Plato, "The Republic," Book V. + +[13] Leon Bichter, "La Femme Libre." + +[14] Bachofen. "Das Mutterrecht." + +[15] K. Kautsky, "Die Entstehung der Ehe und der Familie," Kosmos, 1883. + +[16] Montegazza, "L'Amour dans l'Humanite." + +[17] Joh. David Michaelis, "Mosaisches Recht," Reutlingen, 1793. + +[18] Karl Heinzen, "Ueber die Rechte und Stellung der Frauen." + +[19] Born 106 before our reckoning. + +[20] He lived from 527 to 565 of our reckoning. + +[21] Augustus, the son of Caesar by adoption, was of the Julian gens, +hence the title "Julian" law. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +UNDER CHRISTIANITY. + + +The opposite of polygamy,--as we have learned to know it among Oriental +peoples, and as it still exists among them, but owing to the number of +available women and the cost of their support, can be indulged in only +by the privileged and the rich--is polyandry. The latter exists mainly +among the highland people of Thibet, among the Garras on the +Hindoo-Chinese frontier, among the Baigas in Godwana, the Nairs in the +southern extremity of India; it is said to be found also among the +Eskimos and Aleutians. Heredity is determined in the only way +possible,--after the mother: the children belong to her. The husbands of +a woman are usually brothers. When the elder brother marries, the other +brothers likewise become the husbands of the woman; the woman, however, +preserves the right to take other men besides. Conversely, the men also +are said to have the right of taking a second, third, fourth, or more +wives. To what circumstances polyandry owes its origin is not yet clear. +Seeing that the polyandrous nations, without exception, live either on +high mountain regions, or in the cold zone, polyandry probably owes its +existence to a phenomenon that Tarnowsky comments on.[22] He learned +from reliable travelers that a long sojourn at high elevations lowers +the sensuous pleasures, and weakens erection, both of which return with +new vigor by re-descension to lower altitudes. This lowering of the +sexual powers, Tarnowsky is of the opinion, might partly account for the +comparative slight increase of population on highland regions; and he is +of the opinion that, when the debility is transmitted, it may become a +source of degeneration that operates upon the perversity of the sexual +sense. + +We may also add that a protracted domicile, together with the habits of +life contracted on very high or cold regions, may have for a further +result that polyandry lays no excessive demands upon a woman. The women +themselves are correspondingly affected in their nature. That they are +so is rendered probable by the circumstance that, among the Eskimo +girls, menstruation sets in only with the nineteenth year, whereas in +the warm zones it sets in as early as the tenth or eleventh, and in the +temperate latitudes between the fourteenth and the sixteenth year. In +view of the fact that warm climates, as universally recognized, exercise +a strongly stimulating influence upon the sexual instinct,--whence +polygamy finds its widest diffusion in warm countries--it is quite +likely that cold regions--to which high mountains and plateaus belong, +and where the thinner air may also contribute its share--may exercise +materially a restringent effect upon the sexual instinct. It must, +moreover, be noted that experience shows conception occurs rarer with +women who cohabit with several men. The increase of population is, +accordingly, slight under polyandry; and it fits in with the difficulty +of securing subsistence, encountered in cold lands and mountain +regions;--whereby additional proof is furnished that also, in this, to +us so seemingly strange phenomenon of polyandry, production has its +determining influence upon the relations of the sexes. Finally, it is to +be ascertained whether among these peoples, who live on high mountains +or in cold zones, the killing of girl babies is not a frequent practice, +as is oft reported of the Mongolian tribes, on the highlands of China. + +Exactly the reverse of the custom among the Romans during the Empire, of +allowing celibacy and childlessness to gain the upper hand, was the +custom prevalent among the Jews. True enough, the Jewish woman had no +right to choose; her father fixed upon the husband she was to wed; but +marriage was a duty, that they religiously followed. The Talmud advises: +"When your daughter is of marriageable age, give his freedom to one of +your slaves and engage her to him." In the same sense the Jews followed +strictly the command of their God: "Increase and multiply." Due to this, +and despite all persecutions and oppression, they have diligently +increased their numbers. The Jew is the sworn enemy of Malthusianism. + +Already Tacitus says of them: "Among themselves there is a stubborn +holding together, and ready open-handedness; but, for all others, +hostile hatred. Never do they eat, never do they sleep with foes; and, +although greatly inclined to sensuousness, they abstain from procreation +with foreign women. Nevertheless they strive to increase their people. +Infanticide is held a sin with them; and the souls of those who die in +battle or by execution they consider immortal. Hence the love of +procreation beside their contempt of death." Tacitus hated and abhorred +the Jews, because, in contempt of the religion of their fathers, they +heaped up wealth and treasures. He called them the "worst set of +people," an "ugly race."[23] + +Under the over-lordship of the Romans, the Jews drew ever closer +together. Under the long period of sufferings, which, from that time on, +they had to endure, almost throughout the whole of the Christian Middle +Ages, grew that intimate family life that is to-day considered a sort of +pattern by the modern bourgeois _regime_. On the other side, Roman +society underwent the process of disintegration and dissolution, which +led the Empire to its destruction. Upon the excesses, bordering on +insanity, followed the other extreme,--the most rigid abstinence. As +excess, in former days, now asceticism assumed religious forms. A +dream-land-fanaticism made propaganda for it. The unbounded gluttony and +luxury of the ruling classes stood in glaring contrast with the want and +misery of the millions upon millions that conquering Rome dragged, from +all the then known countries of the world, into Italy and slavery. Among +these were also numberless women, who, separated from their domestic +hearths, from their parents or their husbands, and torn from their +children, felt their misery most keenly, and yearned for deliverance. A +large number of Roman women, disgusted at that which happened all around +them, found themselves in similar frame of mind; any change in their +condition seemed to them a relief. A deep longing for a change, for +deliverance, took possession of extensive social layers;--and the +deliverer seemed to approach. The conquest of Jerusalem and of the +Jewish kingdom by the Romans had for its consequence the destruction of +all national independence, and begot among the ascetic sects of that +country, dreamers, who announced the birth of a new kingdom, that was to +bring freedom and happiness to all. + +Christ came, and Christianity arose. It embodied the opposition to the +bestial materialism that reigned among the great and the rich of the +Roman Empire; it represented the revolt against the contempt for and +oppression of the masses. But originating in Judaism, which knew woman +only as a being bereft of all rights, and biased by the Biblical +conception which saw in her the source of all evil, Christianity +preached contempt for woman. It also preached abstinence, the +mortification of the flesh, then so sinful, and it pointed with its +ambiguous phrases to a prospective kingdom, which some interpreted as of +heaven, others as of earth, and which was to bring freedom and justice +to all. With these doctrines it found fertile ground in the submerged +bottom of the Roman Empire. Woman, hoping, along with all the miserable, +for freedom and deliverance from her condition, joined readily and +zealously. Down to our own days, never yet was a great and important +movement achieved in the world without women also having been +conspicuously active as combatants and martyrs. Those who praise +Christianity as a great achievement of civilization should not forget +that it was woman in particular to whom Christianity owes a great part +of its success. Her proselyting zeal played a weighty _role_ in the +Roman Empire, as well as among the barbarous peoples of the Middle Ages. +The mightiest were by her converted to Christianity. It was Clotilde, +for instance, who moved Clovis, the King of the Franks, to accept +Christianity; it was, again, Bertha, Queen of Kent, and Gisela, Queen of +Hungary, who introduced Christianity in their countries. To the +influence of the women is due the conversion of many of the great. But +Christianity requited woman ill. Its tenets breathe the same contempt +for woman that is breathed in all the religions of the East. It orders +her to be the obedient servant of her husband, and the vow of obedience +she must, to this day, make to him at the altar. + +Let us hear the Bible and Christianity speak of woman and marriage. The +ten commandments are addressed only to the men; in the tenth commandment +woman is bracketed with servants and domestic animals. Man is warned not +to covet his neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maid-servant, +nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is his. Woman, accordingly, +appears as an object, as a piece of property, that the man may not +hanker after, if in another's possession. Jesus, who belonged to a +sect--the sect which imposed upon itself strict asceticism and even +self-emasculation[24]--being asked by his disciples whether it is good +to marry, answers: "All men cannot receive this saying, save they to +whom it is given. For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from +their mother's womb; and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs +of men; and there be eunuchs, _which have made themselves eunuchs for +the kingdom of heaven's sake_."[25] Emasculation is, according hereto, +an act hallowed by God, and the renunciation of love and marriage a good +deed. + +Paul, who, in a higher degree than even Jesus himself, may be called the +founder of the Christian religion; Paul, who first impressed an +international character upon this creed, and tore it away from the +narrow sectarianism of the Jews, writes to the Corinthians: "Now +concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: "It is good for a man +not to touch a woman;" "he that giveth her in marriage doeth well; but +he that giveth her not in marriage doeth better."[26] "Walk in the +Spirit and fulfil not the lust of the flesh, for the flesh lusteth +against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh;" "they that are +Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts."" He +followed his own precepts, and did not marry. This hatred of the flesh +_is the hatred of woman, but also the fear of woman_, who--see the scene +in Paradise--is represented as the seducer of man. In this spirit did +the Apostles and the Fathers of the Church preach; in this spirit did +the Church work throughout the whole of the Middle Ages, when it reared +its cloisters, and introduced celibacy among the priesthood;--and to +this day it works in the same spirit. + +According to Christianity, woman is the _unclean being_; the seducer, +who introduced sin into the world and ruined man. Hence Apostles, and +Fathers of the Church alike, have ever looked upon marriage as a +necessary evil,--the same as is said to-day of prostitution. Tertulian +exclaims: "Woman, thou should ever walk in mourning and rags, thy eyes +full of tears, present the aspect of repentance to induce forgetfulness +of your having ruined the human race. Woman, thou art the Gate of Hell!" +Hieronymus says: "Marriage always is a vice; all that we can do is to +excuse and cleanse it," hence it was made a sacrament of the Church. +Origen declares: "Marriage is something unholy and unclean, a means for +sensuality," and, in order to resist the temptation, he emasculated +himself. Tertulian declares: "Celibacy is preferable, even if the human +race goes to ground." Augustine teaches: "The celibates will shine in +heaven like brilliant stars, while their parents (who brought them +forth) are like dark stars." Eusebius and Hieronymus agree that the +Biblical command, "Increase and multiply," no longer fits the times, and +does not concern the Christians. Hundreds of other quotations from the +most influential Fathers of the Church could be cited, all of which tend +in the same direction. By means of their continuous teaching and +preaching, they have spread those unnatural views touching sexual +matters, and the intercourse of the sexes, _the latter of which, +nevertheless, remains a commandment of nature, and obedience to which is +one of the most important duties in the mission of life_. Modern society +is still severely ailing from these teachings, and it is recovering but +slowly. + +Peter calls out emphatically to women: "Ye wives, be in subjection to +your own husbands."[27] Paul writes to the Ephesians: "The husband is +the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church;"[28] and +in Corinthians: "Man is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the +glory of the man."[29] According to which every sot of a man may hold +himself better than the most distinguished woman;--indeed, it is so in +practice to-day. Also against the higher education of women does Paul +raise his weighty voice: "Let the woman learn in silence with all +_subjection_. _But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority +over the man, out to be in silence_;"[30] and again: "Let your women +_keep silence_ in the churches; _for it is not permitted unto them to +speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience_, as also saith the +law. And if they will learn anything, _let them ask their husbands at +home; for it is a shame for women to speak in the church_."[31] + +Such doctrines are not peculiar to Christianity only. Christianity being +a mixture of Judaism and Greek philosophy, and seeing that these, in +turn, have their roots in the older civilization of the Egyptians, +Babylonians, and Hindoos, the subordinate position that Christianity +assigned to woman was one common in antiquity. In the Hindoo laws of +Manu it is said regarding woman: "The source of dishonor is woman; the +source of strife is woman; the source of earthly existence is woman; +therefore avoid woman." Beside this degradation of woman, fear of her +ever and anon reappears naively. Manu further sets forth: "Woman is by +nature ever inclined to tempt man; hence a man should not sit in a +secluded place even with his nearest female relative." Woman, +accordingly, is, according to the Hindoo as well as the Old Testament +and Christian view, everywhere the tempter. All masterhood implies the +degradation of the mastered. The subordinate position of woman +continues, to this day, even more in force in the backward civilization +of the East than among the nations that enjoy a so-called Christian +view-point. That which, in the so-called Christian world, gradually +improved the situation of woman was, not Christianity, but _the advanced +culture of the West struggling against the Christian doctrine_. + +Christianity is guiltless of woman's present improved position to what +it was at the start of the era. Only reluctantly, and forced thereto, +did Christianity become untrue to its true spirit with regard to woman. +Those who rave about "the mission of Christianity to emancipate +mankind," differ from us in this, as in other respects. They claim that +Christianity freed woman from her previous low position, and they ground +themselves upon the worship of Mary, the "mother of God,"--a cult, +however, that sprang up only later in Christendom, but which they point +to as a sign of regard for the whole sex. The Roman Catholic Church, +which celebrates this cult, should be the last to lay claim to such a +doctrine. The Saints and Fathers of the Church, cited above, and whose +utterances could be easily multiplied--and they are the leading Church +authorities--express themselves separately and collectively hostile to +woman and to marriage. The Council of Macon, which, in the sixteenth +century, discussed the question whether woman had a soul, and which +decided with a majority of but one vote, that she had, likewise argues +against the theory of such a friendly posture towards woman. The +introduction of celibacy by Gregory VII[32]--although resorted to first +of all and mainly with the end in view of holding in the unmarried +priesthood a power that could not be alienated from the service of the +Church through any family interests--was, nevertheless, possible only +with such fundamental doctrines as the Church held touching the +sinfulness of the lusts of the flesh; and it goes to confirm our theory. + +Neither did the Reformers, especially Calvin and the Scotch ministers, +with their wrath at the "lusts of the flesh," entertain any doubt +touching the hostile posture of Christianity towards woman.[33] + +By the introduction of the cult of Mary, the Roman Catholic Church +shrewdly placed the worship of Mary in the place of that of the heathen +goddesses, in vogue among _all_ the people over whom Christianity was +then extending itself. _Mary_ took the place of the Cybele, the Mylitta, +the Aphrodite, the Venus, the Ceres, etc., of the southern races; of the +Freia, the Frigga, etc., of the Germanian tribes. She was a mere +spiritually-Christian idealization. + +The primeval, physically robust, though rude yet uncorrupted races, +that, during the first centuries of our reckoning, crowded down from the +North and East like a gigantic ocean wave, and swamped the worn-out +universal Empire of Rome, where Christianity had gradually been +superimposing itself as master, resisted with all their might the +ascetic doctrines of the Christian preachers. With good grace or bad, +the latter were forced to reckon with these robust natures. With +astonishment did the Romans perceive that the customs of those peoples +were quite different from their own. Tacitus rendered to this fact the +tribute of his acknowledgment, which, with regard to the Germans, he +expressed in these words: "The matrimonial bond is, nevertheless, strict +and severe among them; nor is there anything in their manners more +commendable than this. Almost singly among the barbarians, they content +themselves with one wife. Adultery is extremely rare among so numerous a +people. Its punishment is instant, and at the pleasure of the husband. +He cuts off the hair of the offender, strips her, and in the presence of +her relations expels her from his house, and pursues her with stripes +through the whole village. Nor is any indulgence shown to a prostitute. +Neither beauty, youth, nor riches can procure her a husband; for none +there looks on vice with a smile, or calls mutual seduction the way of +the world. The youths partake late of the pleasures of love, and hence +pass the age of puberty unexhausted; nor are the virgins hurried into +marriage; the same maturity, the same full growth is required; the sexes +unite equally matched, and robust; and the children inherit the vigor of +their parents." + +With the object in view of holding up a pattern to the Romans, Tacitus +painted the conjugal conditions of the old Germans with rather too rosy +a hue. No doubt, the adulteress was severely punished among them; but +the same did not hold good with regard to the adulterer. At the time of +Tacitus, the gens was still in bloom among the Germans. He, to whom, +living under the advanced Roman conditions, the old gentile +constitution, together with its principles, was bound to seem strange +and incomprehensible, narrates with astonishment that, with the Germans, +the mother's brother, considered his nephew as an own son; aye, some +looked upon the bond of consanguinity between the uncle on the mother's +side and his nephew as more sacred and closer than that between father +and son. So that, when hostages were demanded, the sister's son was +considered a better guarantee than an own son. Engels adds hereto: "If +an own son was given by the members of such a gens as a pledge for a +treaty, and he fell a sacrifice through his own father's violation of +the treaty, the latter had to settle accounts for himself. If, however, +it was a sister's son who was sacrificed, then the old gentile right was +violated. The nearest gentile relative, held before all others to +safeguard the boy or lad, had caused his death; he either had no right +to offer him as a pledge, or he was bound to observe the treaty."[34] + +For the rest, as Engels shows, the mother-right had already yielded to +the father-right among the Germans, at the time of Tacitus. The children +inherited from their father; in the absence of these, then the brothers +and the uncle of the father on the mother's side. The admission of the +mother's brother as an heir, although descent from the father determined +the line of inheritance, is explained with the theory that the old right +had only recently died away. It was only reminiscences of the old right +that furnished the conditions, which enabled Tacitus to find a, to the +Romans, incomprehensible regard for the female sex among the Germans. He +also found that their courage was pricked to the utmost by the women. +The thought that their women might fall into captivity or slavery was +the most horrible that the old German could conceive of; it spurred him +to utmost resistance. But the women also were animated by the spirit +that possessed the men. When Marius refused the captured women of the +Teutons to dedicate themselves as priestesses to Vesta (the goddess of +maidenly chastity) they committed suicide. + +In the time of Tacitus, the Germans already acquired settled +habitations. Yearly the division of land by lots took place. Besides +that, there was common property in the woods, water and pasture grounds. +Their lives were yet simple; their wealth principally cattle; their +dress consisted of coarse woolen mantles, or skins of animals. Neither +women nor chiefs wore under-clothing. The working of metals was in +practice only among those tribes located too far away for the +introduction of Roman products of industry. Justice was administered in +minor affairs by the council of elders; on more important matters, by +the assembly of the people. The chiefs were elected, generally out of +the same family, but the transition of the father-right favored the +heredity of office, and led finally to the establishment of a hereditary +nobility, from which later sprang the kingdom. As in Greece and Rome, +the German gens went to pieces with the rise of private property and the +development of industries and trade, and through the commingling with +members of strange tribes and peoples. The place of the gens was taken +by the community, the mark, the democratic organization of free +peasants, the latter of which, in the course of many centuries, +constituted a firm bulwark in the struggles against the nobility, the +Church and the Princes,--a bulwark that broke down by little and little, +but that did not wholly crumble even after the feudal State had come to +power, and the one-time free peasants were in droves reduced to the +condition of serfs and dependents. + +The confederation of marks was represented by the heads of the families. +Married women, daughters, daughters-in-law were excluded from council +and administration. The time when women were conspicuous in the conduct +of the affairs of the tribe--a circumstance that likewise astonished +Tacitus in the highest degree, and which he reports in terms of +contempt--were gone. The Salic law abolished in the fifth century of our +reckoning the succession of the female sex to hereditary domains. + +Soon as he married, every member of a mark was entitled to a share in +the common lands. As a rule, grand-parents, parents and children lived +under one roof, in communal household. Hence, with a view of being +allotted a further share, under-aged or unripe sons were not +infrequently married by their father to some marriageable maiden; the +father then filled the duties of husband, in the stead of his son.[35] +Young married couples received a cart-load of beechwood, and timber for +a block-house. If a daughter was born to the couple, they received one +load of wood; if a son, two loads.[36] The female sex was considered +worth only one-half. + +_Marriage was simple. A religious formality was unknown. Mutual +declarations sufficed. As soon as a couple mounted the nuptial bed, the +marriage was consummated._ The custom that marriage needs an act of the +Church for its validity, came in only in the ninth century. Only in the +sixteenth century, on decree of the Council of Trent, was marriage +declared a sacrament of the Roman Catholic Church. + +With the rise of feudalism, the condition of a large number of the +members of the free communities declined. The victorious army-commanders +utilized their power to appropriate large territories unto themselves; +they considered themselves masters of the common property, which they +distributed among their devoted retinue--slaves, serfs, freedmen, +generally of foreign descent,--for a term of years, or with the right of +inheritance. They thus furnished themselves with a court and military +nobility, in all things devoted to their will. The establishment of the +large Empire of the Franks finally put an end to the last vestiges of +the old gentile constitution. In the place of the former councils of +chiefs, now stood the lieutenants of the army and of the newly formed +nobility. + +Gradually, the mass of the freemen, members of the once free +communities, lapsed into exhaustion and poverty, due to the continuous +wars of conquest and the strifes among the great, whose burdens they had +to bear. They could no longer meet the obligation of furnishing the army +requisitions. In lieu thereof, Princes and high nobility secured +servants, while the peasants placed themselves and their property under +the protection of some temporal or spiritual lord--the Church had +managed, within but few centuries, to become a great power--wherefor +they paid rent and tribute. Thus the thitherto free peasant's estate was +transformed into hired property; and this, with time, was burdened with +ever more obligations. Once landed in this state of dependence, it was +not long before the peasant lost his personal freedom also. In this way +dependence and serfdom spread ever more. + +The landlord possessed the almost absolute right of disposal over his +serfs and dependents. He had the right, as soon as a male reached his +eighteenth year, or the female her fourteenth, to compel their marriage. +He could assign a woman to a man, and a man to a woman. He enjoyed the +same right over widows and widowers. In his attribute of lord over his +subjects, he also considered the sexual use of his female serfs and +dependents to be at his own disposal,--a power that finds its expression +in the "jus primae noctis" (the right of the first night). This right +also belonged to his representative, the stewart, unless, upon the +payment of a tribute, the exercise of the right was renounced. The very +names of the tribute betray its nature.[37] + +It is extensively disputed that this "right of the first night" ever +existed. The "right of the first night" is quite a thorn in the side of +certain folks, for the reason that the right was still exercised at an +age, that they love to hold up as a model,--a genuine model of morality +and piety. It has been pointed out how this "right of the first night" +was the rudiment of a custom, that hung together with the age of the +mother-right, when all the women were the wives of all the men of a +class. With the disappearance of the old family organization, the custom +survived in the surrender of the bride, on the wedding night, to the men +of her own community. But, in the course of time, the right is ever more +restricted, and finally falls to the chief of the tribe, or to the +priest, as a religious act, to be exercised by them alone. The feudal +lord assumes the right as a consequence of his power over the person who +belongs to the land, and which is his property; and he exercises the +right if he wills, or relinquishes it in lieu of a tribute in products +or money. How real was the "right of the first night" appears from Jacob +Grimm's "Weisthumer."[38] + +Sugenheim[39] says the "jus primae noctis," as a right appertaining to +the landlords, originates in that his consent to marriage was necessary. +Out of this right there arose in Bearn the usage that all the first-born +of marriages, in which the "jus primae noctis" was exercised, were of +free rank. Later, the right was generally redeemable by a tribute. +According to Sugenheim, those who held most stubbornly to the right were +the Bishops of Amiens; it lasted with them till the beginning of the +fifteenth century. In Scotland the right was declared redeemable by King +Malcolm III, towards the end of the eleventh century; in Germany, +however, it continued in force much longer. According to the archives of +a Swabian cloister, Adelberg, for the year 1496, the serfs, located at +Boertlingen, had to redeem the right by the bridegroom's giving a cake +of salt, and the bride paying one pound seven shillings, or with a pan, +"in which she can sit with her buttocks." In other places the +bridegrooms had to deliver to the landlord for ransom as much cheese or +butter "as their buttocks were thick and heavy." In still other places +they had to give a handsome cordovan tarbouret "that they could just +fill."[40] According to the accounts given by the Bavarian Judge of the +Supreme Court of Appeals, Welsch, the obligation to redeem the "jus +primae noctis" existed in Bavaria as late as the eighteenth +century.[41] Furthermore, Engels reports that, among the Welsh and the +Scots, the "right of the first night" prevailed throughout the whole of +the Middle Ages, with the difference only that, due to the continuance +of the gentile organization, it was not the landlord, or his +representative, but the chief of the clan, as the last representative of +the one-time husbands in common, who exercised the right, in so far as +it was not redeemed. + +There is, accordingly, no doubt whatever that the so-called "right of +the first night" existed, not only during the whole of the Middle Ages, +but continued even down to modern days, and played its _role_ under the +code of feudalism. In Poland, the noblemen arrogated the right to +deflower any maid they pleased, and a hundred lashes were given him who +complained. That the sacrifice of maidenly honor seems even to-day a +matter of course to landlords and their officials in the country, +transpires, not only in Germany, oftener than one imagines, but it is a +frequent occurrence all over the East and South of Europe, as is +asserted by experts in countries and the peoples. + +In the days of feudalism, marriage was a matter of interest to the +landlord. The children that sprang therefrom entered into the same +relation of subjection to him as their parents; the labor-power at his +disposal increased in numbers, his income rose. Hence _spiritual_ and +_temporal_ landlords favored marriage among their vassals. The matter +lay otherwise, particularly for the Church, if, by the prevention of +marriage, the prospect existed of bringing land into the possession of +the Church by testamentary bequests. This, however, occurred only with +the lower ranks of freemen, whose condition, due to the circumstances +already mentioned, became ever more precarious, and who, listening to +religious suggestions and superstition, relinquished their property to +the Church in order to find protection and peace behind the walls of a +cloister. Others, again, placed themselves under the protection of the +Church, in consideration of the payment of duties, and the rendering of +services. Frequently their descendants fell on this route a prey to the +very fate which their ancestors had sought to escape. They either +gradually became Church dependents, or were turned into novices for the +cloisters. + +The towns, which, since the eleventh century were springing up, then had +at that time a lively interest in promoting the increase of population; +settlement in them and marriage were made as easy as possible. The towns +became especially asylums for countrymen, fleeing from unbearable +oppression, and for fugitive serfs and dependents. Later, however, +matters changed. So soon as the towns had acquired power, and contained +a well-organized body of the trades, hostility arose against new +immigrants, mostly propertyless peasants, who wanted to settle as +handicraftsmen. Inconvenient competitors were scented in these. The +barriers raised against immigration were multiplied. High settlement +fees, expensive examinations, limitations of a trade to a certain number +of masters and apprentices,--all this condemned thousands to pauperism, +to a life of celibacy, and to vagabondage. When, in the course of the +sixteenth century, and for reasons to be mentioned later, the +flower-time of the towns was passing away, and their decline had set in, +the narrow horizon of the time caused the impediments to settlement and +independence to increase still more. Other circumstances also +contributed their demoralizing effect. + +The tyranny of the landlords increased so mightily from decade to decade +that many of the vassals preferred to exchange their sorrowful life for +the trade of the tramp or the highwayman,--an occupation that was +greatly aided by the thick woods and the poor condition of the roads. +Or, invited by the many violent disturbances of the time, they became +soldiers, who sold themselves where the price was highest, or the booty +seemed most promising. An extensive male and female slum-proletariat +came into existence, and became a plague to the land. The Church +contributed faithfully to the general depravity. Already, in the +celibatic state of the priesthood there was a main-spring for the +fostering of sexual excesses; these were still further promoted through +the continuous intercourse kept up with Italy and Rome. + +Rome was not merely the capital of Christendom, as the residence of the +Papacy. True to its antecedents during the heathen days of the Empire, +Rome had become the new Babel, the European High School of immorality; +and the Papal court was its principal seat. With its downfall, the Roman +Empire had bequeathed all its vices to Christian Europe. These vices +were particularly nursed in Italy, whence, materially aided by the +intercourse of the priesthood with Rome, they crowded into Germany. The +uncommonly large number of priests, to a great extent vigorous men, +whose sexual wants were intensified by a lazy and luxurious life, and +who, through compulsory celibacy, were left to illegitimate or unnatural +means of gratification, carried immorality into all circles of society. +This priesthood became a sort of pest-like danger to the morals of the +female sex in the towns and villages. Monasteries and nunneries--and +their number was legion--were not infrequently distinguishable from +public houses only in that the life led in them was more unbridled and +lascivious, and in that numerous crimes, especially infanticide, could +be more easily concealed, seeing that in the cloisters only they +exercised the administration of justice who led in the wrong-doing. +Often did peasants seek to safeguard wife and daughter from priestly +seduction by accepting none as a spiritual shepherd who did not bind +himself to keep a concubine;--a circumstance that led a Bishop of +Constance to impose a "concubine tax" upon the priests of his diocese. +Such a condition of things explains the historically attested fact, that +during the Middle Ages--pictured to us by silly romanticists as so pious +and moral--not less than 1500 strolling women turned up in 1414, at the +Council of Constance. + +But these conditions came in by no means with the decline of the Middle +Ages. They began early, and gave continuous occasion for complaints and +decrees. In 802 Charles the Great issued one of these, which ran this +wise: "The cloisters of nuns shall be strictly watched; the nuns may not +roam about; they shall be kept with great diligence; neither shall they +live in strife and quarrel with one another; they shall in no wise be +disobedient to their Superiors or Abbesses, or cross the will of these. +Wherever they are placed under the rules of a cloister they are to +observe them throughout. Not whoring, not drunkenness, not covetousness +shall they be the ministrants of, but in all ways lead just and sober +lives. Neither shall any man enter their cloisters, except to attend +mass, and he shall immediately depart." A regulation of the year 869 +provided: "If priests keep several women, or shed the blood of +Christians or heathens, or break the canonical law, they shall be +deprived of their priesthood, because they are worse than laymen." The +fact that the possession of several women was forbidden in those days +only to the priests, indicates that marriage with several wives was no +rare occurrence in the ninth century. In fact, there were no laws +forbidding it. + +Aye, and even later, at the time of the Minnesaenger, during the twelfth +and thirteenth centuries, the possession of several wives was considered +in order.[42] + +The position of woman was aggravated still more by the circumstance +that, along with all the impediments which gradually made marriage and +settlement harder, their number materially exceeded that of the men. As +special reasons herefor are to be considered the numerous wars and +feuds, together with the perilousness of commercial voyages of those +days. Furthermore, mortality among men was higher, as the result of +habitual excesses and drunkenness. The predisposition to sickness and +death that flowed from such habits of life, manifested itself strongly +in the numerous pest-like diseases that raged during the Middle Ages. In +the interval between 1326 to 1400, there were thirty-two; from 1400 to +1500, forty-one; and from 1500 to 1600, thirty years of pestilence.[43] + +Swarms of women roamed along the highways as jugglers, singers and +players in the company of strolling students and clericals; they flooded +the fairs and markets; they were to be found wherever large crowds +gathered, or festivals were celebrated. In the regiments of +foot-soldiers they constituted separate divisions, with their own +sergeants. There, and quite in keeping with the guild character of the +age, they were assigned to different duties, according to looks and age; +and, under severe penalties, were not allowed to prostitute themselves +to any man outside of their own branch. In the camps, they had to fetch +hay, straw and wood; fill up trenches and ponds; and attend to the +cleaning of the place along with the baggage lads. In sieges, they had +to fill up the ditches with brushwood, lumber and faggots in order to +help the storming of the place. They assisted in placing the field +pieces in position; and when these stuck in the bottomless roads, they +had to give a hand in pulling them out again.[44] + +In order to counteract somewhat the misery of this crowd of helpless +women, so-called "Bettinen houses" were instituted in many cities, and +placed under municipal supervision. Sheltered in these establishments, +the women were held to the observance of a decent life. But neither +these establishments, nor the numerous nunneries, were able to receive +all that applied for succor. + +The difficulties in the way of marriage; the tours undertaken by +Princes, and by temporal and spiritual magnates, who with their retinues +of knights and bondmen, visited the cities; even the male youth of the +cities themselves, the married men not excluded, who, buoyant with life +and unaffected by scruples, sought change in pleasures;--all this +produced as early as in the Middle Ages the demand for prostitution. As +every trade was in those days organized and regulated, and could not +exist without a guild, it so was with prostitution also. In all large +cities there were "houses of women"--municipal, prince or Church +regalities--the net profits of which flowed into the corresponding +treasuries. The women in these houses had a "head-mistress," elected by +themselves, who was to keep discipline and order, and whose special +duty it was to diligently watch that non-guild competitors, the +"interlopers," did not injure the legitimate trade. When caught, these +were condignly punished. The inmates of one of these houses for women, +located in Nuerenberg, complained with the Magistrate, that "other +inn-keepers also kept women, who walked the streets at night, and took +in married and other men, and that these plied (the trade) to such an +extent, and so much more brazenly, than they did themselves in the +municipal (guild) girls-house, that it was a pity and a shame to see +such things happen in this worthy city."[45] These "houses for women" +enjoyed special protection; disturbances of the peace in their +neighborhood were fined twice as heavily. The female guild members also +had the right to take their place in the processions and festivals, at +which, as is known, the guilds always assisted. Not infrequently were +they also drawn in as guests at the tables of Princes and Municipal +Councilmen. The "houses of women" were considered serviceable for the +"protection of marriage and of the honor of the maidens,"--the identical +reasoning with which State brothels were justified in Athens, and even +to-day prostitution is excused. All the same, there were not wanting +violent persecutions of the _filles de joie_, proceeding from the +identical male circles who supported them with their custom and their +money. The Emperor Charlemagne decreed that prostitutes shall be dragged +naked to the market place and there whipped; and yet, he himself, "the +Most Christian King and Emperor," had not less than six wives at a time; +and neither were his daughters, who followed their father's example, by +any means paragons of virtue. They prepared for him in the course of +their lives many an unpleasant hour, and brought him home several +illegitimate children. Alkuin, the friend and adviser of Charlemagne, +warned his pupils against "the crowned doves, who flew at night over the +palatinate," and he meant thereby the daughters of the Emperor. + +The identical communities, that officially organized the brothel system, +that took it under their protection, and that granted all manner of +privileges to the "priestesses of Venus," had the hardest and most cruel +punishment in reserve for the poor and forsaken Magdalen. The female +infanticide, who, driven by desperation, killed the fruit of her womb, +was, as a rule, sentenced to suffer the most cruel death penalty; nobody +bothered about the unconscionable seducer himself. Perchance he even sat +on the Judge's bench, which decreed the sentence of death upon the poor +victim. The same happens to-day.[46] Likewise was adultery by the wife +punished most severely; she was certain of the pillory, at least; but +over the adultery of the husband the mantle of Christian charity was +thrown. + +In Wuerzburg, during the Middle Ages, the keeper of women swore before +the Magistrate: "To be true and good to the city, and to procure women." +Similarly in Nuerenberg, Ulm, Leipsic, Cologne, Frankfurt and elsewhere. +In Ulm, where the "houses of women" were abolished in 1537, the guilds +moved in 1551 that they be restored "in order to avoid worse disorders." +Distinguished foreigners were provided with _filles de joie_ at the +expense of the city. When King Ladislaus entered Vienna in 1452, the +Magistrate sent to meet him a deputation of public girls, who, clad only +in light gauze, revealed the handsomest shapes. At his entry into +Brugges, the Emperor Charles V was likewise greeted by a deputation of +naked girls. Such occurrences met not with objection in those days. + +Imaginative romancers, together with calculating people, have endeavored +to represent the Middle Ages as particularly "moral," and animated with +a veritable worship for woman. The period of the Minnesangers--from the +twelfth to the fourteenth century--contributed in giving a color to the +pretence. The knightly "Minnedienst" (service of love) which the French, +Italian and German knights first became acquainted with among the +Moriscos of Spain, is cited as evidence concerning the high degree of +respect in which woman was held at that time. But there are several +things to be kept in mind. In the first place, the knights constituted +but a trifling percentage of the population, and, proportionately, the +knights' women of the women in general; in the second place, only a very +small portion of the knights exercised the so-called "Minnedienst;" +thirdly, the true nature of this service is grossly misunderstood, or +has been intentionally misrepresented. The age in which the +"Minnedienst" flourished was at the same time the age of the grossest +right-of-the-fist in Germany,--an age when all bonds of order were +dissolved; and the knights indulged themselves without restraint in +waylaying of travelers, robbery and incendiarism. Such days of brutal +force are not the days in which mild and poetic sentiments are likely to +prevail to any perceptible extent. The contrary is true. This period +contributed to destroy whatever regard possibly existed for the female +sex. The knights, both of country and town, consisted mainly of rough, +dissolute fellows, whose principal passion, besides feuds and guzzling, +was the unbridled gratification of sexual cravings. The chronicles of +the time do not tire of telling about the deeds of rapine and violence, +that the nobility was guilty of, particularly in the country, but in the +cities also, where, appearing in patrician _role_, the nobility held in +its hands the city regiment, down to the thirteenth, and partly even in +the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Nor did the wronged have any +means of redress; in the city, the squires (yunker) controlled the +judges' bench; in the country, the landlord, invested with criminal +jurisdiction, was the knight, the Abbot or the Bishop. Accordingly, it +is a violent exaggeration that, amid such morals and customs, the +nobility and rulers had a particular respect for their wives and +daughters, and carried them on their hands as a sort of higher beings, +let alone that they cultivated such respect for the wives and daughters +of the townsmen and peasants, for whom both the temporal and the +spiritual masters entertained and proclaimed contempt only. + +A very small minority of knights consisted of sincere worshippers of +female beauty, but their worship was by no means Platonic; it pursued +quite material ends. And these material ends were pursued by those also +with whom Christian mysticism, coupled with natural sensuousness, made a +unique combination. Even that harlequin among the worshippers of "lovely +women," Ulrich von Lichtenstein, of laughable memory, remained Platonic +only so long as he had to. At bottom the "Minnedienst" was the +apotheosis of the best beloved--at the expense of the own wife; _a sort +of hetairism, carried over into Middle Age Christianity_, as it existed +in Greece at the time of Pericles. In point of fact, during the Middle +Ages, the mutual seduction of one another's wives was a "Minnedienst" +strongly in vogue among the knights, just the same as, in certain +circles of our own bourgeoisie, similar performances are now repeated. +That much for the romanticism of the Middle Ages and their regard for +women. + +There can be no doubt that, in the open recognition of the pleasures of +the senses, there lay in that age the acknowledgment that the natural +impulses, implanted in every healthy and ripe human being, are entitled +to be satisfied. In so far there lay in the demonstration a victory of +vigorous nature over the asceticism of Christianity. On the other hand, +it must be noted that the recognition and satisfaction fell to the share +of only one sex, while the other sex, on the contrary, was treated as if +it could not and should not have the same impulses; the slightest +transgression of the laws of morality prescribed by man, was severely +punished. The narrow and limited horizon, within which moved the citizen +of the Middle Ages, caused him to adopt narrow and limited measures also +with respect to the position of woman. And, as a consequence of +continued oppression and peculiar education, woman herself has so +completely adapted herself to her master's habits and system of thought, +that she finds her condition natural and proper. + +Do we not know that there have been millions of slaves who found +slavery natural, and never would have freed themselves, had their +liberators not risen from the midst of the class of the slave-holders? +Did not Prussian peasants, when, as a result of the Stein laws, they +were to be freed from serfdom, petition to be left as they were, +"because who was to take care of them when they fell sick?" And is it +not similarly with the modern Labor Movement? How many workingmen do not +allow themselves to be influenced and led without a will of their own? + +The oppressed needs the stimulator and firer, because he lacks the +independence and faculty for initiative. It was so with the modern +proletarian movement; it is so also in the struggle for the emancipation +of woman, which is intimately connected with that of the proletariat. +Even in the instance of the comparatively favorably situated bourgeois +of old, noble and clerical advocates broke the way open for him to +conduct his battle for freedom. + +However numerous the shortcomings of the Middle Ages, there was then a +healthy sensualism, that sprang from a rugged and happy native +disposition among the people, and that Christianity was unable to +suppress. The hypocritical prudery and bashfulness; the secret +lustfulness, prevalent to-day, that hesitates and balks at calling +things by their right name, and to speak about natural things in a +natural way;--all that was foreign to the Middle Ages. Neither was that +age familiar with the piquant double sense, in which, out of defective +naturalness and out of a prudery that has become morality, things that +may not be clearly uttered, are veiled, and are thereby rendered all the +more harmful; such a language incites but does not satisfy; it suggests +but does not speak out. Our social conversation, our novels and our +theatres are full of these piquant equivoques,--and their effect is +visible. This spiritualism, which is not the spiritualism of the +transcendental philosopher, but that of the _roue_, and that hides +itself behind the spiritualism of religion, has great power to-day. + +The healthy sensualism of the Middle Ages found in Luther its classic +interpreter. We have here to do, not so much with the religious +reformer, as with Luther the man. On the human side, Luther's robust +primeval nature stepped forward unadulterated; it compelled him to +express his appetite for love and enjoyment forcibly and without +reserve. His position, as former Roman Catholic clergyman, had opened +his eyes. By personal practice, so to speak, had he learned the +unnaturalness of the life led by the monks and nuns. Hence the warmth +with which he warred against clerical and monastic celibacy. His words +hold good to this day, for all those who believe they may sin against +nature, and imagine they can reconcile with their conceptions of +morality and propriety, governmental and social institutions that +prevent millions from fulfilling their natural mission. Luther says: +"Woman, except as high and rare grace, can dispense with man as little +as she can with food, sleep, water and other natural wants. Conversely, +also, neither can man dispense with woman. The reason is this: It is as +deeply implanted in nature to beget children as to eat and drink. +Therefore did God furnish the body with members, veins, discharges and +all that is needed therefor. He who will resist this, and prevent its +going as Nature wills, what else does he but endeavor to resist Nature's +being Nature, that fire burn, water wet, that man eat, drink or sleep?" +And in his sermon on married life he says: "As little as it is in my +power that I be not a man, just so little is it in your power to be +without a man. For it is not a matter of free will or deliberation, but +a necessary, natural matter that all that is male must have a wife, and +what is female must have a husband." Luther did not speak in this +energetic manner in behalf of married life and the necessity of sexual +intercourse only; he also turns against the idea that marriage and +Church have anything in common. In this he stood squarely on the ground +of the olden days, which considered marriage an act of free will on the +part of those who engaged in it, and that did not concern the Church. On +this head he said: "Know, therefore, that marriage is an outside affair, +as any other earthly act. The same as I am free to eat, drink, sleep, +walk, ride, deal, speak and trade with a heathen, a Jew, a Turk or a +heretic, _likewise am I free to enter into and remain in wedlock with +one of them. Turn your back upon the fool laws that forbid such a +thing_.... A heathen is a man and woman, created by God in perfect form, +as well as St. Peter and St. Paul and St. Luke; be then silent for a +loose and false Christian that you are." Luther, like other Reformers, +pronounced himself against all limitation of marriage, and he was for +also allowing the re-union of divorced couples, against which the Church +was up in arms. He said: "As to the manner in which marriage and divorce +are to be conducted among us, I claim that it should be made the +business of the jurists, and placed under the jurisdiction of earthly +concerns, because marriage is but an earthly and outside matter." It was +in keeping with this view that, not until the close of the seventeenth +century, was marriage by the Church made obligatory under Protestantism. +Until then so-called "conscience marriage" held good, i. e., the simple +mutual obligation to consider each other man and wife, and to mean to +live in wedlock. Such a marriage was considered by German law to be +legally entered into. Luther even went so far that he conceded to the +unsatisfied party--even if that be the woman--the right to seek +satisfaction outside of the marriage bonds "in order to satisfy nature, +which cannot be crossed."[47] This conception of marriage is the same +that prevailed in antiquity, and that came up later during the French +Revolution. Luther here set up maxims that will arouse the strongest +indignation of a large portion of our "respectable men and women," who, +in their religious zeal, are so fond of appealing to him. In his +treatise "On Married Life,"[48] he says: "If an impotent man falls to +the lot of a hearty woman, and she still cannot openly take another, and +does not wish to marry again, she shall say unto her husband: 'Lo, dear +husband, thou shalt not be wronged by me. Thou hast deceived me and my +young body, and hast therefore brought my honor and salvation into +danger. There is no glory to God between us two. Grant me to cohabit +secretly with thy brother or nearest friend, and thou shalt have the +name, _so that thy property come not to strange heirs; and allow thyself +to be, in turn, willingly deceived by me, as thou did deceive me without +thy will_." The husband, Luther goes on to show, is in duty bound to +grant the request. "If he declines, then has she the right to run away +from him to another, and to woo elsewhere. Conversely, if a woman +declines to exercise the conjugal duty, her husband has the right to +cohabit with another, only he should tell her so beforehand."[49] It +will be seen that these are wonderfully radical, and, in the eyes of our +days, so rich in hypocritical prudery, even downright "immoral" views, +that the great Reformer develops. Luther, however, expressed only that +which, at the time, was the popular view.[50] + +The passages quoted from the writings and addresses of Luther on +marriage, are of special importance for the reason that these views are +in strong contradiction with those that prevail to-day in the Church. In +the struggle that it latterly has had to conduct with the clerical +fraternity, the Social Democracy can appeal with full right to Luther, +who takes on the question of marriage a stand free from all prejudice. + +Luther and all the Reformers went even further in the marriage question, +true enough, only for opportunist reasons, and out of complaisance +towards the Princes whose strong support and permanent friendship they +sought to secure and keep to the Reformation. The friendly Duke of +Hessen, Philip I, had, besides his legitimate wife, a sweetheart, +willing to yield to his wishes, but only under the condition that he +marry her. It was a thorny problem. A divorce from the wife, in the +absence of convincing reasons, would give great scandal; on the other +hand, a marriage with two women at a time was an unheard of thing with a +Christian Prince of modern days; it would give rise to no less a +scandal. All this notwithstanding, Philip, in his passion, decided in +favor of the latter step. The point was now to establish that the act +did no violence to the Bible, and to secure the approval of the +Reformers, especially of Luther and Melanchthon. The negotiations, set +on foot by the Duke, began first with Butzer, who declared himself in +favor of the plan, and promised to win over Luther and Melanchthon. +Butzer justified his opinion with the argument: To possess several wives +at once was not against the evangelium. St. Paul, who said much upon the +subject of who was not to inherit the kingdom of God, made no mention of +those who had two wives. St. Paul, on the contrary, said "that a Bishop +was to have but one wife, the same with his servants; hence, if it had +been compulsory that every man have but one wife he would have so +ordered, and forbidden a plurality of wives." Luther and Melanchthon +joined this reasoning, and gave their assent to double marriages, after +the Duke's wife herself had consented to the marriage with the second +wife under the condition "that he was to fulfil his marital duties +towards her more than ever before."[51] The question of the +justification of bigamy had before then--at the time when the issue was +the consenting to the double marriage of Henry VIII of England--caused +many a headache to Luther, as appears from a letter to the Chancellor of +Saxony, Brink, dated January, 1524. Luther wrote to him that, _in point +of principle, he could not reject bigamy_ because it ran not counter to +Holy Writ;[52] but that he held it scandalous when the same happened +among Christians, "who should leave alone even things that are +permissible." After the wedding of the Duke, which actually took place +in March, 1540, and in answer to a letter of acknowledgment from him, +Luther wrote (April 10): "That your Grace is happy on the score of our +opinion, _which we fain would see kept secret; else, even the rude +peasants_ (in imitation of the Duke's example) might finally produce as +strong, if not stronger, reasons, whereby we might then have much +trouble on our hands." + +Upon Melanchthon, the consent to the double marriage of the Duke must +have been less hard. Before that, he had written to Henry VIII "every +Prince has the right to introduce polygamy in his domains." But the +double marriage of the Duke made such a great and unpleasant sensation, +that, in 1541, he circulated a treatise in which polygamy is defended as +no transgression against Holy Writ.[53] People were not then living in +the ninth or twelfth century, when polygamy was tolerated without +shocking society. Social conditions had very materially changed in the +meantime; in a great measure the mark had had to yield to the power of +the nobility and the clergy; it had even extensively disappeared, and +was further uprooted after the unhappy issue of the Peasant Wars. +Private property had become the general foundation of society. Beside +the rural population, that cultivated the soil, a strong, self-conscious +handicraft element had arisen, and was dominated by the interests of its +own station. Commerce had assumed large dimensions, and had produced a +merchant class, which, what with the splendor of its outward position +and its wealth, awoke the envy and hostility of a nobility that was +sinking ever deeper into poverty and licentiousness. The burghers' +system of private property had triumphed everywhere, as was evidenced by +the then universal introduction of the Roman law; the contrasts between +the classes were palpable, and everywhere did they bump against one +another. Monogamy became, under such conditions, the natural basis for +the sexual relations; a step such as taken by the Duke of Hessen now did +violence to the ruling morals and customs, which, after all, are but the +form of expression of the economic conditions that happen at the time to +prevail. On the other hand, society came to terms with prostitution, as +a necessary accompaniment of monogamy, and an institution supplemental +thereto;--and tolerated it. + +In recognizing the gratification of the sexual impulses as a law of +Nature, Luther but uttered what the whole male population thought, and +openly claimed for itself. He, however, also contributed--through the +Reformation, which carried through the abolition of celibacy among the +clergy, and the removal of the cloisters from Protestant +territories--that to hundreds of thousands the opportunity was offered +to do justice to nature's impulses under legitimate forms. True +again,--due to the existing order of property, and to the legislation +that flowed therefrom,--hundreds of thousands of others continued to +remain excluded. The Reformation was the first protest of the +large-propertied bourgeois or capitalist class, then rising into being, +against the restrictions imposed by feudalism in Church, State and +society. It strove after freedom from the narrow bonds of the guild, the +court and the judiciary; it strove after the centralization of the +State, after the abolition of the numerous seats of idlers, the +monasteries; and it demanded their use for practical production. The +movement aimed at the abolition of the feudal form of property and +production; it aimed at placing in its stead the free property of the +capitalist, i. e., in the stead of the existing system of mutual +protection in small and disconnected circles, there was to be unchained +the free individual struggle of individual efforts in the competition +for property. + +On the religious field, Luther was the representative of these bourgeois +aspirations. When he took a stand for the freedom of marriage, the +question could not be simply about civic marriage, which was realized in +Germany only in our own age through the civil laws and the legislation +therewith connected,--freedom to move, freedom of pursuit, and freedom +of domicile. In how far the position of woman was thereby improved will +be shown later. Meanwhile things had not matured so far at the time of +the Reformation. If, through the regulations of the Reformation many +were afforded the possibility to marry, the severe persecutions that +followed later hampered the freedom of sexual intercourse. The Roman +Catholic clergy having in its time displayed a certain degree of +tolerance, and even laxity, towards sexual excesses, now the Protestant +clergy, once itself was provided for, raged all the more violently +against the practice. War was declared upon the public "houses of +women;" they were closed as "Holes of Satan;" the prostitutes were +persecuted as "daughters of the devil;" and every woman who slipped was +placed on the pillory as a specimen of all sinfulness. + +Out of the once hearty small property-holding bourgeois of the Middle +Ages, who lived and let live, now became a bigoted, straight-laced, +dark-browed maw-worm, who "saved-up," to the end that his large +property-holding bourgeois successor might live all the more lustily in +the nineteenth century, and might be able to dissipate all the more. The +respectable citizen, with his stiff necktie, his narrow horizon and his +severe code of morals, was the prototype of society. The legitimate +wife, who had not been particularly edified by the sensuality of the +Middle Ages, tolerated in Roman Catholic days, was quite at one with the +Puritanical spirit of Protestantism. But other circumstances supervened, +that, affecting, as they did, unfavorably the general condition of +things in Germany, joined in exercising in general an unfavorable +influence upon the position of woman. + +The revolution--effected in production, money and trade, particularly as +regarded Germany,--due to the discovery of America and the sea-route to +the East Indies, produced, first of all, a great reaction on the social +domain. Germany ceased to be the center of European traffic and +commerce. Spain, Portugal, Holland, England, took successively the +leadership, the latter keeping it until our own days. German industry +and German commerce began to decline. At the same time, the religious +Reformation had destroyed the political unity of the nation. The +Reformation became the cloak under which the German principalities +sought to emancipate themselves from the Imperial power. In their turn, +the Princes brought the power of the nobility under their own control, +and, in order to reach this end all the more easily, favored the cities, +not a few of which, in sight of the ever more troubled times, placed +themselves, of their own free will, under the rule of the Princes. The +final effect was that the bourgeois or capitalist class, alarmed at the +financial decline of its trade, raised ever higher barriers to protect +itself against unpleasant competition. The ossification of conditions +gained ground; and with it the impoverishment of the masses. + +Later, the Reformation had for a consequence the calling forth of the +religious wars and persecutions--always, of course, as cloaks for the +political and economic purposes of the Princes--that, with short +interruptions, raged throughout Germany for over a century, and ended +with the country's complete exhaustion, at the close of the Thirty +Years' War in 1648. Germany had become an immense field of corpses and +ruins; whole territories and provinces lay waste; hundreds of cities, +thousands of villages had been partially or wholly burnt down; many of +them have since disappeared forever from the face of the earth. In other +places the population had sunk to a third, a fourth, a fifth, even to an +eighth and tenth part. Such was the case, for instance, with cities like +Neurenberg, and with the whole of Franconia. And now, at the hour of +extreme need, and with the end in view of providing the depopulated +cities and villages as quickly as possible with an increased number of +people, the drastic measure was resorted to of "raising the law," and +_allowing a man two wives_. The wars had carried off the men; of women +there was an excess. On February 14, 1650, the Congress of Franconia, +held in Nuerenberg, adopted the resolution that "men under sixty years +of age shall not be admitted to the monasteries;" furthermore, it +ordered "the priests and curates, if not ordained, and the canons of +religious establishments, shall marry;" "moreover every male shall be +allowed to marry two wives; and all and each males are earnestly +reminded, and shall be often warned, _from the pulpit_ also, to so +comport themselves in this matter; and care shall be taken that he shall +fully and with becoming discretion diligently endeavor, so that, as a +married man, to whom is granted that he take two wives, he not only take +proper care of both wives, but avoid all misunderstanding among them." +At that time, we see, matters that are to-day kept under strictest +secrecy, were often discussed as of course from the pulpit itself. + +But not commerce alone was at a standstill. Traffic and industry had +been extensively ruined during this protracted period; they could +recover only by little and little. A large part of the population had +become wild and demoralized, disused to all orderly occupations. During +the wars, it was the robbing, plundering, despoiling and murdering +armies of mercenaries, which crossed Germany from one end to the other, +that burned and knocked down friend and foe alike; after the wars, it +was countless robbers, beggars and swarms of vagabonds that threw the +population into fear and terror, and impeded and destroyed commerce and +traffic. For the female sex, in particular, a period of deep suffering +had broken. Contempt for woman had made great progress during the times +of license. The general lack of work weighed heaviest on their +shoulders; by the thousands did these women, like the male vagabonds, +infest the roads and woods, and filled the poorhouses and prisons of the +Princes and the cities. On top of all these sufferings came the forcible +ejectment of numerous peasant families by a land-hungry nobility. + +Compelled, since the Reformation, ever more to bend before the might of +the Princes, and rendered ever more dependent upon these through court +offices and military posts, the nobility now sought to recoup itself +double and threefold with the robbery of peasant estates for the injury +it had sustained at the hand of the Princes. The Reformation offered the +Princes the desired pretext to appropriate the rich Church estates, +which they swallowed in innumerable acres of land. The Elector August of +Saxony, for instance, had turned not less than three hundred clergy +estates from their original purpose, up to the close of the sixteenth +century.[54] Similarly did his brothers and cousins, the other +Protestant Princes, and, above all, the Princes of Brandenburg. The +nobility only imitated the example by bagging peasant estates, that had +lost their owners, by ejecting free as well as serf peasants from house +and home, and enriching themselves with the goods of these. To this +particular end, the miscarried peasant revolts of the sixteenth century +furnished the best pretext. After the first attempts had succeeded, +never after were reasons wanting to proceed further in equally violent +style. With the aid of all manner of chicaneries, vexations and +twistings of the law--whereto the in-the-meantime naturalized Roman law +lent a convenient handle--the peasants were bought out at the lowest +prices, or they were driven from their property in order to round up the +estates of noblemen. Whole villages, the peasant homes of as much as +half a province, were in this way wiped out. Thus--so as to give a few +illustrations--out of 12,543 peasant homestead appanages of knightly +houses, which Mecklenburg still possessed at the time of the Thirty +Years' War, there were, in 1848, only 1,213 left. In Pommerania, since +1628, not less than 12,000 peasant homesteads disappeared. The change in +peasant economy, that took place in the course of the seventeenth +century, was a further incentive for the expropriation of the peasant +homesteads, especially to turn the last rests of the commons into the +property of the nobility. The system of rotation of crops was +introduced. It provided for a rotation in cultivation within given +spaces of time. Corn lands were periodically turned into meadows. This +favored the raising of cattle, and made possible the reduction of the +number of farm-hands. The crowd of beggars and tramps grew ever larger, +and thus one decree followed close upon the heels of another to reduce, +by the application of the severest punishments, the number of beggars +and vagabonds. + +In the cities matters lay no better than in the country districts. +Before then, women were active in very many trades in the capacity of +working women as well as of employers. There were, for instance, female +furriers in Frankfurt and in the cities of Sleswig; bakers, in the +cities of the middle Rhine; embroiderers of coats of arms and +beltmakers, in Cologne and Strassburg; strap-cutters, in Bremen; +clothing-cutters in Frankfurt; tanners in Nuerenberg; gold spinners and +beaters in Cologne.[55] Women were now crowded back. The abandonment of +the pompous Roman Catholic worship alone, due to the Protestantizing of +a large portion of Germany, either injured severely a number of trades, +especially the artistic ones, or destroyed them altogether; and it was +in just these trades that many working women were occupied. As, +moreover, it ever happens when a social state of things is moving to its +downfall, the wrongest methods are resorted to, and the evil is thereby +aggravated. The sad economic condition of most of the German nations +caused the decimated population to appear as _overpopulation_, and +contributed greatly towards rendering a livelihood harder to earn, and +towards prohibitions of marriage. + +Not until the eighteenth century did a slow improvement of matters set +in. The absolute Princes had the liveliest interest, with the view of +raising the standard abroad of their rule, to increase the population of +their territories. They needed this, partly in order to obtain soldiers +for their wars, partly also to gain taxpayers, who were to raise the +sums needed either for the army, or for the extravagant indulgences of +the court, or for both. Following the example of Louis XIV of France, +the majority of the then extraordinarily numerous princely courts of +Germany displayed great lavishness in all manner of show and tinsel. +This was especially the case in the matter of the keeping of +mistresses, which stood in inverse ratio to the size and capabilities of +the realms and realmlets. The history of these courts during the +eighteenth century belongs to the ugliest chapters of history. Libraries +are filled with the chronicles of the scandals of that era. One +potentate sought to surpass the other in hollow pretentiousness, insane +lavishness and expensive military fooleries. Above all, the most +incredible was achieved in the way of female excesses. It is hard to +determine which of the many German courts the palm should be assigned to +for extravagance and for a life that vitiated public morals. To-day it +was this, to-morrow that court; no German State escaped the plague. The +nobility aped the Princes, and the citizens in the residence cities aped +the nobility. If the daughter of a citizen's family had the luck to +please a gentleman high at court, perchance the Serenissimus himself, in +nineteen cases out of twenty she felt highly blessed by such favor, and +her family was ready to hand her over for a mistress to the nobleman or +the Prince. The same was the case with most of the noble families if one +of their daughters found favor with the Prince. Characterlessness and +shamelessness ruled over wide circles. As bad as the worst stood matters +in the two German capitals, Vienna and Berlin. In the Capua of Germany, +Vienna, true enough, the strict Maria Theresa reigned through a large +portion of the century, but she was impotent against the doings of a +rich nobility, steeped in sensuous pleasures, and of the citizen circles +that emulated the nobility. With the Chastity Commissions that she +established, and in the aid of which an extensive spy-system was +organized, she partly provoked bitterness, and partly made herself +laughable. The success was zero. In frivolous Vienna, sayings like these +made the rounds during the second half of the eighteenth century: "You +must love your neighbor like yourself, that is to say, you must love +your neighbor's wife as much as your own;" or "If the wife goes to the +right, the husband may go to the left: if she takes an attendant, he +takes a lady friend." In how frivolous a vein marriage and adultery were +then taken, transpires from a letter of the poet Ew. Chr. von Kleist, +addressed in 1751 to his friend Gleim. Among other things he there says: +"You are already informed on the adventure of the Mark-Graf Heinrich. He +sent his wife to his country seat and intends to divorce her because he +found the Prince of Holstein in bed with her.... The Mark-Graf might +have done better had he kept quiet about the affair, instead of now +causing half Berlin and all the world to talk about him. Moreover, _such +a natural thing should not be taken so ill_, all the more when, like the +Mark-Graf, one is not so waterproof himself. Mutual repulsion, we all +know, is unavoidable in married life: all husbands and wives are +perforce unfaithful, due to _their illusions concerning other estimable +persons. How can that be punished that one is forced to?_" On Berlin +conditions, the English Ambassador, Lord Malmsbury, wrote in 1772: +"Total corruption of morals pervades both sexes of all classes, whereto +must be added the indigence, caused, partly through the taxes imposed by +the present King, partly through the love of luxury that they took from +his grandfather. The men lead a life of excesses with limited means, +while the women are harpies, wholly bereft of shame. They yield +themselves to him who pays best. Tenderness and true love are things +unknown to them."[56] + +Things were at their worst in Berlin under Frederick II, who reigned +from 1786 to 1796. He led with the worst example; and his court +chaplain, Zoellner, even lowered himself to the point of marrying the +King to the latter's mistress, Julie von Boss, as a second wife, and as +she soon thereupon died in childbed, Zoellner again consented to marry +the King to the Duchess Sophie of Doenhoff as a second wife by the side +of the Queen. + +More soldiers and more taxpayers was the leading desire of the Princes. +Louis XIV, after whose death France was entirely impoverished in money +and men, set up pensions for parents who had ten children, and the +pension was raised when they reached twelve children. His General, the +Marshal of Saxony, even made to him the proposition to _allow marriages +only for the term of five years_. Fifty years later, in 1741, Frederick +the Great wrote, "I look upon men as a herd of deer in the zoological +garden of a great lord, their only duty is to populate and fill the +park."[57] + +Later, he extensively depopulated his "deer park" with his wars, and +then took pains to "populate" it again with foreign immigration. + +The German multiplicity of States, that was in fullest bloom in the +eighteenth century, presented a piebald map of the most different social +conditions and legislative codes. While in the minority of the States +efforts were made to improve the economic situation by promoting new +industries, by making settlement easier and by changing the marriage +laws in the direction of facilitating wedlock, the majority of the +States and statelets remained true to their backward views, and +intensified the unfavorable conditions of marriage and settlement for +both men and women. Seeing, however, that human nature will not allow +itself to be suppressed, all impediments and vexations notwithstanding, +concubinage sprang up in large quantity, and the number of illegitimate +children was at no time as large as in these days when the "paternal +regiment" of the absolute Princes reigned in "Christian simplicity." + +The married woman of citizen rank lived in strict seclusion. The number +of her tasks and occupations was so large that, as a conscientious +housewife, she had to be at her post early and late in order to fulfil +her duties, and even that was possible to her only with the aid of her +daughters. Not only were there to be filled those daily household duties +which to-day, too, the small middle class housewife has to attend to, +but a number of others also, which the housewife of to-day is freed from +through modern development. She had to spin, weave, bleach and sew the +linen and clothes, prepare soap and candles, brew beer,--in short, she +was the veriest Cinderella: her only recreation was Sunday's church. +Marriage was contracted only within the same social circles; the +strongest and most ludicrous spirit of caste dominated all relations, +and tolerated no transgression. The daughters were brought up in the +same spirit; they were held under strict home seclusion; their mental +education did not go beyond the bounds of the narrowest home relations. +On top of this, an empty and hollow formality, meant as a substitute for +education and culture, turned existence, that of woman in particular, +into a veritable treadmill. Thus the spirit of the Reformation +degenerated into the worst pedantry, that sought to smother the natural +desires of man, together with his pleasures in life under a confused +mass of rules and usages that affected to be "worthy," but that benumbed +the soul. + +Gradually, however, an economic change took place, that first seized +Western Europe and then reached into Germany also. The discovery of +America, the doubling of the Cape of Good Hope, the opening of the sea +route of the East Indies, the further discoveries that hinged on these, +and finally, the circumnavigation of the earth, revolutionized the life +and views of the most advanced nations of Europe. The unthought-of rapid +expansion of the world's commerce, called to life through the opening of +ever newer markets for European industry and products, revolutionized +the old system of handicraft. Manufacture arose, and thence flowed large +production. Germany--so long held back in her material development by +her religious wars and her political disintegration, which religious +differences promoted,--was finally dragged into the stream of the +general progress. In several quarters, large production developed under +the form of manufacture: flax and wool-spinning and weaving, the +manufacture of cloth, mining, the manufacture of iron, glass and +porcelain, transportation, etc. Fresh labor power, female included, came +into demand. But this newly rising form of industry met with the most +violent opposition on the part of the craftsmen, ossified in the guild +and medieval corporation system, who furiously fought every change in +the method of production, and saw therein a mortal enemy. The French +Revolution supervened. While casting aside the older order in France, +the Revolution also carried into Germany a fresh current of air, which +the old order could not for long resist. The French invasion hastened +the downfall,--this side of the Rhine also--of the old, worn-out +system. Whatever attempt was made, during the period of re-action after +1815, to turn back the wheels of time, the New had grown too strong, it +finally remained victorious. + +The rise of machinery, the application of the natural sciences to the +process of production, the new roads of commerce and traffic burst +asunder the last vestiges of the old system. The guild privileges, the +personal restrictions, the mark and jurisdictional rights, together with +all that thereby hung, walked into the lumber room. The strongly +increased need of labor-power did not rest content with the men, it +demanded woman also as a cheaper article. The conditions that had become +untenable, had to fall; and they fell. The time thereto,--long +wished-for by the newly risen class, the bourgeoisie or capitalist +class--arrived the moment Germany gained her political unity. The +capitalist class demanded imperiously the unhampered development of all +the social forces; it demanded this for the benefit of its own +capitalist interests, that, at that time, and, to a certain degree, were +also the interests of the large majority. Thus came about the liberty of +trade, the liberty of emigration, the removal of the barriers to +marriage,--in short, that whole system of legislation that designates +itself "liberal." The old-time reactionists expected from these measures +the smash-up of morality. The late Adolph Ketteler of Mainz moaned, +already in 1865, accordingly, before the new social legislation had +become general, "that the tearing down of the existing barriers to +matrimony meant the dissolution of wedlock, it being now possible for +the married to run away from each other at will." A pretty admission +that the moral bonds of modern marriage are so weak, that only +_compulsion_ can be relied on to hold the couple together. + +The circumstance, on the one hand, that the now naturally more numerous +marriages effected a rapid increase of population, and, on the other, +that the gigantically developing industry of the new era brought on many +ills, never known of before, caused the spectre of "overpopulation" to +rise anew. Conservative and liberal economists pull since then the same +string. We shall show what this fear of so-called overpopulation means; +we shall trace the feared phenomenon back to its legitimate source. +Among those who suffer of the overpopulation fear, and who demand the +restriction of freedom to marry, especially for workingmen, belong +particularly Prof. Ad. Wagner. According to him, workingmen marry too +early, in comparison with the middle class. He, along with others of +this opinion, forget that the male members of the higher class, marry +later only in order to wed "according to their station in life," a thing +they can not do before they have obtained a certain position. For this +abstinence, the males of the higher classes indemnify themselves with +prostitution. Accordingly, it is to prostitution that the working class +are referred, the moment marriage is made difficult for, or, under +certain circumstances, is wholly forbidden to, them. But, then, let +none wonder at the results, and let him not raise an outcry at the +"decline of morality," if the women also, who have the same desires as +the men, seek to satisfy in illegitimate relations the promptings of the +strongest impulse of nature. Moreover, the views of Wagner are at +fisticuffs with the interests of the capitalist class, which, oddly +enough, shares his views: it needs many "hands," so as to own cheap +labor-power that may fit it out for competition in the world's market. +With such petty notions and measures, born of a near-sighted +philistinism, the gigantic growing ills of the day are not to be healed. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[22] Tarnowsky. "Die krankhaften Erscheinungen des Geschlechtsinnes." +Berlin, August Hirschwald. + +[23] Tacitus, "Histories," Book I. + +[24] Montegazza "L'Amour dans l'Humanite." + +[25] Matthew, ch. 19; 11 and 12. + +[26] I. Corinthians, ch. 7; 1 and 38. + +[27] Peter I., ch. 3; 1. + +[28] Paul: Ephesians, ch. 5; 23. + +[29] Paul: I. Corinthians, ch. 11; 7. + +[30] I. Timothy, ch. 2; 11 and 12. + +[31] I. Corinthians, ch. 14; 34 and 35. + +[32] This was a move that the parish priests of the diocese of Mainz, +among others, complained against, expressing themselves this wise: "You +Bishops and Abbots possess great wealth, a kingly table, and rich +hunting equipages; we, poor, plain priests have for our comfort only a +wife. Abstinence may be a handsome virtue, but, in point of fact, it is +hard and difficult."--Yves-Guyot: "Les Theories Sociales du +Christianisme." + +[33] Buckle, in his "History of Civilization in England," furnishes a +large number of illustrations on this head. + +[34] Engels' "Der Ursprung der Familie." + +[35] The same thing happened under the rule of the muir in Russia. See +Lavelaye: "Original Property." + +[36] "Eyn iglich gefurster man, der ein kindbette hat, ist sin kint eyn +dochter, so mag eer eyn wagen vol bornholzes von urholz verkaufen of den +samstag. Ist iz eyn sone, so mag he iz tun of den dinstag und of den +samstag von ligenden holz oder von urholz und sal der frauwen davon +kaufen, win und schon brod dyeweile sie kintes june lit,"--G. L. v. +Maurer; "Geschichte der Markenverfassung in Deutschland." + +[37] "Bettmund," "Jungfernzins," "Hemdschilling," "Schuerzenzins," +"Bunzengroschen." + +[38] "Aber sprechend die Holfluet, weller hie zu der helgen see kumbt, +der sol einen meyer (Gutsverwalter) laden und ouch sin frowen, da sol +der meyer lien dem bruetigan ein haffen, da er wol mag ein schaff in +geseyden, ouch sol der meyer bringen ein fuder holtz an das hochtzit, +ouch sol ein meyer und sin frow bringen ein viertenteyl eines +schwynsbachen, und so die hochtzit vergat, so sol der bruetigan den meyer +by sim wib lassen ligen die ersten nacht, oder er sol sy loesen mit 5 +schilling 4 pfenning."--I., p. 43. + +[39] "History of the Abolition of Serfdom in Europe to the Middle of the +19th Century." St. Petersburg, 1861. + +[40] Memminger, Staelin and others. "Beschreibung der Wuertembergischen +Aemter." Hormayr. "Die Bayern im Morgenlande." Also Sugenheim. + +[41] "Ueber Stetigung und Abloesung der baeuerlichen Grundlasten mit +besonderer Ruecksicht auf Bayern, Wuertemberg, Baden, Hessen, Preussen +und Oesterreich." Landshut, 1848. + +[42] A poem of Albrecht von Johansdorf, in the collection of +"Minnesang-Fruehling" (Collection of Lachman and Moritz Haupt; Leipsic, +1857; S. Hirtel), has this passage: + + + "waere ez niht unstaete + der Zwein wiben wolte sin fur eigen jehen, + bei diu tougenliche? sprechet, herre, wurre ez iht? + (man sol ez den man erlouben und den vrouwen nicht.)" + + +The openness, with which two distinct rights, according to sex, are here +considered a matter of course, corresponds with views that are found in +force even to this day. + +[43] Dr. Karl Buecher, "Die Frauenfrage im Mittelalter," Tuebingen. + +[44] Dr. Karl Buecher. + +[45] Joh. Scherr, "Geschichte der Deutschen Frauenwelt," Leipsic, 1879. + +[46] Leon Richter reports in "La Femme Libre" the case of a servant girl +in Paris who was convicted of infanticide _by the father of the child +himself_, a respected and religious lawyer, who sat on the jury. Aye, +worse: _the lawyer in question was himself the murderer, and the mother +was entirely guiltless, as, after her conviction, she herself declared +in court_. + +[47] Dr. Karl Hagen, "Deutschlands Literarische und Religioese +Verhaeltnisse im Reformationszeitalter." Frankfurt-on-the-Main, 1868. + +[48] II., 146, Jena, 1522. + +[49] Dr. Karl Hagen. + +[50] Jacob Grimm informs us ("Deutsche Rechtsalterthuemer. Weisthum aus +dem Amte Blankenburg"): + + + "Daer ein Man were, der sinen echten wive ver frowelik recht niet + gedoin konde, der sall si sachtelik op sinen ruggen setten und + draegen sie over negen erstnine und setten sie sachtelik neder + sonder stoeten, slaen und werpen und sonder enig quaed woerd of + oevel sehen, und roipen dae sine naebur aen, dat sie inne sines + wives lives noet helpen weren, und of sine naebur dat niet doen + wolden of kunden, so sall be si senden up die neiste kermisse + daerbl gelegen und dat sie sik sueverlik toe make und verzere und + hangen oer einen buidel wail mit golde bestikt up die side, dat sie + selft wat gewerven kunde: kumpt sie dannoch wider ungeholpen, so + help oer dar der duifel." + + +As appears from Grimm, the German peasant of the Middle Ages looked in +marriage, first of all, for _heirs_. If he was unable himself to beget +these, he then, as a practical man, left the pleasure, without special +scruples, to some one else. The main thing was to gain his object. We +repeat it: Man does not rule property, property rules him. + +[51] Johann Janssen, "Geschichte des Deutschen Volkes," 1525-1555, +Freiburg. + +[52] Which is perfectly correct, and also explainable, seeing that the +Bible appeared at a time when polygamy extended far and wide among the +peoples of the Orient and the Occident. In the sixteenth century, +however, it was in strong contradiction with the standard of morality. + +[53] Johann Janssen. + +[54] Johann Janssen. Vol. III. + +[55] Dr. Karl Buecher, "Die Frauenfrage im Mittelalter." + +[56] Johann Scherr: "Geschichte der Deutschen Frauenwelt." + +[57] Karl Kautsky, "Ueber den Einfluss der Volksvermehrung auf den +Fortschritt der Gesellschaft." Vienna, 1880. + + + + +PART II + +WOMAN IN THE PRESENT + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +SEXUAL INSTINCTS, WEDLOCK, CHECKS AND OBSTRUCTIONS TO MARRIAGE. + + +Plato thanked the gods for eight favors bestowed upon him. As the first, +he took it that they had granted him to be born a freeman, and not a +slave; the second was that he was created a man, and not a woman. A +similar thought finds utterance in the morning prayer of the Jews. They +pray: "Blessed be Thou, our God and Lord of Hosts, _who hast not created +me a woman_;" the Jewish women, on the other hand, pray at the +corresponding place: "_who hast created me after thy will_." The +contrast in the position of the sexes can find no more forcible +expression than it does in the saying of Plato, and in the different +wording of the prayer among the Jews. The male is the real being, the +master of the female. With the views of Plato and the Jews, the larger +part of men agree, and many a woman also wishes that she had been born a +man and not a woman. In this view lies reflected the condition of the +female sex. + +Wholly irrespective of the question whether woman is oppressed as a +female proletarian, as sex she is oppressed in the modern world of +private property. A number of checks and obstructions, unknown to man, +exist for her, and hem her in at every step. Much that is allowed to man +is forbidden to her; a number of social rights and privileges, enjoyed +by the former, are, if exercised by her, a blot or a crime. She suffers +both as a social and a sex entity, and it is hard to say in which of the +two respects she suffers more. + +Of all the natural impulses human beings are instinct with, along with +that of eating and drinking, the sexual impulse is the strongest. The +impulse to procreate the species is the most powerful expression of the +"Will to Live." It is implanted most strongly in every normally +developed human being. Upon maturity, its satisfaction is an actual +necessity for man's physical and mental health. Luther was perfectly +right when he said: "He who would resist the promptings of Nature, and +prevent their going as Nature wills and must, _what else does he but +endeavor to resist Nature's being Nature, that fire burn, water wet, +that man eat, drink or sleep_?" These are words that should be graven in +granite over the doors of our churches, in which the "sinful flesh" is +so diligently preached against. More strikingly no physician or +physiologist can describe the necessity for the satisfaction of the +craving for love on the part of a healthy being,--a craving that finds +its expression in sexual intercourse. + +It is a commandment of the human being to itself--a commandment that it +must obey if it wishes to develop normally and in health--that it +neglect the exercise of no member of its body, deny gratification to no +natural impulse. Each member must fill the function, that it is intended +for by Nature, on penalty of atrophy and disease. The laws of the +physical development of man must be studied and observed, the same as +those of mental development. The mental activity of the human being is +the expression of the physiologic composition of its organs. The +complete health of the former is intimately connected with the health of +the latter. A disturbance of the one inevitably has a disturbing effect +upon the other. Nor do the so-called animal desires take lower rank than +the so-called mental ones. One set and the other are effects of the +identical combined organism: the influence of the two upon each other is +mutual and continuous. This holds good for man as for woman. + +It follows that, the knowledge of the properties of the sexual organs is +just as needful as that of the organs which generate mental activity; +and that man should bestow upon the cultivation of both an equal share +of care. He should realize that organs and impulses, found implanted in +every human being, and that constitute a very essential part of his +nature, aye, that, at certain periods of his life control him +absolutely, must not be objects of secrecy, of false shame and utter +ignorance. It follows, furthermore, that a knowledge of the physiology +and anatomy of the sexual organs, together with their functions, should +be as general among men and women as any other branch of knowledge. +Equipped with an accurate knowledge of our physical make-up, we would +look upon many a condition in life with eyes different from those we now +do. The question of removing existing evils would then, of itself, force +itself upon those before whom society, to-day, passes by in silence and +solemn bashfulness, notwithstanding these evils command attention within +the precincts of every family. In all other matters, knowledge is held a +virtue, the worthiest and most beautiful aim of human endeavor--only not +knowledge in such matters that are in closest relation with the essence +and health of our own _Ego_, as well as the basis of all social +development. + +Kant says: "Man and woman only jointly constitute the complete being: +one sex supplements the other." Schopenhauer declares: "The sexual +impulse is the fullest utterance of the will to live, hence it is the +concentration of all will-power;" again: "The affirmative declaration of +the will in favor of life is concentrated in the act of generation, and +that is its most decisive expression." In accord therewith says +Mainlaender: "The center of gravity of human life lies in the sexual +instinct: it alone secures life to the individual, which is that which +above all else it wants.... To nothing else does man devote greater +earnestness than to the work of procreation, and for the care of none +other does he compress and concentrate the intensity of his will so +demonstratively as for the act of procreation." Finally, and before all +of these, Buddha said: "The sexual instinct is sharper than the hook +wild elephants are tamed with; it is hotter than flames; it is like an +arrow, shot into the spirit of man."[58] + +Such being the intensity of the sexual impulse, it is no wonder that +sexual abstinence at the age of maturity affects the nervous system and +the whole organism of man, with one sex as well as the other, in such a +manner that it often leads to serious disturbances and manias; under +certain conditions even to insanity and death. True enough, the sexual +instinct does not assert itself with equal violence in all natures, and +much can be done towards curbing it by education and self-control, +especially by avoiding the excitation resulting upon certain +conversations and reading. It is thought that, in general, the impulse +manifests itself lighter with women than with men, and that the +irritation is less potent with the former. It is even claimed that, with +woman, there is a certain repugnance for the sexual act. The minority is +small of those with whom physiologic and psychologic dispositions and +conditions engender such a difference. "The union of the sexes is one of +the great laws of living Nature; man and woman are subject to it the +same as all other creatures, and can not transgress it, especially at a +ripe age, without their organism suffering more or less in +consequence."[59] Debay quotes among the diseases, caused by the +inactivity of the sexual organs, satyriasis, nymphomania and hysteria; +and he adds that celibacy exercises upon the intellectual powers, +especially with woman, a highly injurious effect. On the subject of the +harmfulness of sexual abstinence by woman, Busch says:[60] "Abstinence +has in all ages been considered particularly harmful to woman; indeed it +is a fact that excess, as well as abstinence, affects the female +organism equally harmfully, and the effects show themselves more +pronouncedly and intensively than with the male organism." + +It may, accordingly, be said that man--be the being male or female--is +complete in the measure in which, both as to organic and spiritual +culture, the impulses and manifestations of life utter themselves in the +sexes, and in the measure that they assume character and expression. +Each sex of itself reached its highest development. "With civilized +man," says Klenke in his work "Woman as Wife," "the compulsion of +procreation is placed under the direction of the moral principle, and +that is guided by reason." This is true. Nevertheless, it were an +impossible task, even with the highest degree of freedom, wholly to +silence the imperative command for the preservation of the species,--a +command that Nature planted in the normal, organic expression of the +both sexes. Where healthy individuals, male or female, have failed in +their life-time to honor this duty towards Nature, _it is not with them +an instance of the free exercise of the will_, even when so given out, +or when, in self-deception, it is believed to be such. _It is the result +of social obstacles, together with the consequences which follow in +their wake; they restricted the right of Nature_; they allowed the +organs to wilt; allowed the stamp of decay and of sexual vexation--both +in point of appearance and of character--to be placed upon the whole +organism; and, finally, brought on--through nervous distempers--diseased +inclinations and conditions both of body and of mind. The man becomes +feminine, the woman masculine in shape and character. The sexual +contrast not having reached realization in the plan of Nature, each +human being _remained one-sided, never reached its supplement, never +touched the acme of its existence_. In her work, "The Moral Education of +the Young in Relation to Sex," Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell says: "The sexual +impulse exists as an indispensable condition of life, and as the basis +of society. It is the greatest force in human nature. Often undeveloped, +not even an object of thought, but none the less the _central fire of +life_, this inevitable instinct is the natural protector against any +possibility of extinction." + +Science agrees, accordingly, with the opinion of the philosophers, and +with Luther's healthy common sense. It follows that every human being +has, not merely the right, but also the duty to satisfy the instincts, +that are intimately connected with its inmost being, that, in fact, +imply existence itself. Hindered therein, rendered impossible to him +through social institutions or prejudices, the consequence is that man +is checked in the development of his being, is left to a stunted life +and retrogression. What the consequences thereof are, our physicians, +hospitals, insane asylums and prisons can tell,--to say nothing of the +thousands of tortured family lives. In a book that appeared in Leipsic, +the author is of the opinion: "The sexual impulse is neither moral nor +immoral; it is merely natural, like hunger and thirst: Nature knows +nothing of morals;"[61] nevertheless bourgeois society is far from a +general acceptance of this maxim. + +The opinion finds wide acceptance among physicians and physiologists +that even a defectively equipped marriage is better than celibacy. +Experience agrees therewith. In Bavaria there were, in 1858, not less +than 4,899 lunatics, 2,576 (53 per cent.) of them men, 2,323 (47 per +cent.) women. The men were, accordingly, more strongly represented than +the women. Of the whole number, however, the _unmarried_ of both sexes +ran up to 81 per cent., the married only to 17 per cent., while of 2 per +cent. the conjugal status was unknown. As a mitigation of the shocking +disproportion between the unmarried and the married, the circumstance +may be taken into consideration that a not small number of the unmarried +were insane from early childhood. In Hanover, in the year 1856, there +was one lunatic to every 457 unmarried, 564 widowed, 1,316 married +people. Most strikingly is the effect of unsatisfied sexual relations +shown in the number of suicides among men and women. In general, the +number of suicides is in all countries considerably higher among men +than among women. To every 1,000 female suicides there were in:[62] + + + England from 1872-76 2,861 men + Sweden " 1870-74 3,310 " + France " 1871-76 3,695 " + Italy " 1872-77 4,000 " + Prussia " 1871-78 4,239 " + Austria " 1873-78 4,586 " + + +But between the ages of 21 and 30, the figures for _female suicides is +in all European countries higher than for males_, due, as Oettingen +assumes, to sexual causes. In Prussia the percentages of suicides +between the ages of 21 to 30 were on an average: + + + Years. Males. Females. + 1869-72 15.8 21.4 + 1873-78 15.7 21.5 + + +In Saxony there were to every 1,000 suicides between the ages of 21 to +30 these averages: + + + Years. Males. Females. + 1854 14.95 18.64 + 1868 14.71 18.79 + + +For widowed and divorced people also the percentage of suicides is +larger than the average. In Saxony there are seven times as many +suicides among divorced males, and three times as many among divorced +females, as the average of suicides for males and females respectively. +Again, suicide is more frequent among divorced and widowed men and women +when they are childless. Of 491 widowed suicides in Prussia (119 males +and 372 females) 353 were childless. + +Taking into further consideration that, among the unmarried women, who +are driven to suicide between the ages of 21 and 30, many a one is to be +found, who takes her life by reason of being betrayed, or because she +can not bear the consequences of a "slip," the fact remains that sexual +reasons play a decided _role_ in suicide at this age. Among female +suicides, the figure is large also for those between the ages of 16 to +20, and the fact is probably likewise traceable to unsatisfied sexual +instinct, disappointment in love, secret pregnancy, or betrayal. On the +subject of the women of our days as sexual beings, Professor V. +Krafft-Ebing expresses himself: "A not-to-be-underrated source of +insanity with woman lies in her social position. Woman, by nature more +prone than man to sexual needs, at least in the ideal sense of the term, +knows no honorable means of gratifying the need other than marriage. At +the same time marriage offers her the only support. Through unnumbered +generations her character has been built in this direction. Already the +little girl plays mother with her doll. Modern life, with its demands +upon culture, offers ever slighter prospects of gratification through +marriage. This holds especially with the upper classes, among whom +marriage is contracted later and more rarely. While man--as the +stronger, and thanks to his greater intellectual and physical powers, +together with his social position--supplies himself easily with sexual +gratification, or, taken up with some occupation, that engages all his +energies, easily finds an equivalent, these paths are closed to single +women. This leads, in the first place, consciously or unconsciously, to +dissatisfaction with herself and the world, to morbid brooding. For a +while, perhaps, relief is sought in religion; but in vain. Out of +religious enthusiasm, there spring with or without masturbation, a host +of nervous diseases, among which hysteria and insanity are not rare. +Only thus is the fact explainable that insanity among single women +occurs with greatest frequency between the ages of 25 and 35, that is to +say, the time when the bloom of youth, and, along therewith, hope +vanishes; while with men, insanity occurs generally between the ages of +35 and 50, the season of the strongest efforts in the struggle for +existence. + +"It certainly is no accident that, hand in hand with increasing +celibacy, the question of the emancipation of woman has come ever more +on the order of the day. I would have the question looked upon as a +danger signal, set up by the social position of woman in modern +society--a position that grows ever more unbearable, due to increasing +celibacy; I would have it looked upon as the danger signal of a +justified demand, made upon modern society, to furnish woman some +equivalent for that to which she is assigned by Nature, and which modern +social conditions partly deny her."[63] + +And Dr. H. Plotz, in his work, "Woman in Nature and Ethnography,"[64] +says in the course of his explanation of the results of ungratified +sexual instincts upon unmarried women: "It is in the highest degree +noteworthy, not for the physician only, but also for the anthropologist, +that there is an effective and never-failing means to check this process +of decay (with old maids), but even to cause the lost bloom to return, +if not in all its former splendor yet in a not insignificant +degree,--_pity only that our social conditions allow, or make its +application possible only in rare instances_. The means consist in +regular and systematic sexual intercourse. The sight is not infrequent +with girls, who lost their bloom, or were not far from the withering +point, yet, the opportunity to marry having been offered them, that, +shortly after marriage, their shape began to round up again, the roses +to return to their cheeks, and their eyes to recover their one-time +brightness. _Marriage is, accordingly, the true fountain of youth for +the female sex._ Thus Nature has her firm laws, that implacably demand +their dues. No 'vita praeter naturam,' no unnatural life, no attempt at +accommodation to incompatible conditions of life, passes without leaving +noticeable traces of degeneration, upon the animal, as well as upon the +human organism." + +As to the effect that marriage and celibacy exercise upon the mind, the +following figures furnish testimony. In 1882, there were in Prussia, per +10,000 inhabitants of the same conjugal status, 33.2 unmarried male and +29.3 female lunatics, while the percentage of the married ones was 9.5 +for men, and 9.5 for females, and of the widowed, 32.1 males, and 25.6 +females. Social conditions can not be considered healthy, that hinder a +normal satisfaction of the natural instincts, and lead to evils like +those just mentioned. + +The question then rises: Has modern society met the demands for a +natural life, especially as concerns the female sex? If the question is +answered in the negative, this other rises: Can modern society meet the +demands? If both questions must be answered in the negative, then this +third arises: How can these demands be met? + +"Marriage and the family are the foundation of the State; consequently, +he who attacks marriage and the family attacks society and the State, +and undermines both"--thus cry the defenders of the present order. +Unquestionably, monogamous marriage, which flows from the bourgeois +system of production and property, is one of the most important +cornerstones of bourgeois or capitalist society; whether, however, such +marriage is in accord with natural wants and with a healthy development +of human society, is another question. We shall prove that the marriage, +founded upon bourgeois property relations, is more or less a marriage by +compulsion, which leads numerous ills in its train, and which fails in +its purpose quite extensively, if not altogether. We shall show, +furthermore, that it is a social institution, beyond the reach of +millions, and is by no means that marriage based upon love, which alone +corresponds with the natural purpose, as its praise-singers maintain. + +With regard to modern marriage, John Stuart Mill exclaims: "_Marriage is +the only form of slavery that the law recognizes._" In the opinion of +Kant, man and woman constitute only jointly the full being. Upon the +normal union of the sexes rests the healthy development of the human +race. The natural gratification of the sexual instinct is a necessity +for the thorough physical and mental development of both man and woman. +But man is no animal. Mere physical satisfaction does not suffice for +the full gratification of his energetic and vehement instinct. He +requires also spiritual affinity and oneness with the being that he +couples with. Is that not the case, then the blending of the sexes is a +purely mechanical act: such a marriage is immoral. It does not answer +the higher human demands. Only in the mutual attachment of two beings of +opposite sexes can be conceived the spiritual ennobling of relations +that rest upon purely physical laws. Civilized man demands that the +mutual attraction continue beyond the accomplishment of the sexual act, +and _that it prolong its purifying influence upon the home that flows +from the mutual union_.[65] The fact that these demands can not be made +upon numberless marriages in modern society is what led Barnhagen von +Ense to say: "That which we saw with our own eyes, both with regard to +contracted marriages and marriages yet to be contracted, was not +calculated to give us a good opinion of such unions. On the contrary, +the whole institution, which was to have only love and respect for its +foundation, and which in all these instances (in Berlin) we saw founded +on everything but that, seemed to us mean and contemptible, and we +loudly joined in the saying of Frederick Schlegel which we read in the +fragments of the 'Atheneum': Almost all marriages are concubinages, +left-handed unions, or rather provisional attempts and distant +resemblances at and of a true marriage, whose real feature consists, +according to all spiritual and temporal laws, in that two persons become +one."[66] Which is completely in the sense of Kant. + +The duty towards and pleasure in posterity make permanent the love +relations of two persons, when such really exists. A couple that wishes +to enter into matrimonial relations must, therefore, be first clear +whether the physical and moral qualities of the two are fit for such a +union. The answer should be arrived at uninfluenced; and that can happen +only, first, _by keeping away all other interests_, that have nothing to +do with the real object of the union,--the gratification of the natural +instinct, and the transmission of one's being in the propagation of the +race; secondly, by a certain degree of insight that curbs blind passion. +Seeing, however, as we shall show, that _both conditions are, in +innumerable cases, absent in modern society, it follows that modern +marriage is frequently far from fulfilling its true purpose; hence that +it is not just to represent it, as is done, in the light of an ideal +institution_. + +How large the number is of the marriages, contracted with views wholly +different from these, can, naturally, not be statistically given. The +parties concerned are interested in having their marriage appear to the +world different from what it is in fact. There is on this field a state +of hypocrisy peculiar to no earlier social period. And the State, the +political representative of this society, has no interest, for the sake +of curiosity, in initiating inquiries, the result of which would be to +place in dubious light the social system that is its very foundation. +The maxims, which the State observes with respect to the marrying of +large divisions of its own officials and servants, _do not suffer the +principle to be applied that, ostensibly, is the basis of marriage_. + +Marriage--and herewith the bourgeois idealists also agree--should be a +union that two persons enter into only out of mutual love, in order to +accomplish their natural mission. This motive is, however, only rarely +present in all its purity. With the large majority of women, matrimony +is looked upon as a species of institution for support, which they must +enter into at any price. Conversely, a large portion of the men look +upon marriage from a purely business standpoint, and from material +view-points all the advantages and disadvantages are accurately +calculated. Even with those marriages, in which low egotistical motives +did not turn the scales, raw reality brings along so much that disturbs +and dissolves, that only in rare instances are the expectations verified +which, in their youthful enthusiasm and ardor, the couple had looked +forward to. + +And quite naturally. If wedlock is to offer the spouses a contented +connubial life, it demands, together with mutual love and respect, _the +assurance of material existence, the supply of that measure of the +necessaries of life and comfort which the two consider requisite for +themselves and their children_. The weight of cares, the hard struggle +for existence--these are the first nails in the coffin of conjugal +content and happiness. The cares become heavier the more fruitful the +marriage proves itself, i. e., _in the measure in which the marriage +fulfils its purpose_. The peasant, for instance, is pleased at every +calf that his cow brings him; he counts with delight the number of +young that his sow litters; and he communicates the event with pleasure +to his neighbors. But the same peasant looks gloomy when his wife +presents him with an increase to his own brood--and large this may never +be--which he believes to be able to bring up without too much worry. His +gloom is all the thicker if the new-born child is a _girl_. + +We shall now show how, everywhere, marriages and births are completely +controlled by the economic conditions. This is most classically +exemplified in France. There, the allotment system prevails generally in +the country districts. Land, broken up beyond a certain limit, ceases to +nourish a family. The unlimited division of land, legally permissible, +the French peasant counteracts by his rarely giving life to more than +two children,--hence the celebrated and notorious "two child system," +that has grown into a social institution in France, and that, to the +alarm of her statesmen, keeps the population stationary, in some +provinces even registering considerable retrogression. The number of +births is steadily on the decline in France; but not in France only, +also in most of the civilized lands. Therein is found expressed a +development in our social conditions, that should give the ruling +classes cause to ponder. In 1881 there were 937,057 children born in +France; in 1890, however, only 838,059; accordingly, the births in 1890 +fell 98,998 behind the year 1881. Characteristic, however, is the +circumstance that the number of _illegitimate_ births in France was +70,079 for the year 1881; that, during the period between 1881 and 1890, +the number reached high-water mark in 1884, with 75,754; and that the +number was still 71,086 strong in 1890. Accordingly, the whole of the +decline of births fell exclusively upon the legitimate births. This +decline in births, and, we may add, in marriages also, is, as will be +shown, a characteristic feature, noticeable throughout the century. To +every 10,000 French population, there were births in the years: + + + 1801 333 + 1821 307 + 1831 303 + 1841 282 + 1851 270 + 1856 261 + 1868 269 + 1886 230 + 1890 219 + + +This amounts to a decline of births in 1890, as against 1801, of 114 to +every 10,000 inhabitants. It is imaginable that such figures cause +serious headaches to the French statesmen and politicians. But France +does not stand alone in this. For a long time Germany has been +presenting a similar phenomenon. In Germany, to every 10,000 population +there were births in the years: + + + 1869 406 + 1876 403 + 1880 390 + 1883 358 + 1887 369.4 + 1890 357.6 + + +Accordingly, Germany too reveals, in the space of only 21 years, a +decline of 49 births to every 10,000 inhabitants. Similarly with the +other States of Europe. To every 10,000 population there were live +births: + + + From From + States. 1865-1867. 1886-1888. Decrease. Increase. + Ireland 262 231 31 .. + Scotland 353 313 40 .. + England and Wales 353 314 39 .. + Holland 388 344 44 .. + Belgium 320 293 27 .. + Switzerland 320 278 42 .. + Austria 374 380 .. 6 + Hungary 399 445 .. 46 + Italy 378 371 7 .. + Sweden 320 297 23 .. + Norway 344 308 36 .. + + +The decline in births is, accordingly, pretty general, only that, of all +European States, it is strongest in France. Between 1886 and 1888, +France had, to every 1,000 inhabitants, an average of 23.9 births, +England 32.9, Prussia 41.27, and Russia 48.8. + +These facts show that the birth of a human being, the "image of God," as +religious people express it, ranks generally much cheaper than new-born +domestic animals. What this fact does reveal is the _unworthy_ condition +that we find ourselves in,--and it is mainly the female sex which +suffers thereunder. In many respects, modern views distinguish +themselves but little from those of barbarous nations. Among the latter, +new-born babes were frequently killed, and such a fate fell to the lot +of girls mainly; many a half-wild race does so to this day. We no longer +kill the girls; we are too civilized for that; but they are only too +often treated like pariahs by society and the family. The stronger man +crowds them everywhere back in the struggle for existence; and if, +driven by the love for life, they still take up the battle, they are +visited with hatred by the stronger sex, as unwelcome competitors. It is +especially the men in the higher ranks of society who are bitterest +against female competition, and oppose it most fiercely. That workingmen +demand the exclusion of female labor on principle happens but rarely. A +motion to that effect being made in 1877, at a French Labor Convention, +the large majority declared against it. Since then, it is just with the +class-conscious workingmen of all countries, that the principle, that +working-women are beings with equal rights with themselves makes immense +progress. This was shown especially by the resolutions of the +International Labor Congress of Paris in 1889. The class-conscious +workingman knows that the modern economic development forces woman to +set herself up as a competitor with man; but he also knows that, to +prohibit female labor, would be as senseless an act as the prohibition +of the use of machinery. Hence he strives to enlighten woman on her +position in society, and _to educate her into a fellow combatant in the +struggle for the emancipation of the proletariat from capitalism_. True +enough,--due to the ever more widespread employment of female labor in +agriculture, industry, commerce and the trades--the family life of the +workingman is destroyed, and the degenerating effects of the double yoke +of work for a living, and of household duties, makes rapid progress in +the female sex. Hence the endeavor to keep women by legislative +enactments, from occupations that are especially injurious to the female +organism, and by means of protective laws to safeguard her as a mother +and rearer of children. On the other hand, the struggle for existence +forces women to turn in ever larger numbers to industrial occupations. +It is _married woman_, more particularly, who is called upon to increase +the meager earnings of her husband with her work,--and she is +particularly welcome to the employer.[67] + +Modern society is without doubt more cultured than any previous one, and +woman stands correspondingly higher. Nevertheless, the views concerning +the relations of the two sexes have remained at bottom the same. +Professor L. von Stein published a book,[68]--a work, be it said in +passing, that corresponds ill with its title--in which he gives a +poetically colored picture of modern marriage, as it supposedly is. Even +in this picture the subaltern position of woman towards the "lion" man +is made manifest. Stein says among other things: "Man deserves a being +that not only loves, but also understands him. He deserves a person with +whom not only the heart beats for him, but whose hand may also smooth +his forehead, and whose presence radiates peace, rest, order, a quiet +command over herself and the thousand and one things upon which he daily +reverts: he wants someone who spreads over all these things that +indescribable aroma of womanhood, one who is the life-giving warmth to +the life of the house." + +In this song of praise of woman lies concealed her own degradation, and +along therewith, the low egotism of man. The professor depicts woman as +a vaporous being, that, nevertheless, shall be equipped with the +necessary knowledge of practical arithmetic; know how to keep the +balance between "must" and "can" in the household; and, for the rest, +float zephyr-fashion, like sweet spring-tide, about the master of the +house, the sovereign lion, in order to spy every wish from his eyes, and +with her little soft hand unwrinkle the forehead, that he, "the master +of the house," perchance himself crumpled, while brooding over his own +stupidity. In short, the professor pictures a woman and a marriage such +as, out of a hundred, hardly one is to be found, or, for that matter, +can exist. Of the many thousand unhappy marriages; of the large number +of women who never get so far as to wed; and also of the millions, who, +like beasts of burden beside their husbands, have to drudge and wear +themselves out from early morn till late to earn a bit of bread for the +current day,--of all of these the learned gentleman knows nothing. With +all these wretched beings, hard, raw reality wipes off the poetic +coloring more easily than does the hand the colored dust of the wings of +a butterfly. One look, cast by the professor at those unnumbered female +sufferers, would have seriously disturbed his poetically colored +picture, and spoiled his concept. The women, whom he sees, make up but a +trifling minority, and that these stand upon the plane of our times is +to be doubted. + +An oft-quoted sentence runs: "The best gauge of the culture of a people +is the position which woman occupies." We grant that; but it will be +shown that our so much vaunted culture has little to brag about. In his +work, "The Subjection of Woman,"--the title is typical of the opinion +that the author holds regarding the modern position of woman--John +Stuart Mill says: "The lives of men have become more domestic, growing +civilization lays them under more obligations towards women." This is +only partly true. In so far as honorable conjugal relations may exist +between husband and wife, Mill's statement is true; but it is doubtful +whether the statement applies to even a strong minority. Every sensible +man will consider it an advantage to himself if woman step forward into +life out of the narrow circle of domestic activities, and become +familiar with the currents of the times. The "chains" he thereby lays +upon himself do not press him. On the other hand, the question arises +whether modern life does not introduce into married life factors, that, +to a higher degree than formerly, act destructively upon marriage. + +Monogamous marriage became, from the start, an object of material +speculation. The man who marries endeavors to wed property, along with a +wife, and this was one of the principal reasons why daughters, after +being at first excluded from the right to inherit, when descent in the +male line prevailed, soon again reacquired the right. But never in +earlier days was marriage so cynically, in open market, so to speak, an +object of speculation; a money transaction, as it is to-day. To-day +trading in marriage is frequently conducted among the property +classes--among the propertyless the practice has no sense--with such +shamelessness, that the oft-repeated phrase concerning the "sanctity" of +marriage is the merest mockery. This phenomenon, as everything else, has +its ample foundation. At no previous period was it, as it is to-day, +hard for the large majority of people to raise themselves into a +condition of well-being, corresponding to the then general conceptions; +nor was at any time the justified striving for an existence worthy of +human beings so general as it is to-day. He who does not reach the goal, +feels his failure all the more keenly, just because all believe to have +an equal right to enjoyment. _Formally_, there are _no_ rank or class +distinctions. Each wishes to obtain that which, according to his +station, he considers a goal worth striving for, in order to come at +fruition. But many are called and few are chosen. In order that one may +live comfortably in capitalist society, twenty others must pine; and in +order that one may wallow in all manner of enjoyment, hundreds, if not +thousands, of others must renounce the happiness of life. But each +wishes to be of that minority of favored ones, and seizes every means, +that promise to take him to the desired goal, provided he does not +compromise himself too deeply. One of the most convenient means, and, +withal, nearest at hand, to reach the privileged social station, is the +_money-marriage_. The desire, on the one hand, to obtain as much money +as possible, and, on the other, the aspiration after rank, titles and +honor thus find their mutual satisfaction in the so-called upper classes +of society. There, marriage is generally considered a business +transaction; it is a purely conventional bond, which both parties +respect externally, while, for the rest, each often acts according to +his or her own inclination. Marriage for political reasons, practiced in +the higher classes, need here to be mentioned only for the sake of +completeness. With these marriages also, as a rule, the privilege has +tacitly existed--of course, again, for the husband to a much higher +degree than for the wife--that the parties keep themselves scathless, +_outside of the bonds of wedlock_, according as their whims may point, +or their needs dictate. There have been periods in history when it was +part of the _bon ton_ with a Prince to keep mistresses: it was one of +the princely attributes. Thus, according to Scherr, did Frederick +William I. of Prussia (1713-1740), otherwise with a reputation for +steadiness, keep up, at least for the sake of appearances, relations +with a General's wife. On the other hand, it is a matter of public +notoriety that, for instance, August the Strong, King of Poland and +Saxony, gave life to 300 illegitimate children; and Victor Emanuel of +Italy, the _re galantuomo_, left behind 32 illegitimate children. There +is still extant a romantically located little German residence city, in +which are at least a dozen charming villas, that the corresponding +"father of his country" had built as places of recreation for his +resigned mistresses. On this head thick books could be written: as is +well known, there is an extensive library on these piquant matters. + +The inside history of most of the German princely courts and noble +families is to the informed an almost uninterrupted _chronique +scandaleuse_, and not infrequently has it been stained with crimes of +blackest dye. In sight of these facts, it certainly is imperative upon +the sycophantic painters of history, not only to leave untouched the +question of the "legitimacy" of the several successive "fathers and +mothers of their country," but also to take pains to represent them as +patterns of all virtues, as faithful husbands and good mothers. Not yet +has the breed of the augurs died out; they still live, as did their +Roman prototypes, on the ignorance of the masses. + +In every large town, there are certain places and days when the higher +classes meet, mainly for the purpose of match-making. These gatherings +are, accordingly, quite fitly termed "marriage exchanges." Just as on +the exchanges, speculation and chaffer play here the leading _role_, nor +are deception and swindle left out. Officers, loaded with debts, but who +can hold out an old title of nobility; _roues_, broken down with +debauchery, who seek to restore their ruined health in the haven of +wedlock, and need a nurse; manufacturers, merchants, bankers, who face +bankruptcy, not infrequently the penitentiary also, and wish to be +saved; finally, all those who are after money and wealth, or a larger +quantity thereof, government office-holders among them, with prospects +of promotion, but meanwhile in financial straits;--all turn up as +customers at these exchanges, and ply the matrimonial trade. Quite +often, at such transactions, it is all one whether the prospective wife +be young or old, handsome or ugly, straight or bent, educated or +ignorant, religious or frivolous, Christian or Jew. Was it not a saying +of a celebrated statesman: "The marriage of a Christian stallion with a +Jewish mare is to be highly recommended"?[69] The figure, +characteristically borrowed from the horse-fair, meets, as experience +teaches, with loud applause from the higher circles of our society. +Money makes up for all defects, and outweighs all vices. The German +penal code punishes[70] the coupler with long terms of imprisonment; +when, however, parents, guardians and relatives couple their children, +wards or kin to a hated man or woman only for the sake of money, of +profit, of rank, in short, for the sake of external benefits, there is +no District Attorney ready to take charge, and yet a crime has been +committed. There are numerous well organized matrimonial bureaus, with +male and female panders of all degrees, out for prey, in search of the +male and female candidates for the "holy bonds of matrimony." Such +business is especially profitable when the "work" is done for the +members of the upper classes. In 1878 there was a criminal trial in +Vienna of a female pander on the charge of poisoning, and ended with her +being sentenced to fifteen years in the penitentiary. At the trial it +was established that the French Ambassador in Vienna, Count Bonneville, +had paid the pander 12,000 florins for procuring his own wife. Other +members of the high aristocracy were likewise highly compromised through +the trial. Evidently, certain Government officials had left the woman to +pursue her dark and criminal practices for many years. The "why" thereof +is surely no secret. Similar stories are told from the capital of the +German Empire. During recent years, it is the daughters and heirs of the +rich American capitalist class, who, on their side, aspire after rank +and honors, not to be had in their own American home, that have become a +special subject of matrimonial trading for the needy noblemen of Europe. +Upon these particular practices characteristic light is thrown by a +series of articles that appeared in the fall of 1889 in a portion of the +German press. According thereto, a _chevalier d'industry_ nobleman, +domiciled in California, had recommended himself as a matrimonial agent +in German and Austrian papers. The offers that he received amply betray +the conception concerning the sanctity of marriage and its "ethical" +side prevalent in the corresponding circles. Two Prussian officers of +the Guards, both, as they say themselves, belonging to the oldest +nobility of Prussia, declared that they were ready to enter into +negotiations for marriage because, as they frankly confessed, they owed +together 60,000 marks. In their letter to the pander they say literally: +"It is understood that we shall pay no money in advance. You will +receive your remuneration after the wedding trip. Recommend us only to +ladies against whose families no objections can be raised. It is also +very desirable to be introduced to ladies of attractive appearance. If +demanded, we shall furnish, for discreet use, our own pictures to your +agent, after he shall have given us the details, and shown us the +pictures, etc. We consider the whole affair strictly confidential and as +a matter of honor (?), and, of course, demand the same from you. We +expect a speedy answer through your agent in this place, if you have +one. Berlin, Friedrichstrasse 107, December 15, 1889. Baron v. M----, +Arthur v. W----." + +An Austrian nobleman also, Karl Freiherr v. M---- of Goeding in Moravia, +seized the opportunity to angle for a rich American bride, and to this +end sent to the swindle-bureau the following letter: + +"According to a notice in the papers of this place, you are acquainted +with American ladies who wish to marry. In this connection I place +myself at your service, but must inform you that I have no fortune +whatever. I am of very old noble stock (Baron), 34 years old, single, +was a cavalry officer and am at present engaged in building railroads. I +should be pleased to inspect one or more pictures, which, upon my word +of honor, I shall return. Should you require my picture, I shall forward +same to you. I also request you to give me fuller information. Expecting +a speedy answer in this matter, I remain, very respectfully, your Karl +Freiherr v. M----, Goeding, Moravia, Austria, November 29, 1889." + +A young German nobleman, Hans v. H----, wrote from London that he was 5 +feet 10 tall, of an old noble family, and employed in the diplomatic +service. He made the confession that his fortune had been greatly +reduced through unsuccessful betting at the horse races, and hence found +himself obliged to be on the lookout for a rich bride, so as to be able +to cover his deficit. He was, furthermore, ready to undertake a trip to +the United States forthwith. + +The _chevalier d'industry_ in question claimed that, besides several +counts, barons, etc., three Princes and sixteen dukes had reported to +him as candidates for marriage. But not noblemen only, bourgeois also +longed for rich American women. An architect, Max W---- of Leipsic, +demanded a bride who should possess not only money, but beauty and +culture also. From Kehl on the Rhine, a young mill-owner, Robert D----, +wrote that he would be satisfied with a bride who had but 400,000 marks, +and he promised in advance to make her happy. + +But why look so far, when at hand the quarry is rich! A very +patriotic-conservative Leipsic paper, which plumes itself very +particularly upon its Christianity, contained in the spring of 1894 an +advertisement, that ran thus: "A cavalry officer of the Guards, of +large, handsome build, noble, 27 years of age, desires a financial +marriage. Please address, Count v. W. I., Post Office General Delivery, +Dresden." In comparison with the fellow who makes so cynical an offer, +the street-walker, who, out of bitter necessity, plies her trade, is a +paragon of decency and virtue. Similar advertisements are found almost +every day in the papers of _all_ political parties--_except the Social +Democratic_. A Social Democratic editor or manager, who would accept +such or similar advertisements for his paper, would be expelled from his +party as dishonorable. The capitalist press is not troubled at such +advertisements: they bring in money: and it is of the mind of the +Emperor Vespasian,--_non olet_, it does not smell. Yet all that does not +hinder that same press from going rabid mad at "the marriage-undermining +tendencies of Socialism." Never yet was there an age more hypocritical +than the one we are living in. With the view to demonstrate the fact +once more, the above instances were cited. + +Bureaus of information for marriage,--that's what the advertisement +pages of most of the newspapers of our day are. Whosoever, be it male +or female, finds near at hand nothing desirable, entrusts his or her +heart's wants to the pious-conservative or moral-liberal press, that, in +consideration of cash and without coaxing, sees to it that the kindred +souls meet. With illustrations, taken on any one day from a number of +large newspapers, whole pages, could be filled. Off and on the +interesting fact also crops out that even clergymen are sought for +husbands, and, _vice versa_, clergymen angle for wives, with the aid of +advertisements. Occasionally, the suitors also offer to overlook a +_slip_, provided the looked-for woman be rich. In short, the moral +turpitude of certain social circles of our society can be pilloried no +better than by this sort of courtship. + +State and Church play in such "holy matrimony" a by no means handsome +_role_. Whether the civil magistrate or clergyman, on whom may devolve +the duty to celebrate the marriage, be convinced that the bridal couple +before him has been brought together by the vilest of practices; whether +it be manifest that, neither in point of age nor that of bodily or +mental qualities, the two are compatible with each other; whether, for +instance, the bride be twenty and the bridegroom seventy years old, or +the reverse; whether the bride be young, handsome and joyful, and the +bridegroom old, ridden with disease and crabbed;--whatever the case, it +concerns not the representative of the State or the Church; it is not +for them to look into that. The marriage bond is "blessed,"--as a rule, +blessed with all the greater solemnity in proportion to the size of the +fee for the "holy office." + +When, later, such a marriage proves a most unfortunate one--as foreseen +by everybody, by the ill-starred victim, in most instances the woman, +herself,--and either party decides to separate, then, State and +Church,--who never first inquire whether real love and natural, moral +impulses, or only naked, obscene egotism tie the knot--now raise the +greatest difficulties. At present, moral repulsion is but rarely +recognized a sufficient ground for separation; at present, only palpable +proofs, proofs that always dishonor or lower one of the parties in +public esteem, are, as a rule, demanded; separation is not otherwise +granted. That the Roman Catholic Church does not allow divorces,--except +by special dispensation of the Pope, which is hard to obtain, and, at +best, only from board and bed--only renders all the worse the +conditions, under which all Catholic countries are suffering. Germany +has the prospect of receiving, in the not too far distant future, a +civil code that shall embrace the whole Empire. It is, therefore, a +side-light upon our times that, although even the superficial observer +must reach the conclusion that at no previous period have unhappy +marriages been so numerous as now--a natural consequence of our whole +social development--the new draft for a civil code still renders divorce +materially difficult. It is but a fresh instance of the old +experience,--a social system, in the throes of dissolution, seeks to +keep itself up by artificial means and compulsion, and to deceive itself +upon its actual state. In declining Rome, marriage and births were +sought to be promoted by premiums: in the German Empire, whose social +order stands under a constellation similar with that of the decaying +Empire of the Caesars, it is now sought to prevent the ever more +frequent desire for the dissolution of marriage by means of forcible +constraints. + +Thus people remain against their will chained to each other through +life. One party becomes the slave of the other, compelled to submit out +of "conjugal duty" to that other's most intimate embraces, which, +perhaps, it abhors worse than insult or ill-treatment. Fully justified +is Montegazza's dictum:[71] "There is probably no worse torture than +that which compels a human being to put up with the caresses of a person +it does not love." + +We ask, Is such a marriage--and their number is infinite--not worse than +prostitution? The prostitute has, to a certain degree, the freedom to +withdraw from her disgraceful pursuit; moreover, she enjoys the +privilege, if she does not live in a public house, to reject the +purchase of the embraces of him who, for whatever reason, may be +distasteful to her. But a sold married woman must submit to the embraces +of her husband, even though she have a hundred reasons to hate and +despise him. + +When in advance, and with the knowledge of both parties, marriage is +contracted as a marriage for money or rank, then, as a rule, matters lie +more favorably. The two accommodate themselves mutually, and a _modus +vivendi_ is established. They want no scandal, and regard for their +children compels them to avoid any, although it is the children who +suffer most under a cold, loveless life on the part of their parents, +even if such a life does not develop into enmity, quarrel and +dissension. Often accommodation is reached in order to avoid material +loss. As a rule it is the husband, whose conduct is the rock against +which marriage is dashed. This appears from the actions for divorce. In +virtue of his dominant position, he can indemnify himself elsewhere when +the marriage is not pleasing to him, and he can not find satisfaction in +it. The wife is not so free to step on side-roads, partly because, as +the receiving sex, such action is, for physiologic reasons, a much more +risky one on her part; then, also, because every infraction of conjugal +fidelity is imputed a crime to her, which neither the husband nor +society pardons. Woman alone makes a "slip"--be she wife, widow or maid; +man, at worst, has acted "incorrectly." One and the same act is judged +by society with wholly different standards, according as it be committed +by a man or a woman. And, as a rule, women themselves judge a "fallen" +sister most severely and pitilessly.[72] + +As a rule, only in cases of crassest infidelity or maltreatment, does +the wife decide upon divorce. She is generally in a materially dependent +position, and compelled to look upon marriage as a means of support: +moreover, as a divorced wife, she finds herself socially in no enviable +situation: unless special reasons render intercourse with her desirable, +she is considered and treated by society as a neuter, so to speak. When, +despite all this, most actions for divorce proceed from wives, the +circumstance is an evidence of the heavy moral torture that they lie +under. In France, even before the new divorce law came into effect +(1884), by far the more numerous actions for separation from bed and +board came from women. For an absolute divorce they could apply only if +the husband took his concubine into the married home, against the will +of his wife. Actions for separations from bed and board occurred:[73] + + + Average Per Average Per Year + Years. Year by Wives. by Husbands. + 1856-1861 1729 184 + 1861-1866 2135 260 + 1866-1871 2591 330 + + +But not only did women institute by far the larger number of actions; +the figures show that these increased from period to period. +Furthermore, so far as reliable information before us goes, it appears +that actions for absolute divorce also proceed preponderatingly from +wives. In the Kingdom of Saxony, during the period of 1860-1868, there +were instituted, all told, 8,402 actions for divorce; of these, 3,537 +(42 per cent.) were by men, 4,865 (58 per cent.) by wives. + +In the period from 1871 to 1878, there were actions for divorce in +Saxony[74]: + + + Year. By Husbands. By Wives. + 1871 475 574 + 1872 576 698 + 1873 553 673 + 1874 643 697 + 1875 717 752 + 1876 722 839 + 1877 746 951 + 1878 754 994 + ----- ----- + Total 5,186 6,178 + + +The fact that divorce, as a rule, hurts women more, did not restrain +them in Saxony either from instituting most of the actions. The total +actions for divorce increased, however, in Saxony, as in France, much +faster than population. In Switzerland, during the year 1892, there were +granted 1,036 applications for divorce. Of these, wives had instituted +493, husbands 229, and both parties 314. + +Statistics teach us, however, not alone that wives institute the larger +number of actions for divorce; they also teach us that the number of +divorces is in rapid increase. In France, divorce has been regulated +anew by law since 1884. Since then, divorces have greatly increased from +year to year. The number of divorces, and years they fell in, were as +follows: + + + 1884 1,657 + 1885 2,477 + 1886 2,950 + 1887 3,636 + 1888 4,708 + 1889 4,786 + 1890 5,457 + + +In Vienna there were, from 1870 to 1871, 148 divorces; they increased +from year to year; from 1878 to 1879 they ran up to 319 cases.[75] But +in Vienna, being a preponderatingly Catholic city, divorce is hard to +obtain. That notwithstanding, about the year 1885 a Vienna Judge made +the remark: "Complaints on the ground of broken marriage vows are as +frequent as complaints for broken window-panes." In England and Wales +there was, in 1867, 1 divorce to every 1,378 marriages, but in 1877 +there was 1 to every 652 marriages; and in 1886, 1 to as few as 527. In +the United States the number of divorces for 1867 was 9,937, and for +1886 as many as 25,535. The total number of divorces in the United +States between 1867 and 1886 was 328,716, and the fault fell in 216,176 +cases upon the husband, in 112,540 upon the wife. + +Relatively speaking, the largest number of divorces occurs in the United +States. The proportion between marriages and divorces during the period +of 1867 to 1886 stood for those States in which an accurate record is +kept: + + + Marriages + to Every One + States. Marriages. Divorces. Divorce. + Connecticut 96,737 8,542 11.32 + Columbia 24,065 1,105 21.77 + Massachusetts 308,195 9,853 31.28 + Ohio 544,362 26,367 20.65 + Rhode Island 49,593 4,462 11.10 + Vermont 54,913 3,238 19.95 + + +In the other States of the Union, from which less accurate returns are +at hand, the proportion seems to be the same. The reasons why in the +United States divorces are more frequent than in any other country, may +be sought in the circumstance, first, that divorce is there more easily +obtained than elsewhere; secondly, that _women occupy in the United +States a far freer position than in any other country, hence are less +inclined to allow themselves to be tyrannised by their marital +lords_.[76] + +In Germany there was, by judicial decision, 1 dissolution of marriage-- + + + In the Years To Population. To Marriages. + 1881-1885 8,410 1,430 + 1886 7,585 1,283 + 1887 7,261 1,237 + 1888 6,966 1,179 + 1889 7,155 1,211 + + +According to Dr. S. Wernicke, there were to every 1,000 marriages, +divorces in: + + + Years. Belgium. Sweden. France. + 1841-1845 0.7 4.2 2.7 + 1846-1850 0.9 4.4 2.8 + 1851-1855 1.0 4.4 4.0 + 1856-1860 1.4 4.3 4.9 + 1861-1865 1.6 4.8 6.0 + 1866-1870 1.9 5.0 7.6 + 1871-1875 2.8 5.8 6.5 + 1876-1880 4.2 7.1 9.0 + + +It would be an error to attempt to arrive at any conclusion touching the +different conditions of morality, by deductions from the large +discrepancy between the figures for the different countries cited above. +No one will dare assert that the population of Sweden has more +inclination or cause for divorce than that of Belgium. First of all must +the legislation on the subject be kept in mind, which in one country +makes divorce difficult, in another easier, more so in some, less in +others. Only in the second instance does the condition of morality come +into consideration, i. e., the average reasons that, now the husbands, +then the wives, consider determining factors in applying for separation. +But all these figures combine in establishing that divorces increase +much faster than population; and that they _increase_ while marriages +_decline_. About this, more later. + +On the question how the actions for divorce distribute themselves among +the several strata of society, there is only one computation at our +disposal, from Saxony, but which is from the year 1851.[77] At that +time, to each 100,000 marriages, there were actions for divorce from the +stratum of + + + Domestic servants 289 or 1 application to 346 marriages + Day laborers 324 or 1 application to 309 marriages + Government employes 337 or 1 application to 289 marriages + Craftsmen and merchants 354 or 1 application to 283 marriages + Artists and scientists 485 or 1 application to 206 marriages + + +Accordingly, the actions for divorce were at that period in Saxony 50 +per cent. more frequent in the _higher_ than in the _lower_ social +strata. + +The increasing number of divorces signifies that, in general, the +marriage relations are becoming ever more unfavorable, and that the +factors multiply which destroy marriage. On the other hand, they also +furnish evidence that an ever larger number of spouses, women in +particular, decide to shake off the unbearable oppressing yoke. + +But the evils of matrimony increase, and the corruption of marriage +gains ground in the same measure as the struggle for existence waxes +sharper, and marriage becomes ever more a money-match, or be it, +marriage by purchase. The increasing difficulty, moreover, of supporting +a family determines many to renounce marriage altogether; and thus the +saying that woman's activity should be limited to the house, and that +she should fill her calling as housewife and mother, becomes ever more +_a senseless phrase_. On the other hand, the conditions can not choose +but favor the gratification of sexual intercourse outside of wedlock. +Hence the number of prostitutes increases, while the number of marriages +decreases. Besides that, the number increases of those who suffer from +unnatural gratification of the sexual instinct. + +Among the property classes, not infrequently the wife sinks, just as in +old Greece, to the level of a mere apparatus for the procreation of +legitimate offspring, of warder of the house, or of nurse to a husband, +wrecked by debauchery. The husbands keep for their pleasure and physical +desires hetairae--styled among us courtesans or mistresses--who live in +elegant abodes, in the handsomest quarters of the city. Others, whose +means do not allow them to keep mistresses, disport themselves, after +marriage as before, with Phrynes, for whom their hearts beat stronger +than for their own wives. With the Phrynes they amuse themselves; and +quite a number of the husbands among the "property and cultured +classes" is so corrupt that it considers these entertainments in +order.[78] + +In the upper and middle classes of society, the money matches and +matches for social position are the mainspring of the evils of married +life; but, over and above that, marriage is made rank by the lives these +classes lead. This holds good particularly with regard to the women, who +frequently give themselves over to idleness or to corrupting pursuits. +Their intellectual food often consists in the reading of equivocal +romances and obscene literature, in seeing and hearing frivolous +theatrical performances, and the fruition of sensuous music; in +exhilarating nervous stimulants; in conversations on the pettiest +subjects, or scandals about the dear fellow mortals. Along therewith, +they rush from one enjoyment into another, from one banquet to another, +and hasten in summer to the baths and summer retreats to recover from +the excesses of the winter, and to find fresh subjects for talk. The +_chronique scandaleuse_ recruits itself from this style of life: people +seduce and are seduced. + +In the lower classes money-matches are unknown, as a rule, although they +occasionally do play a role. No one can wholly withdraw himself from the +influence of the society he lives in,--and the existing social +conditions exercise a particularly depressing influence upon the +circumstances of the lower classes. As a rule, the workingman weds out +of inclination, but there is no lack of causes to disturb his marriage. +A rich blessing of children brings on cares and troubles; but too often +want sets in. Sickness and death are frequent guests in the workingman's +family. Lack of work drives misery to its height. Many a circumstance +pares off the worker's earnings, or temporarily robs him wholly of it. +Commercial and industrial crises throw him out of work; the introduction +of new machinery, or methods of work, casts him as superfluous on the +sidewalk; wars, unfavorable tariffs and commercial treaties, the +introduction of the new indirect taxes, disciplinary acts on the part of +the employer in punishment for the exercise of his convictions, etc., +destroy his existence, or seriously injure it. Now one thing, then +another happens, whereby, sometimes for a shorter, sometimes for a +longer period, he becomes an unemployed, i. e., a starving being. +Uncertainty is the badge of his existence. When such blows of fortune +happen, they at first produce dissatisfaction and bitterness, and in the +home life this mood finds its first expression when daily, every hour, +demands are made by wife and children for the most pressing needs, needs +that the husband can not satisfy. Out of despair, he visits the saloon, +and seeks comfort in bad liquor. The last penny is spent. Quarrel and +dissension break out. The ruin of both marriage and the family is +accomplished. + +Let us take up another picture. Both--husband and wife--go to work. The +little ones are left to themselves, or to the care of older brothers and +sisters, themselves in need of care and education. At noon, the +so-called lunch is swallowed down in hot haste,--supposing that the +parents have at all time to rush home, which, in thousands of cases is +impossible, owing to the shortness of the hour of recess, and the +distance of the shop from the home. Tired out and unstrung, both return +home in the evening. Instead of a friendly, cheerful home, they find a +narrow, unhealthy habitation, often lacking in light and air, generally +also in the most necessary comforts. The increasing tenement plague, +together with the horrible improprieties that flow therefrom, is one of +the darkest sides of our social order, and leads to numerous evils, +vices and crimes. Yet the plague increases from year to year in all +cities and industrial regions, and it draws within the vortex of its +evils ever new strata of society: small producers, public employes, +teachers, small traders, etc. The workingman's wife, who reaches home in +the evening tired and harassed, has now again her hands full. She must +bestir herself at breakneck speed in order but to get ready the most +necessary things in the household. The crying and noisy children are +hurried off to bed; the wife sits up, and sews, and patches deep into +the night. The so-much-needed mental intercourse and encouragement are +absent. The husband is often uneducated and knows little, the wife still +less; the little they have to say to each other is soon got through +with. The husband goes to the saloon, and seeks there the entertainment +that he lacks at home; he drinks; however little that be that he spends, +for his means it is too much. At times he falls a prey to gambling, +which, in the upper circles of society also, claims many victims, and he +loses more than he spends in drink. The wife, in the meantime, sits at +home and grumbles; she must work like a dray-horse; for her there is no +rest or recreation; the husband avails himself of the freedom that +accident gives him, of having been born a man. Thus disharmony arises. +If, however, the wife is less true to duty, she seeks in the evening, +after she has returned home tired, the rest she is entitled to; but then +the household goes back, and misery is twice as great. Indeed, we live +"in the best world possible." + +Through these and similar circumstances, marriage is shattered ever +more among the working class also. Even favorable seasons of work exert +their destructive influence: they compel him to work Sundays and +overtime: they take from him the hours he still had left for his family. +In many instances he has to travel hours to reach the shop; to utilize +the noon recess for going home is an impossibility; he is up in the +morning at the very earliest, when the children are still sound asleep, +and returns home late, when they are again in the same condition. +Thousands, especially those engaged in the building trades in the +cities, remain away from home all week, owing to the vastness of the +distance, and return only on Saturdays to their family. And yet it is +expected of family life that it thrive under such circumstances. +Moreover, female labor is ever on the increase, especially in the +textile industry, whose thousands of steam weaving and spinning looms +are served by cheap woman and children's hands. Here the relations of +sex and age have been reversed. Wife and child go into the mill, the now +breadless husband sits at home and attends to household duties. In the +United States, that, due to its rapid large-capitalist development, +produces all the evils of European industrial States in much larger +dimensions, a characteristic name has been invented for the state of +things brought on by such conditions. Industrial places that employ +women mainly, while the husbands sit at home, are called "she-towns." + +The admission of women to all the manual trades is to-day conceded on +all hands. Capitalist society, ever on the hunt for profit and gain, has +long since recognized what an excellent subject for exploitation is +woman--more docile and submissive, and less exacting woman--in +comparison with man. Hence the number of trades and occupations, in +which women are finding employment increases yearly. The extension and +improvement of machinery, the simplification of the process of +production through the ever minuter subdivision of labor, the intenser +competition of capitalists among themselves, together with the +competitive battle in the world's market among rival industrial +countries,--all these continue to favor the ever further application of +female labor. It is a phenomenon noticeable in all industrial countries +alike. But in the same measure that the number of working-women +increases, competition among the workingmen is thereby intensified. One +branch of industry after another, one branch of work after the other, is +being taken by working-women, who are ever more displacing the men. +Numerous passages in the reports of factory inspectors, as well as in +the statistical figures on the occupation of working-women, go to +confirm the fact. + +The condition of the women is worst in the industrial branches in which +they preponderate, for instance, the clothing and underwear industry, +those branches, in general, in which work can be done at home. The +inquiry into the condition of the working-women in the underwear and +confectionery industries, ordered in 1886 by the Bundesrath, has +revealed the fact that the wages of these working-women are often so +miserable that they are compelled to prostitute their bodies for a +side-source of income. A large number of the prostitutes are recruited +from the strata of ill-paid working-women. + +Our "Christian" Government, whose Christianity, as a rule, is looked for +in vain there where it should be applied, and is found where the same is +superfluous and harmful,--this Christian Government acts exactly like +the Christian capitalists, a fact that does not astonish him who knows +that the Christian Government is but the agent of our Christian +capitalists. The Government only with difficulty decides in favor of +laws to limit woman-labor to a normal measure, or to wholly forbid +child-labor;--on the same principle that that Government denies many of +its own employes both the requisite Sunday rest and normal hours of +work, and in that way materially disturbs their family life. Post +Office, railroad, penitentiary and other Government employes often must +perform their functions far beyond the time limit, and their salaries +stand in inverse ratio to their work. That, however, is, to-day, the +normal condition of things, still considered quite in order by the +majority. + +Seeing, furthermore, that rent, in comparison to the wages and earnings +of the workingmen, the lower Government employes and the small men +included, is much too high, these must exert themselves to the utmost. +Lodgers are taken into these homes, only males in some, females in +others, often both. The young and the old live together in narrow +quarters, without separating the sexes, and are crowded together even +during the most private acts. How the sense of shame, or morality fares +thereby, horrifying facts proclaim. The increasing brutalization of the +youth, so extensively discussed, is due mainly to the conditions +prevalent in our industrial system, with which the wretchedness of the +home is closely connected. And, as to the children, what must be upon +them the effect of industrial labor! The very worst imaginable, both +physically and morally. + +The ever increasing industrial occupation of married women also is +accompanied with fatal results. Especially is this the case in +connection with pregnancy and child-birth, as also during the early life +of the child when it depends upon the nourishment of the mother. A +number of ailments arise during pregnancy that affect destructively both +the fruit and the organism of the woman, and cause premature and +still-born births, upon all of which more later. After the child is +born, the mother is compelled to return as quickly as possible to the +factory, lest her place be taken by a competitor. The inevitable +results to the little ones are: neglected care, improper or total lack +of nourishment. They are drugged with opiates to keep them quiet. The +further results are: a vast mortality, or stunted development; in short, +the degeneration of the race. The children often grow up without having +enjoyed true motherly and fatherly love, or having on their part, felt +filial affection. Thus is the proletariat born, thus does it live and +die. And the "Christian" Government, this "Christian" society wonders +that rudeness, immorality and crime cumulate. + +When, in the early sixties of last century, due to the American Civil +War for the emancipation of the negroes, many thousands of workingmen in +the English cotton industries were out of work, physicians made the +remarkable discovery that, despite great want among the population, +mortality among children had _declined_. The cause was simple. The +children now enjoyed the mother's nourishment and better care than they +had ever had during the best seasons of work. The same fact was attested +by physicians during the crisis of the seventies in the United States, +especially in New York and Massachusetts. The general lack of employment +compelled the women to rest from labor, and left them time for the care +of their children. Similar observations were also made by Dr. v. +Recherberg during the inquiry into the condition of the weavers of the +region of Zittau in Saxony, as shown by him in a work that he wrote +during the summer of 1890. + +In the home-industries, which romantic economists love to represent as +idyllic, conditions are no better. Here the wife is chained to her +husband, at work early and late into the night, and the children are +from an early age hitched on. Crowded into the narrowest space +imaginable, husband, wife and family, boys and girls, live together, +along with the waste of materials, amidst the most disagreeable dusts +and odors, and without the necessary cleanliness. The bedrooms are of a +piece with the sitting and working rooms: generally dark holes and +without ventilation, they would be sufficiently unsanitary if they +housed but a part of the people huddled into them. In short, the +conditions of these places are such as to cause the skin to creep of +anyone accustomed to a life worthy of a human being. + +The ever harder struggle for existence often also compels women and men +to commit actions and tolerate indignities that, under other +circumstances, would fill them with disgust. In 1877 it was +authentically established in Munich that, among the prostitutes, +registered by and under the surveillance of the police, there were not +less than 203 wives of workingmen and artisans. And how many are not the +married women, who, out of distress, prostitute themselves without +submitting to a police control that deeply lacerates the sense of shame +and dignity! + +But we have wandered somewhat from our subject. It was shown that the +number of actions for divorce is on the increase in all countries of +civilization, and that the majority of these actions proceed from wives. +This steadily rising figure of actions for divorce is a sign of _the +decay of bourgeois marriage, which is answering its purpose ever less_. +But a still much worse sign of its decay is the circumstance that, +simultaneously, the number of marriages is in almost all these countries +steadily on the decline. Experience tells that high prices for corn in +one single year have an unfavorable effect both upon the number of +marriages and that of births. Long industrial crises, and increasing +deterioration of the general economic condition must, accordingly, have +a lasting evil effect. This is confirmed by the statistics of marriages +for almost all countries in civilization. + +In France, marriages between 1881-1890 cast the following picture on the +canvas. Marriages were contracted in-- + + + 1881 282,079 1886 283,208 + 1882 281,060 1887 277,060 + 1883 284,519 1888 276,848 + 1884 289,555 1889 272,934 + 1885 283,170 1890 269,332 + + +There is, accordingly, a considerable decrease of marriages. + +In the German Empire, the number of marriages was highest after the +close of the war between Germany and France, during which they had stood +still. In 1872 there were 423,900 marriages contracted, but in 1876 they +numbered only 366,912, and during the worst year of the crisis, the year +1879, they dropped to 335,113. They have since risen again slowly, and +numbered in + + + 1882 350,457 1889 389,339 + 1886 372,326 1892 398,775 + + +Although in the year 1892 the population of Germany was larger by +8,000,000 heads than in 1872, the number of marriages was not even as +large as in 1874 when it amounted to 400,282. In the period between +1871-1880, there were, to an average of 1,000 inhabitants in Germany, +8.6 marriages; in the period between 1881-1888, only 7.8. + +In Prussia, to the average 10,000 inhabitants, there married-- + + + Between 1831-35 1,849 + Between 1866-70 1,605 + Between 1871-75 1,896 + Between 1881-85 1,529 + And in 1888 1,624 + + +A similar, partly even more unfavorable picture than in Germany, is +furnished by the statistical tables for other European countries. + +Out of every 10,000 persons, there married-- + + + Year Holland Switzerland Austria France Italy Belgium England + 1873 171 152 188 178 159 156 176 + 1874 168 166 181 167 153 152 170 + 1875 167 179 171 164 168 145 167 + 1876 165 162 165 158 163 142 166 + 1877 162 157 150 150 154 149 157 + 1878 155 147 152 151 142 135 152 + 1879 153 138 155 152 150 136 144 + 1880 150 137 152 149 140 141 149 + 1881 146 136 160 150 162 142 151 + 1882 143 135 164 149 157 140 155 + 1883 142 136 157 150 161 136 154 + 1884 144 136 157 153 164 136 151 + 1885 139 138 152 149 158 136 144 + 1886 139 137 155 149 158 134 141 + --- --- --- --- --- --- --- + Average 153 147 161 155 156 141 156 + + Year Scotland Ireland Denmark Norway Sweden Hungary + 1873 155 96 162 145 146 226 + 1874 152 92 164 153 145 214 + 1875 148 91 170 157 140 218 + 1876 150 99 171 154 141 198 + 1877 144 93 161 151 137 182 + 1878 134 95 148 146 129 187 + 1879 128 87 147 135 126 205 + 1880 132 78 152 133 126 182 + 1881 139 85 156 128 124 198 + 1882 140 86 154 134 127 203 + 1883 140 85 154 132 128 205 + 1884 135 91 156 137 131 201 + 1885 129 86 151 133 133 ... + 1886 124 84 142 131 ... ... + --- -- --- --- --- --- + Average 139 89 156 141 133 202 + + +These figures are interesting in more respects than one. In the first +place, they prove that, in all the countries named, the number of +marriages _declines_. Like Germany, all these countries show the highest +frequency of marriage in the beginning of 1872, and then follows a drop +in most of them. Hungary comes out best; Ireland, on the contrary, +worst, showing the smallest figures of all. The ejectment of the Irish +population from their lands, and the ever greater concentration of the +same in the hands of the large landlords, express themselves clearly in +the figures given.[79] + +Industrial conditions have a marked effect upon the number of marriages. +As the former has, on an average, become ever more unfavorable since the +middle of the seventies, the decline in marriages is not astonishing. +But not the industrial conditions only, also the manner in which the +property relations develop affects marriages in a high degree, as just +seen in Ireland. The Year-Book of Schmoller for 1885, section 1, gives +information on the statistics of population of the Kingdom of +Wuertemberg, from which it appears strikingly that with the increase of +large age _declines_, while the number of _unmarried_ men between the +ages of 40 and 50 _rises_: + + + Percentage of Males. + Percentage of Landed Married Unmarried + Property by of the of the + Hectares. Age of Age of + Districts. Up to 5. 5-20. Over 20. 25-30. 40-50. + Upper Neurenburg 79.6 20.4 0.0 63.6 4.4 + East of Stuttgart 78.9 17.7 3.4 51.3 8.1 + South of Stuttgart 67.6 24.8 7.6 48.6 8.7 + North of Stuttgart 56.5 34.8 8.8 50.0 10.0 + Schwarzwald 50.2 42.2 7.6 48.6 10.1 + Upper Neckar 43.6 40.3 16.1 44.3 10.8 + Eastward 39.5 47.6 12.8 48.7 10.0 + Northeast, except + north of Hall 22.2 50.1 27.7 38.8 10.6 + Swabian Alb 20.3 40.8 38.3 38.8 7.5 + North Upper Swabia 19.7 48.0 32.3 32.5 9.7 + From Hall eastward 15.5 50.0 34.5 32.5 13.8 + Bodensee district 14.2 61.4 24.4 23.5 26.4 + Middle and South + Upper Swabia 12.6 41.1 46.3 30.0 19.1 + + +There can be no doubt: small landed property favors marriages: it makes +a living possible for a larger number of families, although the living +be modest. Large landed property, on the contrary, works directly +against marriage, and promotes celibacy. All the figures here quoted +prove, accordingly, that, not _morals_, but purely _material_ causes are +the determining factor. _The number of marriages, like the moral +conditions of a commonwealth, depends upon its material foundations._ + +The fear of want, the mental worry lest the children be not educated up +to their station,--these are further causes that drive the wives, in +particular, of all ranks to actions that are out of keeping with nature, +and still more so with the criminal code. Under this head belong the +various means for the prevention of pregnancy, or, when, despite all +care, this does set in, then the removal of the unripe +fruit--_abortion_. It were an error to claim that these measures are +resorted to only by heedless, unconscionable women. Often, rather, it is +conscientious women, who wish to limit the number of children, in order +to escape the dilemma of either having to deny themselves their +husbands, or of driving them to paths that they are naturally inclined +to. It often is such women who prefer to undergo the dangers of +abortion. Besides these, there are other women, especially in the higher +walks of life, who, in order to conceal a "slip," or out of aversion +for the inconveniences of pregnancy, of child-birth and of nursing, +perhaps, out of fear of sooner losing their charms, and then forfeiting +their standing with either husband or male friends, incur such criminal +acts, and, for hard cash, find ready medical and midwife support. + +To conclude from diverse indications, artificial abortion is coming ever +more into practice; nor is the practice new. Artificial abortion was in +frequent use among the ancient peoples, and is, to this day, from the +most civilized down to the barbarous. According to Jules Roget,[80] the +women of Rome took recourse to abortion for several reasons: They either +sought to destroy the evidence of illicit relations--a reason that even +to-day is often at its bottom; or they wished to be able to indulge +their excesses without interruption. There were also other reasons: they +wished to avoid the changes that pregnancy and child-birth work upon +woman's physique. Among the Romans, a woman was old from twenty-five +years to thirty. Accordingly, she sought to avoid all that might impair +her charms. In the Middle Ages, abortion was punishable with severe +bodily chastisement, often even with death; the free woman, guilty +thereof, became a serf. At present, abortion is especially in use in the +United States. In all large cities of the Union, there are institutions +in which girls and women are prematurely delivered: many American papers +contain the advertisements of such places: abortion is talked of there +almost as freely as of a regular birth. In Germany and Europe, opinion +on the subject is different: the German criminal code, for instance, +makes the act of both the principal and the accessory a penitentiary +offense.[81] + +Abortion is, in many cases, accompanied by the most serious results. The +operation is dangerous; death not infrequently occurs; often the result +is a permanent impairment of health. "The troubles of troublesome +pregnancy and child-birth are infinitely less than the sufferings +consequent upon artificial abortion."[82] Barrenness is one of its most +common consequences. All that, notwithstanding, abortion is practiced +also in Germany, ever more frequently, and for the reasons given. +Between 1882-1888, the number of cases in Berlin, of which the criminal +courts took cognizance, rose 155 per cent. The _chronique scandaleuse_ +of the last years dealt frequently with cases of abortion, that caused +great sensation, due to the circumstance that reputable physicians and +women, prominent in society, played a _role_ in them. Furthermore, to +judge from the rising number of announcements in our newspapers, the +institutions and places increase in which married and unmarried women of +the property class are offered an opportunity to await the results of a +"slip" in perfect secrecy. + +The dread of a large increase of children--due to the smallness of +means, and the cost of bringing up--has, among all classes and even +peoples, developed the use of preventatives into a system, that here and +yonder has grown into a public calamity. It is a generally known fact +that, in all strata of French society, the "two-child system" is in +force. In few countries of civilization are marriages relatively as +numerous as in France, and in no country is the average number of +children so small, and the increase of population so slow. The French +capitalist, like the small-holder and allotment peasant, pursues the +system; the French workingman follows suit. In many sections of Germany +the special situation of the peasants seems to have led to similar +conditions. We know a charming region in Southwest Germany, where, in +the garden of every peasant, there stands the so-called "Sevenbaum," +whose properties are applied to abortive purposes. In another district +of the same country the regular two-child system prevails among the +peasants: they do not wish to divide the places. Moreover, striking is +the measure in which literature, that treats with and recommends the +means of "facultative sterility," increases in Germany both in volume +and demand,--of course, always under the colors of science, and in +allusion to the alleged threatening danger of over-population. + +Along with abortion and the artificial prevention of conception, crime +plays its _role_. In France, the murder of children and their exposure +is perceptibly on the increase, both promoted by the provision of the +French civil code that forbids all inquiry after the paternity of the +child. Section 340 of the _Code Civil_ decrees: "_La recherche de la +paternite est interdite_;" on the other hand, Section 314 provides: "_La +recherche de la maternite est admise_." To inquire after the paternity +of a child is forbidden, but is allowed after its maternity,--a law that +glaringly brings out the injustice contemplated towards the seduced +woman. The men of France are free to seduce as many women and girls as +they are able to; they are free from all responsibility; they owe no +support to the child. These provisions were instituted under the pretext +that the female sex should be frightened against seducing the men. As +you see, everywhere it is the weak man, this limb of the stronger sex, +who is seduced, but never seduces. The result of Section 340 of the +_Code Civil_ was Section 312, which provides: "_L'enfant concu pendant +le marriage a pour pere le mari._"[83] Inquiry after the paternity being +forbidden, it is logical that the husband, crowned with horns, rest +content with having the child, that his wife received from another, +considered his own. Inconsistency, at any rate, can not be charged to +the French capitalist class. All attempts to amend Section 340 have so +far failed. Lately, February, 1895, the Socialist deputies in the French +Chamber of Deputies presented a bill intended to put an end to the +disfranchised position of the seduced or betrayed woman. Whether the +attempt will be crowned with success is doubtful. + +On the other hand, the French capitalist class--sensible of the cruelty +it committed in so framing the law as to make it impossible for the +deceived woman to turn for support to the father of her child--sought to +make up for its sins by establishing foundling asylums. According to our +famous "morals," there is no paternal feeling towards the illegitimate +child; that exists only for "legitimate heirs." Through the foundlings' +asylums the mother also is taken from the new-born child. According to +the French fiction, foundlings are orphans. In this way, the French +capitalist class has its illegitimate children brought up, _at the +expense of the State_, as "children of the fatherland." A charming +arrangement. In Germany, things bid fair to be switched on the French +track. The provisions in the bill for a civil code for the German Empire +contain maxims on the legal status of illegitimate children, strongly in +contrast with the humane law still in force. + +According to the bill, a dishonored girl--even if blameless, or seduced +with the promise of subsequent marriage, or induced to consent to +coition through some criminal act--has no claim against the seducer +except as indemnity for the costs of delivery, and for support during +the first six weeks after the birth of the child, and then only within +the bounds of what is strictly necessary. Only in some of the cases of +the worst crimes against morality, can a slight money indemnity be +granted to the seduced girl, at the discretion of the court, and without +the necessity of proving actual damages. The illegitimate child has no +claim upon the seducer of his mother, except for the merest necessaries +of life, and then only until its fourteenth year. All claims of the +child on its father are, however, barred if, within pregnancy, any other +man cohabit with its mother. The plaintiff child has, moreover, to prove +that its mother has not accepted the embraces of any other man. + +Menger, the expositions in whose treatise[84] we here follow, justly +raises against the bill the serious charge that it only accrues to the +advantage of the well-to-do, immoral men, seducers of ignorant girls, +often girls who sin through poverty, but leaves these fallen girls, +together with their wholly guiltless children, entirely unprotected, +aye, pushes them only deeper into misery and crime. Menger cites, in +this connection, the provisions of the Prussian law. According thereto, +an unmarried woman or widow of good character, who is made pregnant, is +to be indemnified by the man according to his means. The indemnity +shall, however, not exceed one-fourth of his property. An illegitimate +child has a claim upon its father for support and education, regardless +of whether his mother is a person of good character: the expenditure, +however, shall be no higher than the education of a legitimate child +would cost to people of the peasant or of ordinary citizen walks of +life. If the illicit intercourse occurred under promise of future +marriage, then, according to the further provisions of Prussian law, the +Judge is duly to award the woman, pronounced innocent and a wife, the +name, standing and rank of the man, together with all the rights of a +divorced woman. The illegitimate child has, in such cases, all the +rights of children born in wedlock. We may await with curiosity to see +whether the provisions of this bill, so hostile to woman, will acquire +the force of a civil code of law in Germany. But retrogression is the +key-note in our legislation. + +Between the years of 1830-1880, there were 8,563 cases of infanticide +before the French court of assizes, the figures rising from 471 in 1831, +to 980 in 1880. During the same period, 1,032 cases of abortion were +tried, 41 in 1831, and in 1880 over 100. Of course, only a small part of +the abortions came to the knowledge of the criminal court; as a rule, +only when followed by serious illness or death. In the cases of +infanticide, the country population contributed 75 per cent., in the +cases of abortion the cities 65 per cent. In the city, the women have +more means at command to prevent normal birth; hence, the many cases of +abortion and the small number of infanticides. It is the reverse in the +country. + +Such is the composition of the picture presented by modern society in +respect to its most intimate relations. The picture differs wide from +that that poets and poetically doused phantasists love to paint it. Our +picture, however, has this advantage,--it is true. And yet the picture +still calls for several strokes of the brush to bring out its character +in full. + +In general, there can be no difference of opinion touching the present +and average mental inferiority of the female sex to the male. True +enough, Balzac, by no means a woman-lover, claims: "The woman, who has +received a male education, possesses in fact the most brilliant and +fruitful qualities for the building of her own happiness and that of her +husband;" and Goethe, who knew well both the men and women of his times, +expresses himself in Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (confessions of a +pure soul): "Learned women were ridiculed, and also the educated ones +were disliked, probably because it was considered impolite to put so +many ignorant men to shame." We agree with both. Nevertheless, the fact +is no wise altered that, in general, women stand intellectually behind +the men. This difference is compulsory, because _woman is that which +man, as her master, has made her_. The education of woman, more so than +that of the working class, has been neglected since time immemorial; nor +are latter-day improvements adequate. We live in days when the +aspiration after exchange of thought grows in all circles, in the family +also; and there the neglected education of woman is felt as a serious +fault, and it avenges itself upon the husband. + +The object of the education of man--at least it is so claimed, although +due to the mistaken methods, the object is often missed, perchance, +also, is not meant to be reached--aims at the development of the +intellect, the sharpening of the powers of thought, the broadening of +the field of practical knowledge, and the invigoration of the +will-power, in short, at the cultivation of the functions of the mind. +With woman, on the contrary, education, so far as at all attended to in +a higher degree, is mainly aimed at the intensification of her feelings, +at formality and polite culture--music, belles-letters, art, poetry--all +of which only screw her nervous sensitiveness and phantasy up to a +higher pitch. This is a mistaken and unhealthy policy. In it the fact +transpires that the powers, which determine the measure of woman's +education, are guided only by their ingrained prejudices regarding the +nature of the female character, and also by the cramped position of +woman. The object must not be to develop still further the sentimental +and imaginative side of woman, which would only tend to heighten her +natural inclination to nervousness; neither should her education be +limited to etiquette and polite literature. The object, with regard to +her as to man, should be to develop their intellectual activity and +acquaint them with the phenomena of practical life. It would be of +greatest benefit to both sexes if, in lieu of a superfluity of +sentiment, that often becomes positively uncanny, woman possessed a good +share of sharpened wit and power for exact reasoning; if, in lieu of +excessive nervous excitation and timidity, she possessed firmness of +character and physical courage; in lieu of conventional, literary +refinement, in so far as she at all has any, she had a knowledge of the +world, of men and of the powers of Nature. + +Generally speaking, what is termed the feeling and spirituality of woman +has hitherto been nurtured without stint, while her intellectual +development has, on the contrary, been grossly neglected and kept +under. As a consequence, she suffers of hypertrophy of feeling and +spirituality, hence is prone to superstition and miracles,--a more than +grateful soil for religious and other charlataneries, a pliant tool for +all reaction. Blockish men often complain when she is thus affected, but +they bring no relief, because often they are themselves steeped up to +the ears in prejudices. + +By reason of woman's being almost generally as here sketched, she looks +upon the world differently from man. Hence, again, a strong source of +contrariety between the two sexes. + +Participation in public life is to-day one of the most essential duties +of a man; that many men do not yet understand this does not alter the +fact. Nevertheless, the number of those is ever increasing who realize +that public institutions stand in intimate connection with the private +lot of the individual; that his success or failure, together with that +of his family, depend infinitely more upon the condition of public +affairs than upon his own personal qualities and actions. The fact is +beginning to receive recognition that the greatest efforts of the +individual are powerless against evils that lie in the very condition of +things, and that determine his state. On the other hand, the struggle +for existence now requires much greater efforts than before. Demands are +now made upon man that engage ever more his time and strength. The +ignorant, indifferent wife stands dumb before him, and feels herself +neglected. It may be even said that, the mental difference between man +and woman is to-day greater than formerly, when the opportunities for +both were slight and limited, and lay more within the reach of her +restricted intellect. Furthermore, the handling of public affairs +occupies to-day a large number of men to a degree before unknown; this +widens their horizon; but it also withdraws them ever more from the +mental sphere of their homes. The wife deems herself set back, and thus +another source of friction is started. Only rarely does the husband know +how to pacify his wife and convince her. When he does that, he has +escaped a dangerous rock. As a rule the husband is of the opinion that +what he wants does not concern his wife, she does not understand it. He +takes no pains to enlighten her. "You don't understand such matters," is +his stereotyped answer, the moment the wife complains that she is +neglected. Lack of information on the part of wives is promoted by lack +of sense on the part of most husbands. More favorable relations between +husband and wife spring up in the rank of the working class in the +measure that both realize they are tugging at the same rope, and that +there is but one means towards satisfactory conditions for themselves +and their family,--the radical reformation of society that shall make +human beings of them all. In the measure that such insight gains ground +among the wives of the proletariat, then, despite want and misery, +their married life is _idealized_: both now have a common aim, after +which they strive; and they have an inexhaustible source of mutual +encouragement in the mutual interchange of views, whereto their joint +battle leads them. The number of proletarian women who reach this +insight is every year larger. Herein lies a movement, that is in process +of development, and that is fraught with decisive significance for the +future of mankind. + +In other social strata, the differences in education and views--easily +overlooked at the beginning of married life, when passion still +predominates--are felt ever more with ripening years. Sexual passion +cools off, and its substitution with harmony of thought is all the more +needful. But, leaving aside whether the husband has any idea of civic +duties and attends to the same, he, at any rate, thanks to his +occupation and constant intercourse with the outer world, comes into +continuous touch with different elements and opinions, on all sorts of +occasions, and thus floats into an intellectual atmosphere that broadens +his horizon. As a rule, and in contrast with his wife, he finds himself +in a state of intellectual molting, while she, on the contrary, due to +her household duties, which engage her early and late, is robbed of +leisure for further education, and, accordingly, becomes mentally +stunted and soured. + +The domestic wretchedness in which the majority of wives live to-day, is +correctly depicted by the bourgeois-minded Gerhard von Amyntor in his +"Marginal Notes to the Book of Life."[85] In the chapter entitled +"Deadly Gnat-bites" he says among other things: + +"Not the shocking events, that none remain unvisited by, and that bring, +here the death of a husband, yonder the moral downfall of a beloved +child; that lie, here in a long and serious illness, yonder in the +wrecking of a warmly nursed plan;--not these undermine her (the +housewife's) freshness and strength. It is the small, daily-recurring +marrow and bone-gnawing cares.... How many millions of brave little +house-mothers cook and scour away their vigor of life, their very cheeks +and roguish dimples, in attending to domestic cares until they become +crumpled, dried and broke-up mummies. The ever-recurring question, what +shall be cooked to-day? the ever-recurring necessity of sweeping, and +beating, and brushing, and dusting is the continuously falling drop that +slowly, but surely, wears away mind and body. The kitchen-hearth is the +place where the saddest balances are drawn up between income and +expense, where the most depressing observations are forced upon the mind +on the rising dearness of the necessaries of life, and on the ever +increasing difficulty to earn the needed cash. On the flaming altar, +where the soup kettle bubbles, youth and mental ease, beauty and good +humor are sacrificed; and who recognizes in the old care-bent cook, the +one-time blooming, overbearing, coy-coquette bride in the array of her +myrtle crown? Already in antiquity the hearth was sacred, near it were +placed the Lares and patron deities. Let us also hold sacred the hearth +at which the dutiful German bourgeois house-wife dies a slow death, in +order to keep the house comfortable, the table covered and the family in +health." Such is the consolation offered in bourgeois society to the +wife, who, under the present order of society, is miserably going to +pieces. + +Those women, who, thanks to their social condition, find themselves in a +freer state, have, as a rule, a one-sided, superficial education, that, +combined with inherited female characteristics, manifests itself with +force. They generally have a taste for mere superficialities; they think +only about gew-gaws and dress; and thus they seek their mission in the +satisfaction of a spoiled taste, and the indulgence of passions that +demand their pay with usury. In their children and the education of +these they have hardly any interest: they give them too much trouble and +annoyance, hence are left to the nurses and servants, and are later +passed on to the boarding-schools. At any rate their principal task is +to raise their daughters as show-dolls, and their sons as pupils for the +_jeunesse dore_ (gilded youth) out of which dudedom recruits its +ranks--that despicable class of men that may be fairly put upon a level +with procurers. This _jeunesse dore_ furnishes the chief contingent to +the seducers of the daughters of the working class. They look upon +idleness and squandering as a profession. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[58] Mainlaender, "Philosophie der Erloesung," Frankfort-on-the-Main, +1886, E. Koenitzer. + +[59] D. A. Debay, "Hygiene et Physiologue du Marriage," Paris, 1884. +Quoted in "Im Freien Reich" by Ioma v. Troll-Borostyani, Zurich, 1884. + +[60] "Das Geschlechtsleben des Weibes, in physiologischer, +pathologischer und therapeutischer Hinsicht dargestellt." + +[61] "Die Prostitution vor dem Gesetz," by Veritas. Leipsic, 1893. + +[62] V. Oettingen, "Moralstatistik." Erlangen, 1882. + +[63] "Lehrbuch der Psychiatrie," Vol. I, Stuttgart, 1883. + +[64] Vol. II. Leipsic, 1887. + +[65] "The moods and feelings in and which husband and wife approach each +other, exercise, without a doubt, a definite influence upon the result +of the sexual act, and transmit certain characteristics to the fruit." +Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, "The Moral Education of the Young In Relation +to Sex." See also Goethe's "Elective Affinities," where he sketches +clearly the influence exerted by the feelings of two beings who approach +each other for intimate intercourse. + +[66] "Denkwuerdigkeiten," Vol. I, p. 239, Leipsic, F. A. Brockhaus. + +[67] "Mr. E., a manufacturer ... informed me that he employed females +exclusively, at his power-looms ... gives a decided preference to +married females, especially those who have families at home dependent on +them for support; they are attentive, docile, more so than unmarried +females, and are compelled to use their utmost exertions to procure the +necessities of life. Thus are the virtues, the peculiar virtues of the +female character to be perverted to her injury--thus all that is most +dutiful and tender in her nature is made a means of her bondage and +suffering." Speech of Lord Ashley, March 15, 1884, on the Ten Hour +Factory Bill. Marx's "Capital." + +[68] "Die Frau auf dem Gebiete der Nationaloekonomie." + +[69] See "Fuerst Bismarck und seine Leute," Von Busch. + +[70] Sections 180 and 181. + +[71] "The Physiology of Love." + +[72] Alexander Dumas says rightly, In "Monsieur Alfonse:" "Man has built +two sorts of morals; one for himself, one for his wife; one that permits +him love with all women, and one that, as indemnity for the liberty she +has forfeited forever, permits her love with one man only." + +[73] L. Bridel, "La Puissance Maritale," Lausanne. 1879. + +[74] v. Oettingen, "Moralstatistik," Erlangen, 1882. + +[75] v. Oettingen, "Moralstatistik." + +[76] [According to the census of 1900, there were in the United States +198,914 divorced persons: males 84,237, females 114,677. The percentage +of divorced to married persons was 0.7. The census warns, however, that +"divorced persons are apt to be reported as single, and so the census +returns in this respect should not be accepted as a correct measure of +the prevalence of divorce throughout the country."--THE TRANSLATOR.] + +[77] v. Oettingen, "Moralstatistik." + +[78] In his work frequently cited by us, "Die Frauenfrage im +Mittelalter," Buecher laments the decay of marriage and of family life; +he condemns the increasing female labor in industry, and demands a +"return" to the "real domain of woman," where she alone produces +"values" in the house and the family. The endeavors of the modern +friends of woman appear to him as "dilettanteism" and he hopes finally +"that the movement may be switched on the right track," but he is +obviously unable to point to a successful road. Neither is that possible +from the bourgeois standpoint. The marriage conditions, like the +condition of woman in general, have not been brought about arbitrarily. +They are the natural product of our social development. But the social +development of peoples does not cut capers, nor does it perpetrate any +such false reasonings in a circle; it takes its course obedient to +imminent laws. It is the mission of the student of civilization to +discover these laws, and, planted upon them, to show the way for the +removal of existing evils. + +[79] "Neue Zeit," Jahrgang 1888, p. 239. + +[80] "Etudes Medicales sur l'Ancienne Rome," Paris, 1859. + +[81] The above account of the United States, concerning the contrast +between it and Europe, is incorrect. At the time in the nation's history +when material conditions were easy, theoretically, the thought of +abortion, let alone its execution, could not spring up; and it did not. +All the reports of that time, not forgetting Washington Irving's +humorous account of the custom of "bundling," confirm the fact. Births +were numerous, families large. + +Subsequently, when conditions became less easy, and in the measure that +the country entered increasingly into the sphere of the material +hardships implied in advancing capitalism, theoretically, again, the +thought of abortion, and, along with it, the deed, must be expected to +have sprung up; and so they did. But the same development that carried +the country into the material sphere of capitalism, also, and at the +same time, carried its people into the sphere of capitalist affectation +of morality and measuredness of language; in short, of hypocrisy. The +being, that will commit the crimes of a higher civilization with the +plain-spokenness of the barbarian, is a monstrosity. Capitalist United +States is abreast of, and moves in even step with, capitalist Europe, +not in the practice only of crime, but in the Pharisees of its +condemnation and the severity of its punishment also.--THE TRANSLATOR. + +[82] "Geschichte und Gefahren der Fruchtabtreibung," Dr. Ed. Reich, +Leipsic, 1893. + +[83] "The child conceived during marriage has the husband for father." + +[84] "Das buergerliche Recht und die besitzlosen Klassen," Tuebingen, +1890. + +[85] Sam. Lucas, Elberfeld. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +FURTHER CHECKS AND OBSTRUCTIONS TO MARRIAGE--NUMERICAL PROPORTION OF THE +SEXES--ITS CAUSES AND EFFECTS. + + +Cast in the mold of the conditions above described, many a feature of +woman's character took shape, and they reached ever fuller development +from generation to generation. On these features men love to dwell with +predilection, but they forget that they are themselves the cause +thereof, and have promoted with their conduct the defects they now make +merry about, or censure. Among these widely censured female qualities, +belong her dreaded readiness of tongue, and passion for gossip; her +inclination to endless talk over trifles and unimportant things; her +mental bent for purely external matters, such as dress, and her desire +to please, together with a resulting proneness to all the follies of +fashion; lastly, her easily arousable envy and jealousy of the other +members of her sex. + +These qualities, though in different degrees, manifest themselves +generally in the female sex from early childhood. They are qualities +that are born under the pressure of social conditions, and are further +developed by heredity, example and education. A being irrationally +brought up, can not bring up others rationally. + +In order to be clear on the causes and development of good or bad +qualities, whether with the sexes or with whole peoples, the same +methods must be pursued that modern natural science applies in order to +ascertain the formation and development of life according to genus and +species, and to determine their qualities. They are the laws that flow +from the material conditions for life, laws that life demands, that +adapt themselves to it, and finally became its nature. + +Man forms no exception to that which holds good in Nature for all +animate creation. Man does not stand outside of Nature: looked at +physiologically, he is the most highly developed animal,--a fact, +however, that some would deny. Thousands of years ago, although wholly +ignorant of modern science, the ancients had on many matters affecting +man, more rational views than the moderns; above all, they gave +practical application to the views founded on experience. We praise with +enthusiastic admiration the beauty and strength of the men and women of +Greece; but the fact is overlooked that, not the happy climate, nor the +bewitching nature of a territory that stretched along the bay-indented +sea, but the physical culture and maxims of education, consistently +enforced by the State, thus affected both the being and the development +of the population. These measures were calculated to combine beauty, +strength and suppleness of body with wit and elasticity of mind, both of +which were transmitted to the descendants. True enough, even then, in +comparison with man, woman was neglected in point of mental, but not of +corporal culture.[86] In Sparta, that went furthest in the corporal +culture of the two sexes, boys and girls went naked until the age of +puberty, and participated in common in the exercises of the body, in +games and in wrestling. The naked exposure of the human body, together +with the natural treatment of natural things, had the advantage that +sensuous excitement--to-day artificially cultivated by the separation of +the sexes from early childhood--was then prevented. The corporal make-up +of one sex, together with its distinctive organs, was no secret to the +other. There, no play of equivocal words could arise. Nature was Nature. +The one sex rejoiced at the beauty of the other. Mankind will have to +return to Nature and to the natural intercourse of the sexes; it must +cast off the now-ruling and unhealthy spiritual notions concerning man; +it must do that by setting up methods of education that fit in with our +own state of culture, and that may bring on the physical and mental +regeneration of the race. + +Among us, and especially on the subject of female education, seriously +erroneous conceptions are still prevalent. That woman also should have +strength, courage and resolution, is considered heretical, "unwomanly," +although none would dare deny that, equipped with such qualities, woman +could protect herself against many ills and inconveniences. Conversely, +woman is cramped in her physical, exactly as in her intellectual +development. The irrationalness of her dress plays an important _role_ +herein. It not only, unconscionably hampers her in her physique, it +directly ruins her;--and yet, but few physicians dare take a stand +against the abuse, accurately informed though they are on the +injuriousness of her dress. The fear of displeasing the patient often +causes them to hold their tongues, if they do not even flatter her +insane notions. Modern dress hinders woman in the free use of her limbs, +it injures her physical growth, and awakens in her a sense of impotence +and weakness. Moreover, modern dress is a positive danger to her own and +the health of those who surround her: in the house and on the street, +woman is a walking raiser of dust. And likewise is the development of +woman hampered by the strict separation of the sexes, both in social +intercourse and at school--a method of education wholly in keeping with +the spiritual ideas that Christianity has deeply implanted in us on all +matters that regard the nature of man. + +The woman who does not reach the development of her faculties, who is +crippled in her powers, who is held imprisoned in the narrowest circle +of thought, and who comes into contact with hardly any but her own +female relatives,--such a woman can not possibly raise herself above the +routine of daily life and habits. Her intellectual horizon revolves only +around the happenings in her own immediate surroundings, family affairs +and what thereby hangs. Extensive conversations on utter trifles, the +bent for gossip, are promoted with all might; of course her latent +intellectual qualities strain after activity and exercise;--whereupon +the husband, often involved thereby in trouble, and driven to +desperation, utters imprecations upon qualities that he, the "chief of +creation," has mainly upon his own conscience. + +With woman--whose face all our social and sexual relations turn toward +marriage with every fibre of her being--marriage and matrimonial matters +constitute, quite naturally, a leading portion of her conversation and +aspirations. Moreover, to the physically weaker woman, subjected as she +is to man by custom and laws, the tongue is her principal weapon against +him, and, as a matter of course, she makes use thereof. Similarly with +regard to her severely censured passion for dress and desire to please, +which reach their frightful acme in the insanities of fashion, and often +throw fathers and husbands into great straits and embarrassments. The +explanation lies at hand. To man, woman is, first of all, an object of +enjoyment. Economically and socially unfree, she is bound to see in +marriage her means of support; accordingly, she depends upon man and +becomes a piece of property to him. As a rule, her position is rendered +still more unfavorable through the general excess of women over men,--a +subject that will be treated more closely. The disparity intensifies the +competition of women among themselves; and it is sharpened still more +because, for a great variety of reasons, a number of men do not marry at +all. Woman is, accordingly, forced to enter into competition for a +husband with the members of her own sex, by means of the most favorable +external presentation of her person possible. + +Let the long duration, through many generations, of these evils be taken +into account. The wonder will cease that these manifestations, sprung +from equally lasting causes, have reached their present extreme form. +Furthermore, perhaps in no age was the competition of women for husbands +as sharp as it is in this, due partly to reasons already given, and +partly to others yet to be discussed. Finally, the difficulties of +obtaining a competent livelihood, as well as the demands made by +society, combine, more than ever before, to turn woman's face towards +matrimony as an "institute for support." + +Men gladly accept such a state of things: they are its beneficiaries. It +flatters their pride, their vanity, their interest to play the _role_ of +the stronger and the master; and, like all other rulers, they are, in +their _role_ of masters, difficult to reach by reason. It is, therefore, +all the more in the interest of woman to warm towards the establishment +of conditions that shall free her from so unworthy a position. Women +should expect as little help from the men as workingmen do from the +capitalist class. + +Observe the characteristics, developed in the struggle for the coveted +place, on other fields, on the industrial field, for instance, so soon +as the capitalists face each other. What despicable, even scampish, +means of warfare are not resorted to! What hatred, envy and passion for +calumny are not awakened!--observe that, and the explanation stands out +why similar features turn up in the competition of women for a husband. +Hence it happens that women, on the average, do not get along among +themselves as well as men; that even the best female friends lightly +fall out, if the question is their standing in a man's eye, or +pleasingness of appearance. Hence also the observation that wherever +women meet, be they ever such utter strangers, they usually look at one +another as enemies. With one look they make the mutual discovery of +ill-matched colors, or wrongly-pinned bows, or any other similar +cardinal sin. In the look that they greet each other with, the judgment +can be readily read that each has passed upon the other. It is as if +each wished to inform the other: "I know better than you how to dress, +and draw attention upon myself." + +On the other hand, woman is by nature more impulsive than man; she +reflects less than he; she has more abnegation, is naiver, and hence is +governed by stronger passions, as revealed by the truly heroic +self-sacrifice with which she protects her child, or cares for +relatives, and nurses them in sickness. In the fury, however, this +passionateness finds its ugly expression. But the good as well as the +bad sides, with man as well as woman, are influenced, first of all, by +their social position; favored, or checked, or transfigured. The same +impulse, that, under unfavorable circumstances, appears as a blemish, +is, under favorable circumstances, a source of happiness for oneself and +others. Fourier has the credit of having brilliantly demonstrated how +the identical impulses of man produce, under different conditions, +wholly opposite results. + +Running parallel with the effects of mistaken education, are the no less +serious effects of mistaken or imperfect physical culture upon the +purpose of Nature. All physicians are agreed that the preparation of +woman for her calling as mother and rearer of children leaves almost +everything to be wished. "Man exercises the soldier in the use of his +weapons, and the artisan in the handling of his tools; every office +requires special studies; even the monk has his novitiate. Woman alone +is not trained for her serious duties of mother."[87] Nine-tenths of the +maidens who marry enter matrimony with almost utter ignorance about +motherhood and the duties of wedlock. The inexcusable shyness, even on +the part of mothers, to speak with a grown-up daughter of such important +sexual duties, leaves the latter in the greatest darkness touching her +duties towards herself and her future husband. With her entrance upon +married life, woman enters a territory that is wholly strange to her. +She has drawn to herself a fancy-picture thereof--generally from novels +that are not particularly to be commended--that does not accord with +reality.[88] Her defective household knowledge, that, as things are +to-day, is inevitable, even though many a function, formerly naturally +belonging to the wife, has been removed from her, also furnishes many a +cause for friction. Some know nothing whatever of household matters: +They consider themselves too good to bother about them, and look upon +them as matters that concern the servant girl; numerous others, from the +ranks of the masses, are prevented, by the struggle for existence, from +cultivating themselves for their calling as householders: they must be +in the factory and at work early and late. It is becoming evident that, +due to the development of social conditions, the separate household +system is losing ground every day; and that it can be kept up only at +the sacrifice of money and time, neither of which the great majority is +able to expend. + +Yet another cause that destroys the object of marriage to not a few men +is to be found in the physical debility of many women. Our food, +housing, methods of work and support, in short, our whole form of life, +affects us in more ways than one rather harmfully than otherwise. We can +speak with perfect right of a "nervous age." Now, then, this nervousness +goes hand in hand with physical degeneration. Anaemia and nervousness +are spread to an enormous degree among the female sex: They are assuming +the aspect of a social calamity, that, if it continue a few generations +longer, as at present, and we fail to place our social organization on a +normal footing, is urging the race towards its destruction.[89] + +With an eye to its sexual mission, the female organism requires +particular care,--good food, and, at certain periods, the requisite +rest. Both of these are lacking to the great majority of the female sex, +at least in the cities and industrial neighborhoods, nor are they to be +had under modern industrial conditions. Moreover, woman has so +habituated herself to privation that, for instance, numberless women +hold it a conjugal duty to keep the tid-bits for the man, and satisfy +themselves with insufficient nourishment. Likewise are boys frequently +given the preference over girls in matters of food. The opinion is +general that woman can accommodate herself, not with less food only, but +also with food of poorer quality. Hence the sad picture that our female +youth, in particular, presents to the eyes of the expert. A large +portion of our young women are bodily weak, anaemic, hypernervous. The +consequences are difficulties in menstruation, and disease of the organs +connected with the sexual purpose, the disease often assuming the +magnitude of incapacity to give birth and to nurse the child, even of +danger to life itself. "Should this degeneration of our women continue +to increase in the same measure as before, the time may not be far away +when it will become doubtful whether man is to be counted among the +mammals or not."[90] Instead of a healthy, joyful companion, of a +capable mother, of a wife attentive to her household duties, the husband +has on his hands a sick, nervous wife, whose house the physician never +quits, who can stand no draught, and can not bear the least noise. We +shall not expatiate further on this subject. Every reader--and as often +as in this book we speak of "reader," we mean, of course, the female as +well as the male--can himself further fill the picture: he has +illustrations enough among his own relatives and acquaintances. + +Experienced physicians maintain that the larger part of married women, +in the cities especially, are in a more or less abnormal condition. +According to the degree of the evil and the character of the couple, +such unions can not choose but be unhappy, and, they give the husband +the right, in public opinion, to allow himself freedoms outside of the +marriage bed, the knowledge of which throws the wife into the most +wretched of moods. Furthermore the, at times, very different sexual +demands of one party or the other give occasion to serious friction, +without the so much wished-for separation being possible. A great +variety of considerations render that, in most cases, out of all +question. + +Under this head the fact may not be suppressed that a _considerable +number of husbands are themselves responsible for certain serious +physical ailments of their wives, ailments that these are not +infrequently smitten with in marriage_. As consequences of the excesses +indulged in during bachelorship, a considerable number of men suffer of +chronic sexual diseases, which, seeing these cause them no serious +inconvenience, are taken lightly. Nevertheless, through sexual +intercourse with the wife, these diseases bring upon her disagreeable, +even fatal troubles of the womb, that set in, soon after marriage, and +often develop to the point of rendering her unable to conceive or to +give birth. The wretched woman usually has no idea of the cause of the +sickness, that depresses her spirits, embitters her life, and uproots +the purpose of marriage. She blames herself, and accepts blame for a +condition, that the other party is alone responsible for. Thus many a +blooming wife falls, barely married, a prey to chronic malady, +unaccountable to either herself or her family. + +"As recent investigations have proved, this circumstance--that, as a +result of gonorrhea, the male sperm no longer contains any seed-cells, +and the man is, consequently, incapacitated for life from begetting +children--_is a comparatively frequent cause of matrimonial barrenness, +in contradiction to the old and convenient tradition of the lords of +creation, who are ever ready to shift to the shoulder of the wife the +responsibility for the absence of the blessing of children_."[91] + +Accordingly, a large number of causes are operative in preventing modern +married life, in the large majority of instances, from being that which +it should be:--a union of two beings of opposite sexes, who, out of +mutual love and esteem, wish to belong to each other, and, in the +striking sentence of Kant, mean, jointly, to constitute the complete +human being. It is, therefore, a suggestion of doubtful value--made even +by learned folks, who imagine thereby to dispose of woman's endeavors +after emancipation--that she look to domestic duties, to marriage,--to +marriage, that our economic conditions are ever turning into a viler +caricature, and that answers its purpose ever less! + +The advice to woman that she seek her salvation in marriage, this being +her real calling,--an advice that is thoughtlessly applauded by the +majority of men--sounds like the merest mockery, when both the advisers +and their _claqueurs_ do the opposite. Schopenhauer, the philosopher, +has of woman only the conception of the philistine. He says: "Woman is +not meant for much work. Her characteristicon is not action but +_suffering_. She pays the debt of life with the pains of travail, +anxiety for the child, _subjection to man_. The strongest utterances of +life and sentiment are denied her. Her life is meant to be quieter and +less important than man's. Woman is destined for nurse and educator of +infancy, _being herself infant-like, and an infant for life_, a sort of +intermediate stage between the child and the man, _who is the real +being_.... Girls should be trained for domesticity and _subjection.... +Women are the most thorough-paced and incurable Philistines._" + +In the same spirit as Schopenhauer, who, of course, is greatly quoted, +is cast Lombroso and Ferrerro's work, "Woman as a Criminal and a +Prostitute." We know no scientific work of equal size--it contains 590 +pages--with such a dearth of valid evidence on the theme therein +treated. The statistical matter, from which the bold conclusions are +drawn, is mostly meager. Often a dozen instances suffice the joint +authors to draw the weightiest deductions. The matter that may be +considered the most valuable in the work is, typically enough, furnished +by a woman,--Dr. Tarnowskaja. The influence of social conditions, of +cultural development, is left almost wholly on one side. Everything is +judged exclusively from the physiologico-psychologic view-point, while a +large quantity of ethnographic items of information on various peoples +is woven into the argument, without submitting these items to closer +scrutiny. According to the authors, just as with Schopenhauer, woman is +a grown child, a liar _par excellence_, weak of judgment, fickle in +love, incapable of any deed truly heroic. They claim the inferiority of +woman to man is manifest from a large number of bodily differences. +"Love, with woman, is as a rule nothing but a secondary feature of +maternity,--all the feelings of attachment that bind woman to man arise, +not from sexual impulses, but from the instincts of subjection and +resignation, acquired through habits of conformancy." How these +"instincts" were acquired and "conformed" themselves, the joint authors +fail to inquire into. They would then have had to inquire into the +social position of woman in the course of thousands of years, and would +have been compelled to find that it is that that made her what she now +is. It is true, the joint authors describe partly the enslaved and +dependent position of woman among the several peoples and under the +several periods of civilization; but as Darwinians, with blinkers to +their eyes, they draw all that from physiologic and psychologic, not +from social and economic reasons, which affected in strongest manner the +physiologic and psychologic development of woman. + +The joint authors also touch upon the vanity of woman, and set up the +opinion that, among the peoples who stand on a lower stage of +civilization, man is the vain sex, as is noticeable to-day in the New +Hebrides and Madagascar, among the peoples of the Orinoco, and on many +islands of the Polynesian archipelago, as also among a number of African +peoples of the South Sea. With peoples standing on a higher plane, +however, woman is the vain sex. But why and wherefor? To us the answer +seems plain. Among the peoples of a lower civilization, mother-right +conditions prevail generally, or have not yet been long overcome. The +_role_ that woman there plays raises her above the necessity of seeking +for the man, the man seeks her, and to this end, ornaments himself and +grows vain. With the people of a higher grade, especially with all the +nations of civilization, excepting here and there, not the man seeks the +woman, but the woman him. It happens rarely that a woman openly takes +the initiative, and offers herself to the man; so-called propriety +forbids that. In point of fact, however, the offering is done by the +manner of her appearance; by means of the beauty of dress and luxury, +that she displays; by the manner in which she ornaments herself, and +presents herself, and coquets in society. The excess of women, together +with the social necessity of looking upon matrimony as an institute for +support, or as an institution through which alone she can satisfy her +sexual impulse and gain a standing in society, forces such conduct upon +her. Here also, we notice again, it is purely economic and social causes +that call forth, one time with man, another with woman, a quality that, +until now, it was customary to look upon as wholly independent of social +and economic causes. Hence the conclusion is justified, that so soon as +society shall arrive at social conditions, under which all dependence of +one sex upon another shall have ceased, and both are equally free, +_ridiculous vanity and the folly of fashion will vanish, just as so many +other vices that we consider to-day uneradicable, as supposedly inherent +in man_. Schopenhauer, as a philosopher, judges woman as one-sidedly as +most of our anthropologists and physicians, who see in her only the +sexual, never the social, being. Schopenhauer was never married. He, +accordingly, has not, on his part, contributed towards having one more +woman pay the "debt of life" that he debits woman with. And this brings +us to the other side of the medal, which is far from being the +handsomer. + +Many women do not marry, simply because they cannot. Everybody knows +that usage forbids woman to offer herself. She must allow herself to be +wooed, i. e., chosen. She herself may not woo. Is there no wooer to be +had, then she enters the large army of those poor beings who have missed +the purpose of life, and, in view of the lack of safe material +foundation, generally fall a prey to want and misery, and but too often +to ridicule also. But few know what the discrepancy in numbers between +the two sexes is due to; many are ready with the hasty answer: "There +are too many girls born." Those who make the claim are wrongly +informed, as will be shown. Others, again, who admit the unnaturalness +of celibacy, conclude from the fact that women are more numerous than +men in most countries of civilization, that polygamy should be allowed. +But not only does polygamy do violence to our customs, it, moreover, +degrades woman, a circumstance that, of course, does not restrain +Schopenhauer, with his underestimation of and contempt for women, from +declaring: "For the female sex, as a whole, polygamy is a benefit." + +Many men do not marry because they think they cannot support a wife, and +the children that may come, according to their station. To support _two_ +wives is, however, possible to a small minority only, and among these +are many who now have two or more wives,--one legitimate and several +illegitimate. These few, privileged by wealth, are not held back by +anything from doing what they please. Even in the Orient, where polygamy +exists for thousands of years by law and custom, comparatively few men +have more than one wife. People talk of the demoralizing influence of +Turkish harem life; but the fact is overlooked that this harem life is +possible only to an insignificant fraction of the men, and then only in +the ruling class, while the majority of the men live in monogamy. In the +city of Algiers, there were, at the close of the sixties, out of 18,282 +marriages, not less than 17,319 with one wife only; 888 were with two; +and only 75 with more than two. Constantinople, the capital of the +Turkish Empire, would show no materially different result. Among the +country population in the Orient, the proportion is still more +pronouncedly in favor of single marriages. In the Orient, exactly as +with us, the most important factor in the calculation are the material +conditions, and these compel most men to limit themselves to but one +wife. If, on the other hand, material conditions were equally favorable +to all men, polygamy would still not be practicable,--for want of women. +_The almost equal number of the two sexes, prevalent under normal +conditions, points everywhere to monogamy._ + +As proof of these statements, we cite the following tables, that Buecher +published in an essay.[92] + +In these tables the distinction must be kept in mind between the +enumerated and the estimated populations. In so far as the population +was enumerated, the fact is expressly stated in the summary for the +separate main divisions of the earth. The sexes divide themselves in the +population of several divisions and countries as follows: + + +1. EUROPE. + + Females + for + Every + Census 1,000 + Countries. Year. Males. Females. Population. Men. + Great Britain and + Ireland 1891 18,388,756 19,499,397 37,888,153 1,060 + Denmark and Faror 1890 1,065,447 1,119,712 2,185,159 1,052 + Norway 1891 951,496 1,037,501 1,988,997 1,090 + Sweden 1890 2,317,105 2,467,570 4,784,675 1,065 + Finland 1889 1,152,111 1,186,293 2,338,404 1,030 + Russia 1886 42,499,324 42,895,885 85,395,209 1,009 + Poland 1886 3,977,406 4,279,156 8,256,562 1,076 + German Empire 1890 24,231,832 25,189,232 49,421,064 1,039 + Austria 1880 10,819,737 11,324,507 22,144,244 1,047 + Hungary 1880 7,799,276 7,939,192 15,738,468 1,019 + Liechtenstein 1886 4,897 4,696 9,593 959 + Luxemburg 1890 105,419 105,669 211,088 1,002 + Holland 1889 2,228,487 2,282,925 4,511,415 1,024 + Belgium 1890 3,062,656 3,084,385 6,147,041 1,007 + Switzerland 1888 1,427,377 1,506,680 2,934,057 1,055 + France 1886 18,900,312 19,030,447 37,930,759 1,007 + Spain and the Canary + Islands 1887 8,608,532 8,950,776 17,559,308 1,039 + Gibraltar (Civil + population) 1890 9,201 9,326 18,527 1,013 + Portugal 1878 2,175,829 2,374,870 4,550,699 1,091 + Italy 1881 14,265,383 14,194,245 28,459,628 995 + Bosnia and + Herzegovina 1885 705,025 631,066 1,336,091 895 + Servia 1890 1,110,731 1,052,028 2,162,759 947 + Bulgaria 1881 1,519,953 1,462,996 2,982,949 962 + Roumania 1860 2,276,558 2,148,403 4,424,961 944 + Greece 1889 1,133,625 1,053,583 2,187,208 929 + Malta 1890 82,086 83,576 165,662 1,018 + ----------- ----------- ----------- ----- + Total 170,818,561 174,914,119 345,732,680 1,024 + + +2. AMERICA. + + Females + for + Every + Census 1,000 + Countries. Year. Males. Females. Population. Men. + + Danish Greenland 1888 4,838 5,383 10,221 1,112 + British North America 1881 2,288,196 2,229,735 4,517,931 974 + United States of + North America 1880 25,518,820 24,636,963 50,155,783 965 + Bermuda Islands 1890 7,767 8,117 15,884 1,046 + Mexico 1882 5,072,054 5,375,920 10,447,974 1,060 + ---------- ---------- ---------- ----- + North America and + Islands 32,891,675 32,256,118 65,147,793 981 + + Nicaragua 1883 136,249 146,591 282,845 1,076 + British Honduras 1881 14,108 13,344 27,452 946 + Cuba 1877 850,520 671,164 1,521,684 789 + Porto Rico 1877 369,054 362,594 731,648 983 + British West Indies 1881 589,012 624,132 1,213,144 1,060 + French West Indies 1885 176,364 180,266 356,630 1,022 + Danish Possessions 1880 14,889 18,874 33,763 1,263 + Dutch Colony Curacao 1889 20,234 25,565 45,799 1,263 + ----------- ---------- ---------- ----- + Central America and + the West Indies 2,170,430 2,042,530 4,212,965 941 + + British Guiana 1891 151,759 126,569 278,328 834 + French Guiana 1885 15,767 10,735 26,502 681 + Dutch Guiana 1889 30,187 28,764 58,951 953 + Brazil 1872 5,123,869 4,806,609 9,930,478 938 + Chili 1885 1,258,616 1,268,353 2,526,969 1,008 + Falkland Islands 1890 1,086 703 1,789 647 + ---------- ---------- ---------- ----- + South America total 6,581,284 6,241,733 12,823,017 949 + ---------- ---------- ---------- ----- + Population of America 41,643,389 40,540,386 82,183,775 973 + + +3. ASIA. + + Females + for + Every + Census 1,000 + Countries. Year. Males. Females. Population. Men. + + Russian Caucasia 1885 3,876,868 3,407,699 7,284,567 879 + Siberia, minus Amur + and Sachalin 1885 2,146,411 2,002,879 4,149,290 933 + Province Uralsk 1885 263,915 263,686 527,601 999 + General Province of + the Prairies 1885 926,246 781,626 1,707,872 844 + Province Fergana 1885 365,461 350,672 716,133 959 + Province Samarkand 1885 335,530 305,616 641,146 911 + ---------- ---------- ---------- ----- + Russian Possessions, + total 7,914,431 7,112,178 15,026,609 899 + + British India + (immediate + possessions) 1891 112,150,120 108,313,980 220,464,100 966 + Tributary States (so + far known) 1891 31,725,910 29,675,150 61,401,060 935 + Hong Kong 1889 138,033 56,449 194,482 409 + Ceylon 1881 1,473,515 1,290,469 2,763,984 876 + Of the French + Possessions: + Cambodscha ? 392,383 422,371 814,754 1,076 + Cochinchina 1889 944,146 932,543 1,876,689 988 + Philippines (partly) 1877 2,796,174 2,762,846 5,559,020 988 + Japan 1888 20,008,445 19,598,789 39,607,234 979 + Cyprus 1891 104,887 104,404 209,291 995 + ---------- ---------- ---------- ----- + Total population in + Asia 177,648,044 170,269,179 347,917,223 958 + + +4. AUSTRALIA AND POLYNESIA. + + Females + for + Every + Census 1,000 + Countries. Year. Males. Females. Population. Men. + + Australia, New Zealand + (1890) and Tasmania 1891 2,059,594 1,772,472 3,832,066 861 + Fiji Islands 1890 67,902 57,780 125,682 851 + French Possessions + (Tahiti, Marquesas, + etc.) 1889 11,589 10,293 21,882 888 + Hawaii 1890 58,714 31,276 89,990 533 + ---------- ---------- ---------- ----- + Total 2,197,799 1,871,821 4,069,620 852 + + +5. AFRICA. + + Females + for + Every + Census 1,000 + Countries. Year. Males. Females. Population. Men. + + Egypt 1882 3,401,498 3,415,767 6,817,265 1,004 + Algeria (minus Sahara) 1886 2,014,013 1,791,671 3,805,684 889 + Senegal 1889 70,504 76,014 146,518 1,078 + Gambia 1881 7,215 6,935 14,150 961 + Sierra Leone 1881 31,201 29,345 60,546 940 + Lagos 1881 37,665 39,605 75,270 998 + St. Helena 1890 2,020 2,202 4,222 1,090 + Capeland 1890 766,598 759,141 1,525,739 990 + Natal 1890 268,062 275,851 543,913 1,029 + Orange Free State: + White 1890 40,571 37,145 77,716 915 + Black 1890 67,791 61,996 129,787 914 + Republic: + White 1890 66,498 52,630 119,128 791 + Black 1890 115,589 144,045 259,634 1,246 + Reunion 1889 94,430 71,485 165,915 757 + Mayotte 1889 6,761 5,509 12,270 815 + St. Marie de + Madagascar 1888 3,648 4,019 7,667 1,102 + ---------- ---------- ---------- ----- + Total 6,994,064 6,771,360 13,765,424[93]968 + + +Probably the result of this presentation will be astonishing to many. +With the exception of Europe, where, on an average, there are 1,024 +women to every 1,000 men, the reverse is the case everywhere else. If it +is further considered that in the foreign divisions of the earth, and +even there where actual enumeration was had, information upon the female +sex is particularly defective--a fact that must be presumed with regard +to all the countries of Mohammedan population, where the figures for the +female population are probably below the reality--it stands pat that, +apart from a few European nations, the female sex nowhere tangibly +exceeds the male. It is otherwise in Europe, the country that interests +us most. Here, with the exception of Italy and the southeast territories +of Bosnia, Herzegovina, Servia, Bulgaria, Roumania and Greece, the +female population is everywhere more strongly represented than the male. +Of the large European countries, the disproportion is slightest in +France--1,002 females to every 1,000 males; next in order is Russia, +with 1,009 females to every 1,000 males. On the other hand, Portugal, +Norway and Poland, with 1,076 females to every 1,000 males, present the +strongest disproportion. Next to these stands Great Britain,--1,060 +females to every 1,000 males. Germany and Austria lie in the middle: +they have, respectively, 1,039 and 1,047 females to every 1,000 males. + +In the German Empire, the excess of the female over the male population, +according to the census of December 1, 1890, was 957,400, against +988,376, according to the census of December 1, 1885. A principal cause +of this disproportion is emigration, inasmuch as by far more men +emigrate than women. This is clearly brought out by the opposite pole of +Germany, the North American Union, which has about as large a deficit in +women as Germany has a surplus. The United States is the principal +country for European emigration, and this is mainly made up of males. A +second cause is the larger number of accidents to men than to women in +agriculture, the trades, the industries and transportation. Furthermore, +there are more males than females temporarily abroad,--merchants, +seamen, marines, etc. All this transpires clearly from the figures on +the conjugal status. In 1890 there were 8,372,486 married men to +8,398,607 married women in Germany, i. e., 26,121 more of the latter. +Another phenomenon, that statistics establish and that weigh heavily in +the scales, is that, on an average, women reach a higher age than men: +at the more advanced ages there are more women than men. According to +the census of 1890 the relation of ages among the two sexes were these: + + + Excess Excess of + Males. Females. of Males. Females. + Below ten years 5,993,681 5,966,226 27,455 ... + 10 to 20 years 5,104,751 5,110,093 ... 5,342 + 20 to 30 years 3,947,324 4,055,321 ... 107,997 + 30 to 40 years 3,090,174 3,216,704 ... 126,530 + 40 to 50 years 2,471,617 2,659,609 ... 187,992 + 50 to 60 years 1,826,951 2,041,377 ... 214,426 + 60 to 70 years 1,177,142 1,391,227 ... 214,085 + 70 and up 619,192 757,081 ... 137,889 + --------- --------- ------ ------- + 24,230,832 25,197,638 27,455 994,261 + + +This table shows that, up to the tenth year, the number of boys exceeds +that of girls, due merely to the disproportion in births. Everywhere, +there are more boys born than girls. In the German Empire, for +instance,[94] there were born:-- + + + In the year 1872 to 100 girls 106.2 boys + In the year 1878 to 100 girls 105.9 boys + In the year 1884 to 100 girls 106.2 boys + In the year 1888 to 100 girls 106.0 boys + In the year 1891 to 100 girls 106.2 boys + + +But the male sex dies earlier than the female, and from early childhood +more boys die than girls. Accordingly, the table shows that, between the +ages of 10 to 20 the female sex exceeds the male. + +To each 100 females, there died, males:--[95] + + + In 1872 107.0 In 1884 109.2 + In 1878 110.5 In 1888 107.9 + In 1891 107.5 + + +The table shows, furthermore, that at the matrimonial age, proper, +between the ages of 20 and 50, the female sex exceeds the male by +422,519, and that at the age from 50 to 70 and above, it exceeds the +male by 566,400. A very strong disproportion between the sexes appears, +furthermore, among the widowed. + +According to the census of 1890, there were:-- + + + Widowers 774,967 + Widows 2,154,870 + --------- + Excess of widows over widowers 1,382,903 + + +Of these widowed people, according to age, there were:-- + + + Age. Males. Females. + 40-60 222,286 842,920 + 60 and over 506,319 1,158,712 + + +The number of divorced persons was, in 1890: Males, 25,271; females, +49,601. According to age, they were distributed:-- + + + Age. Males. Females. + 40-60 13,825 24,842 + 60 and over 4,917 7,244 + + +These figures tell us that _widows and divorced women are excluded from +remarriage_, and at the fittest age for matrimony, at that; there being +of the age of 15-40, 46,362 widowers and 156,235 widows, 6,519 divorced +men and 17,515 divorced women. These figures furnish further proof of +the injury that divorce entails to married women. + +In 1890, there were unmarried:--[96] + + + Age. Males. Females. + 15-40 5,845,933 5,191,453 + 40-60 375,881 503,406 + 60 and over 130,154 230,966 + + +Accordingly, among the unmarried population between the ages of 15 and +40, the male sex is stronger by 654,480 than the female. This +circumstance would seem to be favorable for the latter. But males +between the ages of 15 and 21 are, with few exceptions, not in condition +to marry. Of that age there were 3,590,622 males to 3,774,025 females. +Likewise with the males of the age of 21-25, a large number are not in a +position to start a family: we have but to keep in mind the males in the +army, students, etc. On the other side, all women of this age period are +marriageable. Taking further into consideration that for a great variety +of reasons, many men do not marry at all--the number of unmarried males +of 40 years of age and over alone amounted to 506,035, to which must be +added also the widowed and divorced males, more than two million +strong--it follows that the situation of the female sex with regard to +marriage is decidedly unfavorable. Accordingly, a large number of women +are, under present circumstances, forced to renounce the legitimate +gratification of their sexual instincts, while the males seek and find +solace in prostitution. The situation would instantaneously change for +women with the removal of the obstacles that keep to-day many hundreds +of thousands of men from setting up a married home, and from doing +justice to their natural instincts in a legitimate manner. For that the +existing social system must be upturned. + +As already observed, emigration across the seas is, in great part, +responsible for the disproportion in the number of the sexes. In the +years 1872-1886, on an average, more than 10,000 males left the country +in excess of females. For a period of fifteen years, that runs up to +150,000 males, most of them in the very vigor of life. Military duties +also drive abroad many young men, and the most vigorous, at that. In +1893, according to the report officially submitted to the Reichstag on +the subject of substitutes in the army, 25,851 men were sentenced for +emigrating without leave, and 14,522 more cases were under investigation +on the same charge. Similar figures recur from year to year. The loss in +men that Germany sustains from this unlawful emigration is considerable +in the course of a century. Especially strong is emigration during the +years that follow upon great wars. That appears from the figures after +1866 and between 1871 and 1874. We sustain, moreover, severe losses in +male life from accidents. In the course of the years 1887 to 1892, the +number of persons killed in the trades, agriculture, State and municipal +undertakings, ran up to 30,568,[97] of whom only a small fraction were +women. Furthermore, another and considerable number of persons engaged +in these occupations are crippled for life by accidents, and are +disabled from starting a family; others die early and leave their +families behind in want and misery. Great loss in male life is also +connected with navigation. In the period between 1882-1891, 1,485 ships +were lost on the high seas, whereby 2,436 members of crews--with few +exceptions males--and 747 passengers perished. + +Once the right appreciation of life is had, society will prevent the +large majority of accidents, particularly in navigation; and such +appreciation will touch its highest point under Socialist order. In +numberless instances human life, or the safety of limb, is sacrificed to +misplaced economy on the part of employers, who recoil before any outlay +for protection; in many others the tired condition of the workman, or +the hurry he must work in, is the cause. Human life is cheap; if one +workingman goes to pieces, three others are at hand to take his place. + +On the domain of navigation especially, and aided by the difficulty of +control, many unpardonable wrongs are committed. Through the revelations +made during the seventies by Plimsoll in the British Parliament, the +fact has become notorious that many shipowners, yielding to criminal +greed, take out high insurances for vessels that are not seaworthy, and +unconscionably expose them, together with their crews, to the slightest +weather at sea,--all for the sake of the high insurance. These are the +so-called "coffin-ships," not unknown in Germany, either. The steamer +"Braunschweig," for instance, that sank in 1881 near Helgoland, and +belonged to the firm Rocholl & Co., of Bremen, proved to have been put +to sea in a wholly unseaworthy condition. The same fate befell, in 1889, +the steamer "Leda" of the same firm; hardly out at sea, she went to the +bottom. The boat was insured with the Russian Lloyd for 55,000 rubles; +the prospect of 8,500 rubles were held out to the captain, if he took +her safe to Odessa; and the captain, in turn, paid the pilot the +comparatively high wage of 180 rubles a month. The verdict of the Court +of Admiralty was that _the accident was due to the fact that the "Leda" +was unseaworthy and unfit to be taken to Odessa_. The license was +withdrawn from the captain. According to existing laws, the real guilty +parties could not be reached. No year goes by without our Court of +Admiralty having to pass upon a larger number of accidents at sea, to +the effect that the accident was due to vessels being too old, or too +heavily loaded, or in defective condition, or insufficiently equipped; +sometimes to several of these causes combined. With a good many of the +lost ships, the cause of accident can not be established: they have gone +down in midocean, and no survivor remains to tell the tale. Likewise are +the coast provisions for the saving of shipwrecked lives both defective +and insufficient; they are dependent mainly upon private charity. The +case is even more disconsolate along distant and foreign coasts. A +commonwealth that makes the promotion of the well-being of all its +highest mission will not fail to so improve navigation, and provide it +with protective measures that these accidents would be of rare +occurrence. But the modern economic system of rapine, that weighs men as +it weighs figures, to the end of whacking out the largest possible +amount of profit, not infrequently destroys a human life if thereby +there be in it but the profit of a dollar. With the change of society in +the Socialist sense, immigration, in its present shape, also would drop; +the flight from military service would cease; suicide in the Army would +be no more. + +The picture drawn from our political and economic life shows that woman +also is deeply interested therein. Whether the period of military +service be shortened or not; whether the Army be increased or not; +whether the country pursues a policy of peace or one of war; whether the +treatment allotted to the soldier be worthy or unworthy of human beings; +and whether as a result thereof the number of suicides and desertions +rise or drop;--_all of these are questions that concern woman as much as +man_. Likewise with the economic and industrial conditions and in +transportation, in all of which branches the female sex, furthermore, +steps from year to year more numerously as working-women. Bad +conditions, and unfavorable circumstances injure woman as a social and +as a sexual being; favorable conditions and satisfactory circumstances +benefit her. + +But there are still other momenta that go to make marriage difficult or +impossible. A considerable number of men are kept from marriage by the +State itself. People pucker up their brows at the celibacy imposed upon +Roman Catholic clergymen; but these same people have not a word of +condemnation for the much larger number of soldiers who also are +condemned thereto. The officers not only require the consent of their +superiors, they are also limited in the choice of a wife: the regulation +prescribes that she shall have property to a certain, and not +insignificant, amount. In this way the Austrian corps of officers, for +instance, obtained a social "improvement" at the cost of the female sex. +Captains rose by fully 8,000 guilders, if above thirty years of age, +while the captains under thirty years of age were thenceforth hard to be +had, in no case for a smaller dower than 30,000. "Now a 'Mrs. Captain,'" +it was thus reported in the "Koelnische Zeitung" from Vienna, "who until +now was often a subject of pity for her female colleagues in the +administrative departments, can hold her head higher by a good deal; +everybody now knows that she has wherewith to live. Despite the greatly +increased requirements of personal excellence, culture and rank, the +social status of the Austrian officer was until then rather indefinite, +partly because very prominent gentlemen stuck fast to the Emperor's coat +pocket; partly because many poor officers could not make a shift to live +without humiliation, and many families of poor officers often played a +pitiful _role_. Until then, the officer who wished to marry had, if the +thirty-year line was crossed, to qualify in joint property to the amount +of 12,000 guilders, or in a 600-guilder side income, and even at this +insignificant income, hardly enough for decency, the magistrates often +shut their eyes, and granted relief. The new marriage regulations are +savagely severe, though the heart break. The captain under thirty must +forthwith deposit 30,000 guilders; over thirty years of age, 20,000 +guilders; from staff officers up to colonels, 16,000 guilders. Over and +above this, only one-fourth of the officers may marry without special +grace, while a spotless record and corresponding rank is demanded of the +bride. This all holds good for officers of the line and army surgeons. +For other military officials with the rank of officer, the new marriage +regulations are milder; but for officers of the general staff still +severer. The officer who is detailed to the captain of the general staff +may not thereafter marry; the actual captain of the staff, if below +thirty, is required to give security in 36,000 guilders, and later +24,000 more." In Germany and elsewhere, there are similar regulations. +Also the corps of under-officers is subject to hampering regulations +with regard to marriage, and require besides the consent of their +superior officers. These are very drastic proofs of the _purely +materialistic conception_ that the State has of marriage. + +In general, public opinion is agreed that marriage is not advisable for +men under twenty-four or twenty-five years of age. Twenty-five is the +marriageable age for men fixed by the civil code, with an eye to the +civic independence that, as a rule, is not gained before that age. Only +with persons who are in the agreeable position of not having to first +conquer independence--with people of princely rank--does public opinion +consider it proper when occasionally the men marry at the age of +eighteen or nineteen, the girls at that of fifteen or sixteen. The +Prince is declared of age with his eighteenth year, and considered +capable to govern a vast empire and numerous people. Common mortals +acquire the right to govern their possible property only at the age of +twenty-one. + +The difference of opinion as to the age when marriage is desirable shows +that public opinion judges by the social standing of the bride and +bridegroom. Its reasons have nothing to do with the human being as a +natural entity, or with its natural instincts. It happens, however, that +Nature's impulses do not yoke themselves to social conditions, nor to +the views and prejudices that spring from them. So soon as man has +reached maturity, the sexual instincts assert themselves with force; +indeed, they are the incarnation of the human being, and they demand +satisfaction from the mature being, at the peril of severe physical and +mental suffering. + +The age of sexual ripeness differs according to individuals, climate and +habits of life. In the warm zone it sets in with the female sex, as a +rule, at the age of eleven to twelve years, and not infrequently are +women met with there, who, already at that age, carry offspring on their +arms; but at their twenty-fifth or thirtieth year, these have lost their +bloom. In the temperate zone, the rule with the female sex is from the +fourteenth to the sixteenth year, in some cases later. Likewise is the +age of puberty different between country and city women. With healthy, +robust country girls, who move much in the open air and work vigorously, +menstruation sets in later, on the average, than with our badly +nourished, weak, hypernervous, ethereal city young ladies. Yonder, +sexual maturity develops normally, with rare disturbances; here a normal +development is the exception: all manner of illnesses set in, often +driving the physician to desperation. How often are not physicians +compelled to declare that, along with a change of life, the most radical +cure is marriage. But how apply such a cure? Insuperable obstacles rise +against the proposition. + +All this goes to show where the change must be looked for. In the first +place, the point is to make possible a totally different education, one +that takes into consideration the physical as well as the mental being; +in the second place, to establish a wholly different system of life and +of work. But both of these are, without exception, possible for all only +under _wholly different social conditions_. + +Our social conditions have raised a violent contradiction between man, +as a natural and sexual being, on the one hand, and man as a social +being on the other. The contradiction has made itself felt at no period +as strongly as at this; and it produces a number of diseases into whose +nature we will go no further, but that affect mainly the female sex: in +the first place, her organism depends, in much higher degree than that +of man, upon her sexual mission, and is influenced thereby, as shown by +the regular recurrence of her periods; in the second place, most of the +obstacles to marriage lie in the way of women, preventing her from +satisfying her strongest natural impulse in a natural manner. The +contradiction between natural want and social compulsion goes against +the grain of Nature; it leads to secret vices and excesses that +undermine every organism but the strongest. + +Unnatural gratification, especially with the female sex, is often most +shamelessly promoted. More or less underhandedly, certain preparations +are praised, and they are recommended especially in the advertisements +of most of the papers that penetrate into the family circle as +especially devoted to its entertainment. These puffs are addressed +mainly to the better situated portion of society, seeing the prices of +the preparations are so high that a family of small means can hardly +come by them. Side by side with these shameless advertisements are found +the puffs--meant for the eyes of both sexes--of obscene pictures, +especially of whole series of photographs, of poems and prose works of +similar stripe, aimed at sexual incitation, and that call for the action +of police and District Attorneys. But these gentlemen are too busy with +the "civilization, marriage and family-destroying" Socialist movement to +be able to devote full attention to such machinations. A part of our +works of fiction labors in the same direction. The wonder would be if +sexual excesses, artificially incited, besides, failed to manifest +themselves in unhealthy and harmful ways, and to assume the proportions +of a social disease. + +The idle, voluptuous life of many women in the property classes; their +refined measures of nervous stimulants; their overfeeding with a certain +kind of artificial sensation, cultivated in certain lines on the +hothouse plan, and often considered the principal topic of conversation +and sign of culture by that portion of the female sex that suffers of +hypersensitiveness and nervous excitement;--all this incites still more +the sexual senses, and naturally leads to excesses. + +Among the poor, it is certain exhausting occupations, especially of a +sedentary nature, that promotes congestion of blood in the abdominal +organs, and promotes sexual excitation. One of the most dangerous +occupations in this direction is connected with the, at present, widely +spread sewing machine. This occupation works such havoc that, with ten +or twelve hours' daily work, the strongest organism is ruined within a +few years. Excessive sexual excitement is also promoted by long hours of +work in a steady high temperature, for instance, sugar refineries, +bleacheries, cloth-pressing establishments, night work by gaslight in +overcrowded rooms, especially when both sexes work together. + +A succession of further phenomena has been here unfolded, sharply +illustrative of the irrationableness and unhealthiness of modern +conditions. These are evils deeply rooted in our social state of things, +and removable neither by the moral sermonizings nor the palliatives that +religious quacks of the male and female sexes have so readily at hand. +The axe must be laid to the root of the evil. The question is to bring +about a natural system of education, together with healthy conditions of +life and work, and to do this in amplest manner, to the end that the +normal gratification of natural and healthy instincts be made possible +for all. + +As to the male sex, a number of considerations are absent that are +present with the female sex. Due to his position as master, and in so +far as social barriers do not hinder him, there is on the side of man +the free choice of love. On the other hand, the character of marriage as +an institution for support, the excess of women, custom;--all these +circumstances conspire to prevent woman from manifesting her will; they +force her to wait till she is wanted. As a rule, she seizes gladly the +opportunity, soon as offered, to reach the hand to the man who redeems +her from the social ostracism and neglect, that is the lot of that poor +waif, the "old maid." Often she looks down with contempt upon those of +her sisters who have yet preserved their self-respect, and have not sold +themselves into mental prostitution to the first comer, preferring to +tread single the thorny path of life. + +On the other hand, social considerations tie down the man, who desires +to reach by marriage the gratification of his life's requirements. He +must put himself the question: Can you support a wife, and the children +that may come, so that pressing cares, the destroyers of your happiness, +may be kept away? The better his marital intentions are, the more +ideally he conceives them, the more he is resolved to wed only out of +love, all the more earnestly must he put the question to himself. To +many, the affirmative answer is, under the present economic conditions, +a matter of impossibility: they prefer to remain single. With other and +less conscientious men, another set of considerations crowd upon the +mind. Thousands of men reach an independent position, one in accord with +their wants, only comparatively late. But they can keep a wife in a +style suitable to their station only if she has large wealth. True +enough, many young men have exaggerated notions on the requirements of a +so-called life "suitable to one's station." Nevertheless, they can not +be blamed--as a result of the false education above described, and of +the social habits of a large number of women,--for not guarding against +demands from that quarter that are far beyond their powers. Good women, +modest in their demands, these men often never come to know. These +women are retiring; they are not to be found there where such men have +acquired the habit of looking for a wife; while those whom they meet are +not infrequently such as seek to win a husband by means of their looks, +and are intent, by external means, by show, to deceive him regarding +their personal qualities and material conditions. The means of seduction +of all sorts are plied all the more diligently in the measure that these +ladies come on in years, when marriage becomes a matter of hot haste. +Does any of these succeed in conquering a husband, she has become so +habituated to show, jewelry, finery and expensive pleasures, that she is +not inclined to forego them in marriage. The superficial nature of her +being crops up in all directions, and therein an abyss is opened for the +husband. Hence many prefer to leave alone the flower that blooms on the +edge of the precipice, and that can be plucked only at the risk of +breaking their necks. They go their ways alone, and seek company and +pleasure under the protection of their freedom. Deception and swindle +are practices everywhere in full swing in the business life of +capitalist society: no wonder they are applied also in contracting +marriage, and that, when they succeed, both parties are drawn into +common sorrows. + +According to E. Ansell, the age of marriage among the cultured and +independent males of England was, between 1840-1871, on an average 29.25 +years. Since then the average has risen for many classes, by at least +one year. For the different occupations, the average age of marriage, +between 1880-1885, was as follows:-- + + + Occupations. Age. + Miners 23.56 + Textile workers 23.88 + Shoemakers and tailors 24.42 + Skilled laborers 24.85 + Day laborers 25.06 + Clerks 25.75 + Retailers 26.17 + Farmers and their sons 28.73 + Men of culture and men of independent means 30.72 + + +These figures give striking proof of how social conditions and standing +affect marriage. + +The number of men who, for several reasons, are kept from marrying is +ever on the increase. It is especially in the so-called upper ranks and +occupations that the men often do not marry, partly because the demands +upon them are too great, partly because it is just the men of these +social strata who seek and find pleasure and company elsewhere. On the +other hand, conditions are particularly unfavorable to women in places +where many pensionaries and their families, but few young men, have +their homes. In such places, the number of women who cannot marry rises +to 20 or 30 out of every 100. The deficit of candidates for marriage +affects strongest those female strata that, through education and social +position, make greater pretensions, and yet, outside of their persons, +have nothing to offer the man who is looking for wealth. This concerns +especially the female members of those numerous families that live upon +fixed salaries, are considered socially "respectable," but are without +means. The life of the female being in this stratum of society is, +comparatively speaking, the saddest of all those of her +fellow-sufferers. It is out of these strata that is mainly recruited the +most dangerous competition for the working-women in the embroidering, +seamstress, flower-making, millinery, glove and straw hat sewing; in +short, all the branches of industry that the employer prefers to have +carried on at the homes of the working-women. These ladies work for the +lowest wages, seeing that, in many cases, the question with them is not +to earn a full livelihood, but only something over and above that, or to +earn the outlay for a better wardrobe and for luxury. Employers have a +predilection for the competition of these ladies, so as to lower the +earnings of the poor working-woman and squeeze the last drop of blood +from her veins: it drives her to exert herself to the point of +exhaustion. Also not a few wives of government employes, whose husbands +are badly paid, and can not afford them a "life suitable to their rank," +utilize their leisure moments in this vile competition that presses so +heavily upon wide strata of the female working class. + +The activity on the part of the bourgeois associations of women for the +abolition of female labor and for the admission of women to the higher +professions, at present mainly, if not exclusively, appropriated by men, +aims principally at procuring a position in life for women from the +social circles just sketched. In order to secure for their efforts +greater prospects of success, these associations have loved to place +themselves under the protectorate of higher and leading ladies. The +bourgeois females imitate herein the example of the bourgeois males, who +likewise love such protectorates, and exert themselves in directions +that can bring only _small_, never _large results_. A Sisyphus work is +thus done with as much noise as possible, to the end of deceiving +oneself and others on the score of the necessity for a radical change. +The necessity is also felt to do all that is possible in order to +suppress all doubts regarding the wisdom of the foundations of our +social and political organization, and to prescribe them as treasonable. +The conservative nature of these endeavors prevents bourgeois +associations of women from being seized with so-called destructive +tendencies. When, accordingly, at the Women's Convention of Berlin, in +1894, the opinion was expressed by a minority that the bourgeois women +should go hand and hand with the working-women, i. e., with their +Socialist citizens, a storm of indignation went up from the majority. +But the bourgeois women will not succeed in pulling themselves out of +the quagmire by their own topknots. + +How large the number is of women who, by reason of the causes herein +cited, must renounce married life, is not accurately ascertainable. In +Scotland, the number of unmarried women of the age of twenty years and +over was, towards the close of the sixties, 43 per cent. of the female +population, and there were 110 women to every 100 men. In England, +outside of Wales, there lived at that time 1,407,228 more women than men +of the age of 20 to 40, and 359,966 single women of over forty years of +age. Of each 100 women 42 were unmarried. + +The surplus of women that Germany owns is very unevenly distributed in +point of territories and age. According to the census of 1890, it +stood:--[98] + + + To Every 1,000 Males, Females of + the Age of + Divisions. Under 15. 15-40. 40-60. Over 60. + Berlin 1,014 1,056 1,108 1,666 + Kingdom of Saxony 1,020 1,032 1,112 1,326 + Kingdom of Bavaria, on + the right of the Rhine 1,022 1,040 1,081 1,155 + On the left of the Rhine 986 1,024 1,065 1,175 + Wurtemberg 1,021 1,076 1,135 1,158 + Baden 1,006 1,027 1,099 1,175 + Hamburg 1,003 967 1,042 1,522 + Province of Brandenburg 986 981 1,085 1,261 + Province of Pommern 984 1,053 1,126 1,191 + Province of Rhineland 984 990 1,010 1,087 + ----- ----- ----- ----- + German Empire 995 1,027 1,094 1,196 + + +Accordingly, of marriageable age proper, 15-40, the surplus of women in +the German Empire amounts to 27 women to every 1,000 men. Seeing that, +within these age periods, there are 9,429,720 male to 9,682,454 female +inhabitants, there is a total female surplus of 252,734. In the same +four age periods, the proportion of the sexes in other countries of +Europe and outside of Europe stood as follows:--[99] + + + To Every 1,000 Males, Females of + the Age of + 60 and + Countries. Under 15. 15-40. 40-60. Over. + Belgium (1890) 992 984 1,018 1,117 + Bulgaria (1888) 950 1,068 837 947 + Denmark (1890) 978 1,080 1,073 1,179 + France (1886) 989 1,003 1,006 1,063 + England and Wales (1891) 1,006 1,075 1,096 1,227 + Scotland (1891) 973 1,073 1,165 1,389 + Ireland (1891) 966 1,036 1,109 1,068 + Italy (1881) 963 1,021 1,005 980 + Luxemburg (1891) 996 997 1,004 1,042 + Holland (1889) 990 1,022 1,035 1,154 + Austria (1890) 1,005 1,046 1,079 1,130 + Hungary (1890) 1,001 1,040 996 1,000 + Sweden (1890) 975 1,062 1,140 1,242 + Switzerland (1888) 999 1,059 1,103 1,148 + Japan (1891) 978 962 951 1,146 + Cape of Good Hope (1891) 989 1,008 939 1,019 + + +It is seen that all countries of the same or similar economic structure +reveal the identical conditions with regard to the distribution of the +sexes according to ages. According thereto, and apart from all other +causes already mentioned, a considerable number of women have in such +countries no prospect of entering wedded life. The number of unmarried +women is even still larger, because a large number of men prefer, for +all sorts of reasons, to remain single. What say hereto those +superficial folks, who oppose the endeavor of women after a more +independent, equal-righted position in life, and who refer them to +marriage and domestic life? The blame does not lie with the women that +so many of them do not marry; and how matters stand with "conjugal +happiness" has been sufficiently depicted. + +What becomes of the victims of our social conditions? The resentment of +insulted and injured Nature expresses itself in the peculiar facial +lines and characteristics whereby so-called old maids, the same as old +ascetic bachelors, stamp themselves different from other human beings in +all countries and all climates; and it gives testimony of the mighty and +harmful effect of suppressed natural love. Nymphomania with women, and +numerous kinds of hysteria, have their origin in that source; and also +discontent in married life produces attacks of hysteria, and is +responsible for barrenness. + +Such, in main outlines, is our modern married life and its effects. The +conclusion is: _Modern marriage is an institution that is closely +connected with the existing social condition, and stands or falls with +it. But this marriage is in the course of dissolution and decay, exactly +as capitalist society itself_,--because, as demonstrated under the +several heads on the subject of marriage: + +1. Relatively, the number of births declines, although population +increases on the whole,--showing that the condition of the family +deteriorates. + +2. Actions for divorce increase in numbers, considerably more than does +population, and, in the majority of cases, the plaintiffs are women, +although, both economically and socially, they are the greatest +sufferers thereunder,--showing that the unfavorable factors, that +operate upon marriage, are on the increase, and marriage, accordingly, +is dissolving and falling to pieces. + +3. Relatively, the number of marriages is on the decline, although +population increases,--showing again that marriage, in the eyes of many, +no longer answers its social and moral purposes, and is considered +worthless, or dangerous. + +4. In almost all the countries of civilization there is a disproportion +between the number of the sexes, and to the disadvantage of the female +sex, and the disproportion is not caused by births--there are, on the +average, more boys born than girls,--but is due to unfavorable social +and political causes, that lie in the political and economic conditions. + +_Seeing that all these unnatural conditions, harmful to woman in +particular, are grounded in the nature of capitalist society, and grow +worse as this social system continues, the same proves itself unable to +end the evil and emancipate woman. Another social order is, accordingly, +requisite thereto._ + +FOOTNOTES: + +[86] Plato requires in his "Republic" that "the women be educated like +the men," and he demands careful selection in breeding. He, accordingly, +was thoroughly familiar with the effect of a careful selection on the +development of man. Aristotle lays it down as a maxim of education that +"First the body, then the mind must be built up," Aristotle's +"Politics." With us, when thought is at all bestowed upon the matter, +the body, the scaffolding for the intellect, is considered last. + +[87] "Die Mission unseres Jahrhunderts. Eine Studie zur Frauenfrage," +Irma v. Troll-Borostyani; Pressburg and Leipsic. + +[88] In "Les Femmes Qui Tuent et les Femmes Qui Votent," Alexander +Dumas, son, narrates: "A Catholic clergyman of high standing stated in +the course of a conversation that, out of a hundred of his former female +pupils, who married, after a month at least eighty came to him and said +they were disillusioned and regretted having married." This sounds very +probable. The Voltarian French bourgeoisie reconcile it with their +conscience to allow their daughters to be educated in the cloisters. +They proceed from the premises that an ignorant woman is more easy to +lead than one who is posted. Conflicts and disappointment are +inevitable. Laboulaye gives the flat-footed advice to keep woman in +moderate ignorance, because "notre empire est detruit, si l'homme est +reconnu" (our empire is over if man is found out). + +[89] According to observations made in the psychiatric clinic at Vienna, +paralysis (softening of the brain) is making by far greater progress +among women than among men. To 100 patients taken in, there were in the +years: + + + 1873-77: 15.7 male and 4.4 female paralytics. + 1888-92: 19.7 male and 10.0 female paralytics. + + +During the sixties there was, on the average, 1 female paralytic to 8 +males; now there is 1 female paralytic to 3.49 males in Denmark, to 3.22 +in middle and upper Italy, 2.89 in England, 2.77 in Belgium, and 2.40 in +France.--"Wiener Arbeiter Zeitung," January 31, 1895. + +[90] Dr. F. B. Simon: "Die Gesundheitspflege des Weibes," Stuttgart, +1893, F. J. Dietz. + +[91] Dr. F. B. Simon. Simon devotes extensive consideration to this +theme, together with that akin thereto,--why so many married women take +sick shortly after marriage without knowing why; and he holds up the +mirror to the men. + +[92] Karl Buecher: "Ueber die Vertheilung der beiden Geschlechter auf +der Erde," "Allgemeines Statistisches Archiv," Tuebingen, 1892. + +[93] Besides 550,430 children without specification of sex. + +[94] "Statistisches Jahrbuch fuer das Deutsche Reich." Jahrgang 1893. + +[95] Ibidem. + +[96] "Statistik des Deutschen Reiches," 1890. + +[97] "Statistisches Jahrbuch fuer das Deutsche Reich," 1889-1894. + +[98] "Statistik des Deutschen Reiches." + +[99] "Statistik des Deutschen Reiches." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +PROSTITUTION A NECESSARY SOCIAL INSTITUTION OF THE CAPITALIST WORLD. + + +Marriage presents one side of the sexual life of the capitalist or +bourgeois world; prostitution presents the other. Marriage is the +obverse, prostitution the reverse of the medal. If men find no +satisfaction in wedlock, then they usually seek the same in +prostitution. Those men, who, for whatever reason, renounce married +life, also usually seek satisfaction in prostitution. To those men, +accordingly, who, whether out of their free will or out of compulsion, +live in celibacy, as well as to those whom marriage does not offer what +was expected of it, conditions are more favorable for the gratification +of the sexual impulse than to women. + +Man ever has looked upon the use of prostitution as a privilege due him +of right. All the harder and severer does he keep guard and pass +sentence when a woman, who is no prostitute, commits a "slip." That +woman is instinct with the same impulses as man, aye, that at given +periods of her life (at menstruation) these impulses assert themselves +more vehemently than at others,--that does not trouble him. In virtue of +his position as master, he compels her to violently suppress her most +powerful impulses, and he conditions both her character in society and +her marriage upon her chastity. Nothing illustrates more drastically, +and also revoltingly, the dependence of woman upon man than this +radically different conception regarding the gratification of the +identical natural impulse, and the radically different measure by which +it is judged. + +To man, circumstances are particularly favorable. Nature has devolved +upon woman the consequences of the act of generation: outside of the +enjoyment, man has neither trouble nor responsibility. This advantageous +position over against woman has promoted that unbridled license in +sexual indulgence wherein a considerable part of men distinguish +themselves. Seeing, however, that, as has been shown, a hundred causes +lie in the way of the legitimate gratification of the sexual instinct, +or prevent its full satisfaction, the consequence is frequent +gratification, like beasts in the woods. + +_Prostitution thus becomes a social institution in the capitalist world, +the same as the police, standing armies, the Church, and +wage-mastership._ + +Nor is this an exaggeration. We shall prove it. + +We have told how the ancient world looked upon prostitution, and +considered it necessary, aye, had it organized by the State, as well in +Greece as in Rome. What views existed on the subject during the Middle +Ages has likewise been described. Even St. Augustine, who, next to St. +Paul, must be looked upon as the most important prop of Christendom, and +who diligently preached asceticism, could not refrain from exclaiming: +"Suppress the public girls, and the violence of passion will knock +everything of a heap." The provincial Council of Milan, in 1665, +expressed itself in similar sense. + +Let us hear the moderns: + +Dr. F. S. Huegel says:[100] "Advancing civilization will gradually drape +prostitution in more pleasing forms, but only with the end of the world +will it be wiped off the globe." A bold assertion; yet he who is not +able to project himself beyond the capitalist form of society, he who +does not realize that society will change so as to arrive at healthy and +natural social conditions,--he must agree with Dr. Huegel. + +Hence also did Dr. Wichern, the late pious Director of the Rauhen House +near Hamburg, Dr. Patton of Lyon, Dr. William Tait of Edinburg, and Dr. +Parent-Duchatelet of Paris, celebrated through his investigations of the +sexual diseases and prostitution, agree in declaring: "Prostitution is +ineradicable _because it hangs together with the social institutions_," +and all of them demanded its regulation by the State. Also Schmoelder +writes: "Immorality as a trade has existed at all times and in all +places, and, so far as the human eye can see, _it will remain a constant +companion_ of the human race."[101] Seeing that the authorities cited +stand, without exception, upon the ground of the modern social order, +the thought occurs to none that, with the aid of another social order, +the causes of prostitution, and, consequently, prostitution itself, +might disappear; none of them seeks to fathom the causes. Indeed, upon +one and another, engaged in this question, the fact at times dawns that +the sorry social conditions, which numerous women suffer under, might be +the chief reason why so many women sell their bodies; but the thought +does not press itself through to its conclusion, to wit, that, +therefore, the necessity arises of bringing about other social +conditions. Among those who recognize that the economic conditions are +the chief cause of prostitution belong Th. Bade, who declares:[102] "The +causes of the bottomless moral depravity, out of which the prostitute +girl is born, lie in the existing social conditions.... _It is the +bourgeois dissolution of the middle classes and of their material +existence, particularly of the class of the artisans_, only a small +fraction of which carries on to-day an independent occupation as a +trade." Bade closes his observations, saying: "Want for material +existence, that has partly worn out the families of the middle class and +will yet wear them out wholly, leads also to the moral ruin of the +family, especially of the female sex." In fact, the statistical figures, +gathered by the Police Department of Berlin, between 1871-1872, on the +extraction of 2,224 enrolled prostitutes, show: + + + Number. Per Cent. Father's Occupation. + + 1,015 47.9 Artisans + 467 22.0 Millhands + 305 14.4 Small office-holders + 222 10.4 Merchants and railroad workers + 87 4.1 Farmers + 26 1.2 Military service + + +Of 102 the father's occupation was not ascertainable. + +Specialists and experts rarely take up investigations of a deeper +nature; they accept the facts that lie before them, and judge in the +style of the "Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift," that writes in its No. +35, for the year 1863: "What else is there left to the large majority of +willing and unwilling celibates, in order to satisfy their _natural +wants_, than the forbidden fruit of the Venus Pandemos?" The paper is, +accordingly, of the opinion that, for the sake of these celibates, +prostitution is necessary, because what else, forsooth, are they to do +in order to satisfy their sexual impulse? And it closes, saying: "Seeing +that prostitution is necessary, it has the right to existence, to +protection, and to immunity from the State." And Dr. Huegel declares +himself in his work, mentioned above, in accord with this view. Man, +accordingly, to whom celibacy is a horror and a martyrdom, is the only +being considered; that there are also millions of women living in +celibacy is well known; but they have to submit. What is right for man, +is, accordingly, wrong for women; is in her case immorality and a crime. + +The Leipsic Police Doctor, Dr. J. Kuehn, says:[103] "Prostitution is not +merely an evil that must be tolerated, _it is a necessary evil_, because +it protects the wives from infidelity, [which only the husbands have the +right to be guilty of] and virtue also [female virtue, of course, the +husbands have no need of the commodity] from being assailed [sic.] and, +therefore, from falling." These few words of Dr. Kuehn typify, in all +its nakedness, the crass egoism of male creation. Kuehn takes the +correct stand for a Police Doctor, who, by superintending prostitution, +sacrifices himself, to the end of saving the men from disagreeable +diseases. In the same sense with him did his successor, Dr. Eckstein, +utter himself at the twelfth convention of the German Associations of +House and City Real Estate Owners, held in Magdeburg in the summer of +1890. The honorable house-owners wished to know how they could prevent +the numerous instances of prostitutes occupying their houses, and how to +protect themselves against fines in case prostitutes are caught living +in them. Dr. Eckstein lectured them on this head to the effect that +prostitution was a "necessary evil," never absent from any people or +religion. Another interesting gentleman is Dr. Fock, who in a treatise, +entitled "Prostitution, in Its Ethical and Sanitary Respects," in the +"Deutschen Vierteljahrschrift fuer offentliche Gesundheitspflege," vol. +xx, No. 1, considers prostitution "an unenviable corollary of our +civilized arrangements." He fears an over-production of people if all +were to marry upon reaching the age of puberty; hence he considers +important to have prostitution "regulated" by the State. He considers +natural that the State supervise and regulate prostitution, and thereby +assume the care of providing for the supply of girls that are free from +syphilis. He pronounces himself in favor of the most rigid inspection of +"all women, proven to lead an abandoned life;"--also when ladies of "an +abandoned life" belong to the prominent classes? It is the old story. +That in all logic and justice also those men should be held under +surveillance who hunt up prostitutes, maintain them and make their +existence possible,--of that no one thinks. Dr. Fock also demands the +taxing of the prostitutes, and their concentration in given streets. In +other words, the Christian State is to procure for itself a revenue out +of prostitution, and, at the same time, organize and place prostitution +under its protection for the benefit of male creation. What was it that +the Emperor Vespasian said at a somewhat similar juncture? "_Non +olet!_"--it smells not. + +Did we exaggerate when we said: Prostitution is to-day a necessary +social institution just as the police, standing armies, the Church and +wage-mastership? + +In the German Empire, prostitution is not, like in France, organized and +superintended by the State; it is only tolerated. Official public houses +are forbidden by law, and procuring is severely punishable. But that +does not prevent that in a large number of German cities public houses +continue to exist, and are winked at by the police. This establishes an +incomprehensible state of things. The defiance of the law implied in +such a state of things dawned even upon our statesmen and they bestirred +themselves to remove the objection by legislative enactments. The German +Criminal Code makes also the lodging of a prostitute a penal offense. On +the other hand, however, the police are compelled to tolerate thousands +of women as prostitutes, and, in a measure, to privilege them in their +trade, provided they enter themselves as prostitutes on the Police +Register, and submit to the Police regulations,--for instance, +periodically recurring examinations by a physician. It follows, however, +that, if the Government licenses the prostitute, and thereby protects +the exercise of her trade, she must also have a habitation. Aye, it is +even in the interest of public health and order that they have such a +place to ply their trade in. What contradictions! On the one hand, the +Government officially acknowledges that prostitution is necessary; on +the other, it prosecutes and punishes the prostitute and the pimp. But +it is out of contradictions that bourgeois society is put together. +Moreover, the attitude of the Government is an avowal that prostitution +is a Sphinx to modern society, the riddle which society can not solve: +it considers necessary to tolerate and superintend prostitution in order +to avoid greater evils. In other words, our social system, so boastful +of its morality, its religiousness, its civilization and its culture, +feels compelled to tolerate that immorality and corruption spread +through its body like a stealthy poison. But this state of things +betrays something else, besides _the admission by the Christian State +that marriage is insufficient, and that the husband has the right to +demand illegitimate gratification of his sexual instincts_. Woman counts +with such a State in so far only as she is willing, as a sexual being, +to yield to illegitimate male desires, i. e., become a prostitute. In +keeping herewith, the supervision and control, exercised by the organs +of the State over the registered prostitutes, do not fall upon the men +also, those who seek the prostitute. Such a provision would be a matter +of course if the sanitary police control was to be of any sense, and +even of partial effect,--apart from the circumstance that a sense of +justice would demand an even-handed application of the law to both +sexes. No; "supervision and control" fall upon woman alone. + +This protection by the State of man and not woman, turns upside down the +nature of things. _It looks as if men were the weaker vessel and women +the stronger; as if woman were the seducer, and poor, weak man the +seduced._ The seduction-myth between Adam and Eve in Paradise continues +to operate in our opinions and laws, and it says to Christianity: "You +are right; woman is the arch seductress, the vessel of iniquity." Men +should be ashamed of such a sorry and unworthy _role_; but this _role_ +of the "weak" and the "seduced" suits them;--_the more they are +protected, all the more may they sin_. + +Wherever men assemble in large numbers, they seem unable to amuse +themselves without prostitution. This was shown, among other instances +of the kind, by the occurrences at the German Schuetzenfest, held in +Berlin in the summer of 1890, which caused 2,300 women to express +themselves as follows in a petition addressed to the Mayor of the German +capital: "May it please your Honor to allow us to bring to your +knowledge the matters that have reached the provinces, through the +press and other means of communication, upon the German shooting +matches, held at Pankow from the 6th to the 13th of July of this year. +The reports of the matter, that we have seen with indignation and +horror, represent the programme of that festival with the following +announcements, among others: 'First German Herald, the Greatest +Songstress of the World;' 'A Hundred Ladies and Forty Gentlemen:' +Besides these smaller _cafes chantants_ and shooting galleries, in which +importunate women forced themselves upon the men. Also a 'free concert,' +whose gaily-clad waitresses, seductively smiling, brazenly and +shamelessly invited the gymnasium students and the fathers of families, +the youths and the grown men alike, to the 'shooting retreats.'... The +barely dressed 'lady' who invited people to the booth of 'The Secrets of +Hamburg, or a Night in St. Pauli,' should have been enough to justify +her removal by the police. And then the shocking announcement, almost +incredible of the much boasted about Imperial capital, and hardly to be +believed by plain male and female citizens in the provinces, to the +effect that the managers of the festival had consented to the +employment, without pay, of 'young women' in large numbers, as +bar-maids, instead of the waiters who applied for work.... We, German +women, have thousands of occasions, as wives, mothers and as sisters, to +send our husbands, children, daughters and brothers to Berlin in the +service of the fatherland; we, consequently, pray to your Honor in all +humbleness and in the confident expectation that, with the aid of the +overpowering influence, which, as the chief magistrate of the Imperial +capital, lies in your hand, you may institute such investigations of +those disgraceful occurrences, or adopt such other measures as to your +Honor may seem fit, to the end that a recurrence of those orgies may not +have to be apprehended at the pending Sedan festival, for instance...." +(!!) + +During the session of the Reichstag, from 1892 to 1893, the united +Governments made an effort to put an end to the contradiction that +governmental practice, on the one hand, and the Criminal Code on the +other, find themselves in with regard to prostitution. They introduced a +bill that was to empower the police to designate certain habitations to +prostitutes. It was admitted that prostitution could not be suppressed, +and that, therefore, the most practical thing was to tolerate the thing +in certain localities, and to control it. The bill--upon that all minds +were agreed--would, if it became a law, have called again to life the +brothels that were officially abolished in Prussia about 1845. The bill +caused a great uproar, and it evoked a number of protests in which the +warning was raised against the State's setting itself up as the +protector of prostitution, and thereby favoring the idea that the use of +prostitution was not in violation of good morals, or that the trade of +the prostitute was such that the State could allow and approve of. The +bill, which met with the strongest opposition both on the floor of the +Reichstag and in the committee, was pigeon-holed, and dared not again +come into daylight. That, nevertheless, such a bill could at all take +shape reveals the embarrassment that society is in. + +The administrative regulation of prostitution raises in the minds of men +not only the belief that the State allows the use of prostitution, but +also that such control protects them against disease. Indeed, this +belief greatly promotes indulgence and recklessness on the part of men. +Brothels do not reduce sexual diseases, they promote the same: _the men +grow more careless and less cautious_. + +Experience has taught that neither the establishment of houses of +prostitution, controlled by the police, nor the supervision and medical +inspection, ordered by the police, afford the slightest guarantee +against contagion. The nature of these diseases is frequently such that +they are not to be easily or immediately detected. If there is to be any +safety, the inspection would have to be held several times a day. That, +however, is impossible in view of the number of women concerned, and +also of the costs. Where thirty or forty prostitutes must be "done" in +an hour, inspection is hardly more than a farce; moreover, one or two +inspections a week is wholly inadequate. The success of these measures +also suffers shipwreck in the circumstance that the men, who transmit +the germs of disease from one woman to another, remain free from all +official annoyance. A prostitute, just inspected and found healthy, may +be infected that same hour by a diseased man, and she transmits the +virus to other patrons, until the next inspection day, or until she has +herself become aware of the disease. The control is not only illusory: +These inspections, made at command, and conducted by male, instead of +female physicians, hurt most deeply the sense of shame; and they +contribute to its total ruination. This is a phenomenon confirmed by +many physicians. Even the official report of the Berlin Police +Department admits the fact by stating: "It may also be granted that +_registration causes the moral sense of the prostitute to sink_ still +lower."[104] Accordingly, the prostitutes try their utmost to escape +this control. A further consequence of these police measures is that +they make it extraordinarily difficult, even impossible, for the +prostitute ever again to return to a decent trade. _A woman, that has +fallen under police control, is lost to society; she generally goes down +in misery within a few years._ Accurately and exhaustively did the fifth +Congress at Geneva for Combatting Immorality utter itself against the +police regulation of prostitutes, by declaring: "The compulsory medical +inspection of prostitutes is an all the more cruel punishment to the +woman, seeing that, by destroying the remnants of shame, still possible +within even the most abandoned, such inspection drags down completely +into depravity the wretched being that is subjected thereto. The State, +that means to regulate prostitution with the police, forgets that it +owes equal protection to both sexes; it demoralizes and degrades women. +Every system for the official regulation of prostitution has police +arbitrariness for its consequence, as well as the violation of civic +guaranties that are safeguarded to every individual, even to the +greatest criminal, against arbitrary arrest and imprisonment. Seeing +this violation of right is exercised to the injury of woman only, the +consequence is an inequality, shocking to nature, between her and man. +Woman is degraded to the level of a mere means, and is no longer treated +as a person. _She is placed outside of the pale of law._" + +Of how little use police control is, England furnishes a striking +illustration. In the year 1866 a law was enacted on the subject for +places in which soldiers and marines were garrisoned. Now, then, while +from 1860 to 1866, without the law, the lighter cases of syphilis had +declined from 32.68 to 24.73 per cent., after a six years' enforcement +of the new law, the percentage of diseased in 1872 was still 24.26. In +other words, it was not one-half per cent. lower in 1872 than in 1866; +but the average for these six years was 1-16 per cent. higher than in +1866. In sight of this, a special Commission, appointed in 1873, to +investigate the effect of that law, arrived at the unanimous conclusion +that "the periodical inspection of the women who usually have sexual +intercourse with the _personnel_ of the army and navy, _had, at best, +not occasioned the slightest diminution in the number of cases_," and it +_recommended the suspension_ of periodical inspections. + +The effects of the Act of Inspection on the women subjected thereto +were, however, quite different from those on the troops. In 1866, there +were, to every 1,000 prostitutes, 121 diseases; in 1868, after the law +had been in force two years, there were 202. The number then gradually +dropped, but, nevertheless, still exceeded in 1874 the figure for 1866 +by 16 cases. Under the Act, deaths also increased frightfully among the +prostitutes. In 1865 the proportion was 9.8 to every 1,000 prostitutes, +whereas, in 1874 it had risen to 23. When, towards the close of the +sixties, the English Government made the attempt to extend the Act of +Inspection to all English cities, a storm of indignation arose from the +women. The law was considered an affront to the whole sex. The Habeas +Corpus Act,--that fundamental law, that protects the English citizen +against police usurpation--would, such was the sentiment, be suspended +for women: any brutal policeman, animated by revenge or any other base +motive, would be free to seize any decent woman on the suspicion of her +being a prostitute, whereas the licentiousness of the men would remain +unmolested, aye, would be protected and fed, by just such a law. + +Although this intervention in behalf of the outcasts of their sex +readily exposed the English women to misrepresentation and degrading +remarks from the quarter of narrow-minded men, the women did not allow +themselves to be held back from energetically opposing the introduction +of the law that was an insult to their sex. In newspaper articles and +pamphlets the "pros" and "cons" were discussed by men and women; in +Parliament, the extension of the law was, first, prevented; its repeal +followed later. The German police is vested with a similar power, and +cases that have forced themselves into publicity from Berlin, Leipsic +and other cities, prove that its abuse--or be it "mistakes" in its +exercise--is easy; nevertheless, of an energetic opposition to such +regulations naught is heard. Even in middle class Norway, brothels were +forbidden in 1884; in 1888 the compulsory registration of the +prostitutes and the inspection connected therewith were abolished in the +capital, Christiania; and in January, 1893, the enactment was made +general for the whole country. Very rightly does Mrs. Guillaume-Schack +remark upon the "protective" measures adopted by the State in behalf of +the men: "To what end do we teach our sons to respect virtue and +morality if the State pronounces immorality a necessary evil; and if, +before the young man has at all reached mental maturity, the State leads +woman to him stamped by the authorities as a merchandise, as a toy for +his passion?" + +Let a sexually diseased man, in his unbridled career of licentiousness, +contaminate ever so many of these poor beings--who, to the honor of +woman be it said, are mostly driven by bitter want or through seduction +to ply their disgraceful trade,--the scurvy fellow remains unmolested. +But woe to the woman who does not forthwith submit to inspection and +treatment! The garrison cities, university towns, etc., with their +congestion of vigorous, healthy men, are the chief centers of +prostitution and of its dangerous diseases, that are carried thence into +the remotest corners of the land, and everywhere spread infection. The +same holds with the sea towns. What the moral qualifications are with a +large number of our students the following utterance in a publication +for the promotion of morality may give an idea of: "_With by far the +larger number of students, the views entertained upon matters of +morality are shockingly low, aye, they are downright unclean._"[105] And +these are the circles--boastful of their "German breed," and "German +morals"--from which our administrative officers, our District Attorneys +and our Judges are in part recruited. + +"Thy sins shall be visited upon the children unto the third and fourth +generation." This Bible sentence falls upon the dissipated and sexually +diseased man in the fullest sense of the word, unhappily also upon the +innocent woman. "Attacks of apoplexy with young men and also women, +several manifestations of spinal debility and softening of the brains, +all manner of nervous diseases, affections of the eyes, cariosity, +inflammation of the intestines, sterility and atrophy, _frequently +proceed from nothing else than chronic and neglected, and, often for +special reasons, concealed syphilis_.... As things now are, ignorance +and lightheadedness also contribute towards _turning blooming daughters +of the land into anaemic, listless creatures_, who, under the burden of +a chronic inflammation of the pelvis, _have to atone for the excesses +committed by their husbands before and after marriage_."[106] In the +same sense does Dr. Blaschke utter himself:[107] "Epidemics like cholera +and smallpox, diphtheria and typhus, whose visible effects are, by +reason of their suddenness, realized by all, although hardly equal to +syphilis in point of virulence, and, in point of diffusion, not to be +compared therewith, yet are they the terror of the population ... while +before syphilis society stands, one feels inclined to say, with +frightful indifference." The fault lies in the circumstance that it is +considered "improper" to talk openly of such things. Did not even the +German Reichstag stop short before a resolution to provide by law that +sexual diseases, as well as all others, shall be treated by Sick-Benefit +Associations? + +The syphilitic virus is in its effects the most tenacious and hardest +poison to stamp out. Many years after an outbreak has been overcome, and +the patient believes every trace to be wiped out, the sequels frequently +crop up afresh in the wife or the new-born child;[108] and a swarm of +ailments among wives and children trace their causes back, respectively, +to marital and parental venereal diseases. With some who are born blind, +the misfortune is due to the father's sins, the consequences of which +transmitted themselves to the wife, and from her to the child. +Weak-minded and idiotic children may frequently ascribe their infirmity +to the same cause. Finally, what dire disaster may be achieved through +vaccination by an insignificant drop of syphilitic blood, our own days +can furnish crass illustrations of. + +In the measure that men, willingly or otherwise, renounce marriage, and +seek the gratification of natural impulses through illegitimate +channels, seductive allurements increase also. The great profits yielded +by all undertakings that cater to immorality, attract numerous and +unscrupulous business men, who spare no artifice of refinement to draw +and keep customers. Account is taken of every demand, according to the +rank and position of the custom, also of its means and readiness to +bleed. If some of these "public houses" in our large cities were to blab +out their secrets, the fact would appear that their female +tenants--mostly of low extraction, without either culture or education, +often unable to write their own names, but possessed of all the mere +physical charms--stand in the most intimate relations with "leaders of +society," with men of high intelligence and culture. There would be +found among these Cabinet Ministers, high military dignitaries, +Councillors, members of Legislatures, Judges, etc., going in and out, +and side by side with representatives of the aristocracy of birth, of +finance, of commerce and of industry,--all of them, who, by day and in +society, strut about with grave and dignified mien as "representatives +and guardians of morality, of order, of marriage, and of the family," +and who stand at the head of the Christian charity societies and of +societies for the "suppression of prostitution." Modern capitalist +society resembles a huge carnival festival, at which all seek to deceive +and fool one another. Each carries his official disguise with dignity, +in order later, unofficially and with all the less restraint, to give a +loose to his inclinations and passions. All the while, public life is +running over with "Morality," "Religion" and "Propriety." In no age was +there greater hypocrisy than in ours. The number of the augurs swells +daily. + +The supply of women for purposes of lust rises even more rapidly than +the demand. Our increasingly precarious social conditions--want, +seduction, the love for an externally brilliant and apparently easy +life--furnish the female candidates from all social strata. Quite +typically does a novel of Hans Wachenhusen[109] depict the state of +things in the capital of the German Empire. The author expresses himself +on the purpose of his work in these words: "My book deals mainly with +the victims of the female sex and its steady depreciation, due to the +unnatural plight of our social and civic state, through its own fault, +through neglect of education, through the craving of luxury and the +increasing light-headed supply in the market of life. It speaks of this +sex's increasing surplus, which renders daily more hopeless the new-born +ones, more prospectless those that grow up.... I wrote much in the same +way as the District Attorney puts together the past life of a criminal, +in order to establish therefrom the measure of his guilt. Novels being +generally considered works of fiction, permissible opposites of Truth, +the following is, in that sense, no novel, but a true picture of life, +without coloring." In Berlin, things are no better and no worse than in +other large cities. Whether Greek-Orthodox St. Petersburg or Catholic +Rome, Germanic-Christian Berlin or heathen Paris, puritanic London or +gay Vienna, approach nearer to Babylon of old is hard to decide. +"Prostitution possesses its written and its unwritten laws, its +resources, its various resorts, from the poorest cottage to the most +splendid palace, its numberless grades from the lowest to the most +refined and cultivated; it has its special amusements and public places +of meeting, its police, its hospitals, its prisons and its +literature."[110] "We no longer celebrate the festival of Osiris, the +Bacchanalia and the Indian orgies of the spring month; but in Paris and +other large cities, under the black cloak of night, behind the walls of +'public' and 'private' houses, people give themselves over to orgies and +Bacchanalia that the boldest pen dare not describe."[111] + +Under such conditions, the traffic in female flesh has assumed mammoth +proportions. It is conducted on a most extensive scale, and is most +admirably organized in the very midst of the seats of civilization and +culture, rarely attracting the notice of the police. A swarm of brokers, +agents, carriers, male and female, ply the trade with the same unconcern +as if they dealt in any other merchandise. Birth certificates are +forged, and bills of lading are drawn up with accurate descriptions of +the qualifications of the several "articles," and are handed over to the +carriers as directions for the purchasers. As with all merchandise, the +price depends upon the quality, and the several categories are assorted +and consigned, according to the taste and the requirements of the +customers in different places and countries. The slyest manipulations +are resorted to in order to evade the snares and escape the vigilance of +the police; not infrequently large sums are used to shut the eyes of the +guardians of the law. A number of such cases have been established, +especially in Paris. + +Germany enjoys the sorry fame of being the woman market for half the +world. The innate German migratory disposition seems to animate also a +portion of the women. In larger numbers than those of any other people, +the Austrian excepted, do they furnish their contingent to the supply of +international prostitution. German women populate the harems of the +Turks, as well as the public houses of central Siberia, and as far away +as Bombay, Singapore, San Francisco and Chicago. In a book of +travels,[112] the author, W. Joest, speaks as follows on the German +trade in girls: "People so often grow warm in our moral Germany over +the slave trade that some African negro Prince may be carrying on, or +over conditions in Cuba and Brazil, but they should rather keep in mind +the beam in their own eyes: _in no country is there such a trade with +white female slaves, from no country is the export of this living +merchandise as large as it is from Germany and Austria_. The road that +these girls take can be accurately followed. From Hamburg they are +shipped to South America; Bahia and Rio de Janeiro receive their quotas; +the largest part is destined for Montevideo and Buenos Ayres, while a +small rest goes through the Straits of Magellan as far as Valparaiso. +Another stream is steered via England, or direct to North America, +where, however, it can hold its own only with difficulty against the +domestic product, and, consequently, splits up down the Mississippi as +far as New Orleans and Texas, or westward to California. Thence, the +coast is supplied as far south as Panama; while Cuba, the West Indies +and Mexico draw their supplies from New Orleans. Under the title of +"Bohemians," further droves of German girls are exported over the Alps +to Italy and thence further south to Alexandria, Suez, Bombay, Calcutta +and Singapore, aye, even to Hongkong and as far as Shanghai. The Dutch +Indies and Eastern Asia, Japan, especially, are poor markets, seeing +that Holland does not allow white girls of this kind in its colonies, +while in Japan the daughters of the soil are themselves too pretty and +cheap. American competition from San Francisco also tends to spoil the +otherwise favorable chances. Russia is provided from East Prussia, +Pomerania and Poland. The first station is usually Riga. Here the +dealers from St. Petersburg and Moscow supply themselves, and ship their +goods in large quantities to Nischni-Novgorod and beyond the Ural +Mountains to Irbit and Krestofsky, aye as far as the interior of +Siberia. I found, for instance, a German girl in Tschita who had been +traded in this way. This wonderful trade is thoroughly organized, it is +attended to by agents and commercial travelers. _If ever the Foreign +Department of the German Empire were to demand of its consuls reports on +this matter, quite interesting statistical tables could be put +together._" + +This trade flourishes to this day at its fullest, as proved in the +autumn of 1893 by a Social Democratic delegate to the German Reichstag. + +The number of prostitutes is hard to estimate; accurately it can not be +at all given. The police can state approximately the number of women +whose principal occupation is prostitution; but it can not do this with +regard to the much larger number of those who resort to it as a side +means of income. All the same, the figures approximately known are +frightfully high. According to v. Oettingen, the number of prostitutes +in London was, as early as the close of the sixties, estimated at +80,000. In Paris the number of registered prostitutes in 1892 was 4,700, +but fully one-third escape police control. In all Paris, there were, in +1892, about sixty brothels, with 600 to 700 prostitutes, and the number +of brothels is steadily on the decline. On the other hand, based upon an +investigation, instituted by the Municipal Council of Paris, in 1889, +the number of women who prostitute themselves is placed at the enormous +figure of 120,000. In Berlin, the number of prostitutes, registered with +the police, was:-- + + + 1886 3,006 + 1887 3,063 + 1888 3,392 + 1889 3,703 + 1890 4,039 + + +In 1890, there were six physicians employed, whose duty it was to devote +two hours a day to inspection.[113] Since then the number of physicians +has been increased. The prostitutes, registered with the police, +constitute, however, in Berlin also, only a very small portion of the +total. Expert sources estimate it at not less than 50,000. In the year +1890 alone, there were in 9,024 liquor saloons 2,022 bar-maids, almost +all of whom yield to prostitution. Furthermore, the, from year to year, +rising number of girls, arrested for disorderly conduct, shows that +prostitution in Berlin is steadily on the increase. The numbers of these +arrests were:-- + + + 1881 10,878 + 1884 11,157 + 1887 13,358 + 1890 16,605 + + +Of the 16,605 girls, arrested in 1890, there were 9,162 carried for +sentence before the Judge. There were, accordingly, 30 of these at every +session of the court, and 128 of them were placed under the police by +judicial decree. Already in 1860, it was calculated in Hamburg that +every ninth woman was a prostitute. Since then the proportion has become +greatly worse. + +In Germany, the number of prostitutes probably runs up to 180,000. +Accordingly, we here have to do with a large female army, that considers +prostitution as a means of livelihood; and the number of victims, whom +disease and death claim, is in proportion.[114] + +Tait calculates for Edinburg that the average life of the prostitute is +22 to 25 years. According to him, year in and year out, _every fourth +aye, every third prostitute seeks to take her own life, and every +twelfth actually succeeds in killing herself_. A truly shocking state of +things. The majority of prostitutes are heartily tired of their way of +living; aye, that they are disgusted thereat, is an experience admitted +by all experts. But once fallen into prostitution, only to very few is +the opportunity ever offered to escape. + +And yet the number of prostitutes increases in the same measure that +does that of the women engaged as female labor in the various branches +of industry and trade, and that are paid off with wages that are too +high to die, and too low to live on. Prostitution is, furthermore, +promoted by the industrial crises that have become a necessity of the +capitalist world, that commence to become chronic, and that carry want +and misery into hundreds and thousands of families. According to a +letter of the Chief Constable of Bolton, October 31, 1865, to a Factory +Inspector, the number of young prostitutes had increased more during the +English cotton famine, consequent upon the North American war for the +emancipation of the slaves, than during the previous twenty-five +years.[115] But it is not only the working-women, who, through want, +fall a prey to prostitution. Prostitution also finds its recruiting +grounds in the higher walks of life. Lombroso and Ferrero quote +Mace,[116] who says of Paris that "a governess certificate, whether of +high or low degree, is not so much a draft upon bread, _as upon suicide, +theft and prostitution_." + +Parent-Duchatelet made out in his time a statistical table, according to +which, out of 5,000 prostitutes there were 1,440 who took to the +occupation out of want and misery; 1,250 were orphaned and without +support; 80 prostituted themselves in order to feed poor parents; 1,400 +were concubines left by their keepers; 400 were girls whom officers and +soldiers had seduced and dragged to Paris; 280 had been deserted by +their lovers during pregnancy. These figures speak for themselves. They +need no further explanation. Mrs. Butler, the zealous champion of the +poorest and most wretched of her sex in England, says on the subject of +prostitution: "Fortuitous circumstances, the death of a father, of a +mother, lack of work, insufficient wages, misery, false promises, +snares, have led them to sin." Instructive also is the information given +by K. Schneidt[117] on the causes, that lead the Berlin bar-maids so +often into the arms of prostitution. Shockingly large is the number of +female servants that become barmaids, and that almost always means +prostitutes. The answers that Schneidt received on his schedules of +questions addressed to bar-maids, ran like this: "Because I got a child +from my master and had to earn my living;" or "Because my book was +spoiled;" or "Because with sewing shirts and the like too little is +made;" or "Because I was discharged from the factory and could get no +more work;" or "Because my father died, and there were four other little +ones." That, particularly, servant girls, after they fall a prey to +seduction by their masters, furnish a large contingent to the +prostitutes, is a known fact. On the subject of the shockingly large +number of seductions of servant girls by their masters or by the sons of +these, Dr. Max Taude expresses himself reproachfully.[118] When, +however, the upper classes furnish their quota to prostitution, it is +not want but seduction and the inclination for an easy life, for dress +and for pleasures. On that subject a certain work[119] utters itself +this wise: + +"Cold with horror and dismay, many a staid citizen, many a parson, +teacher, high official, high military dignitary, etc., learns that his +daughter has secretly taken to prostitution. _Were it allowable to +mention all these daughters by name, either a social revolution would +take place on the spot, or the popular ideas concerning honor and virtue +would be seriously damaged._" + +It is especially the finer prostitutes, the _haute volee_ among the +prostitutes, that are recruited from these circles. Likewise do a large +portion of actresses, whose wardrobe outlays alone stand in crass +disproportion to their salaries, depend upon such unclean sources of +revenue.[120] The same with numerous girls, engaged as sales-ladies, and +in similar capacities. There are employers dishonorable enough to +justify the low wages that they pay by referring their female employes +to the aid of "friends." For instance: In 1889 the "Sachsische Arbeiter +Zeitung" of Dresden published a notice that ran as follows: "A cultured +young lady, long time out of work on account of lung troubles, looked, +upon her recovery, for work of any sort. She was a governess. Nothing +fit offered itself quickly, and she decided to accept the first job that +came along, whatever it was. She first applied to Mr. ----. Seeing she +spoke readily several languages, she was acceptable; but the 30 marks a +month wages seemed to her too small to get along with. She stated to Mr. +----, and his answer was that most of his girls did not get even that +much, but from 15 to 20 marks at most, and they all pulled through quite +well, each having a 'good friend,' who helped along. Another gentleman, +Mr. ----, expressed himself in the same sense. Of course, the lady +accepted a place in neither of the two establishments." + +Seamstresses, female tailors, milliners, factory girls by the hundreds +of thousands find themselves in similar plight. Employers and their +subalterns--merchants, mill owners, landlords, etc.,--who keep female +hands and employes, frequently consider it a sort of privilege to find +these women handy to administer to their lusts. Our pious and +conservative folks love to represent the rural districts as truly +idyllic in point of morality, compared with the large cities and +industrial centers. Everyone acquainted with the actual state of things +knows that it is not so; and the fact was evidenced by the address, +delivered by a baronial landlord of Saxony in the fall of 1889, reported +as follows in the papers of the place: + +"GRIMMA.--Baron Dr. v. Waechter of Roecknitz, recently delivered an +address, before a diocese meeting that took place here, upon the subject +of 'Sexual Immorality in Our Rural Communities.' Local conditions were +not presented by him in a rosy color. The speaker admitted with great +candor that _employers_, even _married_ ones, are frequently in _very +intimate relations_ with their female domestics, the consequences of +which were either cancelled with _cash_, or were removed from the eyes +of the world through a _crime_. The fact could, unfortunately, not be +cloaked over, that immorality was nursed in these communities, not alone +by girls, who, as nurses in cities, had taken in the poison, or by +fellows, who made its acquaintance in the military service, but that, +sad to say, also the _cultured classes_, through the stewards of +manorial estates, and through the officers on the occasions of field +manoeuvres, carried lax principles of morality into the country +districts. According to Dr. v. Waechter, there are _actually here in the +country few girls who reach the age of seventeen_ without having +fallen." The open-hearted speaker's love of truth was answered with a +social boycott, placed upon him by the officers who felt insulted. The +_jus primae noctis_ of the medieval feudal lord continues in another +form in these very days of ours. + +The majority of prostitutes are thrown into the arms of this occupation +at a time when they can hardly be said to have arrived at the age of +discretion. Of 2,582 girls, arrested in Paris for the secret practice of +prostitution, 1,500 were minors; of 607 others, 487 had been deflowered +under the age of twenty. In September, 1894, a scandal of first rank +took the stage in Buda-Pest. It appeared that about 400 girls of from +twelve to fifteen years fell prey to a band of rich rakes. The sons of +our "property and cultured classes" generally consider it an attribute +of their rank to seduce the daughters of the people, whom they then +leave in the lurch. Only too readily do the trustful daughters of the +people, untutored in life and experience, and generally joyless and +friendless, fall a prey to the seduction that approaches them in +brilliant and seductive guise. Disillusion, then sorrows, finally +crime,--such are the sequels. Of 1,846,171 live births in Germany in +1891, 172,456 were illegitimate. Only conjure up the volume of worry and +heartaches prepared for a great number of these mothers, by the birth of +their illegitimate children, even if allowance is made for the many +instances when the children are legitimatized by their fathers! _Suicide +by women and infanticide_ are to a large extent traceable to the +destitution and wretchedness in which the women are left when deserted. +The trials for child murder cast a dark and instructive picture upon the +canvas. To cite just one case, in the fall of 1894, a young girl, who, +eight days after her delivery, had been turned out of the lying-in +institute in Vienna and thrown upon the streets with her child and +without means, and who, in her distress and desperation, killed the +infant, _was sentenced to be hanged_ by a jury of Krems in Lower +Austria. About the scamp of a father nothing was said. And how often do +not similar instances occur! The seduced and outrageously deserted +woman, cast helpless into the abyss of despair and shame, resorts to +extreme measures: she kills the fruit of her womb, is dragged before the +tribunals, is sentenced to penitentiary or the gallows. The +unconscionable, and actual murderer,--he goes off scott-free; marries, +perchance, shortly after, the daughter of a "respectable and honest" +family, and becomes a much honored, upright man. There is many a +gentleman, floating about in honors and distinctions, who has soiled his +honor and his conscience in this manner. Had women a word to say in +legislation, much would be otherwise in this direction. + +Most cruel of all, as already indicated, is the posture of French +legislation, which forbids inquiry after the child's paternity, and, +instead, sets up foundling asylums. The resolution on the subject, by +the Convention of June 28, 1793, runs thus: "The nation takes charge of +the physical and moral education of abandoned children. From that moment +they will be designated only by the term of orphans. No other +designation shall be allowed." Quite convenient for the men, who, +thereby, shifted the obligation of the individual upon the collectivity, +to the end of escaping exposure before the public and their wives. In +all the provinces of the land, orphan and foundling asylums were set up. +The number of orphans and foundlings ran up, in 1893, to 130,945, of +which it was estimated that each tenth child was legitimate, but not +wanted by its parents. But no particular care was taken of these +children, and the mortality among them was, accordingly, great. In that +year, fully 59 per cent., i. e., more than one-half died during the +first year of their lives; 78 per cent. died twelve years of age and +under. Accordingly, of every 100 only 22 reached the age of twelve years +and over. It is claimed that matters have in the meantime improved in +those establishments. + +In Austria and Italy also foundling asylums were established, and their +support assumed by the State. "_Ici on fait mourir les enfants_" (Here +children are killed) is the inscription that a certain King is said to +have recommended as fit for foundling asylums. In Austria, they are +gradually disappearing; there are now only eight of them left; also the +treatment and care of the children has considerably improved to what it +was. In 1888, there were 40,865 children cared for in Austria, including +Galicia; of these 10,466 were placed in public institutions, 30,399 +under private care, at a joint cost of 1,817,372 florins. Mortality was +slighter among the children in the public institutions than among those +placed under private care. This was especially the case in Galicia. +There, 31.25 per cent. of the children died during the year 1888 in the +public establishments, by far more than in the public establishments of +other countries; but of those under private care, 84.21 per cent. +died,--a veritable mass-assassination. It almost looks as though the +Polish slaughterhouse system aimed at killing off these poor little +worms as swiftly as possible. It is a generally accepted fact that the +percentage of deaths among children born out of wedlock is far higher +than among those born in wedlock. In Prussia there died, early in the +sixties, during the first year of their lives 18.23 per cent. of +children born in wedlock, and 33.11 per cent. of children born out of +wedlock, accordingly twice as many of the latter. In Paris there died, +100 children born in wedlock to every 139 born out of wedlock, and in +the country districts 215. Italian statistics throw up this picture: Out +of every 10,000 live-births, there died-- + + + Legitimate children: 1881. 1882. 1883. 1884. 1885. + One month old 751 741 724 698 696 + Two to twelve months 1,027 1,172 986 953 1,083 + Illegitimate children: + One month old 2,092 2,045 2,139 2,107 1,813 + Two to twelve months 1,387 1,386 1,437 1,437 1,353 + + +The difference in the mortality between legitimate and illegitimate +children is especially noticeable during the first month of life. During +that period, the mortality of children born out of wedlock is on an +average three times as large as that of those born in wedlock. Improper +attention during pregnancy, weak delivery and poor care afterwards, are +the very simple causes. Likewise do maltreatment and the infamous +practice and superstition of "making angels" increase the victims. The +number of still-births is twice as large with illegitimate than with +legitimate children, due, probably, mainly to the efforts of some of the +mothers to bring on the death of the child during pregnancy. The +illegitimate children who survive revenge themselves upon society for +the wrong done them, by furnishing _an extraordinary large percentage of +criminals of all degrees_. + +Yet another evil, frequently met, must also be shortly touched upon. +Excessive sexual indulgence is infinitely more harmful than too little. +A body, misused by excess, will go to pieces, even without venereal +diseases. Impotence, barrenness, spinal affections, insanity, at least +intellectual weakness, and many other diseases, are the usual +consequences. _Temperance_ is as necessary in sexual intercourse as in +eating and drinking, and all other human wants. But temperance seems +difficult to youth. Hence the large number of "young old men," in the +higher walks of life especially. The number of young and old _roues_ is +enormous, and they require special irritants, excess having deadened and +surfeited them. Many, accordingly, lapse into the unnatural practices of +Greek days. The crime against nature is to-day much more general than +most of us dream of: upon that subject the secret archives of many a +Police Bureau could publish frightful information. But not among men +only, among women also have the unnatural practices of old Greece come +up again with force. Lesbian love, or Sapphism, is said to be quite +general among married women in Paris; according to Taxal,[121] it is +enormously in practice among the prominent ladies of that city. In +Berlin, one-fourth of the prostitutes are said to practice "tribady;" +but also in the circles of our leading dames there are not wanting +disciples of Sappho. Still another unnatural gratification of the sexual +instinct manifests itself in the violation of children, a practice that +has increased greatly during the last thirty years. In France, during +1851-1875, 17,656 cases of this nature were tried. The colossal number +of these crimes in France is intimately connected with the two-child +system, and with the abstinence of husbands towards their wives. To the +German population also we find people recommending Malthusianism, +without stopping to think what the sequels will be. The so-called +"liberal professions," to whom belong mainly the members of the upper +classes, furnish in Germany about 5.6 per cent. of the ordinary +criminals, but they furnish 13 per cent. of the criminals indicted for +violation of children; and this latter percentage would be still higher +were there not in those circles ample means to screen the criminals, so +that, probably, the majority of cases remain undiscovered. The +revelations made in the eighties by the "Pall Mall Gazette" on the +violation of children in England, are still fresh in the public memory. + +The moral progress of this our best of all possible worlds is recorded +in the below tables for England, the "leading country in civilization." +In England there were:-- + + + Immoral Acts Deaths from + Year. of Violence. Syphilis. Insane. + 1861 280 1,345 39,647 + 1871 315 1,995 56,755 + 1881 370 2,334 73,113 + 1882 466 2,478 74,842 + 1883 390 ... 76,765 + 1884 510 ... ... + Increase + since 1861 82 per cent. 84 per cent. 98 per cent. + + +A frightful increase this is of the phenomena that point to the rising +physical and moral ruin of English society. + +The best statistical record of venereal diseases and their increase is +kept by Denmark, Copenhagen especially. Here venereal diseases, with +special regard to syphilis, developed as follows:-- + + + Venereal Of these, + Year. Population. Diseases. Syphilis. + 1874 196,000 5,505 836 + 1879 227,000 6,299 934 + 1885 290,000 9,325 1,866 + + +Among the personnel of the navy in Copenhagen, the number of venereal +diseases increased 1224 per cent. during the period mentioned; in the +army and for the same period, 227 per cent.[122] And how stands it in +Paris? From the year 1872 to the year 1888, the number of persons +treated for venereal diseases in the hospitals Du Midi, de Lourcine and +de St. Louis was 118,223, of which 60,438 suffered of syphilis and +57,795 of other venereal affections. Besides these, of the number of +outside persons, who applied to the clinics of the said three hospitals, +there was a yearly average of 16,385 venereals.[123] + +We have seen how, as a result of our social conditions, vice, excesses, +wrongs and crimes of all sorts are bred. All society is kept in a state +of unrest. Under such a state of things woman is the chief sufferer. + +Numerous women realize this and seek redress. They demand, first of all, +economic self-support and independence; they demand that woman be +admitted, as well as man, to all pursuits that her physical and mental +powers and faculties qualify her for; they demand, especially, admission +to the occupations that are designated with the term "liberal +professions." Are the efforts in these directions justified? Are they +practical? Would they mend matters? These are questions that now crowd +forward. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[100] "Geschichte, Statistik und Regelung der Prostitution in Wien." + +[101] "Die Bestrafung und polizelliche Behaundlung der gewerbsmaessigen +Unzucht." + +[102] "Ueber Gelegenheitsmacherei und oeffentliches Tanzvergnuegen." + +[103] "Die Prostitution im 19. Jahrhundert vom sanitaetspolizeilichen +Standpunkt." + +[104] Zweiter Verwaltungsbericht des Koenigl. Polizei-Praesidiums von +Berlin fuer die Jahre 1881-1890; pp. 351-359 + +[105] "Korrespondenzblatt zur Bekaempfung der oeffentlichen +Sittenlosigkeit," August 15, 1893. + +[106] "Die gesundheitschaedliche Tragweite der Prostitution," Dr. Oskar +Lassar. + +[107] "Die Behandlung der Geschlechtskrankheiten in Krankenkassen und +Heilanstalten." + +[108] In the English hospitals, during 1875, fully 14 per cent. of the +children under treatment were suffering of inherited venereal diseases. +In London, there died of these diseases 1 man out of every 190 cases of +death; in all England, 1 out of every 159 cases; in the poor-houses of +France, 1 out of 160.5. + +[109] "Was die Strasse verschlingt." + +[110] Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, "The Moral Education." + +[111] Montegazza, "L'Amour dans l'Humanite." + +[112] "Aus Japan nach Deutschland durch Sibirien." + +[113] "Zweiter Verwaltungsbericht des Kgl. Polizei-Praesidiums von Berlin +vom Jahre 1881-1890." + +[114] In the large trades union sick-benefit associations of Berlin the +number of syphilitic diseases increased from 4326 in 1881 to 9420 in +1890. Dr. A. Blaschko, _ubi supra_. + +[115] Karl Marx, "Capital," p. 461, Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1896. + +[116] _Ubi supra._ + +[117] "Das Kellnerinnen-Elend In Berlin," Berlin, 1893. + +[118] Dr. Max Taube, "Der Schutz der unehelichen Kinder," Leipsic, 1893. + +[119] "Die gefallenen Maedchen und die Sittenpolizei," Wilh. Issleib, +Berlin, 1889. + +[120] In a work, "Kapital und Presse," Berlin, 1891, Dr. F. Mehring +proves that a by no means indifferent actress was engaged at a well +known theater at a salary of 100 marks a month, and that her outlay for +wardrobe alone ran up to 1000 marks a month. The deficit was covered by +a "friend." + +[121] Lombroso and Ferrero, _ubi supra_. + +[122] "Die venerischen Krankheiten in Daenemark," Dr. Giesing. + +[123] Report of the Sanitary Commission on the organization of +sanitation relative to prostitution in Paris, addressed to the Municipal +Council of Paris, 1890. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +WOMAN'S POSITION AS A BREADWINNER; HER INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES; DARWINISM +AND THE CONDITION OF SOCIETY. + + +The endeavor of woman to secure economic self-support and personal +independence has, to a certain degree, been recognized as legitimate by +bourgeois society, the same as the endeavor of the workingman after +greater freedom of motion. The principal reason for such acquiescence +lies in the class interests of the bourgeoisie itself. The bourgeoisie, +or capitalist class, requires the free and unrestricted purveyance of +male and female labor-power for the fullest development of production. +In even tempo with the perfection of machinery, and technique; with the +subdivision of labor into single acts requiring ever less technical +experience and strength; with the sharpening of the competitive warfare +between industry and industry, and between whole regions--country +against country, continent against continent--the labor-power of woman +comes into ever greater demand. + +The special causes, from which flows this ever increasing enlistment of +woman in ever increasing numbers, have been detailed above _in extenso_. +Woman is increasingly employed _along with man, or in his place, because +her material demands are less than those of man_. A circumstance +predicated upon her very nature as a sexual being, forces woman to +proffer herself cheaper. More frequently, on an average, than man, woman +is subject to physical derangements, that cause an interruption of work, +and that, in view of the combination and organization of labor, in force +to-day in large production, easily interfere with the steady course of +production. Pregnancy and lying-in prolong such pauses. The employer +turns the circumstance to advantage, and _recoups himself doubly for the +inconveniences_, that these disturbances put him to, _with the payment +of much lower wages_. + +Moreover--as may be judged from the quotation on page 90, taken from +Marx's "Capital"--the work of married women has a particular fascination +for the employer. The married woman is, as working-woman, much more +"attentive and docile" than her unmarried sister. Thought of her +children drives her to the utmost exertion of her powers, in order to +earn the needed livelihood; accordingly, she submits to many an +imposition that the unmarried woman does not. In general, the +working-woman ventures only exceptionally to join her fellow-toilers in +securing better conditions of work. That raises her value in the eyes of +the employer; not infrequently she is even a trump card in his hands +against refractory workingmen. Moreover, she is endowed with great +patience, greater dexterity of fingers, a better developed artistic +sense, the latter of which renders her fitter than man for many branches +of work. + +These female "virtues" are fully appreciated by the virtuous capitalist, +and thus, along with the development of industry, woman finds from year +to year an ever wider field for her application--but, and this is the +determining factor, _without tangible improvement to her social +condition_. If woman labor is employed, it generally sets male labor +free. The displaced male labor, however, wishes to live; it proffers +itself for lower wages; and the proffer, in turn, re-acts depressingly +upon the wages of the working-woman. The reduction of wages thus turns +into an endless screw, that, due to the constant revolutions in the +technique of the labor-process, is set rotating all the more swiftly, +seeing that the said technical revolutions, through the savings of +labor-power, set also female labor free,--all of which again increases +the supply of hands. New industries somewhat counteract the constant +supply of relatively superfluous labor-power, but are not strong enough +to establish lasting improvement. Every rise of wages above a certain +measure causes the employer to look to further improvements in his +plant, calculated to substitute will-less, automatic mechanical devices +for human hands and human brain. At the start of capitalist production, +hardly any but male labor confronted male labor in the labor-market; now +sex is played against sex, and, further along the line, age against age. +Woman displaces man, and, in her turn, woman is displaced by younger +folks and child-labor. Such is the "Moral Order" in modern industry. + +The endeavor, on the part of employers, to extend the hours of work, +with the end in view of pumping more surplus values out of their +employes, is made easier to them, thanks to the slighter power of +resistance possessed by women. Hence the phenomenon that, in the textile +industries, for instance, in which women frequently constitute far more +than one-half of the total labor employed, the hours of work are +everywhere longest. Accustomed from home to the idea that her work is +"never done," woman allows the increased demands to be placed upon her +without resistance. In other branches, as in the millinery trade, the +manufacture of flowers, etc., wages and hours of work deteriorate +through the taking home of extra tasks, at which the women sit till +midnight, and even later, without realizing that they thereby only +compete against themselves, and, as a result, earn in a sixteen-hour +workday what they would have made in a regular ten-hour day.[124] In +what measure female labor has increased in the leading industrial +countries may appear from the below sets of tables. We shall start with +the leading industrial country of Europe,--England. The last census +furnishes this picture: + + + Total Persons + Year. Employed. Males. Females. + 1871 11,593,466 8,270,186 3,323,280 + 1881 11,187,564 7,783,646 3,403,918 + 1891 12,898,484 8,883,254 4,016,230 + + +Accordingly, within twenty years, the number of males employed increased +613,068, or 7.9 per cent.; the number of females, however, by 692,950, +or 20.9 per cent. It is especially to be observed in this table that, in +1881, a year of crisis, the number of males employed fell off by +486,540, and the number of females increased by 80,638. The increase of +female at the cost of male persons employed is thus emphatically brought +to light. But within the increasing number of female employes itself a +change is going on: _younger forces are displacing the older_. It +transpired that in England, during the years 1881-1891, female +labor-power of the age 10 to 45 had increased, while that above 45 had +decreased. + +Industries in which female exceeded considerably the number of male +labor, were mainly the following: + + + Industries. Females. Males. + Manufacture of woman's clothing 415,961 4,470 + Cotton industry 332,784 213,231 + Manufacture of worsted goods 69,629 40,482 + Manufacture of shirts 52,943 2,153 + Manufacture of hosiery 30,887 18,200 + Lace industry 21,716 13,030 + Tobacco industry 15,880 13,090 + Bookbinding 14,249 11,487 + Manufacture of gloves 9,199 2,756 + Teachers 144,393 50,628 + + +Again the wages of women are, in almost all branches, considerably lower +than the wages of men _for the same hours_. In the year 1883, the wages +in England were for men and women as follows, per week:-- + + + Industries. Males. Females. + Flax and jute factories 26 Marks 10-11 Marks + Manufacture of glass 38 " 12 " + Printing 32-36 " 10-12 " + Carpet factories 29 " 15 " + Weaving 26 " 16 " + Shoemaking 29 " 15 " + Dyeing 25-29 " 12-13 " + + +Similar differences in wages for men and women are found in the Post +Office service, in school teaching, etc. Only in the cotton industry in +Lancashire did both sexes earn equal wages for equal hours of work in +the tending of power looms. + +In the United States, according to the census of 1890, there were +2,652,157 women, of the age of ten years and over engaged in productive +occupations:--594,510 in agriculture, 631,988 in manufacture, 59,364 in +trade and transportation, and 1,366,235 in personal service, of whom +938,910 were servants. Besides that, there were 46,800 female farmers +and planters, 5,135 Government employes, 155,000 school teachers, 13,182 +teachers of music, 2,061 artists.[125] In the city of New York, 10,961 +working-women participated in strikes during the year 1890, a sign that +working-women in the United States, like their European fellow-female +wage slaves, understand the class distinctions that exist between +Capital and Labor. In what measure women are displacing the men in a +number of industries in the United States also, is indicated by the +following item from the "Levest. Journ." in 1893: + +"One of the _features_ of the factory towns of Maine is a class of men +that may be termed 'housekeepers.' In almost every town, where much +factory work is done, these men are to be found in large numbers. +Whoever calls shortly before noon will find them, with aprons tied in +front, washing dishes. At other hours of the day they can be seen +scrubbing, making the beds, washing the children, tidying up the place, +or cooking. Whether any of them attend to the sewing and mending of the +family we are not quite sure. These men attend to the household for the +simple reason that _their wives can earn more in the factory than they_, +and it means a saving of money if the wife goes to work."[126] + +The closing sentence should read: "Because the women work for wages that +the men can no longer work for, and the employer therefore prefers +women,"--which happens in Germany also. The towns here described are the +so-called "she-towns," already more fully referred to. + +In France, there were, in 1893, not less than 15,958 women engaged in +the railroad service (in the offices and as ticket agents); in the +provincial Post Office there were 5,383 women employed; as telegraphers +and telephonists, 9,805; and in the State Savings Banks 425. Altogether +the number of women in France engaged in gainful occupations, inclusive +of agriculture and personal service, was, in 1893, in round figures +4,415,000. Of 3,858 decisions, rendered by the trades courts of Paris, +not less than 1,674 concerned women. + +To what extent female labor was applied in the industries of Switzerland +as early as 1886, is told by the following figures of the "Bund": + + + Industries. Males. Females. + Silk industry 11,771 51,352 + Cotton industry 18,320 23,846 + Linen and half-linen industry 5,553 5,232 + Embroidery 15,724 21,000 + + +Altogether, there were then in the textile industries, 103,452 women +engaged, besides 52,838 men; and the "Bund" expressly declares that +there is hardly an occupation in Switzerland in which women are not +found. + +In Germany, according to the census of occupations of 1882, of the +7,340,789 persons engaged in gainful occupations, 1,506,743 were women; +or 20.6 per cent. The proportions were, among others, these:-- + + + Per + Industries. Males. Females. Cent. + + Commercial occupations 536,221 181,286 25.2 + Service and restaurants 172,841 141,407 45.0 + Messengers and day laborers 9,212 3,265 26.2 + Spinning 69,272 100,459 60.0 + Weaving 336,400 155,396 32.0 + Embroidery 42,819 31,010 42.0 + Lace and crochet work 5,676 30,204 84.0 + Lace manufacture 13,526 17,478 56.4 + Bookbinding and paste-board + box-making 31,312 10,409 25.0 + Paper manufacture 37,685 20,847 35.6 + Tobacco working 64,477 48,919 43.1 + Clothes-making, etc. 279,978 440,870 61.2 + + +To these must be added 2,248,909 women engaged in agriculture, 1,282,400 +female servants, also school teachers, artists, Government +office-holders, etc. + +According to the census of occupations for 1875-1882, the following was +the result. There were employed in industrial occupations in the German +Empire:-- + + + Total Total Persons Employed. + Persons Employed. In the Small Trades. In the Large Trades. + Year. Males. Females. Males. Females. Males. Females. +1875 5,463,856 1,116,095 3,453,357 705,874 2,010,499 410,221 +1882 5,815,039 1,506,743 3,487,073 989,422 2,327,966 514,321 + --------- --------- --------- ------- --------- ------- +Increase + in 1882 351,183 390,648 33,716 283,548 317,966 107,100 + or 6.4 or 35 or 1 or 40.2 or 15.8 or 26.1 + per cent. per cent. per cent. per cent. per cent. per cent. + + +According to these figures, not only did female labor increase by 35 per +cent. during the period of 1875-1882, while male labor increased only +by 6.4 per cent., but the great increase of female labor, especially in +small industries, tells the tale that _only by dint of a strong +application of female labor, with its correspondingly low wages, can +small production keep itself afloat, for a while_. + +In 1882, there were to every 1,000 persons engaged in industry 176 +women; in commerce and transportation, 190; in agriculture, 312. + +In 1892, the number of women, employed in the factories of Germany, were +of the following ages: + + + Number + Age. Employed. + 12-14 3,897 + 14-16 68,735 + 16-21 223,538 + Over 21 337,499 + Besides (for Reuss younger line + without designation of ages) 6,197 + ------- + 639,866 + + +In the Kingdom of Saxony, notedly the most industrial portion of +Germany, the number of working-women employed in the factories was:-- + + + Year. 16 Years and Over. 12 to 16. + 1883 72,716 8,477 + 1892 110,555 13,333 + ------- ------- + Increase 37,839 4,856 + 52 per cent. 57 per cent. + + +As a result of the new factory regulations, which limited the hours of +female labor, between the ages of 14 to 16, to 10 a day, and wholly +forbade factory work to children of school age, the number of +working-women between the ages of 14 to 16 sank to 6,763, and of girls +between the ages of 12 to 14, sank by 6,334. The strongest increase in +the number of working-women, as far as we are informed, took place in +the tobacco industry of Baden. According to the reports of the Baden +Factory Inspector, Dr. Woerishoffer, the number of persons engaged in +the said industry and their subdivisions by sexes; was as follows: + + + Total Number + Year. Employed. Males. Females. + 1882 12,192 5,193 6,999 + 1892 24,056 7,932 16,124 + ------ ----- ------ + Increase 11,864 2,739 9,125 + or 52.8 or 130 + per cent. per cent. + + +This increase in the number of female tobacco workers, denotes the +sharpening competitive struggle, that has developed during the last ten +years in the German tobacco as well as many other industries, and which +compels the ever intenser engagement of the cheaper labor of woman. + +And, as in the rest of Germany, so likewise in Baden the industrial +development in general shows a larger increase of female than of male +workers. Within a year, it recorded the following changes:-- + + + Year. Males. Females. + 1892 79,218 35,598 + 1893 84,470 38,557 + ------ ------ + Increase 5,252 2,959 + or 6.6 or 8.3 + per cent. per cent. + + +Of the working-women over 16 years of age, 28.27 were married. In the +large ammunition factory at Spandau, there were, in 1893, 3,000 women +out of a total of 3,700 employes. + +As in England, in Germany also, female labor is paid worse than male. +According to the report of the Leipsic Chamber of Commerce for the year +1888, the weekly wage for equal hours were:-- + + + Males. Females. + Industries. Marks. Marks. + Lace manufacture 20 --35 7 --15 + Cloth glove manufacture 12 --30 6 --25 + Linen and jute weaving 12 --27 5 --10 + Wool-carding 15 --27 7.20--10.20 + Sugar refinery 10.50--31 7.50--10 + Leather and leather goods 12 --28 7 --18 + Chemicals 8.50--25 7.50--10 + Rubber fabrics 9 --28 6 --17 + One factory of paper + lanterns 16 --22 7.50--10 + + +In an investigation of the wages earned by the factory hands of Mannheim +in 1893, Dr. Woerishoffer divided the weekly earnings into three +classes: one, the lowest, in which the wages reached 15 marks; one from +15 to 24; and the last and highest in which wages exceeded 24 marks. +According to this subdivision, wages in Mannheim presented the following +picture:-- + + + Low. Medium. High. + Both sexes 29.8 per cent. 49.8 per cent. 20.4 per cent. + Males 20.9 per cent. 56.2 per cent. 22.9 per cent. + Females 99.2 per cent. 0.7 per cent. 0.1 per cent. + + +The working-women earned mostly veritable starvation wages. They +received per week:-- + + + Percentage + Marks. of Females. + Under 5 4.62 + 5--6 5.47 + 6--8 43.96 + 8--10 27.45 + 10--12 12.38 + 12--15 5.38 + Over 15 0.74 + + +In the Thueringer Wald district, in 1891, the workingmen engaged in the +slate works received 2.10 marks a day; the women 0.70. In the spinning +establishments, the men received 2 marks, the women from 0.90 to 1 mark. + +Worst of all are the earnings in the tenement industry, for men as well +as for women, but for the women it is still more miserable than for the +men. In this branch, hours of work are unlimited; when the season is on, +they transcend imagination. Furthermore, it is here that the sweating +system is generally in vogue, _i. e._, work given out by middlemen +(contractors) who, in recompense for their irksome labor of +superintendence, keep to themselves a large part of the wages paid by +the principal. Under this system, women are also expected to submit to +indignities of other nature. + +How miserably female labor is paid in the tenement industries, the +following figures on Berlin conditions may indicate. Men's colored +shirts, paid for in 1889 with from 2 marks to 2.50, the employer got in +1893 for 1 mark 50 pfennig. A seamstress of average skill must work from +early till late if she means to make from 6 to 8 of these shirts. Her +earnings for the week are 4 or 5 marks. An apron-maker earns from 2 +marks 50 pfennig to 5 marks a week; a necktie-maker, 5 to 6 marks; a +skilled blouse-maker, 6 marks; a very skilled female operator on boys' +clothing, 8 to 9 marks; an expert jacket-maker, 5 to 6 marks. A very +swift seamstress on men's shirts may, in the good season, and working +from 5 in the morning to 10 at night, make as much as 12 marks. +Millinery workers, who can copy patterns independently, make 30 marks a +month. Quick trimmers, with years of experience, earn from 50 to 60 +marks a month during the season. The season usually lasts five months. +An umbrella-maker, working twelve hours a day, makes 6 to 7 marks. Such +starvation wages force the working-women into prostitution: even with +the very plainest wants, no working-women can live in Berlin on less +than 8 or 9 marks a week. + +According to a statistical report on wages, ordered by the Chamber of +Commerce of Reichenberg for its own district, 91 per cent. of all the +working-women came under the wage category of from 2 to 5 guilders a +week. Upon the enforcement in Austria of the law on sick insurance, the +authorities discovered that in 116 districts (21.6 per cent. of all) the +working-women earned at most 30 kreuzer a day, 90 guilders a year; and +in 428 districts (78.4 per cent. of the total) from 30 to 50 kreuzer, or +from 90 to 150 guilders a year. The young working-women, under 16 years +of age, earned in 173 districts (30.9 per cent.) 20 kreuzer a day at the +most, or at the most 60 guilders a year; and in 387 districts (69.1 per +cent.) from 20 to 30 kreuzer, or from 60 to 90 guilders a year. + +Similar differences between the wages of male and female labor exist in +all countries on earth. According to the report on Russian industry at +the Chicago Exposition in 1893, a workingman made in cotton weaving 66 +marks a month, a working-woman 18; a male cotton spinner 66 marks, a +female 14. In the lace industry men earned up to 130 marks, women 26; in +cloth manufacture, with the power loom, a working man made 90 marks, a +working-woman 26 a month. + +These facts show that woman is increasingly torn from family life by +modern developments. Marriage and the family, in the bourgeois sense, +are undermined by this development, and dissolved. From the view point +afforded by this fact also, it is an absurdity to direct women to a +domestic life. That can be done only by such people, who thoughtlessly +walk the path of life; who fail to see the facts that shape themselves +all around, or do not wish to see them, because they have an interest in +plying the trade of optimism. Facts furnish a very different picture +from that presented by such gentlemen. + +In a large number of industries women are employed exclusively; in a +larger number they constitute the majority; and in most of the others +women are more or less numerously found. Their number steadily +increases, and they crowd into ever newer occupations, that they had not +previously engaged in. Finally, the working-woman is not merely paid +worse than the working man; where she does as much as a man, her hours +are, on an average, longer. + +The German factory ordinances of the year 1891 fixed a maximum of eleven +hours for adult working-women. The same is, however, broken through by a +mass of exceptions that the authorities are allowed to make. Nightwork +also is forbidden for working-women in factories, but here also the +Government can make exceptions in favor of factories where work is +continuous, or for special seasons; in sugar refineries, for instance. +German legislation has not yet been able to rise to the height of +really effective measures for the protection of working-women; +consequently, these are exploited by inhumanly long hours, and +physically wrecked in the small factories, especially in the tenement +house industry. Their exploitation is made all the easier to the +employer through the circumstance that, until now, a small minority +excepted, the women have not realized that, the same as the men, they +must organize in their trades, and, there where also men are employed, +they must organize jointly with them, in order to conquer for themselves +better conditions of work. The ever stronger influx of women in +industrial pursuits affects, however, not those occupations only that +their correspondingly weaker physique especially fits them for, but it +affects also all occupations in which the modern system of exploitation +believes it can, with their aid, knock off larger profits. Under this +latter head belong both the physically exhausting and the most +disagreeable and dangerous occupations. Thus the fantastic pretence of +seeing in woman only a tender, finely-strung being, such as poets and +writers of fiction love to depict for the delectation of men, a being, +that, if it exists at all exists only as an exception, is again reduced +to its true value. + +Facts are obstinate things, and it is only they that concern us. They +alone preserve us from false conclusions, and sentimental twaddle. These +facts teach us that to-day we find women engaged in the following +occupations, among others:--in cotton, linen and woolen weaving; in +cloth and flannel making; in mechanical spinning, calico printing and +dyeing; in steel pen and pin making; in the preparation of sugar, +chocolate and cocoa; in manufacturing paper and bronzes; in making glass +and porcelain and in glass painting; in the manufacture of faience, +majolica and earthen ware; in making ink and preparing paints; making +twine and paper bags; in preparing hops and manure and chemical +disinfectants; in spinning and weaving silk and ribbons; in making soap, +candles and rubber goods; in wadding and mat making; in carpet weaving; +portfolio and cardboard making; in making lace and trimmings, and +embroidering; making wall-paper, shoes and leather goods; in refining +oil and lard and preparing chemicals of all sorts; in making jewelry and +galvanoplastic goods; in the preparation of rags and refuse and bast; in +wood carving, xylography and stone coloring; in straw hat making and +cleaning; in making crockery, cigars and tobacco products; in making +lime and gelatine fabrics; in making shoes; in furriery; in hat making; +in making toys; in the flax, shoddy and hair industries; in watchmaking +and housepainting; in the making of spring beds, pencils and wafers; in +making looking-glasses, matches and gunpowder preparations; in dipping +phosphorus match-sticks and preparing arsenic; in the tinning of iron; +in the delicacy trade; in book printing and composition; in the +preparation of precious stones; in lithography, photography, +chromo-lithography and metachromotype, and also in the founding of +types; in tile making, iron founding and in the preparation of metals +generally; in the construction of houses and railroads; in electrical +works; in book-binding, wood-carving and joining; in the making of +footwear and clothing; file making; the making of knives and brass +goods; in manufacturing combs, buttons, gold thread and gas implements; +in the making of tanned goods and trunks; in making starch and chicory +preparations; in metallurgy, wood-planing, umbrella making and fish +manufacturing; the preservation of fruit, vegetables and meat; in the +making of china buttons and fur goods; in mining above ground--in +Belgium also underground after the women are 21 years old; in the +natural oil and wax production; in slate making and stone breaking; in +marble and granite polishing; in making cement; the transportation of +barges and canal boats. Also in the wide field of horticulture, +agriculture and cattle-breeding, and all that is therewith connected. +Lastly, in the various industries in which they have long been +considered to have the right of way: in the making of linen and woman's +clothing, in the several branches of fashion, also as saleswomen, and +more recently as clerks, teachers, kindergarten trainers, writers, +artists of all sorts. Thousands upon thousands of women of the middle +class are being utilized as slaves in the shops and in the markets, and +are thereby withdrawn from all domestic functions, the training of +children in particular. Finally, there is one occupation to be +mentioned, in which young, especially pretty, girls are ever more in +demand, to the great injury of their physical and moral development: it +is the occupation in public resorts of all sorts as bar-maids, singers, +dancers, etc., to attract men in quest of pleasure. This is a field in +which impropriety runs riot, and the holders of white slaves lead the +wildest orgies. + +Among the occupations mentioned, not a few are most dangerous. +Dangerous, for instance, are the sulphuric and alkaline gases in the +manufacturing and cleaning of straw hats; so is the inhalation of +chlorine gases in the bleaching of vegetable materials; the danger of +poisoning is imminent in the manufacture of colored paper, colored +wafers and artificial flowers; in the preparation of metachromotype, +poisons and chemicals; in the painting of leaden soldiers and leaden +toys. The on-laying of looking-glasses with quicksilver is simply deadly +to the fruit of pregnant women. If, of the live-births in Prussia, 22 +per cent. on an average die during the first year, there die, according +to Dr. Hirt, 65 per cent. of the live-births of female on-layers of +quicksilver, 55 per cent. of those of female glass-polishers, 40 per +cent. of those of female lead-makers. In 1890, out of 78 lying-in women, +who had been occupied in the type foundries of the district of +Wiesbaden, only 37 had a normal delivery. Furthermore, according to Dr. +Hirt, the manufacture of colored paper and artificial flowers, the +so-called powdering of Brussels lace with white lead, the preparation of +decalcomania pictures, the on-laying of mirrors, the manufacture of +rubber goods, in short, all occupations at which the working-women are +exposed to the inhalation of carbonic acid gases, are especially +dangerous from the second half of pregnancy onward. Highly dangerous is +also the manufacture of phosphorus matches and work in the shoddy mills. +According to the report of the Baden Trades Inspector for 1893, the +yearly average of premature births with women engaged in industry rose +from 1,039 in the years 1882-1886, to 1,244 in the years 1887-1891. The +number of births that had to be aided by an operation averaged for the +period of 1882-1886 the figures of 1,118 a year, and for the period of +1886-1891 it averaged 1,385. Facts much graver than any of these would +come to light if similar investigations were held also in the more +industrially developed countries and provinces of Germany. As a rule the +Inspectors are satisfied with stating in their reports: "No specially +injurious effects were discovered in the employment of women in the +factories." How could they discover any, with their short visits and +without drawing upon medical advice? That, moreover, there are great +dangers to life and limb, especially in the textile industry, in the +manufacture of explosives and in work with agricultural machinery, is an +established fact. Even a glance at the above and quite incomplete list +will tell every reader that a large number of these occupations are +among the hardest and most exhausting even to men. Let people say as +they please, this work or that is not suitable for woman; what boots the +objection if no other and more suitable occupation is furnished her? + +Among the branches of industry, or special occupations in the same, that +Dr. Hirt[127] considers girls should not be at all employed in, by +reason of the danger to health, especially with an eye to their sexual +functions, are: The preparation of bronze colors, of velvet and glazed +paper, hat making, glass grinding, lithography, flax combing, horsehair +twisting, fustian pulling, iron tinning, and work in the flax and shoddy +mill. + +In the following trades, young girls should be occupied only when the +necessary protective measures (ventilation, etc.) are properly provided +for: The manufacture of paper matting, china ware, lead pencils, shot +lead, etherial oils, alum, blood-lye, bromium, chinin, soda, paraffin +and ultramarine (poisonous) colored paper, wafers that contain poison, +metachromotypes, phosphorous matches, Schweinfurt green and artificial +flowers. Also in the cutting and sorting of rags, sorting and coloring +of tobacco leaf, cotton beating, wool and silk carding, cleaning of bed +feathers, sorting pencil hairs, washing (sulphur) straw hats, +vulcanizing and melting rubber, coloring and printing calico, painting +lead soldiers, packing snuff, wire netting, on-laying of mirrors, +grinding needles and steel pens. + +Truly, it is no inspiring sight to see women, and even pregnant ones, at +the construction of railroads, pushing heavily laden wheelbarrows in +competition with men; or to watch them as helpers, mixing mortar and +cement or carrying heavy loads of stone at the construction of houses; +or in the coal pits and iron works. All that is womanly is thereby +rubbed off from woman, her womanliness is trodden under foot, the same +as, conversely, all manly attributes are stripped from the men in +hundreds of other occupations. Such are the sequels of social +exploitation and of social war. Our corrupt social conditions turn +things topsy-turvy. + +It is, accordingly, easy to understand that, considering the extent to +which female labor now prevails, and threatens to make still further +inroads in all fields of productive activity, the men, highly interested +in the development, look on with eyes far from friendly, and that here +and there the demand is heard for the suppression of female labor and +its prohibition by law. Unquestionably, with the extension of female +labor, the family life of the working class goes ever more to pieces, +the dissolution of marriage and the family is a natural result, and +immorality, demoralization, degeneration, diseases of all natures and +child mortality increase at a shocking pace. According to the statistics +of population of the Kingdom of Saxony, child mortality has greatly +increased in all those cities that became genuine manufacturing places +during the last 25 or 30 years. During the period 1880-1885 there died +in the cities of Saxony, on an average, 28.5 per cent. of the +live-births during the first year of life. In the period of 1886-1890, +45.0 of the live-births died in Ernsthal during the first year of their +lives, 44.5 in Stolling, 40.4 in Zschopau, 38.9 in Lichtenstein, 38.3 in +Thum, 38.2 in Meerane, 37.7 in Crimmitschau, 37.2 in Burgstaedt, 37.1 in +Werdau, 36.5 in Ehrenfriedersdorf, 35.8 in Chemnitz, 35.5 in +Frankenberg, 35.2 in Buchholz, 35.1 in Schneeberg, 34.7 in Lunzenau, +34.6 in Hartha, 34.5 in Geithaim, etc.[128] Worse yet stood things in +the majority of the large factory villages, quite a number of whom +registered a mortality of 40 to 50 per cent. Yet, all this +notwithstanding, the social development, productive of such sad results, +is progress,--precisely such progress as the freedom to choose a trade, +freedom of emigration, freedom to marry, and the removal of all other +barriers, thus promoting the development of capitalism on a large scale, +but thereby also giving the death-blow to the middle class and preparing +its downfall. + +The working class is not inclined to help the small producer, should he +attempt the re-establishment of restrictions to the freedom to choose a +trade and of emigration, or the restoration of the guild and corporation +restrictions, contemplated with the end in view of artificially keeping +dwarf-production alive for a little while longer,--more than that is +beyond their power. As little is a return possible to the former state +of things with regard to female labor, but that does not exclude +stringent laws for the prevention of the excessive exploitation of +female and child labor, and of children of school age. In this the +interests of the working class coincides with the interests of the +State, of humanity, in general, and of civilization. When we see the +State compelled to lower the minimum requirements for military +service--as happened several times during the last decades, the last +time in 1893, when the army was to be further increased--and we see such +lowering of the minimum requirements resorted to for the reason that, as +a result of degenerating effects of our economic system, the number of +young men unfit for military service becomes ever larger,--when we see +that, then, forsooth, all are interested in protective measures. The +ultimate aim must be to remove the ills, that progress--such as +machinery, improved means of production and the whole modern system of +labor--has called forth, while at the same time causing the enormous +advantages, that such progress is instinct with for man, and the still +greater advantages it is capable of, to accrue in full measure to all +the members of society, by means of a corresponding organization of +human labor.[129] + +It is an absurdity and a crying wrong that the improvements and +conquests of civilization--the collective product of all--accrue to the +benefit of those alone who, in virtue of their material power, are able +to appropriate them to themselves, while, on the other hand, thousands +of diligent workingmen are assailed with fear and worry when they learn +that human genius has made yet another invention able to multiply many +fold the product of manual labor, and thereby opening to them the +prospect of being thrown as useless and superfluous upon the sidewalks. +Thus, that which should be greeted with universal joy becomes an object +of hostility, that in former years occasioned the storming of many a +factory and the demolition of many a new machine. A similar hostile +feeling exists to-day between man and woman as workers. This feeling +also is unnatural. The point, consequently, is to seek to establish a +social condition in which the _full equality of all without distinction +of sex shall be the norm of conduct_. + +_The feat is feasible--the moment all the means of production become +the property of society; when collective labor, by the application of +all technical and scientific advantages and aids in the process of +production, reaches the highest degree of fertility; and when the +obligation lies upon all, capable of work, to furnish a certain measure +of labor to society, necessary for the satisfaction of social wants, in +exchange whereof society guarantees to each and all the means requisite +for the development of his faculties and for the enjoyment of life._ + +Woman shall be like man, a productive and useful member of society, +equal-righted with him. Precisely like man, she shall be placed in +position to fully develop all her physical and mental faculties, to +fulfil her duties, and to exercise her rights. A free being and the peer +of man, she is safe against degradation. + +We shall point out how modern developments in society run out into such +a state of things, and that it is these very crass and monstrous ills in +modern development that compel the establishment of the New Order. + +Although the development of the position of woman, as above +characterized, is palpable, is tangible to the sight of all who have +eyes to see, the twaddle about the "natural calling" of woman is heard +daily, assigning her to domestic duties and the family. The phrase is +heard loudest there where woman endeavors to penetrate into the sphere +of the so-called higher professions, as for instance, the higher +departments of instruction and of the civil service, the medical or +legal careers, and the pursuit of the natural sciences. The most +laughable and absurd objections are fetched up, and are defended with +the air of "learning." Gentlemen, who pass for learned, appeal, in this +as in so many other things, to science in order to defend the most +absurd and untenable propositions. Their chief trump card is that woman +is inferior to man in mental powers and that it is folly to believe she +could achieve aught of importance in the intellectual field. + +These objections, raised by the "learned," fit so well with the general +prejudices entertained by men on the calling and faculties of woman +that, whoever makes use of them can count upon the applause of the +majority. + +New ideas will ever meet with stubborn opposition so long as general +culture and knowledge continue at so low an ebb as at present, +especially if it lies in the interest of the ruling classes to confine +culture and knowledge as much as possible to their own ranks. Hence new +ideas will at the start win over but a small minority, and this will be +scoffed at, maligned and persecuted. But if these new ideas are good and +sound, if they are born as the necessary consequence of existing +conditions, then will they spread, and the one-time minority finally +becomes a majority. So has it been with all new ideas in the course of +history: the idea of establishing the complete emancipation of woman +presents the same experience. + +Were not one time the believers in Christianity a small minority? Did +not the Protestant Reformers and modern bourgeoisdom once face +overpowering adversaries? And yet they triumphed. Was the Social +Democracy crippled because gagged and pinioned by exclusion laws, so +that it could not budge? Never was its triumph more assured than when it +was thought to have been killed. The Social Democracy overcame the +exclusion laws; it will overcome quite other obstacles besides. + +The claim regarding the "natural calling of woman," according whereto +she should be housekeeper and nurse, is as unfounded as the claim that +there will ever be kings because, since the start of history, there have +been such somewhere. We know not where the first king sprang up, as +little as we know where the first capitalist stepped upon the scene. +This, however, we do know: Kingship has undergone material changes in +the course of the centuries, and the tendency of development is to strip +it ever more of its powers, until a time comes, no longer far away, when +it will be found wholly superfluous. As with the kingship, so with all +other social and political institutions; they are all subject to +continuous changes and transformations, and to final and complete decay. +We have seen, in the course of the preceding historic sketch, that the +form of marriage, in force to-day, like the position of woman, was by no +means such "eternally"; that, on the contrary, both were the product of +a long process of development, which has by no means reached its acme, +and can reach it only in the future. If 2,400 or 2,300 years ago +Demosthenes could designate the "bringing forth of legitimate children +and officiating as a faithful warder of the house" as the only +occupation of woman, to-day we have traveled past that point. Who, +to-day, would dare uphold such a position of woman as "natural" without +exposing himself to the charge of belittling her? True enough, there are +even to-day such sots, who share in silence the views of the old +Athenian; but none dare proclaim publicly that which 2,300 years ago one +of the most eminent orators dared proclaim frankly and openly as +_natural_. Therein lies the great advance made. + +If, on the one hand, modern development, especially in industrial life, +has wrecked millions of marriages, it, on the other hand, promoted +favorably the development itself of marriage. Only a few decades ago, +and it was a matter of course in every citizen's or peasant's house not +only that woman sewed, knitted and washed--although even this has now +extensively gone out of fashion--but she also baked the bread, spun, +wove, bleached, brewed beer, boiled soap, made candles. To have a piece +of wearing apparel made out of the house was looked upon as unutterable +waste. Water-pipes, gaslight, gas and oil cooking ranges--to say nothing +of the respective electric improvements--together with numberless +others, were wholly unknown to the women of former times. Antiquated +conditions exist even to-day, but they are the exception. The majority +of women have discontinued many an occupation, formerly considered of +course, the same being attended to in factory and shop better, more +expeditiously and cheaper than the housewife could, whence, at least in +the cities, all domestic requirements for them are wanting. Thus, in the +period of a few decades, a great revolution for them has been +accomplished within our family life, and we pay so little attention to +the fact because we consider it a matter of course. Phenomena, that +develop, so to speak, under the very eyes of man, are not noticed by +him, unless they appear suddenly and disturb the even tenor of events. +He bristles up, however, against new ideas that threaten to lead him out +of the accustomed ruts. + +The revolution thus accomplished in our domestic life, and that +progresses ever further, has altered the position of woman in the +family, in other directions besides. Woman has become freer, more +independent. Our grandmothers, if they were honest masters' wives, would +not have dared, and, indeed the thought never crossed their minds, to +keep their working people and apprentices from the table, and visiting, +instead, the theatres, concerts and pleasure resorts, by day at that. +Which of those good old women dared think of occupying her mind with +public affairs, as is now done by many women? To-day they start +societies for all manner of objects, establish papers, call conventions. +As working-women they assemble in trades unions, they attend the +meetings and join the organizations of men, and here and there--we are +speaking of Germany--they have had the right of electing boards of labor +arbitration, a right that the backward majority of the Reichstag took +away again from them in the year of grace one thousand eight hundred and +ninety. + +What sot would seek to annul the changes just described, although the +fact is not to be gainsaid that, there are also dark sides to the bright +sides of the picture, consequent upon our seething and decaying +conditions? The bright sides, however, predominate. Women themselves, +however conservative they are as a body, have no inclination to return +to the old, narrow, patriarchal conditions of former times. + +In the United States society still stands, true enough, on bourgeois +foundations; but it is forced to wrestle neither with old European +prejudices nor with institutions that have survived their day. As a +consequence American society is far readier to adopt new ideas and +institutions that promise advantage. For some time the position of +woman has been looked upon from a viewpoint different than ours. There, +for instance, the idea has long taken hold that it is not merely +troublesome and improper, but not even profitable to the purse, for the +wife to bake bread and brew beer, but that it is unnecessary for her to +cook in her own kitchen. The private kitchen is supplanted by +co-operative cooking, with a large central kitchen and machinery. The +women attend to the work by turns, and the meals generally come out +cheaper, taste better, offer a greater variety, and give much less +trouble. Our army officers, who are not decried as Socialists and +Communists, act on a similar plan. They establish in their casinos a +co-operative kitchen; appoint a steward, who attends to the supply of +victuals on a large scale; the bill of fare is arranged in common; and +the food is prepared in the steam kitchen of the barracks. They live +much cheaper than in a hotel, and fare at least as well. Furthermore, +thousands of the rich families live the whole year, or part of the year, +in boarding-houses or hotels, without in any way missing the private +kitchen. On the contrary, they consider it a great convenience to be rid +of it. The aversion of especially well-to-do women towards all matters +connected with the kitchen does not seem to indicate that this function +either belongs to the category of the "natural calling" of woman. On the +contrary, the circumstance that princely and other prominent families do +like the hotels, and all of them engage male cooks for the preparation +of their food, would rather indicate that cooking is a male +occupation.--All of which is stated for the benefit of those people who +are unable to picture to themselves a woman not brandishing a kitchen +ladle. + +It is but a step to set up, beside the central kitchen, also the central +laundry and corresponding steaming arrangements for public use--as +already established in all large cities by rich private persons or +speculators, and found highly profitable. With the central kitchen may +also be connected central heating, warm water along with cold water +pipes, whereby a number of bothersome and time-consuming labors are done +away with. Large hotels, many private houses, hospitals, schools, +barracks, etc., have now these and many other such arrangements, such as +electric light and baths. The only fault to find is that only public +establishments and the well-to-do classes enjoy these advantages. Placed +within the reach of all, an enormous amount of time, trouble, labor and +material could be saved, and the standard of life and the well-being of +all raised considerably. In the summer of 1890, the papers published a +description of the progress made in the United States in the matter of +centralized heating and ventilation. It was there stated: + +"The recent attempts, made especially in North America, to effect the +heating of whole blocks of houses or city wards from one place have to +record no slight success. From the constructive point of view, they have +been carried out so carefully and effectively that, in view of the +favorable results and the financial advantages which they offer, their +further extension may be confidently expected. More recently the attempt +is being made to furnish from central locations not heat alone, but also +fresh air, either warm or cool, to certain extensive but not too wide +areas of the city. These plans are found in execution in the so-called +Timby System, which, according to the central organ of the Department of +Buildings, gathered from a report of the technical attache in +Washington, Government Architect Petri, has recently been thoroughly +explained in Washington by the 'National Heating and Ventilating +Company.' The said company originally planned to supply 50,000 people +from one place. The difficulties presented by the requisite speed of +transit and the size of the pneumatic machines, have, however, caused a +limitation to 0.8 kilometers, and in instances of specially closely +built business quarters, the building of a special central power place." + +What was then only projected, has since been in great part executed. +Philistine narrowness in Germany lives to shrug its shoulders at these +and such like schemes, although in Germany also we find ourselves just +now in the midst of one of those technical revolutions, that render the +private kitchen, together with a number of other occupations, hitherto +appertaining to the household, as superfluous as handicraft has been +rendered by machinery and modern technique. In the early days of the +nineteenth century, Napoleon pronounced insane the idea of constructing +a ship that could be set in motion by steam. The idea of building a +railroad was declared silly by many folks who passed for sensible: +nobody, it was argued, could remain alive on such a conveyance: the +rapidity of motion would deprive the passengers of breath. Identical +treatment is to-day accorded to a number of new ideas. He who sixty +years ago would have made to our women the proposition of replacing the +carrying of water with water-pipes, would have been exposed to the +charge of trying to lead women and servants into idleness. + +Nevertheless the great revolution in technique is in full march on all +fields; nothing can any longer hold it back; and bourgeois society, +having conjured the same into life, has the historic mission of also +carrying the revolution to perfection, and to promote on all fields the +budding of the germs for radical transformations, _which a social order, +built on new foundations, would only have to generalize on a large +scale, and make common property_. + +The trend, accordingly, of our social life is not to banish woman back +to the house and the hearth, as our "domestic life" fanatics prescribe, +and after which they lust, like the Jews in the Desert after the +fleshpots of Egypt. _On the contrary, the whole trend of society is to +lead woman out of the narrow sphere of strictly domestic life to a full +participation in the public life of the people_--a designation that will +not then cover the male sex only--and in the task of _human +civilization_. Laveleye fully recognized this when he wrote:[130] "In +the measure that what we are in the habit of designating as civilization +advances, the sentiments of piety and the family bonds weaken, and they +exercise a decreasing influence upon the actions of men. This fact is so +general that a law of social development may be recognized therein." Not +only has the position of woman changed, but also the relation of son and +daughter to the family, who have gradually attained a degree of +independence unknown in former days,--a fact noticeable especially in +the United States, where the self-dependent and independent education of +the individual is carried on much further than with us. The dark sides +that to-day accompany also this form of development, are not necessarily +connected with it; they lie in the social conditions of our times. +Capitalist society evokes no beneficent phenomenon unaccompanied with a +dark side: as Fourier long ago pointed out with great perspicacity, +capitalist society is in all its progressive steps double-faced and +ambiguous. + +With Laveleye, Schaeffle also detects in the changed character of the +family of our days the effect of social development. He says:[131] "It +is true that the tendency described in Chapter II, to reduce and limit +the family to its specific functions is traceable throughout history. +The family relinquishes one provisional and temporary function after the +other. In so far as it officiated only in a surrogate and gap-filling +capacity it makes way to independent institutions for law, order, +authority, divine service, education, technique, etc., as soon as these +institutions take shape." + +Women are pressing even further, though as yet only in a minority, and +only a fraction of these with clear aims. They aspire to measure their +power with men, not on the industrial field alone; they aspire not only +after a freer and more independent position in the family; they also +aspire at turning their mental faculties to the higher walks of life. +The favorite objection raised against them is that they are not fit for +such pursuits, not being intended therefor by Nature. The question of +engaging in the higher professional occupations concerns at present only +a small number of women in modern society; it is, however, important in +point of principle. The large majority of men believe in all seriousness +that, mentally as well, woman must ever remain subordinate to them, and, +hence, has no right to equality. They are, accordingly, the most +determined opponents of woman's aspirations. + +The self-same men, who raise no objection whatever to the employment of +woman in occupations, many of which are very exhausting, often +dangerous, threaten the impairment of her feminine physique and +violently compel her to sin against her duties as a mother,--these +self-same men would exclude her from pursuits in which these obstacles +and dangers are much slighter, and which are much better suited to her +delicate frame. + +Among the learned men, who in Germany want to hear nothing of the +admission of women to the higher studies, or who will yield only a +qualified assent, and express themselves publicly on the subject are +Prof. L. Bischoff, Dr. Ludwig Hirt, Prof. H. Sybel, L. von Buerenbach, +Dr. E. Reich, and many others. Notedly has the livelier agitation, +recently set on foot, for the admission of women to the Universities, +incited a strong opposition against the plan in Germany. The opposition +is mainly directed against woman's qualifications for the study of +medicine. Among the opponents are found Pochhammer, Fehling, S. Binder, +Waldeyer, Hegar, etc. Von Buerenbach is of the opinion that both the +admission to and the fitness of woman for science can be disposed of +with the argument that, until now, no genius has arisen among woman, and +hence woman is manifestly unfit for philosophic studies. It seems the +world has had quite enough of its male philosophers: it can, without +injury to itself, well afford to dispense with female. Neither does the +objection that the female sex has never yet produced a genius seem to us +either to hold water, or to have the weight of a demonstration. Geniuses +do not drop down from the skies; they must have opportunity to form and +mature. This opportunity woman has lacked until now, as amply shown by +our short historic sketch. For thousands of years she has been +oppressed, and she has been deprived or stunted in the opportunity and +possibility to unfold her mental faculties. It is as false to reason +that the female sex is bereft of genius, by denying all spark of genius +to the tolerably large number of great women, as it would be to maintain +that there were no geniuses among the male sex other than the few who +are considered such. Every village schoolmaster knows what a mass of +aptitudes among his pupils never reach full growth, because the +possibilities for their development are absent. Aye, there is not one, +who, in his walk through life, has not become acquainted, some with +more, others with fewer persons of whom it had to be said that, had they +been able to mature under more favorable circumstances, they would have +been ornaments to society, and men of genius. Unquestionably the number +of men of talent and of genius is by far larger among the male sex than +those that, until now, have been able to reveal themselves: social +conditions did not allow the others to develop. Precisely so with the +faculties of the female sex, a sex that for centuries has been held +under, hampered and crippled, far worse than any other subject beings. +We have absolutely no measure to-day by which to gauge the fullness of +mental powers and faculties that will develop among men and women so +soon as they shall be able to unfold amid natural conditions. + +It is with mankind as in the vegetable kingdom. Millions of valuable +seeds never reach development because the ground on which they fall is +unfavorable, or is taken up by weeds that rob the young and better plant +of air, light and nourishment. The same laws of Nature hold good in +human life. If a gardener or planter sought to maintain with regard to a +given plant that it could not grow, although he made no trial, perhaps +even hindered its growth by wrong treatment, such a man would be +pronounced a fool by all his intelligent neighbors. Nor would he fare +any better if he declined to cross one of his female domestic animals +with, a male of higher breed, to the end of producing a better animal. + +There is no peasant in Germany to-day so ignorant as not to understand +the advantage of such treatment of his trees or animals--provided always +his means allow him to introduce the better method. Only with regard to +human beings do even men of learning deny the force of that which with +regard to all other matters, they consider an established law. And yet +every one, even without being a naturalist, can make instructive +observations in life. Whence comes it that the children of peasants +differ from city children? It comes from the difference in their +conditions of life and education. + +The one-sidedness, inherent in the education for one calling, stamps man +with a peculiar character. A clergyman or a schoolmaster is generally +and easily recognized by his carriage and mien; likewise an officer, +even when in civilian dress. A shoe maker is easily told from a tailor, +a joiner from a locksmith. Twin brothers, who closely resembled each +other in youth, show in later years marked differences if their +occupations are different, if one had hard manual work, for instance, as +a smith, the other the study of philosophy for his duty. Heredity, on +one side, adaptation on the other, play in the development of man, as +well as of animals, a decisive _role_. Indeed, man is the most bending +and pliable of all creatures. A few years of changed life and occupation +often suffice to make quite a different being out of the same man. +Nowhere does rapid external change show itself more strikingly than when +a person is transferred from poor and reduced, to materially improved +circumstances. It is in his mental make-up that such a person will be +least able to deny his antecedents, but that is due to the circumstance +that, with most of such people, after they have reached a certain age, +the desire for intellectual improvement is rarely felt; neither do they +need it. Such an upstart rarely suffers under this defect. In our days, +that look to money and material means, people are far readier to bow +_before the man with a large purse, than before a man of knowledge and +great intellectual gifts, especially if he has the misfortune of being +poor and rankless_. Instances of this sort are furnished every day. The +worship of the golden calf stood in no age higher than in this,--whence +it comes that we are living "in the best possible world." + +The strongest evidence of the effect exercised upon man by radically +different conditions of life is furnished in our several industrial +centers. In these centers employer and employe present externally such a +contrast as if they belonged to different races. Although accustomed to +the contrast, it struck us almost with the shock of a surprise on the +occasion of a campaign mass meeting, that we addressed in the winter of +1877 in an industrial town of the Erzgebirge region. The meeting, at +which a debate was to be held between a liberal professor and ourselves, +was so arranged that both sides were equally represented. The front part +of the hall was taken by our opponents,--almost without exception, +healthy, strong, often large figures; in the rear of the hall and in the +galleries stood workingmen and small tradesmen, nine-tenths of the +former weavers,--mostly short, thin, shallow-chested, pale-faced +figures, with whom worry and want looked out at every pore. One set +represented the full-stomached virtue and solvent morality of bourgeois +society; the other set, the working bees and beasts of burden, on the +product of whose labor the gentlemen made so fine an appearance. _Let +both be placed for one generation under equally favorable conditions, +and the contrast will vanish with most; it certainly is blotted out in +their descendants._ + +It is also evident that, in general, it is harder to determine the +social standing of women than of men. Women adapt themselves more +readily to new conditions; they acquire higher manners more quickly. +Their power of accommodation is greater than that of more clumsy man. + +What to a plant are good soil, light and air, are to man healthy social +conditions, that allow him to unfold his powers. The well known saying: +"Man is what he eats," expresses the same thought, although somewhat +one-sidedly: The question is not merely what man eats; it embraces his +whole social posture, the social atmosphere in which he moves, that +promotes or stunts his physical and mental development, that affects, +favorably or unfavorably, his sense of feeling, of thought, and of +action. Every day we see people, situated in favorable material +conditions, going physically and morally to wreck, simply because, +beyond the narrower sphere of their own domestic or personal +surroundings, unfavorable circumstances of a social nature operate upon +them, and gain such overpowering ascendency that they switch them on +wrong tracks. The general conditions under which a man lives are even +of far greater importance than those of the home and the family. If the +conditions for social development are equal to both sexes, if to neither +there stand any obstacles in the way, and if the social state of society +is a healthy one, _then woman also will rise to a point of perfection in +her being, such as we can have no full conception of, such conditions +having hitherto been absent in the history of the development of the +race_. That which some women are in the meantime achieving, leaves no +doubt upon this head: these rise as high above the mass of their own sex +as the male geniuses do above the mass of theirs. Measured with the +scale usually applied to Princes, women have, on an average, displayed +greater talent than men in the ruling of States. As illustrations, let +Isabella and Blanche of Castile be quoted; Elizabeth of Hungary; +Catharine Sforza, the Duchess of Milan and Imola; Elizabeth of England; +Catharine of Russia; Maria Theresa, etc. Resting upon the fact that, in +all races and all parts of the world, women have ruled with marked +ability, even over the wildest and most turbulent hordes, Burbach makes +the statement that, _in all probability, women are fitter for politics +than men_.[132] For the rest, many a great man in history would shrink +considerably, were it only known What he owes to himself, and what to +others. Count Mirabeau, for instance, is described by German historians, +von Sybel among them, as one of the greatest lights of the French +Revolution: and now research has revealed the fact that this light was +indebted for the concept of almost all of his speeches to the ready help +of certain scholars, who worked for him in secret, and whom he +understood to utilize. On the other hand, apparitions like those of a +Sappho, a Diotima of the days of Socrates, a Hypatia of Alexander, a +Madame Roland, Madame de Stael, George Sand, etc., deserve the greatest +respect, and eclipse many a male star. The effect of women as mothers of +great men is also known. Woman has achieved all that was possible to her +under the, to her, as a whole, most unfavorable circumstances; all of +which justifies the best hopes for the future. As a matter of fact, only +the second half of the nineteenth century began to smooth the way for +the admission of women in large numbers to the race with men on various +fields; and quite satisfactory are the results attained. + +But suppose that, on an average, women are not as capable of higher +development as men, that they cannot grow into geniuses and great +philosophers, was this a criterion for men when, at least according to +the letter of the law, they were placed on a footing of equality with +"geniuses" and "philosophers?" The identical men of learning, who deny +higher aptitudes to woman, are quite inclined to do the same to artisans +and workingmen. When the nobility appeals to its "blue" blood and to +its genealogical tree, these men of learning laugh in derision and shrug +their shoulders; but as against the man of lower rank, they consider +themselves an aristocracy, that owes what it is, not to more favorable +conditions of life, but to its own talent alone. The same men who, on +one field, are among the freest from prejudice, and who hold him lightly +who does not think as liberally as themselves, are, on another +field,--the moment the interests of their rank and class, or their +vanity and self-esteem are concerned--found narrow to the point of +stupidity, and hostile to the point of fanaticism. The men of the upper +classes look down upon the lower; and so does almost the whole sex upon +woman. The majority of men see in woman only an article of profit and +pleasure; to acknowledge her an equal runs against the grain of their +prejudices:--woman must be humble and modest; she must confine herself +exclusively to the house and leave all else to the men, the "lords of +creation," as their domain: woman must, to the utmost, bridle her own +thoughts and inclinations, and quietly accept what her Providence on +earth--father or husband--decrees. The nearer she approaches this +standard, all the more is she praised as "sensible, modest and +virtuous," even though, as the result of such constraint, she break down +under the burden of physical and moral suffering. What absurdity is it +not to speak of the "equality of all" and yet seek to keep one-half of +the human race outside of the pale! + +Woman has the same right as man to unfold her faculties and to the free +exercise of the same: she is human as well as he: like him, she should +be free to dispose of herself as her own master. The accident of being +born a woman, makes no difference. To exclude woman from equality on the +ground that she was born female and not male--an accident for which man +is as little responsible as she--is as inequitable, as would be to make +rights and privileges dependent upon the accident of religion or +political bias; and as senseless as that two human beings must look upon +each other as enemies on the ground that the accident of birth makes +them of different stock and nationality. Such views are unworthy of a +truly free being. The progress of humanity lies in removing everything +that holds one being, one class, one sex, in dependence and in +subjection to another. _No inequality is justified other than that which +Nature itself establishes in the differences between one individual and +another, and for the fulfillment of the purpose of Nature. The natural +boundaries no sex can overstep: it would thereby destroy its own natural +purpose._ + +The adversaries of full equality for woman play as their trump card the +claim that woman has a smaller brain than man, and that in other +qualities, besides, she is behind man, hence her permanent inferiority +(subordination) is demonstrated. It is certain that man and woman are +beings of different sexes; that they are furnished with different +organs, corresponding to the sex purpose of each; and that, owing to the +functions that each sex must fill to accomplish the purpose of Nature, +there are a series of other differences in their physiologic and psychic +conditions. These are facts that none can deny and none will deny; +nevertheless, they justify no distinction in the social and political +rights of man and woman. The human race, society, consists of both +sexes; both are indispensable to its existence and progress. Even the +greatest male genius was born of a mother, to whom frequently he is +indebted for the best part of himself. By what right can woman be +refused equality with man? + +Based upon information furnished us by a medical friend, we shall here +sketch with a few strokes the essential differences, that, according to +leading authorities, manifest themselves in the physical and mental +qualities of man and woman. The bodily size of man and woman stands, on +an average, in the relation of 100 to 93.2. The bones of woman are +shorter and thinner, the chest smaller, wider, deeper and flatter. Other +differences depend directly upon the sex purpose. The muscles of woman +are not as massive. The weight of the heart is 310 grains in man, 255 in +woman. + +The composition of the blood in man and woman is as follows: Water, man, +77.19; woman, 79.11. Solid matter, man, 22.10; woman, 20.89. Blood +corpuscles, man, 14.10; woman, 12.79. Number of blood corpuscles in a +cubic millimeter of blood, man, 4 1/2 to 5 millions; woman, 4 to 4 1/2 +millions. According to Meynert, the weight of the brain of man is from +1,018 to 1,925 grams; of woman, from 820 to 1,565; or in the relation of +100 to 90.93. LeBon and Bischoff agree that, while weight of brain +corresponds with size of body, nevertheless short people have relatively +larger brains. With woman, the smaller size of the heart, the narrower +system of blood vessels and probably also the larger quantity of blood, +has a lower degree of nourishment for its effect.[133] That, however, +the larger skulls of larger persons, coupled with the quantitative +changes occasioned by the size of the skull promote the vigor of the +several sections of the brain is a matter that _cannot be +asserted_.[134] + +Of 107 mentally healthy men and 148 women of the ages of 20 to 59, the +weight of the brain per thousand was: + + + Average + Medulla Length in + Sex. Oblongata. Cerebellum. Pons. Centimeters. + + Men 790 107.5 102 166.5 + Women 787 110.0 103 156.0 + + +The absolute and relative excess in the weight of the cerebellum of +woman has an enormous significance. With animals that run immediately +upon birth, the cerebellum is much more powerfully developed than with +animals that are born blind, are helpless, and that learn to walk with +difficulty. Accordingly, and in consequence of its connection with the +cerebrum, subcortical center and the spinal cord, the cerebellum is a +station of the muscular and of the chief nervous system, by means of +both of which qualities we keep our equilibrium. The more massive +cerebellum with woman, together with the comparative shortness and +tenderness of her bones, explains her comparative quickness and easiness +of motion, her quicker and higher co-ordination of the muscles for their +functions, and her knack of quickly sizing up a situation, and finding +her way in the midst of a confusion of associations. Woman is +furthermore aided in the latter faculty through the greater excitability +of her cerebral cortex. Meynert says:-- + +1. All structural anomalies associated with anaemia of the +blood--including also a small heart and narrow arteries--should be +considered as subject structural defects. Upon this depends not only the +ready exhaustibility of the cortex, but also the phenomena of +irritability, named by Meynert, localized irritable weakness. + +2. The branches of blood vessels, supplying the subcortical centers from +the base, are short, thick, straight, palisade-like, while those on the +surface of the brain, supplying the cortex, run in long tortuous lines. +And it is because of that, since with the increased length of the blood +vessels the resistance to the propulsive force of the heart is +increased, that the subcortical centers, the moment fatigue supervenes, +are better supplied with blood than the cortex, they are less readily +fatigued than the more readily exhaustible cerebrum. + +3. Because of this and because of the more watery character of woman's +blood and great extent of subcortical centers in woman in comparison +with cerebrum, the physical equilibrium of woman is more unstable than +of man. + +4. All nerves (except the optic and olfactory, which spread out directly +in the cortex, save some of their filaments terminating in the +subcortical centers) terminate in the subcortical center; the cortex of +the cerebrum acts as a checking organ for the subcortical center; as the +cerebral cortex in woman, as already stated, is at a disadvantage not +only from the anatomical standpoint, but also in the quality of its +blood supply, woman is not only more easily fatigued, but also more +readily excitable (irritable, nervous). + +These facts explain, on the one hand, what is called the superior +endowment of woman, and, on the other, her inclination to sudden changes +of opinion, as well as to hallucinations and illusions. This state of +unstable equilibrium between the _dura mater_ and the _pons_ becomes +particularly normal during menstruation, pregnancy, lying-in, and at her +climacteric. As a result of her physical organization, woman is more +inclined to melancholy than man, and likewise is the inclination to +mental derangement stronger with her; on the other hand, the male sex +excels her in the number of cases of megalomania. + +Such, in substance, is the information furnished us by the authority +whom we have been quoting. + +As a matter of course, in so far as the cited differences depend upon +the nature of the sex-distinctions, they can not be changed; in how far +these differences in the make-up of the blood and the brain may be +modified by a change of life (nourishment, mental and physical +gymnastics, occupation, etc.) is a matter that, for the present, lies +beyond all accurate calculation. But this seems certain: _modern woman +differs more markedly from man than primitive woman, or than the women +of backward peoples, and the circumstance is easily explained by the +social development that the last 1,000 or 1,500 years forced upon woman +among the nations of civilization_. + +According to Lombroso and Ferrero, the mean capacity of the female +skull, the male skull being assumed at 1,000, is as follows:-- + + + Negro 984 Slav 903 + Australian 967 Gipsy 875 + Hindoo 944 Chinese 870 + Italian 921 German 838-897 + Hollander 919 (Tiedemann) Englishman 860 + Hollander 883 (Davis) Parisian 858 + + +The contradictory findings for Hollanders and Germans show that the +measurements were made on very different quantitative and qualitative +materials, and, consequently, are not absolutely reliable. One thing, +however, is evident from the figures: Negro, Australian and Hindoo women +have a considerably larger brain capacity than their German, English and +Parisian sisters, and yet the latter are all more intelligent. The +comparisons established in the weight of the brain of deceased men of +note, reveal similar contradictions and peculiarities. According to +Prof. Reclam, the brain of the naturalist Cuvier weighed 1,861 grams, of +Byron 1,807, of the mathematician Dirichlet 1,520, of the celebrated +mathematician Gauss 1,492, of the philologist Hermann 1,358, of the +scientist Hausmann 1,226. The last of these had a brain below the +average weight of that of women, which, according to Bischoff, weighs +1,250 grams. But a special irony of fate wills it that the brain of +Prof. Bischoff himself, who died a few years ago in St. Petersburg, +weighed only 1,245 grams, and Bischoff it was who most obstinately +grounded his claim of woman's inferiority on the fact that woman, on the +average, had 100 grams less brain than man. The brain of Gambetta also +weighed considerably below the average female brain, it weighed only +1,180 grams, and Dante, too, is said to have had a brain below the +average weight for men. Figures of the same sort are found in Dr. +Havelock Ellis' work. According thereto, an every day person, whose +brain Bischoff weighed, had 2,222 grams; the poet Turgeniew 2,012; while +the third heaviest brain on the list belonged to an idiot of the duchy +of Hants. The brain of a common workingman, also examined by Bischoff, +weighed 1,925 grams. The heaviest woman's brains weighed 1,742 and 1,580 +grams, two of which were of insane women. + +The conclusion is, accordingly, justified that as little as size of body +justifies inferences as to strength of body, so little does the weight +of the brain-mass warrant inferences as to mental powers. There are very +small animals (ants, bees) that, in point of intelligence, greatly excel +much larger ones (sheep, cows), just as men of large body are often +found far behind others of smaller or unimposing stature. Accordingly, +the important factor is not merely the quantity of brain matter, but +_more especially the brain organization, and, not least of all, the +exercise and use of the brain power_. + +The brain, if it is to fully develop its powers, must be diligently +exercised, the same as any other organ, and also correspondingly fed. +Where this is not done, or where the training is turned into wrong +channels, instead of the sections of the understanding being developed, +those are developed in which imagination has its seat. In such cases, +_not only is the organ stunted, but even crippled. One section is +developed at the expense of another._ + +No one, approximately familiar with the history of the development of +woman, will deny that, for thousands of years, woman has been and +continues to be sinned against in that direction. When Prof. Bischoff +objects that woman could have trained her brain and intelligence as well +as man did, he reveals unpardonable and unheard of ignorance on the +subject. The sketch, drawn in this work, of the position of woman in the +course of the progress of civilization, explains fully how the thousands +of years of continued male supremacy over woman are mainly responsible +for the great differences in the mental and physical development of the +two sexes. + +Our naturalists should recognize that the laws of their science are +applicable to man also, and to his evolution. The laws of evolution, of +heredity, of adaptation, hold good with human beings as with all other +creatures of nature. Seeing that man is no exception in nature, the law +of evolution must be applied to him also: forthwith light is shed upon +what otherwise remains confused and dark, and, as such, becomes the fit +subject for scientific mysticism, or mystic science. + +The training of the brain took its course with the different sexes +wholly in conformity with the difference in the education of the two--if +such a term as "education" is at all allowable, with regard to woman in +particular, during long stretches of the past, and the term "bringing +up" is not the correcter. Physiologists are agreed that the organs of +thought are located in the front part of the brain, and those especially +of feeling and sentiment are to be looked for in the middle of the head. +With man the front, with woman the middle of the head is more developed. +_The ideal of beauty, male and female, shaped itself accordingly._ +According to the Greek ideal, which is standard to this day, _woman has +a narrow, man a high and, particularly, broad forehead_,--and this ideal +an expression of their own degradation, is so stamped on their minds, +that our women bewail a forehead that exceeds the average, as a +deformity in their appearance, and seek to improve nature by art, +drawing their hair over the sinning forehead, to make it look lower. + +In a polemic in Nos. 39 and 40 of the "Sozialdemokrat" for 1890, which +appeared in London, Sophie Nadejde had two articles in which she sought +to refute the charges concerning the great inferiority of woman. She +says therein that Broca, a well known Parisian physiologist, measured +the cubic contents of 115 skulls from the eleventh and twelfth +centuries, and got an average of 1,426 cubic centimeters. The +measurements of 125 skulls from the eighteenth century gave, however, an +average of 1,462 cubic centimeters. According to this, the conclusion +would be that, in the course of a few centuries, the brain had grown +considerably. A measurement by Broca of skulls from the Stone Age +resulted, however, in an average of 1,606 cubic centimeters for the +skulls of men, and 1,581 for the skulls of women,--accordingly, both +considerably larger than those of the eleventh, twelfth and eighteenth +centuries. Mrs. Nadejde concluded therefrom that Herbert Spencer was +right when he claimed in his physiology that brain weight depended upon +the amount of motion and the variety of motions. + +The lady furthermore emphasized the point that it depends a deal less on +the brain-mass than on the proportion in the two sexes of the +brain-weight to the weight of the body. Proceeding from these premises, +it appeared that _the female brain was heavier than the male_. The +argument on this head, Mrs. Nadejde presents in these words: + +"Let us compare the average weights of the bodies, and let us take, as +the difference between man and woman only 8 kilograms, although many +naturalists, among them Gay, whom Delaunay quotes, takes 11 kilograms. +According to the average weights of 9,157 American soldiers: 64.4 +kilograms (average weight of the male body): 56 kilograms (average +weight of the female body) = 1,141 or 1.14, i. e., the average weight of +woman being taken as 100, that of man is represented by 114. According +to the average weights of 12,740 Bavarians: 65.5 kilograms (average for +males): 57.5 (average for females) = 1,139 or 1.14 as above. Assuming +the average weight of woman as 100, that of man is found to be 114. +According to the average weights of 617 Englishmen, 68.8 (average for +males): 60.8 (average for females) = 1,131, or 1.13; the average weight +of woman being assumed as 100, that of man is found to be 113.[135] + +"Accordingly, it appears that, under otherwise equal conditions, women +have 1/4 per cent. of brain-mass in excess of men. That is to say, for +every 100 grams of female brain-mass, men should have 113 or 114 grams; +in reality, however, they only have from 110 to 112 grams. The fact can +be put still more plastically: According to this calculation, _the male +brain falls short 25 to 51 grams of brain-mass_.[136] + +"But L. Manouvrier proves more. He says:[137] 'The influence of the +weight of the body strikes the eye when we note the figures among the +vertebrates. The influence is equally manifest with man, and it is a +wonder how so many naturalists have not yet recognized this truth, even +after it was illustrated and treated by others. + +"'There are a number of facts that prove the influence of the size of +the body upon the weight of the brain. The lower races and of high +stature, not only have a larger average weight of brain than the +European, but also is the number of large brains greater with them. We +must not imagine that the intelligence of a race is determined by the +number of large brains: the Patagonians, Polynesians and Indians of +North America (and according to the figures given above the people of +the Stone Age may be added) greatly surpass us Parisians and all races +of Europe, not only in the number of large brains, but also in the large +average capacity of the skull. + +"'The influence of the weight of the body upon the size of the brain is +confirmed by the fact that the small skull capacities are found among +races of slight stature, like the Bushmen, the Andamans, and the Hindoo +pariahs.' + +"All scientists who have treated the brain question in a really +scientific manner, have expressed themselves with greatest caution on +the difference shown by the two sexes. Other writers, on the contrary, +especially during the last years, have treated the question with such +levity, that it has been compromised in the public esteem. If there be +any intellectual difference between man and woman, it must, at any rate, +be very slight, a physiologist like Stuart Mill having declared that he +failed to find the difference. Size of body, strength of muscle, +mass--all of these present decided differences. Due to these differences +woman has been termed the defective sex; and authors who were not able +to understand these manifest differences, presumed to establish a +physiologic difference; to solve a much more difficult and complex +question, they raised their voices in praise of their own sex! + +"It follows that the difference between the sexes in point of weight of +brain and capacity of skull, considered scientifically, can not be +scored to the disadvantage of woman. All the facts point to the +conclusion that the difference depends upon the weight of the body. +There is no anatomical reason to represent woman as a backward and, in +point of intelligence, subordinate being, compared with man. I shall +presently prove this. + +"The proportion between the weight of the brain and the height of the +body is smaller with the female than with the male sex.[138] But the +fact is easily explained. The height of the body does not actually +express the development, or, rather, the weight of the body. + +"But when we compare the proportion of the brain-weights we find that +women have more brain than men, in childhood as well as throughout life. +The difference is not great, but it would be much more considerable, if +we did not include in the weight of the body the fat, which is present +in much larger quantity with women, and which, as an inert (inactive) +mass, has no influence whatever upon the weight of the brain." + +Later, in 1883, L. Manouvrier published in the seventh number of the +"Revue Scientifique" the following results of his investigations:-- + +"If we designate with 100 each the weight of the brain, thighbone, +skull, and lower jawbone, we find the following weights for woman:-- + + + Brain 88.9 + Skull 85.8 + Lower jawbone 78.7 + Thighbone 62.5 + + +"It is, furthermore, an established fact that the weight of the skeleton +(without skull) differs as with the thighbone. Hence we may compare the +weight of the brain with that of the thighbone. It follows from the +figures given above, that women have, relatively, 26.4 per cent. more +brain-mass. + +"Let us express the figures herein given somewhat more plastically. + +"If a man has 100 grams of brain-mass, woman should have, instead of +100, only 62.5 grams; but she has 88.9 grams,--an excess of 26.4 grams. +It follows that if we accept 1,410 grams (according to Wagner) as the +average weight of the male brain, the female brain should weigh only +961.25 grams, instead of 1,262: woman, accordingly, has 301.75 grams +more brain-mass than the proportion demands. If we take the figures of +Huschel we find an excess of 372 grams; finally, the figures of Broca +give us an excess of 383 grams. _Under otherwise equal conditions woman +has between 300 and 400 grams more brain-mass than man."_ + +Although it is by no means proven that, by reason of their brain-mass, +women are inferior to men, it is no cause for wonder that, women are +mentally such as we know them to-day. Darwin is certainly right when he +says that a list of the most distinguished men in poetry, painting, +sculpture, music, science and philosophy side by side with a similar +list of the most distinguished women on the same fields will not bear +comparison with each other. But are we to wonder at that? _Wonderful +were it if it were otherwise._ For that reason Dr. Dodel-Zurich[139] +says with perfect right that matters would stand otherwise if through a +number of generations women and men were educated equally, and trained +in the exercise of those arts and of mental discipline. On an average, +woman is also weaker than man, which is by no means the case with many +wild peoples.[140] What exercise and training from early youth are able +to change in this matter, we may see in the circus women and female +acrobats, who in courage, foolhardiness, dexterity and physical strength +achieve marvelous feats. + +Seeing that such a development is a matter of the conditions of life and +education--or, to express it in the naked language of science, of +"breeding"--it may be taken for certain that the application of these +laws to the physical and mental life of man would lead to the most +brilliant results, _the moment man sets his hand to the work with full +consciousness of his object and his aim_. + +As plants and animals depend upon the conditions for existence that they +live under--promoted by favorable, checked by unfavorable ones--and as +forcible conditions compel them to change their appearance and +character, provided such conditions are not unfavorable enough to +destroy them wholly, so it is with man. The manner in which a person +makes his living influences not his external appearance only, it +influences also his feelings, his thoughts and his actions.[141] If, +accordingly, man's unfavorable conditions of life--defective social +conditions--are the cause of defective individual development, it +follows that _by changing his condition of life, man is himself +changed_. The question, therefore, is so to change the social conditions +that every human being shall be afforded the possibility for the full +and unhampered development of his being; that the laws of evolution and +adaptation, designated after Darwin as "Darwinian," be consciously +rendered effective to humanity. But this is possible only under +Socialism. + +As a thinking and intelligent being, _man must constantly, and conscious +of his purpose, change, improve and perfect his social conditions, +together with all that thereby hangs; and he must so proceed in this +that equally favorable opportunities be open to all_. Every individual +must be placed in a position to be able to develop his abilities and +faculties to his own as well as to the advantage of the collectivity; +but his may not be the power to injure either others or the +collectivity. His own and the advantage of others must be mutual. +_Harmony of interests_ must be brought about; it must substitute the +existing _conflict of interests_ to the end that not even the thought +may be conceived of ruling and injuring others. + +Darwinism, as all genuine science, is eminently democratic.[142] If any +of its advocates holds a contrary view, he only proves himself unable to +grasp its range. Its opponents, particularly the reverend clergy, who +ever display a fine nose, the moment earthly benefits or injuries are +imminent, have understood this well, and, consequently denounce +Darwinism as Socialistic and Anarchistic. Also Prof. Virchow agrees with +his sworn enemies in this. In 1877, at the convention of naturalists in +Munich, he played the following trump declaration against Prof. +Haeckel:[143] "The Darwinian theory leads to Socialism." Virchow sought +to discredit Darwinism and to denounce it because Haeckel demanded the +adoption of the theory of evolution in the schools. To teach natural +science in our schools in the sense of Darwin and of recent +investigations, that is an idea against which are up in arms all those +who wish to cling to the present order of things. The revolutionary +effect of these theories is known, hence the demand that they be taught +only in the circles of the select. We, however, are of the opinion that +if, as Virchow claims, the Darwinian theories lead to Socialism, the +circumstance is not an argument against Darwin's theories, but in favor +of Socialism. Never may a scientist inquire whether the conclusions from +his science lead to this or that political system, to this or that +social system, nor seek to justify the same. His is the duty to inquire +whether the theory is right. _If it is that, then it must be accepted +along with all its consequences._ He who acts otherwise, be it out of +personal interest, be it out of a desire to curry favor from above, or +be it out of class and party interests, _is guilty of a contemptible +act, and is no honor to science_. Science as a guild so very much at +home in our Universities, can only in rare instances lay claim to +independence and character. The fear of losing their stipends, of +forfeiting the favor of the ruler, of having to renounce titles, +decorations and promotions cause most of the representatives of science +to duck, to conceal their own convictions, or even to utter in public +the reverse of what they believe and know. If, on the occasion of the +festival of declaration of allegiance at the Berlin University, in 1870, +a Dubois-Reymond exclaimed: "The Universities are the training places +for the life-guards of the Hohenzollern," one may judge how the majority +of the others, who stand both in knowledge and importance far below +Dubois-Reymond,[144] think regarding the purpose of science. Science is +degraded to a maid-servant of the ruling powers. + +We can understand how Prof. Haeckel and his disciples, such as Prof. O. +Schmidt, v. Hellwald and others, defend themselves energetically against +the charge that Darwinism plays into the hands of Socialism; and that +they, in turn, maintain the contrary to be true: that Darwinism is +aristocratic in that it teaches that everywhere in Nature the more +highly developed and stronger organism dominates the lower. Seeing that, +according to these gentlemen, the property and cultured classes +represent these more highly developed and stronger organisms in society, +they look upon the domination of these as a matter of course, being +justified by nature. + +This wing among our Darwinians has not the faintest notion of the +economic laws that sway capitalist society, whose blind will raises, +without selecting either the best, or the ablest, or the most thorough, +often the most scampish and corrupt; places him on top; and thus puts +him in a position to make the conditions of life and development most +favorable for his descendants, without these having as much as to turn +their hands. Striking an average, under no economic system is the +prospect poorer than under capitalism for individuals animated with good +and noble qualities, to rise and remain above; and it may be added +without exaggeration that the prospect grows darker in the measure that +this economic system approaches its apogee. Recklessness and +unscrupulousness in the choice and application of the means, are weapons +infinitely more effective and promiseful of success than all human +virtues put together. To consider a social system, built upon such a +basis, a system of the "fittest and best" is a feat that only he can be +capable of whose knowledge of the essence and nature of such a society +equals zero; or who, swayed by dyed-in-the-wool bourgeois prejudices, +has lost all power to think on the subject and to draw his conclusions. +The struggle for existence is found with all organisms. Without a +knowledge of the circumstances that force them thereto, the struggle is +carried on unconsciously. Such a struggle for existence is found among +men also, within all social systems in which the sense of solidarity has +vanished, or has not yet come to the surface. This struggle changes +according to the forms that the social relations of man to man assume in +the course of social evolution. In the course of this evolution it takes +on the form of a class struggle that is carried on upon an ever higher +plane. But these struggles lead--and in this human beings differ from +all other creatures--to an ever clearer understanding of the situation, +and finally to the recognition of the laws that govern and control +their evolution. _Man has in the end but to apply this knowledge to his +social and political development, and to adapt the latter accordingly._ +The difference between man and the brute is that _man may be called a +thinking animal, the brute, however, is no thinking man_. It is this +that a large portion of our Darwinians can not, in their one-sidedness, +understand. Hence the vicious circle in which they move. + +A work from the pen of Prof. Enrico Ferri[145] proves, especially as +against Haeckel, that Darwinism and Socialism are in perfect harmony, +and that it is a fundamental error on the part of Haeckel to +characterize, as he has done down to latest date, Darwinism as +aristocratic. We are not at all points agreed with Ferri's work, and +especially do we not share his views with regard to the qualities of +woman, a matter in which he is substantially at one with Lombroso and +Ferrero. Ellis has shown in his "Man and Woman" that while the qualities +of man and woman are very different, still they are of _equal value_,--a +confirmation of the Kantian sentence that man and woman only together +constitute the human being. This notwithstanding, the work of Ferri +comes quite _apropos_. + +Professor Haeckel and his followers, of course, also combat the claim +that Darwinism leads to atheism, and we find them, after themselves +having removed the Creator by all their scientific arguments and proofs, +making hysterical efforts to smuggle him in again by the back door. To +this particular end, they construct their own style of "Religion," which +is then called "higher morality," "moral principles," etc. In 1882, at +the convention of naturalists at Eisenach, and in the presence of the +family of the Grand Duke of Weimar, Prof. Haeckel made the attempt not +only to "save religion," but also to represent his master Darwin as +"religious." The effort suffered shipwreck, as all will admit who read +the essay and the letter of Darwin therein quoted. Darwin's letter +expressed the reverse of that which Prof. Haeckel sought to make out, +although in cautious words. Darwin was constrained to consider the +"religious sentiments" of his countrymen, the English, hence he never +dared to express his opinion openly upon religion. Privately, however, +he did so to Dr. L. Buechner, as became known shortly after the Weimar +convention, whom he frankly informed that _since his fortieth +year_--that is to say, since 1849--_he believed nothing, not having been +able to find any proof for his belief_. During the last years of his +life Darwin supported an atheist paper published in New York. + +Woman is to take up the competitive struggle with man on the +intellectual field also. She does not propose to wait till it please man +to develop her brain functions and to clear the way for her. The +movement is well under way. Already has woman brushed aside many an +obstacle, and stepped upon the intellectual arena,--and quite +successfully in more countries than one. The movement, ever more +noticeable, among women for admission to the Universities and High +Schools, as well as for admission to the functions that correspond to +these studies, is, in the very nature of existing conditions, confined +to the women of the bourgeois circles. The circles of the working-women +are not directly interested therein: to them, these studies, together +with the posts attainable through them, are shut off. Nevertheless, the +movement and its success are of general interest, partly, because the +matter concerns a question of principle, affecting the position in +general of woman towards man, partly also because it will show what +woman is capable of achieving, even now, under conditions highly +unfavorable to her development. Finally, the female sex has a special +interest herein, in cases of sickness, for instance, when they may +confide their ailments more freely to a physician of their own than to +one of the opposite sex. To a large number of women, female +practitioners, are a positive benefit. The necessity of having to resort +to male doctors in cases of illness, generally connected with physical +disturbances that flow from their sex peculiarities, frequently deters +women from seeking timely aid, or any aid at all. Hence arise a number +of troubles, not infrequently serious ones, not to the wives alone, but +to their husbands as well. There is hardly a physician who has no cause +to complain of this frequently criminal diffidence on the part of women, +and their objection to state their complaint freely. All this is easy to +understand; irrational, however, is the posture of the men, and of +several physicians among them, who will not admit the justice and +necessity of the study of medicine, in particular, by women. + +Female doctors are no new sight. Among most of the ancient peoples, the +old Germans in particular, it was upon woman that the healing cares +devolved. There were female physicians and operators of great repute +during the ninth and tenth centuries in the Arabian Kingdom, +particularly among the Arabians (Moors) in Spain, where they studied at +the University of Cordova. The pursuit by women of scientific studies at +several Italian Universities--Bologna and Palermo, for instance,--was +likewise due to Moorish influence. Later, when the "heathen" influence +vanished from Italy, the practice was forbidden. In 1377 the faculty of +the University of Bologna decreed: + +"And whereas woman is the fountain of sin, the weapon of the devil, the +cause of man's banishment from Paradise and the ruin of the old laws; +and whereas for these reasons all intercourse with her is to be +diligently avoided; therefore do we interdict and expressly forbid that +any one presume to introduce in the said college any woman whatsoever, +however honorable she be. And if, this notwithstanding, any one should +perpetrate such an act, he shall be severely punished by the Rector." + +Indeed, down to this day, Christian clergymen, of both Protestant and +Catholic confession, are among the most zealous enemies of the pursuit +of scientific studies by woman. The fact was shown in the debates of the +German Reichstag on the admission of women to the study of medicine; it +is furthermore shown by the reports of the Evangelical convention, held +in the spring of 1894 in Frankfurt-on-the-Main, where clerical +mouth-pieces protested sharply against allowing women equal rights in +the discussions of the convention. + +The admission of women to the pursuit of University professions has, +above all, the result of exercising a beneficent influence upon the +industry of the male youth. As admitted from different quarters, the +ambition of the male students leaves much to be wished for. That alone +were a great gain. Their morals also would be greatly improved: the +inclination to drunkenness and brawling, as well as habitual +dissipations in taverns, so common among our students, would receive a +severe blow: the institutions whence mainly proceed our political +pilots, judges, district attorneys, higher police officers, clergymen +and members of legislatures would acquire a tone better in keeping with +the purpose for which these institutions are established and supported. +According to the unanimous opinion of impartial people, qualified to +judge, an improvement in this tone is a crying need of the hour. + +The number of the countries that admit women to the Universities and +High Schools has been greatly on the increase during the last twenty +years; nor can any country, that lays claim to being a member of +civilization, shut its ears in the long run to the demand. Ahead of all +went the United States; Russia followed--two political systems that +present in all respects the strongest contrasts; that notwithstanding, +both were guided by the identical views with regard to the equal rights +of woman. In the North American Union, women are to-day admitted in all +the States to University studies,--in Utah since 1850, Iowa since 1860, +Kansas since 1866, Wisconsin since 1868, Minnesota since 1869, +California and Missouri since 1870, Ohio, Illinois and Nebraska since +1871; since then all the other States followed in rapid succession. In +keeping with the extension of female studies, woman conquered her place +in the United States. According to the census of 1890, there were in the +country 2,348 female physicians and surgeons, 2,136 female architects, +580 female journalists, 300 female writers, 165 female ministers, 110 +female lawyers.[146] + +In Europe, Switzerland, principally, opened its Universities to women. +There the number of female students grew, since 1887, as follows:-- + + + Total Female + Year. Students. Students. + 1887 2,229 167 + 1888 2,339 206 + 1889 2,412 196 + 1890 2,552 248 + 1891 2,889 297 + 1892 3,076 318 + 1893 3,307 451 + 1893-94 (Winter course) 3,609 599 + + +Accordingly, the participation of women in University studies increased +considerably in the interval between 1887-1894. In 1887 the number of +female students was 7.5 per cent. of the total number of students; in +1893-1894, however, it had risen to 16.6 per cent. In 1887, there were, +among 744 medical students, 79 women, or 10.6 per cent.; in the winter +course of 1893-1894, there were, of 1,073 medical students, 210 women, +or 19.6 per cent. In the department of philosophy, in 1887, there were, +of 530 students, 41 women, or 7.8 per cent.; in 1893-1894, there were, +of 1,640 students, 381 women, or 23.2 per cent. The large majority of +the female students in Switzerland are foreigners, among them many +Germans, whose number increases almost yearly. The example of +Switzerland was followed in the early seventies by Sweden; in 1874 by +England, in so far as medical colleges for women have been established. +Nevertheless, it was not until 1881 that Oxford, and 1884 that Cambridge +decided to admit female students. Italy followed in 1876, then Norway, +Belgium, France and Austria. In Paris, during 1891, there were 232 +female students, mostly of medicine. Of these female students, 103 were +Russian, 18 French, 6 English, 3 Roumanian, 2 Turk, and 1 each from +America, Greece and Servia. In the department of philosophy there were +82 French female students and 15 foreigners matriculated. + +As it will have been noticed, even Turkey is represented among the +female students. There, more than anywhere else, are female physicians +needed, due to the position that custom and religion assign to woman as +against man. The same reason caused Austria also to open Universities to +female students, in order that the Mohammedan women of Bosnia and +Herzegovina might enjoy medical attendance. Even Germany, whose +"pig-tail" was thickest, i. e., where the disfavor towards admitting +women to the Universities was most bitter, has been compelled to fall in +line with progress. In the spring of 1894, the first female student +passed her examination in Heidelberg for the degree of Doctor of +Philosophy, and a second one in the fall of the same year in Goettingen. +In Karlsruhe and Berlin, High Schools were established to prepare women +for the Universities; finally in the summer of 1894, the Prussian +Minister of Public Worship issued regulations for the remodelling of the +higher instruction of girls, looking for their preparation for the study +of medicine. Also India has furnished a small contingent of female +students. Obviously, there is progress everywhere. + +All medical authorities are agreed that women render the best service as +nurses of the sick, aye, that they positively can not be got along +without. In an address, delivered by Prof. Ziemssen a few years ago, he +said: + +"Above all, see to it, gentlemen, in your practice that you have +thorough, well trained, kind-hearted, characterful female nurses. +Without them, all your sacrifices of time and effort are idle." + +In the September, 1892, issue of the "German Review", Prof. Virchow thus +expressed himself in favor of female nurses: + +"That the post of real responsibility at the sick-bed shall fall to +woman is, in my opinion, a principle that should be enforced in all our +hospitals. In the hands of a cultivated, womanly, trained person the +care of even a sick man is safer than in those of a man." + +If woman is fit for the extraordinarily difficult service of nurse, a +service that places a heavy strain upon patience and self-sacrifice, why +should she not be also fit for a physician? + +Above all, the idea must be resisted that women shall be educated for +physicians by separate courses of study, i. e., separated from the male +students,--a plan that Frau Mathilde Weber of Tuebingen has declared +herself satisfied with.[147] If the purpose be to degrade the female +physicians, from the start, to the level of physicians of second or +third rank, and to lower them in the eyes of their male colleagues, +then, indeed, that is the best method. If it is no violation of "ethics" +and "morality" that female nurses assist in the presence of male +physicians at the performance of all possible operations upon male and +female subjects, and on such occasions render most useful service; if it +is "ethically" and "morally" permissible that dozens of young men, as +students and for the sake of their studies, stand as observers at the +bed of a woman in travail, or assist at the performance of operations on +female patients, then it is absurd and laughable to deny such rights to +female students. + +Such prudery in natural things is the rage, particularly in Germany, +this big children's play-room. The English, discredited by reason of the +same qualities, may, nevertheless, be our teachers in the treatment of +natural things. + +In this direction, it is the United States, in particular, that furnish +the example most worthy of imitation. There, and to the utter horror of +our learned and unlearned old fogies of both sexes, High Schools have +existed for decades, at which both sexes are educated in common. Let us +hear with what result. President White of the University of Michigan +declared as early as the middle of the seventies: "The best pupil in +Greek, for several years, among 1,300 students, has been a young lady; +the best pupil in mathematics in one of the strongest classes of our +Institute is, likewise, a young lady; and several among the best pupils +in natural science and the sciences in general are likewise young +ladies." Dr. Fairchild, President of Oberlin College in Ohio, where over +a thousand students of both sexes are instructed in common, said at +about the same time: "During my incumbency of eight years as professor +of ancient languages--Latin, Greek, and Hebrew--also in the ethical and +philosophic studies, and during my incumbency of eleven years in +abstract and applied mathematics, I have never noticed any difference in +the two sexes except in the manner of reciting." Edward H. Machill, +President of Swarthmore College in Delaware County, Pa., and author of a +pamphlet,[148] from which these facts are taken, says that, after an +experience of four years, he had arrived at the conclusion that, with an +eye to both manners and morals, the education of the two sexes in common +had given the best results. Many a pig-tail has yet to be cut off in +Germany before common sense shall have broken its way through here. + +More recently, lively controversies have arisen in the literature of +almost all countries of civilization on the question whether woman could +achieve intellectually as much as man. While some, by dint of great +acumen and with the aid of facts supposed to be proofs, deny that such +is possible, others maintain that, on many fields, it undoubtedly is the +case. It is claimed that, generally speaking, woman is endowed with +qualities that man is deficient in, and _vice versa_: the male method of +reasoning is reflective and vigorous, woman's, on the contrary, +distinguishes itself by swiftness of perception and quickness of +execution. Certain it is that woman finds her way more quickly in +complicated situations, and has more tact than man. Ellis, who gathered +vast materials upon this question, turned to a series of persons, who +had male and female students under their guidance for many years, and +questioned them on their opinion and experience. McBendrick of Glasgow +answered him: "After having taught female students for twenty years, I +would sum up my observations with the statement that many women +accomplish as much as men in general, and that many men do not +accomplish as much as the female average." Other opinions in Ellis' book +are less favorable, but none is unfavorable. According to the Yearbook +of Berlin for 1870, pp. 69-77, investigation showed girls to be stronger +in the sense of space, boys at figures; the girls excelled in the +telling of stories, the boys in the explaining of religious principles. +Whatever the way these questions may be turned and twisted, the fact +appears that the two sexes supplement each other; the one is superior on +one, the other on some other field, while on a number of others there +is no difference in point of sex, but only in point of individual. + +_It follows, furthermore, that there is no reason for confining one sex +to a certain field, and prescribing to it the course of development that +it shall pursue, nor that, based on differences in natural bent, in +advantages and in defects, which mutually equalize themselves, +privileges may be deducted for one sex, hindrances for another. +Consequently--equality for all, and a free field for each, with a full +swing according to their capacity and ability._ + +Based upon the experience made during the last decades in the higher +studies of woman, there is no longer any valid reason against the same. +The teacher can do much, by the manner in which he teaches, to affect +the attitude of his male and female pupils. Women, who devote themselves +to a science, are often animated with an earnestness and will-power in +which they excel most other students. The zeal of the female students +is, on an average, greater than that of the male. + +In reality, it is wholly different reasons that cause most professors of +medicine, University teachers, in general, to take a hostile stand +towards female students. They see in it a "degradation" of science, +which might lose in the esteem of the narrow-minded masses, if the fact +were to transpire that female brains also could grasp a science, which, +until then, was confined to the select of the male sex only. + +All claims to the contrary notwithstanding, our Universities, along with +our whole system of education, are in poor plight. As, at the public +school, the child is robbed of valuable time by filling his brain with +matters that accord neither with common sense nor scientific experience; +as a mass of ballast is there dumped into him that he can not utilize in +life, that, rather, hampers him in his progress and development; so +likewise is it done in our higher schools. In the preparatory schools +for the Universities a mass of dry, useless matter is pounded into the +pupils. These matters, that the pupils are made to memorize, take up +most of their time and engage their most precious brain-power; +whereupon, at the University, the identical process is carried on +further. They are there taught a mass of antiquated, stale, superfluous +lore, along with comparatively little that is valuable. The lectures, +once written, are reeled off by most of the professors year after year, +course after course, the interlarded witticisms included. The high +ministry of education becomes with many, an ordinary trade; nor need the +students be endowed with great sagacity to find this out. Furthermore, +tradition regarding University life sees to it that the young folks do +not take their years of study too seriously, and many a youth, who would +take them seriously, is repelled by the pedantic and unenjoyable style +of the professors. The decline in the zeal to learn and to study is a +fact generally noticed at all our Universities and higher schools, and +is even cause for serious concern with those in authority. Intimately +connected therewith is the "grafting" tendency, which, in these days of +ours, so poor in character, makes great progress and grows ever ranker +in the higher schools. To have "safe views" takes the place of +knowledge, and the poison spreads. To be a "patriot," that is to say, a +person without a mind of his own, who carefully takes his cue from +above, sees how the wind blows there, and trims his sails accordingly, +bends and crawls,--such a person is more considered than one of +character and knowledge. When the time for examination approaches, the +"grafter" crams for a few months what seems most indispensible, in order +to squeeze through. When, finally, examination has been happily passed +and an office or professional post is secured, most of these +"ex-students" work along in a merely mechanical and journeyman style, +and are then highly offended if one, who was not a "student," fails to +greet them with the greatest respect, and to treat them as specimens of +some other and higher race. The majority of the members of our so-called +higher professions--district attorneys, judges, doctors, professors, +Government officials, artists, etc.,--_are mere journeymen at their +trades, who feel no need of further culture, but are happy to stand by +the crib_. Only the industrious man discovers later, but only then, how +much trash he has learned, often was not taught the very thing that he +needed most, and has to begin to learn in good earnest. During the best +time of his life he has been pestered with useless or even harmful +stuff. He needs a second part of his life to rub all this off, and to +work himself up to the height of his age. Only then can he become a +useful member of society. Many do not arrive beyond the first stage; +others are stranded in the second; only a few have the energy to reach +the third. + +But "decorum" requires that the mediaeval trumpery and useless +curriculum be retained; and, seeing, moreover, that women, as a +consequence of their sex, are from the start excluded from the +preparatory schools, the circumstance furnishes a convenient pretext to +shut the doors of the University lecture rooms in their faces. In +Leipsic, during the seventies, one of the most celebrated professors of +medicine made the undisguised confession to a lady: _"The gymnasium +(college) training is not necessary to the understanding of medicine. +This is true. Nevertheless, it must be made a condition precedent for +admission, in order that the dignity of science may not suffer."_ + +Gradually is the opposition to the necessity of a "classical" education +for the study of medicine being felt in Germany also. The immense +progress made in the natural sciences, together with their importance to +life, require an early initiation. Collegiate education, with its +preference for the classic languages, Greek and Latin, looks upon the +natural sciences as subordinate and neglects them. Hence, the students +are frequently devoid of the necessary and preparatory knowledge in +natural science that are of decided importance in certain studies, +medicine, for instance. Against such a one-sided system of education +opposition begins to spring up even in the circles of teachers, as +proven by a declaration published in the autumn of 1894 by about 400 +teachers of the German High Schools. Abroad, in Switzerland, for +instance, the leading place has long since been given to the studies in +natural science, and any one, even without a so-called classic +education, is admissible to the study of medicine, provided otherwise +sufficiently equipped in natural science and mathematics. Similarly in +Russia and the United States. + +In one of his writings, the late Pro. Bischoff gave "_the rudeness of +the students_" as the reason why he did not recommend the study of +medicine to women. He certainly was a good judge of that. In another +place, and also quite characteristically, he says: "Why should not one +(as professor) now and then allow some interesting, intelligent and +handsome woman to attend a lecture upon some simple subject?"--an +opinion that v. Sybel evidently shares and even expresses: "Some men +there are who have rarely been able to refuse their assistance and help +to a female pupil, greedy of knowledge and not uncomely." + +Pity the words spent in the refutal of such "reasons" and views! The +time will come, when people will trouble themselves about the rudeness +of the "cultured" as little as about the old fogyism and sensuous lusts +of the learned, but will do what common sense and justice bid. + +In Russia, after much pressure, the Czar gave his consent in 1872 to the +establishment of a female faculty in medicine. The medical courses were +attended in the period of 1872-1882 by 959 female students. Up to 1882 +there were 281 women who had filled the medical course; up to the +beginning of 1884, there were 350; about 100 came from St. Petersburg. +Of the female students who visited the faculty up to 1882, there were 71 +(9.0 per cent.) married and 13 (1.6 per cent.) widows; of the rest, 116 +(15.9 per cent.) married during their studies. Most of the female +students, 214, came from the ranks of the nobility and government +officials; 138 from the merchant and privileged bourgeois class; 107 +from the military, 59 from the clergy, and 54 from the lower classes of +the population. Of the 281 female physicians, who, up to 1882, had +finished their studies, 62 were engaged by several Zemstvos; 54 found +occupation in clinics; 12 worked as assistants at medical courses; and +46 took up private practice. It is noteworthy that, of these female +students, more than 52 per cent. had learned neither Latin nor Greek, +and yet they did as good work as the men. This notwithstanding, female +study was far from being a favorite among the Russian Government +circles, until the great services rendered by the female physicians on +the theater of war in Turkey during the Russo-Turkish campaign of +1877-1878, broke the ice. At the beginning of the eighties, female +studies took great increment in Russia: thousands of female pupils +devoted themselves to several branches. Due thereto, and due especially +to the fact that thereby free ideas were breaking through, threatening +to endanger despotism, the female courses were suppressed by an imperial +ukase of May 1, 1885, after the lives of the female students had for +some time been made as hard as possible.[149] Since then, resolutions +have been adopted at several Russian conventions of physicians to +petition for the re-opening of the medical courses for women,--more than +a German convention of physicians would do. As yet the attempt in Russia +has remained unsuccessful. + +In Finland, a country that, although belonging to Russia, occupies an +exceptionally privileged position in the Russian system, 105 female +students were at the University of Helsingfors during the winter course +of 1894-1895, as against 73 in the summer course of 1894. Of these 105 +female students, 47 were entered in the faculty of philosophy of history +and 45 in that of mathematics; 5 studied medicine, a strikingly small +figure compared with elsewhere; 7 law; and 1 theology. + +Among the women who distinguished themselves in their studies, belong +the late Mrs. v. Kowalewska, who received in 1887 from the Academy of +Sciences in Paris the first prize for the solution of a mathematical +problem, and since 1884 occupied a professorship of mathematics at the +University of Stockholm. In Pisa, Italy, a lady occupies a professorship +in pathology. Female physicians are found active in Algiers, Persia and +India. In the United States there are about 100 female professors, and +more than 70 who are superintendents of female hospitals. In Germany +also the ice has been broken to the extent that in several +cities--Berlin, Dresden, Leipsic, Frankfurt-on-the-Main, etc.,--female +physicians, especially dentists, are in successful practice. + +With regard to energy and capacity in the scientific studies, England, +in particular, can cite a series of handsome results. At the +examinations in 1893, six women and six men held the highest marks. The +examinations on art and on the theory and history of pedagogy were +passed by nine women and not one man. At Cambridge, ten women sustained +the severest test in mathematics. According to the sixteenth report of +examinations of female students in Oxford, it appears that 62 women +sustained the test of the first class, and 82 that of the second class; +moreover the honorary examinations were sustained by more than one-half +of the female candidates. Surely extraordinarily favorable results. + +Hostility to competition with women is particularly pronounced in +Germany, because here the military turns out every year such a large +number of mustered-out officers and under-officers as aspirants for the +Civil Service, where there is little room for applicants from other +sources. If, however, women are employed, and then at lower salaries, +they appear to the already jealous men in a light that is doubly +bad,--first, as cheap labor; then as lowerers of wages. An extensive +field of activity have women gained as teachers, a field for which, on +the whole, they are well fitted. This is particularly the case in the +United States, where, in 1890, of 363,000 teachers, 238,000 were +female.[150] In Berlin there were on January 1, 1892, along with 194 +Rectors and 2,022 teachers, 1,024 pedagogically educated and 642 +technical female teachers, inclusive of their helpers. In England, +France and the United States there are, furthermore, since several +years, women successfully engaged in the important service of Factory +Inspectors, a move that, in view of the enormous proportions that female +labor is assuming ever more in the trades and industries, is well +justified and becomes everywhere a necessity. + +At the Chicago Exposition of 1893 women, furthermore, distinguished +themselves in that, not only did female architects draw the plan and +superintend the execution of the magnificent building for the exhibition +of female products, but that women also appeared as independent +operators in a number of products of art, which provoked general +applause, and even astonishment. Also on the field of invention have +women distinguished themselves, a subject on which, as early as 1884, a +publication in the United States imparted information to the world by +producing a list of female inventors. According to the list, the +following inventions were made or improved by women: an improved +spinning machine; a rotary loom, that produces three times as much as +the ordinary loom; a chain elevator; a winch for screw steamers; a +fire-escape; an apparatus for weighing wool, one of the most sensitive +machines ever invented and of priceless value in the woolen industry; a +portable water-reservoir to extinguish fires; a device for the +application of petroleum in lieu of wood and coal as fuel on steamers; +an improved catcher of sparks and cinders on locomotives; a signal for +railroad crossings; a system for heating cars without fire; a +lubricating felt to reduce friction on railroad cars; a writing machine; +a signal rocket for the navy; a deep-sea telescope; a system for +deadening noise on railroads; a smoke-consumer; a machine to fold paper +bags, etc. Many improvements in the sewing machines are due to women, as +for instance: an aid for the stretching of sails and heavy stuffs; an +apparatus to wind up the thread while the machine is in motion; an +improvement for the sewing of leather, etc. The last of these inventions +was made by a woman who for years kept a saddle and harness shop in New +York. The deep-sea telescope, invented by Mrs. Mather, and improved by +her daughter, is an innovation of great importance: it makes possible +the inspection of the keel of the largest ship, without bringing the +same on the dry-dock. With the aid of this glass, sunken wrecks can be +inspected from the deck of a ship, and search can be made for +obstructions to navigation, torpedoes, etc. Along with these practical +advantages, its application in science is full of promise. + +Among the machines, the extraordinary complexity and ingenuity of whose +construction excited great admiration in America and Europe, is one for +making paper bags. Many men, leading mechanics among them, had until +then vainly sought to construct such a machine. A woman, Miss Maggie +Knight, invented it. Since then, the lady invented also a machine to +fold paper bags, that does the work of 30 persons. She herself +superintends the construction of the machine in Amherst, Mass. That +German women have made similar inventions is not yet known. + +The movement among women has spread even to Japan. In the autumn of +1892, the Japanese Parliament decided that it was forbidden to women to +figure as publishers or editors of newspapers, also of such papers as +are devoted to fashions, cooking, education of children, etc. In Japan, +even the unheard-of sight has been seen of a woman becoming the +publisher of a Socialist paper. That was a little too much for the +Japanese legislators, and they issued the above stated decree. It is, +however, not forbidden to women to act as reporters for newspapers. The +Japanese Government will succeed as little in denying their rights to +women as its European rivals of equal mental make-up. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[124] On this subject, the law for protection of working-women, adopted +by the people of the canton of Zurich in August, 1894, with 49,909 votes +against 12,531, contains an excellent provision. The law makes it a +penal offence for working-women to take from the shop, where they are +employed during the day, work to be done at home. This law goes further +than any other known to us for the protection of working-women. It also +prescribes an extra pay of 25 per cent. for the extra hours fixed by +law: the most effective means to check the evil of overwork. + +[125] The census of 1890 gives 3,914,571 women of at least 10 years of +age engaged in gainful occupations in the United States; that is 17.6 +per cent. of the total population engaged in gainful occupations, and +12.7 per cent. of the total female population of the country. + +According to the census of 1900 there were 5,319,912 women of at least +10 years of age engaged in gainful occupations in the United States; +that is 18.2 per cent. of the total population engaged in gainful +occupations, and 14.3 per cent. of the total female population of the +country. + +Classified by kinds of occupation, the census of 1900 shows: 977,336 +women engaged in agricultural pursuits; 430,576 in professional service; +2,095,449 in domestic and personal service; 503,347 in trade and +transportation; 1,313,204 in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits.--THE +TRANSLATOR. + +[126] For the sake of verification, and especially with the view of +avoiding any serious discrepancy that might arise from a translation +back into English from a German translation of the original English, an +attempt was made to secure a transcript of the original of the above +interesting article. A serious difficulty was encountered. Besides the +indefinite date, the abbreviated form, in which the German text gives +the name of the Maine paper quoted from--"Levest. Journ."--and as +reproduced in this translation, forced a recourse to guess work. The +nearest that any Maine paper, given in the American Newspaper Directory, +came to the abbreviation was the "Lewiston Evening Journal." The below +correspondence tells its tale: + + +"Daily People, 2, 4 and 6 New Reade street, +"New York, May 18th, 1903. + +"Editor 'Lewiston Evening Journal,' Lewiston, Me.: + +"Dear Sir--The within is a translation from the German of what purports +to be a German translation of an article, or part of an article, that +appeared in the 'Journal.' The only date given is 1893. + +"I shall esteem it a favor if you will let me have an accurate +transcript of the passage in the original. If the 'Journal' had such an +article, the enclosed re-translation back into English may help to +identify the article. Thanking you in advance, + +Yours truly, "D. DeLeon, +"Ed. 'The People.'" + + +"D. DeLeon, Esq., New York City: + +"My Dear Sir--I regret that I can not find the article of which the +enclosed is a transcript. + +"I have no doubt of its correctness, for such is frequently the case in +cities like these, where the woman is the six-loom weaver, and by her +deftness is the better wage-earner. + +"Very truly yours, +"Arthur G. Staples, +"Managing Ed. 'Lewiston Journal.'" + + +Though success was not complete, the letter of the managing editor of +the "Lewiston Journal" is a corroboration of the substance of the +passage quoted.--THE TRANSLATOR. + +[127] "Die gewerbliche Thaetigkeit der Frauen." + +[128] Statistisches Jahrbuch fuer das Koenigreich Sachsen auf das Jahr, +1894. + +[129] Factory Inspector A. Redgrave delivered in the end of December, +1871 an address in Bradford, in the course of which he said: "I have +been struck for some time past by the altered appearance of the wool +factories. Formerly they were filled with women and children, now +machinery seems to be doing all the work. On Inquiry a manufacturer gave +me the following information; 'Under the old system I employed 63 +persons; after the introduction of improved machinery I reduced my hands +to 33, and, later, in consequence of new and extensive alterations, I +was able to reduce them from 33 to 13.' Thus, within a few years, a +reduction of labor, amounting to almost 80 per cent. took place, with an +output at least as large as before." Many interesting items of +information on this subject are found in Marx's "Capital." + +[130] "Original Property," chap. 20. + +[131] "Bau und Leben des sozialen Koerpers," Tuebingen, 1878. + +[132] "Husband and Wife," Dr. Havelock Ellis. + +[133] Possibly the opposite is the case. We repeat what we explained +above more extensively, that it is a widely diffused fact that women and +girls nourish themselves worse and are worse nourished than men and +boys. There was a time when the fashion prevailed for woman to eat as +little as possible; she was to have as "etherial" an appearance as +possible; the conception of beauty in our upper class, even to-day, is +to the effect that it is "vulgar" if a young girl or young woman have a +blooming complexion, red cheeks and a vigorous frame. It is also known, +that with numberless women, under otherwise equal social conditions with +men, the food is greatly inferior. Out of ignorance and acquired +prejudices, women expect incredible things of themselves, and the men +encourage them therein. Such neglect and maltreatment of physical +nutrition must have the very worst consequences, if carried on through +many generations by the very sex that, by reason of the heavy monthly +losses of blood and of the expenditure of energies, required by +pregnancy, child-birth and nursing, has its physique heavily taxed. + +[134] "Men of genius are, as a rule, of inferior size and massive brain. +These are also the leading features of the child, and the general facial +expression as well as the temperament of such men recall the +child."--Dr. Havelock Ellis, "Husband and Wife." + +[135] The corporal weights are taken from Taupinard's "Anthropologie." + +[136] If, with the authority quoted by Delaunay, we assume 11 kilograms +as the difference in weight between men and women, we would have found +35 to 70 grams. + +[137] L. Manouvrier, "Revue Scientifique," No. 23, June 3, 1882. + +[138] Quatrefages found the proportion to be slightly larger with woman +than with men. Thurman found the reverse, just as L. Manouvrier. + +[139] "Die neuere Schoepfungsgeschichte." + +[140] Dr. Havelock Ellis furnishes a number of proofs of this fact in +his frequently quoted book. According thereto, woman, among wild and +half-wild people, is not only equal to man in physical strength and size +of body, but she is partly superior. On the other side, Ellis agrees +with others that, in consequence of our progress in civilization, the +difference in the capacity of the skull of the two sexes has steadily +become more marked. + +[141] This is a discovery, first made by Karl Marx, and classically +demonstrated by him in his works, especially in "Capital." The +Communistic Manifesto, that appeared in 1848, and was composed by K. +Marx and Frederick Engels, is grounded upon this fundamental principle, +and must be considered, to this day, as the norm for all agitational +work, and the most excellent of all. + +[142] "The Hall of science is the Temple of democracy," Buckle, "History +of Civilization in England." + +[143] Ziegler, quoted above, denies that such is the meaning of +Virchow's argument. His own quotation of Virchow's argument, however, +confirms the interpretation. Virchow said: "Now, only picture to +yourselves _how the theory of the descent of man presents itself in the +head of a Socialist_! (Laughter.) Yes, gentlemen, that may seem funny to +some; it is, however, a serious matter, and I hope that the theory of +the descent of man _may not bring upon us all the horrors that similar +theories have actually brought upon our neighboring country. At any +rate, this theory, if consistently carried out, has a side of +extraordinary gravity; and that Socialism has shown its sympathy +therewith, will, it is to be hoped, not have escaped you. We must be +perfectly clear upon that._" Now, then, we have simply done what Virchow +feared: we have drawn the conclusions from the Darwinian theories, +conclusions that Darwin himself and a large portion of his followers +either did not draw at all, or drew falsely. And Virchow warned against +the gravity of these theories, just because he foresaw that Socialism +would _and was bound to draw the conclusions that are involved in them_. + +[144] Dubois-Reymond repeated this sentence in February, 1883, to the +attacks directed upon him, on the occasion of the anniversary +celebration of Frederick the Great. + +[145] "Socialism and Modern Science (Darwin-Spencer-Marx)." + +[146] According to the census of 1900, the figures for these respective +occupations were: 7,387 female physicians and surgeons, 1,041 female +architects, designers and draftsmen, 2,193 female journalists, 5,984 +female literary and scientific persons, 3,373 female ministers, 2,193 +female lawyers.--THE TRANSLATOR. + +[147] "Aerztinnen fuer Frauenkrankheiten, eine ethische und sanitaere +Nothwendigkeit," Berlin, 1893. + +[148] "An Address upon the Co-education of the Sexes." + +[149] Neue Zelt, 1884, "Das Frauenstudium In Russland." + +[150] The census of 1900 gives 327,614 female teachers and professors in +colleges, out of a total force of 446,133, leaving, accordingly, only +118,519 men on this field.--THE TRANSLATOR. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +WOMAN'S CIVIC AND POLITICAL STATUS. + + +The social dependence of a rank or a class ever finds its expression in +the laws and political institutions of a country. Laws are the mirror in +which is reflected a country's social condition, to the extent that the +same has been brought within definite rules. _Woman, as a subject and +oppressed sex, constitutes no exception to the principle._ Laws are +negative or positive. Negative in so far as they ignore the oppressed in +the distribution of privileges and rights, as though he did not exist; +positive, in so far as they expressly assign his dependent position to +the oppressed, and specify possible exceptions in his favor. + +Our common law rests upon the Roman law, which, recognized persons only +as property-holding beings. The old German law, which treated woman more +worthily, has preserved its force only partially. In the French +language, the human being and the man are designated by the same word, +"_l'homme_"; likewise in the English language,--"_man_." French law +knows the human being only as _man_; and so was it also until recently +in England, where woman found herself in slavish dependence upon man. It +was similarly in Rome. There were Roman citizens, and wives of Roman +citizens, but no female citizens. + +Impossible were it to enumerate the numberless laws found on the motley +map of German common rights. Let a few instances suffice. + +According to the common law of Germany, the wife is a minor towards her +husband; the husband is her master, to whom she owes obedience. If the +woman is "disobedient," then, according to the law of Prussia, the +husband of "low" estate has the right of "moderate castigation." Men of +"high" estate also there are said to be who arrogate such a right to +themselves. Seeing that nowhere is the force or number of the blows +prescribed, the husband is the sovereign judge. The old city law of +Hamburg declares: "For the rest, the right of _moderate castigation of +the wife by her husband_, of children by their parents, of pupils by +their teachers, or servants by their masters and mistresses, is hereby +adjudged just and permissible." + +Similar provisions are numerous in Germany. According to the law of +Prussia, the husband may prescribe to the wife _how long she shall +suckle her child_. In cases of disposing of the children, the father +alone decides. If he dies, the wife is in most German States compelled +to accept a guardian for her children: she herself is considered a +minor, and is held unfit to attend to their education herself, even when +she supports her children by her property or labor. As a rule, her +husband administers her property, and, in cases of bankruptcy, the same +is considered and disposed of as his own, unless a pre-marital contract +secures the property to her. Wherever the right of primogeniture +attaches to landed property, a woman, even if she be the first born, can +not enter into possession if there be younger brothers. She can step in +only when she has no brothers. In most German States, a married woman +can contract only with the consent of her husband, unless she owns a +business in her own name, such as, according to more recent law, she is +allowed to start. She is shut off from all public function. The Prussian +law on associations forbids pupils and apprentices under 18 years of age +and women to join political organizations. Until a few decades ago, the +attendance of women among the public at open trials was forbidden by +several German codes of criminal procedure. If a woman gives birth to an +illegitimate child, it has no claim to support from its father if its +mother accepted any presents from him during her pregnancy. If a woman +is divorced from her husband, she continues to carry his name as a +lasting memento, unless she marry again. + +In Germany, hundreds of frequently contradictory laws are met with. +According to the bill for the new civil laws of Germany, the +administration of the wife's property falls to the husband, unless the +wife has secured her property to herself by special contract. This is a +reactionary attitude, long since discarded by many other countries. On +the other hand, the wife is allowed to retain what she has earned by her +own personal labor, and without assistance of her husband, or by the +independent conduct of a business enterprise. + +In England, and down to 1870, the common law of the land gave to the +husband all the personal property of the wife. Only with regard to real +estate were her proprietary rights safeguarded; the husband, +nevertheless, had the right of administration and of use. At the bar of +law, the English woman was a zero: she could perform no legal act, not +even execute a valid testament; she was a veritable serf of her husband. +A crime committed by her in his presence, he was answerable for: she was +at all points a minor. If she injured any one, damage was assessed as if +done by a domestic animal: the husband was held. According to an address +delivered in 1888 by Bishop J. N. Wood in the chapel of Westminster, as +recently as a hundred years ago the wife was not allowed to eat at table +or to speak before she was spoken to: above the bed hung a stout whip, +that the husband was free to use when the wife displayed ill temper: +only her daughters were subject to her orders: her sons saw in her +merely a female servant. Since 1870 and 1882, the wife is not merely +secured in the sole possession of the property that she brings with her, +she is also the proprietor of all she earns, or receives by inheritance +or gift. These rights can be altered only by special contract between +the husband and wife. English legislation followed the example of the +United States. + +Particularly backward is the civil law of France, of most of the Swiss +cantons, of Belgium, etc., in the matter of woman's civic rights. +According to the _Code Civil_, the husband could sue for divorce upon +the adultery of the wife; she, however, could institute such an action +only if the husband kept his concubine at his own home (Article 230). +This provision has been repealed by the divorce law of July 27, 1884, +but the difference continues in force in the French criminal code,--a +characteristic manoeuvre on the part of the French legislator. If the +wife is convicted of adultery, _she is punished with imprisonment for +not less than two months nor more than three years. The husband is +punished only when, according to the spirit of the former Article 230 of +the Code Civil, he keeps a concubine under the domestic roof against the +wish of his wife. If found guilty, he is merely fined not less than 100 +and not more than 1,000 francs._ (Arts. 337 and 339 _Code Penal_.) Such +inequality before the law were impossible if but one woman sat in the +French Parliament. A similar law exists in Belgium. The punishment for +adultery by the wife is the same as in France; the husband is liable +only if the act of adultery is committed at the home of the married +couple: he may then suffer imprisonment for not less than one month, or +more than one year. Slightly juster is, accordingly, the law in Belgium +than in France; nevertheless, in the one place as in the other, there +are two different standards of right, one for the husband, another for +the wife. Similar provisions exist, under the influence of French law, +in Spain and Portugal. The civil law of Italy of 1865 enables the wife +to obtain a divorce from her husband only if the husband keeps his +concubine at his own home, or at such other place where the concubine's +presence must be considered in the light of a grave insult to the wife. + +In France, Belgium and Switzerland, woman falls, as in Germany, under +the guardianship of her husband, the moment she marries. According to +section 215 of the _Code Civil_, she is not allowed to appear in Court +without the consent of her husband and of two of her nearest male +relations, not even if she conducts a public business. According to +section 213 the husband must protect the wife, and she must yield +obedience to him. There is a saying of Napoleon I. that typifies his +idea concerning the status of woman: "One thing is utterly un-French--a +woman that can do what she pleases."[151] In these countries, +furthermore, woman may not appear as a witness in the execution of +contracts, testaments or any notarial act. On the other hand--odd +contradiction--she is allowed to act as a witness in all criminal +trials, where her testimony may lead to the execution of a person. +_Within the purview of the criminal code, she is on all hands considered +of equal value, and she is measured for every crime or offense with the +same yard-stick as man._ The contradiction, however, does not penetrate +the wool of our legislators. As a widow, she may dispose of her +property by testament; as witness to a testament, however, she is not +admissible in a number of countries; all the same, according to Art. +1029 of the _Code Civil_, she may be appointed the executor of a will. +In Italy, since 1877, woman is qualified to appear as a witness in civil +actions also. + +According to the law of the canton of Zurich, the husband is the +guardian of his wife; he administers her property; and he represents her +before third parties. According to the _Code Civil_, the husband +administers the property that the wife brings with her, he can sell her +property, alienate it, load it with mortgages without requiring her +consent, or signature. Similar provisions exist in several other cantons +of Switzerland besides Zurich, in France, Belgium, Luxemburg, the +Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark and also in a large part +of Germany. Countries in which community of property may be excluded in +marriage are, besides parts of Germany, and a large part of Switzerland, +Austria, Poland and the Baltic provinces. Countries in which the +absolute independence of married women exist with respect to their +property are: Italy, Russia, Great Britain and Ireland. In Norway, a law +of the year 1888, on the administration of the property of married +persons, provides that a married woman has the same power to dispose of +her property as unmarried women, only the law specifies a few +exceptions. In this law the expression is used that _woman becomes +un-free in marriage_. Who could blame her if, there also, as happens +frequently in France, women are seen to waive formal matrimonial +contracts? + +According to the law of Berne, what the married woman earns belongs to +her husband. Similarly with most cantons of Switzerland, also in France +and Belgium. The consequence is that the wife often finds herself in a +state of virtual slavery: the husband squanders with lewd women or in +the grog-shop what his wife makes: he incurs debts: gambles away his +wife's earnings: leaves her and her children in want. He even has the +right to demand from her employer the wages due her. + +By the law of December 11, 1874, Sweden secures to the married woman the +right to dispose freely of that which she earns by her personal effort. +Denmark has raised the same principle to the force of a law; nor can, +according to Danish law, the property of the wife be seized to cover the +debts of the husband. Similarly runs the law of Norway of 1888.[152] The +right of educating the children and of deciding thereupon is, according +to the legislation of most countries, the attribute of the father: here +and there a subordinate co-operation is granted the mother. The old +Roman maxim, that stood in sharp contradiction to the principles +prevalent during the mother-right, and that clothed the father alone +with rights and powers over the child, is to this day the key-note of +legislation on the subject. + +Among the continental countries, woman holds the freest position in +Russia,--due to the communistic institutions there still in existence, +or to reminiscences of the same. In Russia, woman is the administrator +of her property: she enjoys equal rights in the administration of the +community. Communism is the most favorable social condition to woman. +The fact transpired from the sketch of the age of the mother-right, +given on previous pages.[153] In the United States women have conquered +full civil equality; they have also prevented the introduction of the +English and similar laws regulating prostitution. + +The civic inequality of woman has provoked among the more advanced +members of the female sex demand for political rights, to the end of +wielding the power of legislation in behalf of their civic equality. It +is the identical thought that moved the working class everywhere to +direct their agitation towards the conquest of the political powers. +What is right for the working class can not be wrong for woman. +Oppressed, disfranchised, relegated everywhere to the rear, woman has +not the right only, she has the duty to defend herself, and to seize +every means she may deem fit to conquer a more independent position for +herself. Against these efforts also the reactionary mob, of course, +bristles up. Let us see how. + +The great French Revolution, that, as is well known, started in 1789 and +threw all old institutions out of joint, conjured up a freedom of +spirits such as the world had never seen before. Woman also stepped upon +the stage. During the previous decades immediately preceding the +outbreak of the Revolution, many of them had taken part in the great +intellectual struggle that then raged throughout French society. They +flocked in swarms to the great scientific discussions, attended +political and scientific meetings, and did their share in preparing the +Revolution, where theory was to crystalize into fact. Most historians +have noted only the excesses of the Revolution,--and as always happens +when the object is to cast stones at the people and arouse horror +against them--have enormously exaggerated these to the end of all the +more readily extenuating the shameful transgressions of the ruling +class. As a rule, these historians have belittled the heroism and +greatness of soul, displayed also by many women in both camps. So long +as the vanquishers remain the historians of the vanquished, it will ever +be thus. + +In October, 1789, a number of women petitioned the National Assembly +"that equality be restored between man and woman, work and occupation be +given them free, places be left for them that their faculties were fit +for." + +When in 1793 the Convention proclaimed "_le droit de l'homme_" (the +Rights of Man), the more far-seeing women perceived that these were only +the rights of males. Olympe de Gouges, Louise Lecombe and others +paralleled these "Rights of Man" with 17 articles on the "Rights of +Woman," which, on the 28th Brumaire (November 20, 1793) they defended +before the Commune of Paris upon the principle: "If woman has the right +to mount the scaffold, she must also have the right to mount the +tribune." Their demands remained unheeded. When, subsequently, upon the +march of monarchic Europe against the Republic, the Convention declared +the "Fatherland in danger," and called upon all men, able to carry arms, +to defend the Fatherland and the Republic, inspired Parisian women +offered to do what twenty years later inspired Prussian women likewise +did against the domination of Napoleon,--defend the Fatherland, arms in +hand. The radical Chaumette rose against those Parisian women and +addressed them, asking: "Since when is it allowed to women to renounce +their sex and become men? Since when is it usage for them to abandon the +sacred cares of their households, the cradles of their children, and to +appear at public places, to speak from the tribunes, to step in the +files of the troops,--in short, to fill duties that Nature has devolved +upon man alone? Nature said to man: 'Be thou _man_! Racing, the chase, +the cultivation of the fields, politics and violent labors of all sorts +are thy _privilege_!' It said to woman: 'Be thou _woman_! The care of +thy children, the details of thy household, the sweet inquietudes of +motherhood,--that is thy _work_!' Unwise women, why wish you to become +men? Is not mankind properly divided? What more can you want? In the +name of Nature, remain what you are; and, far from envying us the perils +of so stormy a life, rest satisfied to make us forget them in the lap of +our families, by allowing our eyes to rest upon the fascinating +spectacle of our children, made happy by your tender care." + +The women allowed themselves to be silenced, and went away. There can be +no doubt that the radical Chaumette voiced the innermost sentiments of +most of our men, who otherwise abhor him. We also hold that it is a +proper division of work to leave to men the defense of the country, and +to women the care of the home and the hearth. In Russia, late in the +fall of the year and after they have tended the fields, the men of whole +village districts move to distant factories, and leave to the women the +administration of the commune and the house. For the rest, the +oratorical gush of Chaumette is mere phrases. What he says concerning +the labors of the men in the fields is not even correct: since time +immemorial down to to-day, woman's was not the easy part in agriculture. +The alleged labors of the chase and the race course are no "labors" at +all: they are amusements of men; and, as to politics, it has perils for +him only who swims _against_ the stream, otherwise it offers the men at +least as much amusement as labor. It is the egoism of man that speaks in +that speech. + +At about the same time when the French Revolution was under way, and +engaged the attention of all Europe, a woman rose on the other side of +the Channel also, in England, to labor publicly in behalf of equal +rights for her sex. She was Mary Wollstoncraft, born in 1759, and who, +in 1790, published a book against Edmund Burke, the most violent enemy +of the French Revolution. She later, 1792, wrote a second book--"A +Vindication of the Rights of Woman"--in which she took the stand for +absolute equality of rights for her sex. In this book she demands the +suffrage for women in the elections for the Lower House. But she met in +England with even less response than did her sisters in France. +Ridiculed and insulted by her contemporaries, she went under after +trying ordeals. Before the Revolution it was the encyclopedist Condorcet +who principally took the field for the equal rights of both sexes. + +To-day, matters lie somewhat differently. Since then, conditions have +changed mightily,--the position of woman along with them. Whether +married or unmarried, more than ever before woman now has a deep +interest in social and political conditions. It can not be a matter of +indifference to her whether the Government chains every year to the army +hundreds of thousands of vigorous, healthy men; whether a policy is in +force that favors wars, or does not; whether the necessaries of life are +made dearer by taxes, that promote, besides, the adulteration of food, +and are all the harder upon a family in the measure of its size, at a +time, at that, in which the means of life are most stingily measured for +the large majority. Moreover, woman pays direct and indirect taxes out +of her support and her income. Again, the system of education is of +highest interest to her: it goes far towards determining the position of +her sex: as a mother, she has a double interest therein. + +Furthermore, as has been shown, there are to-day millions of women, in +hundreds of pursuits, all of them with a lively personal interest in the +manner that our laws are shaped. Questions concerning the hours of work; +night, Sunday and child-labor; payment of wages and notice of discharge; +safety appliances in factory and shop; etc.--all are political questions +that concern them as well as the men. Workingmen know little or nothing +about conditions in many branches of industry, where women are mainly, +or exclusively, engaged. Employers have all the interest in the world to +hush up evils that they are responsible for. Factory inspection +frequently does not extend to branches of industry in which women are +exclusively employed: such as it is, it is utterly inadequate: and yet +these are the very branches in which protective measures frequently are +most needed. It suffices to mention the workshops in which seamstresses, +dressmakers, milliners, etc., are crowded together in our larger cities. +From thence, hardly a complaint issues; thither no investigation has as +yet penetrated. Finally, as a trader, woman is also interested in laws +on commerce and tariffs. There can, accordingly, be no doubt that woman +has an interest and a right to demand a hand in the shaping of things by +legislation, as well as man. Her participation in public life would +impart a strong stimulus thereto, and open manifold new vistas. + +Such demands, however, are met with the curt rebuff: "Women know nothing +of politics, and most of them don't want to, either; neither do they +know how to use the ballot." True, and not true. True enough, until now, +very few women, in Germany at least, have ventured to demand political +equality also. The first woman, who, as a writer, came out in its favor +in Germany was, as far as we know, Frau Hedwig Dohm. More recently, it +is mainly the Socialist working-women, who are vigorously agitating for +the idea; and their number is ever larger. + +Nothing is proved with the argument that women have, until now, shown +little interest in the political movement. The fact that, hitherto, +women have troubled themselves little about politics, is no proof that +they should continue in the same path. The same reasons, advanced to-day +against female suffrage, were advanced during the first half of the +sixties in Germany against manhood suffrage. Even as late as 1863, the +author of this book himself was of those who opposed manhood suffrage; +four years later he owed to it his election to the Reichstag. Thousands +of others went through the same mill: from Sauls they became Pauls. Many +are the men, who either do not care or do not know how to use their +important political rights. And yet that fact was no reason to withhold +the suffrage from them, and can be none to now deprive them of it. At +the Reichstag elections in Germany, 25 to 30 per cent. of the qualified +voters do not vote at all. These non-voters are recruited from _all_ +classes: among them are scientists and laborers. Moreover, of the 70 to +75 per cent. of those who participate in the election, the majority, +according to our judgment, vote in a way that they would not, if they +realized their true interests. That as yet they have not realized them +comes from defective political training, a training, however, that these +70 to 75 per cent. possess in a higher degree than the 25 to 30 per +cent., who stay away altogether. Among the latter, those must be +excepted who remain away from the hustings because they cannot, without +danger, vote according to their convictions. + +Political education is not gained by keeping the masses from public +affairs; it is gained by admitting them to the exercise of political +rights. Practice makes perfect. The ruling classes have hitherto found +their account in keeping the large majority of the people in political +childhood. Hence it has ever been the task of a class-conscious minority +to battle with energy and enthusiasm for the collective interest of +society, and to shake up and drag the large inert mass after them. Thus +has it been in all great Movements: it is neither astonishing nor +discouraging that the experience made with the Movement of the working +class is repeated in the Movement for the emancipation of woman. +Previous successes prove that pains, labor and sacrifices are rewarded; +the future brings triumph. + +The moment woman acquires equal rights with man, the sense of her duties +will be quickened. Called upon to cast her ballot, she will ask, What +for? Whom for? Immediately, emulation in many directions will set in +between man and woman that, so far from injuring, will materially +improve their mutual relations. The less posted woman will naturally +turn to the better posted man. Interchange of ideas and mutual +instruction follows,--a condition of things until now found most rarely +between husband and wife: it will impart a fresh charm to life. The +unhappy differences in education and view-points between the two +sexes,--differences, that so frequently lead to dissensions between +husband and wife, that place the husband at variance with his many-sided +duties, and that injure the well-being of all, will be wiped out. +Instead of a clog, the husband will gain a supporter in a compatible +wife; whenever prevented by other duties from personal participation, +she will spur her husband to fulfil his own. She will find it legitimate +that a fraction of his earnings be spent in a newspaper, for agitational +purposes, because the paper serves to educate and entertain her also, +and because she realizes the necessity of the sacrifice, a sacrifice +that helps to conquer that which she, her husband and her children +lack,--an existence worthy of human beings. + +Thus, the joining of hands by husband and wife for the common weal, so +closely connected with the weal of the individual, will exert a most +ennobling influence. The very reverse is called into life of that which +is claimed by near-sighted people, or by the foes of a commonwealth +based upon the equality of all. Nor would it end there. The relation +between the two sexes would be beautiful in the measure that the social +institutions will liberate husband and wife from material cares and from +excessive work. Practice and education will, here as in all other cases, +give further aid. If I go not in the water, I shall never learn to swim; +if I study no foreign language and do not practice it, I shall never +learn to speak it. Everyone finds that natural; and yet many fail to +realize that the same holds good in the affairs of government and +society. Are our women unfitter than the far lower negroes, to whom full +political equality was conceded in North America? And shall a highly +intellectual woman be vested with lesser rights than the rudest, least +cultured man,--an ignorant day-laborer of the backwoods of Pomerania, or +an ultramontane canalman, for instance, and all because accident let +these come into the world as men? The son has greater rights than his +mother, from whom, perchance, he derives his best qualities, the very +qualities that alone make him what he is. Truly wonderful! + +Moreover, we in Germany would no longer be running the risk of being the +first to take the leap in the dark and the unknown. The United States, +England and other countries have opened the way. In the State of Wyoming +in the United States, woman suffrage has been tested since 1869. On +November 12, 1872, writing from Laramie City, Wyo., on the subject, +Judge Kingman says in the Chicago "Women's Journal": + +"Three years ago to-day women obtained the right of electing and of +being elected to office in our Territory, in the same manner as the +other electors. During this period they have voted and have been voted +for; they have exercised the functions of jurors and arbiters; they have +taken part in large numbers at our elections, and although I believe +that some among us oppose the admission of women from motives of +principle, no one, I think, can refuse to recognize that their influence +on the elections has been an elevating one. It caused them to be +conducted in a more peaceable and orderly manner, and at the same time +enabled our courts of justice to discover and punish various kinds of +crime that had until then remained unpunished. + +"For instance, when the Territory was first organized, there was +scarcely a man who did not carry a revolver and make use of it in the +slightest dispute. I cannot remember a single case in which a jury +composed of men brought in a verdict of guilty against one of those who +had shot with a revolver, but when two or three women were among them, +they have invariably attended to the instructions of the Court." + +In what esteem woman suffrage was held in Wyoming twenty-five years +after its introduction, may be gathered from the address issued on +November 12, 1894, to the Parliaments of the world by the Legislature of +that State. It says: + +"The possession and exercise of suffrage by the women in Wyoming for the +past quarter of a century has wrought no harm and has done great good in +many ways; it has largely aided in banishing crime, pauperism, and vice +from this State, and that without any violent or oppressive legislation; +it has secured peaceful and orderly elections, good government, and a +remarkable degree of civilization and public order; and we point with +pride to the facts that after nearly twenty-five years of Woman Suffrage +not one county in Wyoming has a poorhouse, that our jails are almost +empty, and crime, except that committed by strangers in the State, +almost unknown; and as the result of experience we urge every civilized +community on earth to enfranchise its women without delay."[154] + +While giving fullest credit to the political activity of the women of +Wyoming, we cannot go to the extreme, reached by the enthusiastic +defenders of woman suffrage in the Legislature of that State, of +ascribing exclusively to the ballot in woman's hands the enviable +conditions, which, according to the account of the address, Wyoming +rejoices in. A number of social causes of other nature contribute +thereto. Nevertheless, the fact is unquestionable that female suffrage +has been accompanied by the most beneficent results for that State, and +without one disadvantage. That is the most brilliant justification of +its introduction. + +The example of Wyoming found followers. To-day there are a number of +countries in which woman enjoys political rights to greater or less +extent. In the United States, women obtained several years ago the +ballot in Colorado, and in 1894 they elected a number of +representatives; likewise in Arizona, and still more recently in +Minnesota. In New Zealand, they took a lively part in the parliamentary +elections of 1893, livelier, in fact, than the men, although they were +only qualified to elect: only men were qualified to be elected. In +March, 1894, the Prime Minister declared to a deputation of women that +he would advocate their qualification to be elected. In 1893, there were +twenty-two States in the North American Union where women were qualified +both to elect and be elected for the School Boards. In Kansas, Nebraska, +Colorado, Oregon, Arizona, Dakota, Idaho, Minnesota and Montana they are +fully qualified electors for municipal officers, provided they are +resident citizens. In Argonia, Kans., the wife of a physician was +elected Mayor;[155] the same thing happened in Onehunga, New Zealand. +Since more than ten years ago, women in Sweden have the suffrage for +departmental and municipal elections, under the same restrictions as +men. + +In England, the struggle, for woman's political rights has a regular +history behind it. According to the old custom of the Middle Ages, +women, seized of landed property, were also vested with the suffrage, +and, as such also filled judicial functions. In the course of time they +lost these rights. In the bill for Parliamentary Reform in 1832, the +word "person" was used, a term that, according to English conceptions, +includes the members of both sexes, men and women. This notwithstanding, +the law was interpreted adversely to women and they were turned back +wherever they made the effort to vote. In the electoral reform Act of +1867, the word "man" was substituted for the word "person." John Stuart +Mill moved the re-insertion of "person" in place of "man," with the +express purpose that women shall be vested with the suffrage under the +same conditions as men. The motion was defeated by 196 votes against 83. +Sixteen years later, 1883, the attempt was again made in the Lower House +to grant women the suffrage. A motion to that effect was defeated by a +majority of 16. A further attempt in 1884 was defeated in a fuller House +by more than 136 votes. But the minority did not evacuate the field. In +1886 it succeeded in carrying to a second reading a motion to grant +women the suffrage; but the dissolution of Parliament prevented a final +vote being taken. Again, on April 27, 1892, the Lower House defeated +with 175 votes against 152, the second reading of a motion on the +subject presented by Sir A. Rollit, and which provided as follows: + +"Every woman who in Great Britain is registered or entitled to be +registered as an elector for a Town Council or County Council or who in +Ireland is a rate payer entitled to vote in the election of Guardians of +the Poor, shall be entitled to be registered as a Parliamentary elector, +and when registered, to vote at any Parliamentary election for the +county, borough, or division wherein the qualifying property is +situate." + +On November 29, 1888, Lord Salisbury held a speech in Edinburgh, in the +course of which he said: "I earnestly hope that the day is not far +distant when women also will bear their share in voting for members in +the political world and in the determining the policy of the country." +And Alfred Russell Wallace, celebrated as a naturalist and follower of +Darwin, expressed himself upon the same question this wise: "When men +and women shall have freedom to follow their best impulses, when both +shall receive the best possible education, when no false restraints +shall be imposed upon any human being by the reason of the accident of +sex, and when public opinion shall be regulated by the wisest and best +and shall be systematically impressed upon youth, then shall we find +that a system of human selection will arise that is bound to have a +reformed humanity for its result. So long as woman is compelled to +regard marriage as a means by which to escape poverty and avoid neglect, +she is and remains at a disadvantage with man. Hence, the first step in +the emancipation of woman is the removal of all restraints that prevent +her from competing with man on all the fields of industry and in all +pursuits. But we must go further, and allow woman the exercise of her +_political rights_. Many of the restraints, under which woman has +suffered until now, would have been spared to her, had she had direct +representation in Parliament." + +In most sections of England, married women have the same political +rights as men in the elections for the School Boards and Guardians of +the Poor, and in many places are themselves qualified for election. At +the county elections, _unmarried_ women have the right to vote under the +same restrictions as men, but are not themselves qualified for election. +Likewise did all independent tax-paying women obtain the right to vote +by the Reform Act of 1869, but are not qualified for election. _Married +women_ are in virtue of a court decision, rendered in 1872, excluded +from the suffrage, because _in English law woman loses her independence +by marriage_--a decided encouragement for women to keep away from the +legal formality of legitimate marriage. Seeing that also in other +respects unmarried or divorced women in England and Scotland are clothed +with rights denied to married women, the temptation is not slight for +women to renounce legitimate unions. It is not exactly the part of +wisdom for the male representatives of bourgeois society to degrade +bourgeois marriage into a sort of slave status for woman.[156] + +In Austria, women who are landed proprietors, or conduct a business, to +which the suffrage is attached, have the right to exercise the privilege +_by attorney_. This holds both for local and Reichstag elections. If the +woman is proprietor of a mercantile or industrial establishment, which +gives the right to vote for the Chamber of Commerce, her franchise must +be exercised by a business manager. In France, on the contrary, a woman +who conducts a business, has a right to vote at the election of members +for the tribunals of commerce, but she cannot herself be elected. +According to the law of 1891 of the old Prussian provinces, women have +the suffrage, if the landed property that belongs to them conveys the +right to vote, nevertheless they must exercise the privilege through a +male representative, neither are they eligible themselves. Likewise +according to the laws of Hanover, Brunswick, Schleswig-Holstein, +Sachsen-Weimar, Hamburg and Luebeck. In Saxony, the law allows women the +suffrage if they are landed proprietors and are _unmarried_. If married, +the woman's vote goes to her husband. In all these cases, accordingly, +the right of suffrage does not attach to persons but to property--quite +a light upon existing political and legal morality: Man, thou art zero +if moneyless or propertyless; knowledge, intellect are secondary +matters. Property decides. + +We see that the principle of denying woman the suffrage on the theory of +her not being "of age" is broken through in fact; and yet objection is +raised to granting her the right in full. It is said that to grant woman +the suffrage is dangerous because she yields easily to religious +prejudices, and is conservative. She is both only because she is +ignorant. Let her be educated and taught where her interests lie. For +the rest, the influence of religion on elections is exaggerated. +Ultramontane agitation has hitherto been so successful in Germany only +because it knew how to join _social with religious interests_. The +ultramontane chaplains long vied with the Socialists in uncovering the +social foulness. Hence their influence with the masses. With the close +of the Kulturkampf, the influence of the Catholic clergymen upon the +masses waned. The clergy is forced to discontinue its opposition to the +Government; simultaneously therewith, the rising class struggle compels +it to consider the Catholic capitalist class and Catholic nobility; it +will, accordingly, be compelled to observe greater caution on the social +field. Thus the clergy will forfeit its influence with the workingmen, +especially at such critical junctures when considerations for the +Government and the ruling classes drive it to approve of, or tolerate +actions and laws directed against the interests of the working class. +The same causes will, in the end, have their influence upon woman. When +at public meetings, through newspapers and from personal observation she +will have learned where her own interest lies, woman will emancipate +herself from the clergy, the same as man has done. The fiercest opponent +of female suffrage is the clergy, and it knows the reason why. Its rule +and its domains are endangered. + +That the movement for the political rights of woman has not been +promptly crowned with greater success is no reason to withhold the +ballot from her. What would the workingmen say if the Liberals proposed +abolishing manhood suffrage--and the same is very inconvenient to +them--on the ground that it benefits the Socialists in particular? A +good law does not become bad by reason of him who wields it not yet +having learned its right use. + +Naturally, the right to be elected should go together with the right to +elect. "A woman in the tribune of the Reichstag, that would be a +spectacle!" we hear people exclaim. Our generation has grown accustomed +to the sight of women in the speaker's tribune at their conventions and +meetings; in the United States, also in the pulpit and the jury box--why +not, then, also in the tribune of the Reichstag? The first woman elected +to the Reichstag, would surely know how to impose respect. When the +first workingmen entered the Reichstag it was also believed they could +be laughed down, and it was claimed that the working class would soon +realize the foolishness it had committed in electing such people. Its +representatives, however, knew how to make themselves quickly respected; +the fear to-day is lest there be too many of them. Frivolous witlings +put in: "Just imagine a pregnant woman in the tribune of the Reichstag; +how utterly unesthetic!" The identical gentlemen find it, however, quite +in order that pregnant women work at the most unesthetic trades, at +trades in which female dignity, health and decency are undermined. In +the eyes of a Socialist, that man is a wretch who can crack jokes over a +woman with child. The mere thought that his own mother once looked like +that before she brought him into the world, should cause his cheeks to +burn with shame; the thought that he, rude jester, expects from a +similar condition on the part of his wife the fulfillment of his dearest +wishes should cause him, furthermore, to hold his tongue in shame. + +_A woman who gives birth to children renders, at least, the same service +to the commonwealth as the man who defends his country and his hearth +with his life against a foe in search of conquests._ Moreover, the life +of a woman trembles in the scales at child-birth. All our mothers have +looked death in the face at our births, and many succumbed. _The number +of women who die as a result of child-birth, or who as a consequence +pine away in sickness, is greater than that of the men who fall on the +field of battle, or are wounded._ In Prussia, between 1816-1876, not +less than 321,791 women fell a prey to child-birth fever--a yearly +average of 5,363. This is by far a larger figure than that of the +Prussians, who, during the same period, were killed in war or died of +their wounds. Nor must, at the contemplation of this enormous number of +women who died of child-birth fever, the still larger number of those be +lost sight of, who, as a consequence of child-birth, are permanently +crippled in health, and die prematurely.[157] These are additional +reasons for woman's equal rights with man--reasons to be held up +especially to those, who play man's duty to defend the Fatherland as a +decisive circumstance, entitling them to superior consideration to +women. For the rest, in virtue of our military institutions, most men do +not even fill this duty: to the majority of them it exists upon paper +only. + +All these superficial objections to the public activity of woman would +be unimaginable were the relations of the two sexes a natural one, and +were there not an antagonism, artificially raised side by side with the +relation of master and servant between the two. From early youth the two +are separated in social intercourse and education. Above all, it is the +antagonism, for which Christianity is responsible, that keeps the sexes +steadily apart and the one in ignorance about the other, and that +hinders free social intercourse, mutual confidence, a mutual +supplementing of traits of character. + +One of the first and most important tasks of a rationally organized +society must be to end this unhallowed split, and to reinstate Nature in +its rights. The violence done to Nature starts at school: First, the +separation of the sexes; next, mistaken, or no instruction whatever, in +matters that concern the human being as a sexual entity. True enough, +natural history is taught in every tolerably good school. The child +learns that birds lay eggs and hatch them out: he also learns when the +mating season begins: that males and females are needed: that both +jointly assume the building of the nests, the hatching and the care of +the young. He also learns that mammals bring forth live young: he learns +about the rutting season and about the fights of the males for the +females during the same: he learns the usual number of young, perhaps +also the period of pregnancy. But on the subject of the origin and +development of his own stock he remains in the dark; that is veiled in +mystery. When, thereupon, the child seeks to satisfy his natural +curiosity with questions addressed to his parents, to his mother in +particular--he seldom ventures with them to his teacher--he is saddled +with the silliest stories that cannot satisfy him, and that are all the +more injurious when he some day does ascertain the truth. There are +probably few children who have not made the discovery by the twelfth +year of their age. In all small towns, in the country especially, +children observe from earliest years the mating of birds, the copulation +of domestic animals; they see this in closest proximity, in the yard, on +the street, and when the cattle are turned loose. They see that the +conditions under which the heat of the cattle is gratified, as well as +the act of birth of the several domestic animals are made the subject of +serious, thorough and undisguised discussion on the part of their +parents, elder brothers and servants. All that awakens doubts in the +child's mind on the accounts given him of his own entry into life. +Finally the day of knowledge does come; but it comes in a way other than +it would have come under a natural and rational education. The secret +that the child discovers leads to estrangement between child and +parents, particularly between child and mother. The reverse is obtained +of that which was aimed at in folly and shortsightedness. He who +recalls his own youth and that of his young companions knows what the +results frequently are. + +An American woman says, among other things in a work written by her, +that wishing to answer the repeated questions of her eight-year-old son +on his origin, and unwilling to saddle him with nursery tales, she +disclosed the truth to him. The child listened to her with great +attention, and, from the day that he learned what cares and pains he had +caused his mother, he clung to her with a tenderness and reverence not +noticed in him before, and showed the same reverence toward other women +also.[158] The authoress proceeds from the correct premises that only by +means of a natural education can any real improvement--more respect and +self-control on the part of the male toward the female sex--be expected. +He who reasons free from prejudice will arrive at no other conclusion. + +Whatever be the point of departure in the _critique_ of our social +conditions, the conclusion is ever the same--their _radical +transformation_; thereby a radical transformation in the position of the +sexes is inevitable. Woman, in order to arrive all the quicker at the +goal, must look for allies whom, in the very nature of things, the +movement of the working class steers in her direction. Since long has +the class-conscious proletariat begun the storming of the fortress, the +Class-State, which also upholds the present domination of one sex by the +other. That fortress must be surrounded on all sides with trenches, and +assailed to the point of surrender with artillery of all calibre. The +besieging army finds its officers and munitions on all sides. Social and +natural science, jointly with historical research, pedagogy, hygiene and +statistics are advancing from all directions, and furnish ammunition and +weapons to the movement. Nor does philosophy lag behind. In +Mainlaender's "The Philosophy of Redemption,"[159] it announces the +near-at-hand realization of the "Ideal State." + +The ultimate conquest of the Class-State and its transformation is +rendered all the easier to us through the divisions in the ranks of its +defenders, who, despite the oneness of their interests against the +common enemy, are perpetually at war with one another in the strife for +plunder. Further aid comes to us from the daily-growing mutiny in the +ranks of the enemies, whose forces to a great extent are bone of our +bone, and flesh of our flesh--elements that, out of misunderstanding and +misled, have hitherto fought against us and thus against themselves, but +are gradually becoming clearsighted, and pass over to us. Finally we are +aided by the desertion of the honorable elements from the ranks of the +hitherto hostile men of thought, who have perceived the truth, and whose +higher knowledge spurs them to leap their low class interests, and, +following their ideal aspirations after justice, join the masses that +are thirsting for freedom. + +Many do not yet realize the stage of dissolution that State and Society +are in. Hence, and although the dark blotches have been frequently +pointed out in the preceding chapters, a separate treatment of the +subject is requisite. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[151] Louis Bridel, "La Puissance Maritale," Lausanne, 1879. + +[152] In the presentation of these civil rights we have merely followed +Louis Bridel's work: "Le Droit des Femmes et le Marriage," Paris, 1893. + +[153] How correct this view is transpires also from the comedy of +Aristophanes: "The Popular Assembly of Women." In that comedy, +Aristophanes depicts how the Athenian government had reached the point +when everything was going at sixes and sevens. The Prytaneum put the +question to the popular assembly of the Athenian citizens: "How is the +State to be saved?" Thereupon a woman, disguised as a man, made the +proposition to entrust the helm of State to the women, and the +proposition was accepted without opposition "because it was the only +thing that had never before happened in Athens." The women seized the +helm, and forthwith instituted _communism_. Of course, Aristophanes +turns this condition into ridicule, but the significant point in the +play is that, the moment the women had a decisive word in public +affairs, they instituted communism as the only rational political and +social condition from the standpoint of their own sex. Aristophanes +little dreamed how he hit the truth while meaning to joke. + +[154] The above two paragraphs are left as they appear in the text, +although they seem to be subject to corrections. + +A diligent search in the libraries of this city for the original of the +above "Address to the Parliaments of the World," stated to have been +issued by the Legislature of Wyoming in 1894, having proved vain, the +Secretary of the State of Wyoming was written to. His answer was: + + +The State of Wyoming, +Office of the Secretary of State. +Cheyenne, June 5, 1903. + +Mr. Daniel DeLeon, New York City: + +Dear Sir--Replying to your letter of June 1st, would say that the +Legislature of Wyoming was not in session in 1894, and did not pass any +resolutions on Woman Suffrage in 1893 or 1895. + +I enclose herewith the resolutions adopted by the Legislature of 1901, +and also Senate and House resolutions adopted in 1903 on the subject of +Woman Suffrage. Yours truly, + +F. Chatterton, +Secretary of State. + + +The resolutions enclosed in the above letter were these: + +[House Joint Resolution No. 8, adopted February, 1901.] + +Whereas, Wyoming was the first state to adopt equal suffrage and equal +suffrage has been in operation since 1869; was adopted in the +constitution of the State of Wyoming in 1890, during which time women +have exercised the privilege as generally as men, with the result that +better candidates have been selected for office, methods of election +have been purified, the character of legislation improved, civic +intelligence increased and womanhood developed to greater usefulness by +political responsibility; + +Therefore, Resolved, by the House of Representatives, the Senate +concurring, That, in view of these results, the enfranchisement of women +in every state and territory of the American Union is hereby recommended +as a measure tending to the advancement of a higher and better social +order. + +That an authenticated copy of these resolutions be forwarded by the +Governor of the state to the legislature of every state and territory, +and that the press be requested to call public attention to these +resolutions. + + Edward W. Stone, + President of Senate. +J. S. Atherly, + Speaker of House. + Approved February 13th, 1901. + DeF. Richards, + Governor. + + +[Senate and House Resolution, Seventh Legislature, 1903.] + +Whereas, The question of equal suffrage is being seriously considered in +many States of the Union; and, + +Whereas, Equal suffrage has been in operation in Wyoming ever since +Territorial days in 1869, during which time women have exercised the +privilege of voting generally and intelligently, with the result that a +higher standard of candidates have usually been selected for office; +elections have been made peaceful, orderly and dignified; the general +character of legislation improved; intelligence in political, civic and +social matters greatly increased; and, + +Whereas, Under the responsibilities incident to suffrage the women of +Wyoming have not in any sense been deprived of any of their womanly +qualities, but on the contrary the womanhood of Wyoming has developed to +a broader usefulness; therefore, be it + +Resolved by the Senate of the Wyoming Legislature, That in view of the +beneficence and practical results of equal suffrage for men and women in +Wyoming, the enfranchisement of women is hereby endorsed as a great +national reform and a measure that will improve and advance the +political and social conditions of the country at large. + +Resolved, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to Mrs. Carrie +Chapman Catt, President National Women Suffrage Association, 2008 +American Tract Society Building, New York, and to Mrs. Harriet Taylor +Upton, National Treasurer, Warren, Ohio. + + G. A. Guernsey, +Approved February 19th, 1903. President of the Senate. + DeF. Richards, + Governor. + J. S. Atherly, + Speaker of the House. + + +Agitational literature on woman suffrage, furnished by the Boston, +Mass., "Woman's Journal," after the above note was in print, gives the +address cited in the text, but not as issued by the Legislature of +Wyoming, nor in 1894. The address was adopted in March, 1893, by the +House of Representatives of the Wyoming Legislature, just before the +final adjournment of the body, and was not acted upon by the +Senate.--THE TRANSLATOR. + +[155] In Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming women have full suffrage, and +vote for all officers, including Presidential electors. In Utah and +Wyoming woman suffrage is a constitutional provision. + +In Indiana women may hold any office under the school laws, but can not +vote for any such office. + +In Kansas women exercise the suffrage largely in municipal elections. + +In some form, mainly as to taxation or the selection of school officers, +woman suffrage exists in a limited way in Arizona, Connecticut, +Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, +Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, +Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, Washington and +Wisconsin.--THE TRANSLATOR. + +[156] On September 5, 1902, the Trades Union Congress of England--made +up, of course, of the British style of Trades Unionism, known in America +as "Pure and Simple" Trades Unionism--rejected a resolution introduced +for the purpose of giving the franchise to women on the same terms as +men.--THE TRANSLATOR. + +[157] "To every woman who to-day dies in child-bed, from 15 to 20 must +be added who remain more or less seriously injured, and subject to womb +troubles and general ill health, often for life."--Dr. H. B. Adams. + +[158] Isabella Beecher-Hooker, "Womanhood, Its Sanctities and +Fidelities." + +[159] "Philosophie der Erloesung." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE STATE AND SOCIETY. + + +During the last few decades and in all countries of civilization, the +economic life of society has assumed an uncommonly rapid pace of +development, a development that every progress on any field of human +activity adds swing to. Our social relations have thereby been thrown +into a state of unrest, fermentation and dissolution never known before. +The ruling classes no longer feel the ground safe under them, nor do +existing institutions any longer possess the firmness requisite to +breast the storm, that is approaching from all sides. A feeling of +uneasiness, of insecurity and of dissatisfaction has seized upon all +circles, high and low. The paroxysmal efforts put forth by the ruling +classes to end this unbearable state of things by means of tinkering at +the body social prove themselves vain and inadequate. The general sense +of increasing insecurity, that comes from these failures, increases +their uneasiness and discomfort. Hardly have they inserted a beam in the +shape of some law into the rickety structure, than they discover ten +other places where shoring is still more urgent. All along they are at +perpetual strife among themselves and deeply rent by differences of +opinion. What one set deems necessary, in order somewhat to calm and +reconcile the increasingly discontented masses, the other considers as +going too far, and unpardonable weakness and pliancy, only calculated to +prick the longing after greater concessions. Striking evidences thereof +are the debates in the 1894-5 sessions of the Reichstag, both on the +floor of the house and in committee, on the so-called "revolutionary +bill," as well as numerous other discussions in all parliaments. Within +the ruling classes themselves there exist unbridgeable contrasts, and +they sharpen the social conflicts. + +Governments--and not in Germany alone--are shaking like reeds in the +wind. They must lean on something: without support they cannot exist: +they now lean on this side, then on that. In no progressive country of +Europe is there a Government with a lasting parliamentary majority, on +which it can count with safety. Majorities are breaking up and +dissolving; and the ever changing course, in Germany, especially, +undermines the last vestige of confidence that the ruling class had in +themselves. To-day one set is anvil, the other the hammer; to-morrow it +is the other way. The one tears down what the other painfully builds up. +The confusion is ever greater; the discontent ever more lasting; the +causes of friction multiply and consume in a few months more energies +than years did formerly. Along with all that, material sacrifices, +called for by manifold taxes, swell beyond all measure. + +In the midst of all this, our sapient statesmen are lulling themselves +in wondrous illusions. With an eye to sparing property and the rich, +forms of taxation are selected that smite the needy classes heaviest, +and they are decreed with the belief that, seeing a large portion of the +masses have not yet discovered their real nature, neither will they be +felt. This is an error. The masses to-day understand fully the nature of +indirect imports and taxes upon the necessaries of life. Their growing +political education and perspicuity disclose to them the gross injustice +of the same; and they are all the more sensitive to these burdens by +reason of the wretchedness of their economic conditions, especially +where families are large. The rise of prices in the necessaries of +life--due to indirect imposts, or to causes that bring on similar +results, such as the premiums on brandy and sugar that, to the amount of +dozens of millions, a part of the ruling class pockets yearly at the +expense of the poor of the kingdom, and that it seeks to raise still +higher--are realized to be a gross injustice, a heavy burden, measures +that stand in odd contradiction with the nature of the so-called +Christian State, the State of Social Reform. These measures extinguish +the last spark of faith in the sense of justice of the ruling classes, +to a degree that is serious to these. It changes nothing in the final +effect of these measures that the draining is done in pennies. The +increase in the expenditure is there, and is finally sensible to the +feeling and the sight of all. Hundreds upon hundreds of millions cannot +be squeezed out of practically empty pockets, without the owners of the +pockets becoming aware of the lifting. The strong pressure of direct +taxation, directs the dissatisfaction among the poor against the State; +the still stronger indirect taxation, _directs the discontent against +society also, the evil being felt to be of a social as well as political +character_. In that there is progress. Him whom the gods would destroy, +they first make blind. + +In the endeavor to do justice to the most opposed interests, laws are +heaped upon laws; but no old one is thoroughly repealed, nor new one +thoroughly enforced. Everything is done by halves, giving satisfaction +in no direction. The requirements of civilization that spring from the +life of the people, demand some attention, unless everything is to be +risked; even the fractional way they are attended to, demands +considerable sacrifice, all the more seeing that our public institutions +are overrun by parasites. At the same time, not only are all the +unproductive institutions, wholly at variance with the trend of +civilization, continued in force, but, due to the existing conflicts of +interests, they are rather enlarged, and thus they become all the more +burdensome and oppressive in the measure that increasing popular +intelligence ever more loudly pronounces them superfluous. Police, +armies, courts of law, prisons, the whole administrative apparatus--all +are enlarged ever more, and become ever more expensive. And yet neither +external nor internal security is obtained. The reverse follows. + +A wholly unnatural state of things has gradually arisen in the +international relations of the several nations. The relations between +nation and nation multiply in the measure that the production of goods +increases; that, thanks to improved transportation, the exchange of this +mass of merchandise is facilitated; and that the economic and scientific +achievements of each become the public possession of all. Treaties of +commerce are concluded; expensive routes of traffic--Suez Canals, St. +Gotthard Tunnels--are opened with international funds. Individual +countries support with heavy subsidies steamship lines that help to +promote intercourse between several nations. The Postal Union--a step of +first rank in civilization--is established; international conventions +are convoked for all imaginable practical and scientific purposes; the +literary products of genius of any nation are spread abroad by +translations into the leading languages. Thus the tendency is ever more +strongly marked toward the internationalizing, the fraternizing of all +peoples. Nevertheless, the political, the military state of the nations +of Europe stands in strange contrast to this general development. The +hatred of nation against nation, Chauvinism, is artificially nourished +by all. The ruling classes seek everywhere to keep green the belief that +it is the peoples who are hostilely inclined toward one another, and +only wait for the moment when one of them may fall upon another and +destroy it. The competitive struggle between the capitalists of several +countries, together with their jealousy of one another, assume upon the +international field the character of a struggle between the capitalists +of one country against those of another, and, backed by the political +blindness of the large masses, it conjures into existence a contest of +military armaments such as the world has never seen before. This contest +has brought forth armies of magnitudes that never were known; it +produced implements of murder and destruction for land and naval warfare +of such perfection as is possible only in an age of such advanced +technique as ours. The contest drives these antagonisms to a head, it +incites a development of means of destruction that finally destroy +themselves. The support of the armies and navies demand sacrifices that +yearly become larger, and that finally ruin the richest nation. Germany, +for instance, had, according to the imperial budget of 1894-95, a +regular army and navy outlay of nearly 700 million marks--inclusive of +pensions and of interest on the national debt, which amounts in round +figures to two milliards, incurred mainly for purposes of war. Under +these war expenses, the appropriations for educational and other +purposes of culture suffer severely; the most pressing needs in this +direction are neglected; and that side of the State, devoted to +so-called external defence, acquires a preponderance that undermines the +original purpose of the State itself. The increasing armies absorb the +healthiest and most vigorous portion of the nation; for their +improvement all mental and physical forces are enlisted in a way as if +education in mass-murder were the highest mission of our times. +Furthermore, implements of war as of murder are continuously improved: +they have attained--in point of swiftness, range and power--a perfection +that renders them fearful to friend and foe. If some day this tremendous +apparatus is set in operation--when the hostile forces of Europe will +take the field with twelve or fourteen million men--the fact will appear +that it has become uncontrollable. There is no general who could command +such masses; there is no field vast enough to collect and set them up; +no administrative apparatus that could nourish them for any length of +time. If battles are delivered, hospitals would be lacking to shelter +the wounded: the interment of the numerous dead would be an +impossibility. + +When to all this is added the frightful disturbances and devastations, +produced to-day by a European _war on the economic-field_, there is no +exaggeration in the saying: "_the next war is the last war_." The number +of bankruptcies will be unparalleled; export stops--and thereby +thousands of factories are condemned to idleness; the supply of food +ceases--and thereby the prices of the means of life rise enormously. The +number of families whose breadwinner is in the field runs up into the +millions, and most of them must be supported. Whence shall the means +come for all that? + +The political and military state of Europe has taken a development that +cannot choose but end in a catastrophe, which will drag capitalist +society down to its ruin. Having reached the height of its development, +it produces conditions that end with rendering its own existence +impossible; it digs its own grave; it slays itself with the identical +means that itself, as the most revolutionary of all previous social +systems, has called into life. + +Gradually a large portion of our municipalities are arriving at a +desperate pass: they hardly know how to meet the increasing demands upon +themselves. It is more particularly upon our rapidly growing large +cities, and upon the localities situated in industrial districts, that +the quickened increase of population makes a mass of demands, which the +generally poor communities can come up to only by raising taxes and +incurring debts. The budgets leap upward from year to year for school +buildings, and street paving, for lighting, draining and water works; +for sanitary, public and educational purposes; for the police and the +administration. At the same time, the favorably situated minority makes +the most expensive demands upon the community. It demands higher +institutions of education, theatres, the opening of particularly fine +city quarters with lighting, pavement, etc., to match. However justly +the majority may complain of the preference, it lies in the very nature +of modern affairs. The minority has the power and uses it to satisfy its +social wants as much as possible at the expense of the collectivity. In +and of themselves nothing can be said against these heightened social +wants: they denote progress; the fault is only that their satisfaction +falls mainly to the lot of the property classes, while all others should +share them. A further evil lies in that often the administration is not +the best, and yet is expensive. The officials often are inadequate; they +are not sufficiently equipped for the many-sided demands made upon them, +demands that often presuppose thorough knowledge. The members of +Aldermanic Boards have generally so much to do and to attend to in their +own private affairs that they are unable to make the sacrifices demanded +for the full exercise of these public duties. Often are these posts used +for the promotion of private interests, to the serious injury of those +of the community. The results fall upon the taxpayers. Modern society +cannot think of undertaking a thorough change in these conditions. It is +powerless and helpless. It would have to remove itself, and that, of +course, it will not. Whatever the manner in which taxes be imposed, +dissatisfaction increases steadily. In a few decades, most of our +municipalities will be unable to satisfy their needs under their present +form of administration and of raising revenues. On the municipal as well +as on the national field, the need of a radical change is manifest: it +is upon the municipalities that the largest social demands are made: it +is society _in nuce_: it is the kernel from which, so soon as the will +and the power shall be there, the social change will radiate. How can +justice be done to-day, when private interests dominate and the +interests of the commonweal are made subservient? + +Such, in short, is the state of things in the nation and in the +municipality. They are both but the reflection of the economic life of +society. + + * * * * * + +The struggle for existence in our economic life grows daily more +gigantic. The war of all against all has broken out with virulence; it +is conducted pitilessly, often regardless of the weapon used. The +well-known French expression: "_ote-toi de la, que je m'y mette_." (Get +away, that I may step in) is carried out in practice with vigorous +elbowings, cuffings, and pinchings. The weaker must yield to the +stronger. Where physical strength--which here is the power of money, of +property--does not suffice, the most cunning and unworthy means are +resorted to. Lying, swindle, deceit, forgery, perjury--the very blackest +crimes are often committed in order to reach the coveted object. As in +this struggle for existence one individual transgresses against the +other, the same happens with class against class, sex against sex, age +against age. Profit is the sole regulator of human feelings; all other +considerations must yield. Thousands upon thousands of workingmen and +working-women are, the moment profit demands it, thrown upon the +sidewalk, and, after their last savings have been spent, turned to +public charity or forced to emigrate. Workingmen travel, so to speak, in +herds from place to place, criss-cross across the country, and are +regarded by "decent" society with all the more fear and horror, seeing +that the continuity of their enforced idleness deteriorates their +external appearance, and, as a consequence, demoralizes them internally. +Decent society has no inkling of what it means to be forced, for months +at a stretch, to be denied the simplest exigencies of order and +cleanliness, to wander from place to place with a hungry stomach, and to +earn, generally, nothing but ill-concealed fear and contempt, especially +from those quarters that are the very props of this system. The families +of these wretches suffer all along utmost distress--a distress that not +infrequently drives the parents, out of desperation, to frightful crimes +upon their own children and themselves. The last years have furnished +numerous shocking instances of whole families falling a prey to murder +and suicide. Let one instance do for many. The private correspondent, +S----, in Berlin, 45 years of age, with a still handsome wife 39 years +old, and a daughter of 12, is without work and starving. The wife +decides, with the consent of her husband, to turn prostitute. The police +gets wind thereof. The wife is placed under moral control. The family, +overcome with shame and desperate, agree, all three, to poison +themselves, and carry out their resolve on March 1, 1883.[160] A few +days before, the leading circles of Berlin celebrated great court +festivities at which hundreds of thousands were squandered. + +Such are the shocking contrasts of modern society--and yet we live in +"the best of all possible worlds." Berlin has since then often witnessed +the holocaust of whole families due to material want. In 1894 the +spectacle was frequent, to an extent that called forth general horror; +nor are the instances few, reported from large and small towns within +and without Germany. This murder and suicide of whole families is a +phenomenon peculiar to modern times, and an eloquent sign of the sorry +economic state that society is in. + +This general want also drives women and girls in increasing numbers into +the arms of prostitution. Demoralization and crime are heaped up, and +assume the most manifold forms. The only thing that prospers is the +jails, penitentiaries and so-called houses of correction, no longer able +to accommodate the mass that is sent to them. The crimes of all sorts +and their increase are intimately connected with the economic state of +society--a fact, however, that the latter will not have. Like the +ostrich, it sticks its head in the sand, to avoid having to admit the +incriminating state of things, and it lies to the point of deceiving +itself into the belief that the fault lies with the laziness of the +workingmen, with their love of pleasure, and with their irreligiousness. +This is a self-deception of the most dangerous, or a hypocrisy of the +most repulsive, sort. The more unfavorable the state of society is for +the majority, all the more numerous and serious are the crimes +committed. The struggle for existence assumes its rudest and most +violent aspect: it transfers man into conditions where each sees a +mortal enemy in the other. The social bonds become looser every +day.[161] + +The ruling classes, who do not probe matters to the bottom, or do not +like to, seek to meet the evil after their own fashion. If poverty and +want, and, as a result therefrom, demoralization and crime increase, the +source of the evil is not searched after, so that it may be stopped; no; +the products of the conditions are punished. The more gigantic the evils +grow, and the numbers of evil-doers multiply in proportion, +proportionately severe penalties and persecutions are deemed necessary. +It is sought to drive out the devil with Beelzebub. Prof. Haeckel also +considers it proper to proceed against criminals with the severest +punishments possible, and that capital punishment, in particular, be +stringently applied.[162] By this stand the Professor places himself in +sweet accord with the re-actionists of all shades, who otherwise are +mortally opposed to him. Haeckel is of the opinion that incorrigible +scape-graces must be uprooted like weeds that take from plants light, +air and space. Had Haeckel turned his mind slightly toward social, +instead of engaging it wholly with natural science, he would know that +these criminals could, in most instances, be transformed into useful +members of human society, provided society offered them the requisite +conditions of existence. He would also find that the annihilation of +individual criminals or the rendering of them harmless, prevents as +little the commission of fresh crimes in society, as the removal of +weeds on a field would prevent their returning if the roots and seeds +are not likewise destroyed. Absolutely to prevent the forming of harmful +organisms in Nature is a feat man never will be able to achieve but _to +so improve his own social system, a system produced by himself, that it +may afford favorable conditions of life for all, and furnish to each +equal freedom to unfold, to the end that they no longer need suffer +hunger, or be driven to satisfy their desire for property, or their +ambition at the expense of others--that is possible_. Let the cause of +the crimes be studied, and let that be removed; then will the crimes +themselves be wiped out.[163] + +Those who would remove crimes by removing the causes thereof, cannot, as +a matter of course, sympathize with a plan of brutal suppression. They +cannot prevent society from protecting itself after its own fashion +against the criminals, whom it cannot allow a free hand; but we demand +all the more urgently the radical reformation of society, i. e., the +removal of the causes of crime. + +The connection between social conditions, on the one hand, and evildoing +and crimes, on the other, has been frequently established by +statisticians and sociologists. One of the misdemeanors nearest at +hand--one that, all Christian charitable tenets to the contrary +notwithstanding, modern society regards as a misdemeanor--is begging, +especially during hard times. On that subject, the statistics of the +Kingdom of Saxony inform us that, in the measure in which the last +industrial crisis increased--a crisis that began in Germany in 1890, and +whose end is not yet in sight--the number of persons also increased who +were punished for begging. In 1889, there were 8,566 persons punished +for this crime in the Kingdom of Saxony; in 1890, there were 8,815; in +1891, there were 10,075; and in 1892 the figures rose to 13,120--quite +an increase. Mass-impoverishment on one side, swelling affluence on the +other--such is the sign-manual of our age. In Austria, in 1873, there +was one pauper to every 724 persons; in 1882, to every 622 persons. +Crimes and misdemeanors show similar tendency. In Austria-Hungary, in +1874, there were 308,605 persons sentenced in the criminal courts; in +1892, their number was 600,000. In the German Empire, in 1882, there +were 329,968 persons sentenced for crimes and misdemeanors under the +laws of the land; that is to say, to every 10,000 inhabitants of twelve +years and over there were 103.2 criminals; in 1892, the number of +criminals was 422,327, or 143.3--an increase of 39 per cent. Among the +persons punished, there were, for crimes and misdemeanors against +property:-- + + + To Every 10,000 + Inhabitants, + 12 Years of Age + Year. Total. and Over. + 1882 169,334 53.0 + 1891 196,437 55.8 + + +We think these figures speak volumes. They show how the deterioration of +social conditions intensify and promote poverty, want, misdemeanors and +crimes. + +The basis of our social state is the capitalist system of production. On +it modern society rests. All social, all political institutions are +results and fruits of that system. It is the ground from which the whole +social and political superstructure, together with its bright and dark +sides, have sprung up. It influences and dominates the thoughts and +feelings and actions of the people who live under it. Capital is the +leading power in the State and in Society: the capitalist is the ruler +of the propertyless, whose labor-power he buys for his use, and at a +price, that, like all other merchandise, is governed by supply and +demand and oscillates now above, then below the cost of reproduction. +But the capitalist does not buy labor-power out of "sweet charity," in +order to do a favor to the workingmen, although he often so pretends. He +buys it for the purpose of obtaining surplus wealth from the labor of +the workingmen, which he then pockets under the name of profit, +interest, house and ground rent. This surplus wealth, squeezed out of +the workingmen, and which in so far as the capitalist does not squander +it in dissipation, crystallizes in his hands into more capital, puts him +in a condition to steadily enlarge his plant, improve the process of +production, and occupy increased labor forces. That, at the same time, +enables him to step up before his weaker competitors, like a mailed +knight before an unarmed pedestrian, and to destroy them. This unequal +struggle between large and small capital spreads amain, and, as the +cheapest labor-power, next to that of children and lads, woman plays +therein a _role_ of increasing importance. The result is the ever +sharper division of a smaller minority of mighty capitalists and a mass +of capital-less male and female lack-alls whose only resource is the +daily sale of their labor-power. The middle class arrives hereby at a +plight that grows ever graver. One field of industry after another, +where small production still predominated, is seized and occupied to +capitalist ends. The competition of capitalists among themselves compels +them to explore ever newer fields of exploitation. Capital goes about +"like a roaring lion, seeking whom it may devour." The smaller and +weaker establishments are destroyed; if their owners fail to save +themselves upon some new field--a feat that becomes ever harder and less +possible--then they sink down into the class of the wage earners, or of +Catilinarians. All efforts to prevent the downfall of handicraft and of +the middle class by means of institutions and laws, borrowed from the +lumber-room of the musty past, prove utterly ineffective. They may +enable one or another to deceive himself on his actual condition; but +soon the illusion vanishes under the heavy weight of facts. The process +of absorption of the small by the large takes its course with all the +power and pitilessness of a law of Nature, and the process is sensible +to the feeling and the sight of all. + +In the period between 1875-1882, the number of small industries +decreased in Prussia by 39,655,[164] although the population increased +in this period by about two million heads. The number of workmen +employed in small industries sank, during that time, from 57.6 per +cent., to 54.9 per cent. The industrial statistics for 1895 will furnish +much more drastic figures. The development of large production stands in +close relation to the development of steam machine and steam +horse-power. And what is the picture presented by these? Prussia had:-- + + + 1878. 1893. + Stationary steam boilers 32,411 53,024 + 63.6 per cent. + Stationary steam engines 29,895 53,092 + 77.6 per cent. + Movable machines 5,536 15,725 + 184 per cent. + + +The Kingdom of Saxony had:-- + + + 1861. 1891. + Stationary steam engines 1,003 8,075 + 700 per cent. + Horse-power 15,633 160,772 + 922 per cent. + + +In 1861, a steam engine in Saxony had, on an average, a 15.5 +horse-power; in 1891, it had 19. All Germany had in 1878 about three +million horse-power in operation in industry; in 1894, about five +million. Austria had in 1873 in round figures 336,000 horse-power; in +1888, about 2,150,000. Steam power spreads daily, and stronger steam +machines drive out weaker ones--large production drives out small. The +fact is shown emphatically in the industries in which steam has become +the general power, the brewery industry, for instance. In the German +brewery tax department, exclusive of Bavaria, Wuertemburg, Baden and +Alsace-Lorraine, there were:-- + + + Breweries Industrially + Year. in Operation. Operated. Output. + 1873 13,561 10,927 19,654,900 hl. + 1891-2 8,460 7,571 33,171,100 hl. + ------ ------ ---------- + 5,101 3,356 13,516,200 hl. + Decrease Decrease Increase + = 38 per cent. = 31.1 per cent. = 68.8 per cent. + + +The breweries in general, this table shows, had decreased during this +period 38 per cent., the industrially operated ones 31.1 per cent.; the +output, however, had increased 68.8 per cent. The giant concerns +increased at the expense of the middle and small ones. The identical +development is going on _in all countries of civilization, in all +industries capitalistically operated_. Let us now take up the brandy +distilleries. In all the eight provinces of Prussia, there were in +operation:--[165] + + + Consumed in Distillery, + Year. Distilleries. Brandy (Double Quintal). + 1831 13,806 1,736,458 5,418,217 + 1886-87 5,814 2,518,478 24,310,196 + ------ --------- ---------- + 7,992 782,020 18,891,979 + Decrease Decrease Increase + = 38 per cent. = 31.1 per cent. = 68 per cent. + + +Similar results are revealed in the coal and the mineral mining +industries of the German Empire. In the former, the number of leading +concerns--623 in number between the years 1871-1875--dropped to 406 in +1889, but the output increased simultaneously from 34,485,400 tons to +67,342,200 tons, and the average number of employees rose from 172,074 +to 239,954. In the latter, the average number of leading establishments +between 1871-1875, was 3,034, with an average force of 277,878 hands, +that turned out 51,056,900 tons; in 1889, the number of leading +establishments had _dropped to 1,962, while the average force had risen +to 368,896 hands, and the output to 99,414,100 tons_.[166] We see that +in the coal mine industry the number of concerns decreased during that +period 35 per cent., while the number of employees rose 40 per cent., +and production as much as 95.2 per cent. Similarly in the mineral mining +industry. Here the number of establishments decreased 35.3 per cent., +while the number of workingmen employed rose 33 per cent., and +production 94.7 per cent. A smaller but much richer number of employers +now confronted a greatly swollen number of proletarians. Nor does this +technical revolution proceed in industry alone: it is also going on in +the department of transportation and communication. German commerce had +upon the seas:-- + + + Sailing + Year. Vessels. Tonnage. Crews. + 1871 4,372 900,361 34,739 + 1893 2,742 725,182 17,522 + ----- ------- ------ + 1,630 175,179 17,217 + Decrease. Decrease. Decrease. + + +Sail navigation, we see, declines perceptibly, but in so far as it +continues to exist, _the tonnage of vessels increases, and the force of +the crews decreases_. In 1871, there came to every one sailing vessel +205.9 tons and 7.9 crew; in 1893, however, the average tonnage per +sailing vessel was 271.7 and only a crew 6.4 strong. A different picture +is offered by the German ocean steamship navigation. Germany had:-- + + + Year. Steamers. Tonnage. Crews. + 1871 147 81,994 4,736 + 1893 986 786,397 24,113 + --- ------- ------ + Increase 839 704,403 19,377 + + +We see that, not only did the number of steamers rise considerably, but +that their tonnage increased still more; on the other hand, the force of +the crews had relatively decreased. In 1871, steamers had on an average +a 558 tonnage, with a 32.1 crew; in 1893 they had a 797.5 tonnage and +only a 24.5 crew. It is an economic law that the number of workingmen +_decreases_ everywhere with the concentration of industry, while, +relatively to the whole population, wealth concentrates in ever fewer +hands, and the number of employers, rendered unable to hold their own +and driven into bankruptcy by the process of concentration, mounts ever +higher. + +In the eight old provinces of Prussia, the population increased 42 per +cent. during 1853-1890. But the incomes in the several grades rose in +the following rates:--[167] + + + Incomes. Increased + Up to 3,000 marks 42 per cent. + 3,000-- 36,000 marks 333 per cent. + 36,000-- 60,000 marks 590 per cent. + 60,000--120,000 marks 835 per cent. + Over 120,000 marks 942 per cent. + + +The number of incomes up to 3,000 marks increased exactly with the +population; it would, however, have lagged behind it if, within the +period of 1853-1890, there had not been an extraordinary increase of +national, State, municipal and private officials, the large majority of +whose incomes falls below 3,000 marks. On the other hand, the number of +large incomes has risen beyond all proportion, although, during the +period under consideration, there was not yet any provision in Prussia +making the correct estimate of incomes obligatory. This was introduced +in 1891. The actual increase of incomes was, accordingly, much larger +than the figures indicate. As stated before, the concentration of +wealth, on the one side, is paralleled with mass-proletarianization, on +the other, and also with swelling figures of bankruptcy. During the +period of 1880-1889, the number of bankruptcy cases, adjudicated by law, +averaged, in Germany, 4,885 a year; it rose to 5,908 in 1890; to 7,234 +in 1891; and to 7,358 in 1892. These figures do not include the large +number of bankruptcies that did not reach the courts, the assets not +being large enough to cover the costs; neither are included among them +those that were settled out of court between the debtors and their +creditors. + +The same picture that is presented by the economic development of +Germany is presented by that of all industrial countries of the world. +All nations of civilization are endeavoring to become industrial States. +They wish to produce, not merely for the satisfaction of their own +domestic wants, but also for exportation. Hence the absolute propriety +of no longer speaking of "national" but of "international" economy. It +is the world's market that now regulates the price of numberless +products of industry and agriculture, and that controls the social +position of nations. The productive domain, that, in the near future, +will dominate the world's market is that of the United States--a quarter +from which is now proceeding the principal impetus toward +revolutionizing the relations of the world's market, and, along +therewith, all bourgeois society. According to the census of 1890, the +capital invested in industry in the United States has risen to 6,524 +million dollars, as against 2,790 million in 1880, an increase of 136 +per cent. The value of the industrial products rose during that period +from 5,369 million dollars to 9,370 million, or 75 per cent. in round +figures, while the population increased only 25 per cent.[168] The +United States has reached a point of development where it must export a +large mass of products in order to be able to continue producing in +sufficient quantities. Instead of importing articles of industry from +Europe, these will henceforth be exported in large volumes, thereby +upsetting commercial relations everywhere. What pass has been reached +there is indicated by the mammoth struggles between Capital and Labor, +by the distress of the masses that has lasted years, and by the colossal +increase of bankruptcy during the last crisis. In 1879, 1880 and 1881 +the sum absorbed in bankruptcies ran up to 82 million dollars in round +figures; in 1890 the amount was 190 million dollars, and in 1891 it rose +to 331 million dollars. An instance will illustrate the gigantic measure +of the concentration of capital in that country. In 1870, there were in +the United States 2,819 woolen mills, in which 96 million dollars were +invested as capital; in 1890 the number of these mills had sunk to +1,312, but the capital invested had risen to 136 million. In 1870, on an +average, $34,000 sufficed to establish a woolen mill; in 1890, not less +than $102,000 was requisite. The increased demands upon capital forces +the building of stock corporations, which, in turn, promote the +concentration still more. Where the powers of a single capitalist do not +suffice, several of them join; they appoint technical overseers, who are +well paid, and they pocket, in the form of dividends, the profits which +the workingmen must raise. The restlessness of industry reaches its +classic form in the stock corporation, which demonstrates how useless +the person of the capitalist has become as a leader of industry. + +Seeing that this process of development and concentration is proceeding +equally in all leading countries, the inevitable results of the anarchic +method of production is "over-production," the stoppage of trade, the +crisis. + +Accordingly, the crisis is a consequence of the absence of any means +whatever whereby at any time the actual demand for certain goods can be +gauged and controlled. There is no power in bourgeois society able to +regulate production as a whole; the customers are spread over too vast +an area; then also, their purchasing power, upon which depends their +power of consumption, is affected by a number of causes, beyond the +control of the individual producer. Moreover, along with each individual +producer, are a number of others, whose productive powers and actual +yield also are unknown to him. Each strives, with all the means at his +command--cheap prices, advertisements, long credit, drummers, also +secret and crafty detraction of the quality of the goods of his +competitor, the last of which is a measure that flourishes particularly +at critical moments--to drive all other competitors from the field. +Production is wholly left to accident and to the judgment of +individuals. Accident often is more unfavorable than otherwise. Every +capitalist must produce a certain quantity of goods, in order that he +may exist; he is, however, driven to increase his output, partly because +his increase of revenues depends upon that, partly also because upon +that depend his prospects of being able to overcome his competitors, and +keep the field all to himself. For a while, the output is safe; the +circumstance tends to expansion and increased production. But prosperous +times do not tempt one capitalist alone; they tempt them all. Thus +production rises far above demand, and suddenly the market is found +overstocked. Sales stop; prices fall; and production is curtailed. The +curtailment of production in any one branch implies a diminished demand +for workingmen, the lowering of wages and a retrenchment of consumption +in the ranks of labor. A further stoppage of production and business in +other departments is the necessary consequence. Small producers of all +sorts--trademen, saloonkeepers, bakers, butchers, etc.,--whose +customers are chiefly workingmen, lose the profitable sale of their +goods and likewise land in distress. + +The way in which such a crisis works appears from a census on the +unemployed which the Social Democratic Party of Hamburg undertook on +February 14, 1894. Of 53,756 workingmen who were interrogated, and of +whom 34,647 were married, with an aggregate family dependence of +138,851, there were 18,422 who, during the last year, had been idle a +total of 191,013 weeks; 5,084 persons had been idle from 1 to 5 weeks; +8,741 from 6 to 10 weeks; 1,446 from 11 to 15 weeks; 984 from 16 to 20 +weeks; 2,167 more than 20 weeks. These are workingmen, who wished to +work, but who, in this best of all possible worlds, could find no work. +The sorry plight of these people may be imagined. + +Again, one industry furnishes its raw material to another; one depends +upon the other; it follows that all must suffer and pay for the blows +that fall upon any. The circle of participants and sufferers spreads +ever wider. A number of obligations, assumed in the hope of a long +continuance of prosperity, cannot be met, and thus new fuel is added to +the conflagration of the crisis, whose flames rise higher from month to +month. An enormous mass of stored-up goods, tools, machinery, becomes +almost worthless. The goods are got rid of at great sacrifices. Not only +their proprietor is thereby ruined, but also dozens of others who are +thereby likewise forced to give up their goods under cost. During the +crisis itself, the method of production is all along improved with the +view of meeting future competition; but this only prepares the ground +for new and still worse crises. After the crisis has lasted years, after +the surplusage of goods has been gradually done away with through sales +at ruinous prices, through retrenchment of production, and through the +destruction of smaller concerns, society slowly begins to recover again. +Demand rises, and production follows suit--slowly at first and cautious, +but, with the continuance of prosperity, the old vertigo sets in anew. +Everyone is anxious to recover what he lost, and expects to be under +cover before the next crisis breaks in. Nevertheless, seeing that all +capitalists foster the identical thought, and that each one improves his +plant so as to head off the others, the catastrophe is soon brought on +again and with all the more fatal effect. Innumerable establishments +rise and fall like balls at a game, and out of such continuous ups and +downs flows the wretched state of things that is witnessed at all +crises. These crises crowd upon one another in the measure that large +production increases, and the competitive struggle--not between +individuals only, but between whole nations--becomes sharper. The +scampering for customers, on a small scale, and for markets on a large +one, gains in fierceness, and ends finally in great losses. Goods and +implements are heaped mountain high, yet the masses of the people suffer +hunger and want. + +The autumn of the year 1890 brought new proof of the correctness of +this outline. After a long series of years of business depression, +during which, however, large capitalist development was steadily +progressing, an improvement in our economic life set in during 1887-8, +stimulated in no slight degree by the extensive changes introduced in +our army and navy systems. The upward movement continued during 1889 and +up into the first quarter of 1890. During this period, a number of new +establishments began to crop up everywhere in several fields of +industry; a large number of others were enlarged and improved to the +highest point of technical perfection, and their capacity greatly +increased. In the same measure that this large capitalist development +progressed, a larger and ever larger number of establishments passed +from the hands of individual capitalists into stock corporations--a +change that ever is more or less connected with an increase of +production. The new issues, that, as a result of these combinations and +due also to the increase of the public debt, were contracted in the +international money market, ran up in 1887 to about 4,000 million marks; +in 1888, to 5,500 million; and in 1889, to even 7,000 million. On the +other hand, the capitalists of all countries were endeavoring to +"regulate" prices and production by means of national and international +agreements. Rings and Trusts sprang up like mushrooms over night. The +majority, often all the capitalists concerned in the more important +branches of production, formed syndicates, by means of which prices were +fixed, and production was to be regulated by the light of accurate +statistical information. Over-production was thus to be prevented. A +marvelous monopolization of industry, such as had never been seen, was +thus achieved in the interest of the capitalists and at the expense of +the workingmen, and of the consumers in general. For a while it seemed +as if capital had come into possession of the means that enabled it to +control the market in all directions, to the injury of the public and to +its own greater glory. But appearances deceived. The laws of capitalist +production proved themselves stronger than the shrewdest representatives +of the system who imagined they held in their hands the power to +regulate it. The crisis set in. One of the largest international +business houses of England fell and involved a number of others in its +fall. All exchanges and markets--of London, Paris, Vienna and Berlin, as +far as St. Petersburg, New York and Calcutta--shook and trembled. It had +again been shown that the profoundest calculations prove deceptive, and +that capitalist society cannot escape its fate. + +All this notwithstanding, capitalism proceeds on its course: it can be +no other than it is. By means of the forms that its course dictates, it +throws all the laws of capitalist economics overboard. "Free +competition," the Alpha and Omega of bourgeois society, is to bring the +fittest to the top of the enterprises; but the stock corporation +removes all individuality, and places the crown upon that combination +that has the longest purse and the strongest grip. The syndicates, +Trusts and rings carry the point still further. Whole branches of +industry are monopolized; the individual capitalist becomes but a pliant +link in a chain, held by a capitalist committee. _A handful of +monopolists set themselves up as lords of the world and dictate to it +the price of goods, to the workingmen their wages and conditions of +life._ + +The whole course of this development brings out how utterly superfluous +the individual capitalist has become, and that production, conducted +upon a national and international scale, is the goal toward which +society steers--with this difference, that, in the end, this organized +production will redound to the benefit, not of a class, but of the +collectivity. + +The economic revolution just sketched, and which is driving bourgeois +society with great swiftness to its apogee, becomes more pointed from +year to year. While Europe finds itself pressed more and more in its +foreign markets, and finally on its own territory, by the competition of +the United States, latterly enemies have risen in the East also, +rendering still more critical the plight of Europe, and at the same time +threatening the United States also. This danger proceeds from the +progress of English India toward becoming a great agricultural and +industrial State--a progress that, in the first place, looks to the +meeting of the wants of India's own two hundred million strong +population, and, in the second place, develops into a mortal enemy of +English and German industry in particular. And still another industrial +State is beginning to rise in the East--_Japan_. According to the +"Kreuzzeitung" of February 20, 1895, "during the last ten years, Japan +has imported from Europe the best perfected machinery for setting up +industrial plants, especially in cotton spinning. In 1889, she had only +35,000 spindles; now she has over 380,000. In 1889, Japan imported 31 +million pounds of raw cotton; in 1891, she imported 67 million. She is +steadily decreasing her importations of manufactured articles, and +increasing her importations of raw material, which she then retransports +in the shape of manufactures. During the last year Hongkong, a European +colony, bought over two million marks of Japanese cotton goods. The +Japanese are providing their own markets with goods that formerly were +imported from Europe and the United States. They are also exporting to +Oriental markets, that were formerly provided from western sources. They +are exporting matches and soap; they are manufacturing clothing, felt +hats and hosiery; they have glass-blowing establishments, breweries, +tileries, tan-yards and rope-walks." + +The further expansion of Japan's industry steadily reduces importations +from Europe and the United States, and simultaneously places it in +condition to turn up in the world's market as a competitor. Should +China also, as a result of the Japanese-Chinese war, be compelled to +open her immense territory to European culture, then, in view of the +great adaptability and marvelous unpretentiousness of the Chinese +workingman, another competitive power will have risen, more dangerous +than any that the world's market has yet had to reckon with. Truly, the +future of bourgeois society is threatened from all sides with grave +dangers, and there is no way to escape them. + +Thus _the crisis becomes permanent and international_. It is a result of +all the markets being overstocked with goods. And yet, still more could +be produced; but the large majority of people suffer want in the +necessaries of life because they have no income wherewith to satisfy +their wants by purchase. They lack clothing, underwear, furniture, +homes, food for the body and mind, and means of enjoyment, all of which +they could consume in large quantities. But all that does not exist to +them. Hundreds of thousands of workingmen are even thrown upon the +sidewalk, and rendered wholly unable to consume because their +labor-power has become "_superfluous_" to the capitalists. Is it not +obvious that our social system suffers of serious ailments? How could +there be any "over-production" when there is no lack of capacity to +consume, i. e., of wants that crave satisfaction? Obviously, it is not +production, in and of itself, that breeds these unhallowed conditions +and contradictions: _it is the system under which production is carried +on, and the product is distributed_. + + * * * * * + +In human society, all its members are bound to one another by a thousand +threads; and these threads are all the more numerous in proportion to a +people's grade of culture. If disturbances set in, they are forthwith +felt by all. Disturbances in production affect distribution and +consumption; and _vice versa_. The feature of capitalist production is +the concentration of property into ever fewer hands and into ever larger +establishments. In distribution, on the contrary, an opposite current is +noticeable. Whoever, due to the destructive effect of competition, is +stricken from the list of independent producers, seeks, in nine cases +out of ten, to squeeze himself as a dealer between the producer and the +consumer, and thus to earn his livelihood. + +Hence the striking phenomenon of the increase of the middleman--dealers, +shopkeepers, hucksters, commissioners, brokers, agents, saloonkeepers, +etc. Most of these, among whom women are strongly represented, lead a +life of worries and a needy existence. Many are compelled, in order to +keep their heads above water, to speculate upon the lowest passions of +man and to promote them in all manner of ways. Hence the marvelous swing +of the most repulsive advertisements, particularly in all matters the +object of which is the gratification of sexual pleasures. + +It is undeniable, and, viewed from a higher viewpoint, it is also +cheering, that the current for a greater enjoyment of life runs deep in +modern society. Man begins to understand that, in order to be human, a +life worthy of human beings is requisite, and the feeling is expressed +in such form as corresponds with the respective conceptions of the +enjoyment of life. As far as the distribution of its wealth is +concerned, society has become much more _aristocratic_ than at any +previous period. Between the richest and the poorest, the chasm is wider +to-day than ever before. On the other hand, with regard to its ideas and +laws, society has become more _democratic_.[169] Hence the masses strive +after greater equality; and, seeing that in their ignorance they know +not yet the path by which to attain their wishes, they seek equality in +the imitation of the upper classes by furnishing themselves with +whatever pleasures are within their reach. All possible artificial means +are resorted to in order to exploit this tendency; the consequences are +often serious. The gratification of a justified desire thus leads in a +number of cases to wrong paths, often to crime; and society intervenes +in its own way, without thereby improving matters in the least. + +The increasing mass of the middlemen draws many evils in its wake. +Although this class toils arduously and works under the load of heavy +cares, _the majority are parasites, they are unproductively active, and +they live upon the labors of others, just the same as the capitalist +class_. Higher prices is the inevitable consequence of this industry. +Food and other goods rise in price in such manner that they often cost +twice or many times as much as the producer received for them.[170] If +it is thought unadvisable or impossible to materially raise the price of +the goods, lest consumption decline, they are artificially deteriorated, +and recourse is had _to adulteration of food, and to false weights and +measures_, in order to make the requisite profits. The chemist Chevalier +reports that he knows, among the several adulterations of food, 32 for +coffee, 30 for wine, 28 for chocolate, 24 for meal, 23 for brandy, 20 +for bread, 19 for milk, 10 for butter, 9 for olive oil, 6 for sugar, +etc. The Chamber of Commerce of Wesel reported in 1870 that an extensive +system of swindle was practiced in the shops in the sale of +ready-weighed articles: for 1 pound, 24 or 26 pennyweights were given, +and in that way twice as much was gained as the difference in the price. +Workingmen and small traders who get their goods on credit and who must, +accordingly, submit, even when the fraud is obvious, fare worst of all. +Grave abuses are also perpetrated in bakeries. Swindling and cheating +are inseparable from our modern conditions, and certain government +institutions, such as high indirect taxes, are direct incentives +thereto. The laws against the adulteration of food alter matters but +little. The struggle for existence compels the swindlers to resort to +ever shrewder means, nor is there any thorough and strict inspection. +Leading and influential circles of our ruling classes are even +interested in the system of swindle. Under the pretext that, in order to +discover adulterations a more comprehensive and more expensive +administrative apparatus is required, and that "legitimate business" +would suffer thereby, almost all inspection, worthy of the name, is +lamed. If, however, laws and measures of inspection do actually +intervene, they affect a considerable rise in the price of the +unadulterated products, seeing that the lower price was made possible +only by adulteration. + +With the view of avoiding these evils of trade, evils that, as ever and +everywhere, are hardest on the masses, "Consumers' Associations" have +been set up. In Germany, the "Consumers' Association" plan, especially +among the military and civil service employees, reaches such a point +that numerous business houses have been ruined, and many are not far +from the same fate. These Associations demonstrate the superfluousness +of trade in a differently organized society.[171] In that consists their +principal merit. The material advantages are not great for the members; +neither are the facilities that they offer enough to enable the members +to discover any material improvement in their condition. Not +infrequently is their administration poor, and the members must pay for +it. In the hands of capitalists, these Associations even become an +additional means to chain the workingman to the factory, and they are +used as weapons to depress wages. The founding of these "Consumers' +Associations" is, however, a symptom that the evils of trade and at +least the superfluousness of the middlemen have been realized in wide +circles. Society will reach that point of organization at which trade +becomes wholly superfluous; the product will reach the consumer without +the intervention of any middlemen other than those who attend to its +transportation from place to place, and who are in the service of +society. A natural demand, that flows from the collective procurement of +food, _is its collective preparation for the table upon a large scale, +whereby a further and enormous saving would be made of energy, space, +material and all manner of expenditures_. + + * * * * * + +The economic revolution in industry and transportation has spread to +agriculture also, and in no slight degree. Commercial and industrial +crises are felt in the country as well. Many relatives of families +located in the country are partially or even wholly engaged in +industrial establishments in cities, and this sort of occupation is +becoming more and more common because the large farmers find it +convenient _to convert on their own farms a considerable portion of +their produce_. They thereby save the high cost of transporting the raw +product--potatoes that are used for spirits, beets for sugar, grain for +flour or brandy or beer. Furthermore, they have on their own farms +cheaper and more willing labor than can be got in the city, or in +industrial districts. Factories and rent are considerably cheaper, taxes +and licenses lower, seeing that, to a certain extent, the landed +proprietors are themselves lawgivers and law officers: from their midst +numerous representatives are sent to the Reichstag: not infrequently +they also control the local administration and the police department. +These are ample reasons for the phenomenon of increasing numbers of +funnel-pipes in the country. Agriculture and industry step into ever +closer interrelation with each other--an advantage that accrues mainly +to the large landed estates. + +The point of capitalist development reached in Germany also by +agriculture has partially called forth conditions similar to those found +in England and the United States. As with the small and middle class +industries, so likewise with the small and middle class farms, they are +swallowed up by the large. A number of circumstances render the life of +the small and middle class farmer ever harder, and ripen him for +absorption by the large fellow. + +No longer do the one-time conditions, as they were still known a few +decades ago, prevail in the country. Modern culture now pervades the +country in the remotest corners. Contrary to its own purpose, militarism +exercises a certain revolutionary influence. The enormous increase of +the standing army weighs, in so far as the blood-tax is concerned, +heaviest of all upon the country districts. The degeneration of +industrial and city life compels the drawing of by far the larger +portion of soldiers from the rural population. When the farmer's son, +the day laborer, or the servant returns after two or three years from +the atmosphere of the city and the barracks, an atmosphere not exactly +impregnated with high moral principles;--when he returns as the carrier +and spreader of venereal diseases, he has also become acquainted with a +mass of new views and wants whose gratification he is not inclined to +discontinue. Accordingly, he makes larger demands upon life, and wants +higher wages; his frugality of old went to pieces in the city. +Transportation, ever more extended and improved, also contributes toward +the increase of wants in the country. Through intercourse with the city, +the rustic becomes acquainted with the world from an entirely new and +more seductive side: he is seized with new ideas: he learns of the wants +of civilization, thitherto unknown to him. All that renders him +discontented with his lot. On top of that, the increasing demands of the +State, the province, the municipality hit both farmer and farmhand, and +make them still more rebellious. + +True enough, many farm products have greatly risen in value during this +period, but not in even measure with the taxes and the cost of living. +On the other hand, transmarine competition in food materially +contributes toward reducing prices: this reduces incomes: the same can +be counterbalanced only by improved management: and nine-tenths of the +farmers lack the means thereto. Moreover, the farmer does not get for +his product the price paid by the city: he has to deal with the +middlemen: and these hold him in their clutches. The broker or dealer, +who at given seasons traverses the country and, as a rule, himself sells +to other middlemen, wants to make his profits: the gathering of many +small quantities gives him much more trouble than a large invoice from a +single large holder: the small farmer receives, as a consequence, less +for his goods than the large farmer. Moreover, the quality of the +products from the small farmer is inferior: the primitive methods that +are there generally pursued have that effect: and that again compels the +small farmer to submit to lower prices. Again, the farm owner or tenant +can often not afford to wait until the price of his goods rises. He has +payments to meet--rent, interest, taxes; he has loans to cancel and +debts to settle with the broker and his hands. These liabilities are due +on fixed dates: he must sell however unfavorable the moment. In order to +improve his land, to provide for co-heirs, children, etc., the farmer +has contracted a mortgage: he has no choice of creditor: thus his plight +is rendered all the worse. High interest and stated payments of arrears +give him hard blows. An unfavorable crop, or a false calculation on the +proper crop, for which he expected a high price, carry him to the very +brink of ruin. Often the purchaser of the crop and the mortgagee are one +and the same person. The farmers of whole villages and districts thus +find themselves at the mercy of a few creditors. The farmers of hops, +wine and tobacco in Southern Germany; the truck farmers on the Rhine; +the small farmers in Central Germany--all are in that plight. The +mortgagee sucks them dry; he leaves them, apparent owners of a field, +that, in point of fact, is theirs no longer. The capitalist vampire +often finds it more profitable to farm in this way than, by seizing the +land itself and selling it, or himself doing the farming. Thus many +thousand farmers are carried on the registers as proprietors, who, in +fact, are no longer such. Thus, again, many a large farmer--unskilled in +his trade, or visited by misfortune, or who came into possession under +unfavorable circumstances--also falls a prey to the executioner's axe of +the capitalist. The capitalist becomes lord of the land; with the view +of making double gains he goes into the business of "butchering +estates:" he parcels out the domain because he can thereby get a larger +price than if he sold it in lump: then also he has better prospects of +plying his usurious trade if the proprietors are many and small holders. +It is well known that city houses with many small apartments yield the +largest rent. A number of small holders join and buy a portion of the +parcelled-out estate: the capitalist benefactor is ready at hand to pass +larger tracts over to them on a small cash payment, securing the rest by +mortgage bearing good interest. This is the milk in the cocoanut. If the +small holder has luck and he succeeds, by utmost exertion, to extract a +tolerable sum from the land, or to obtain an exceptionally cheap loan, +then he can save himself; otherwise he fares as shown above. + +If a few heads of cattle die on the hands of the farm-owner or tenant, a +serious misfortune has befallen him; if he has a daughter who marries, +her outfit augments his debts, besides his losing a cheap labor-power; +if a son marries, the youngster wants a piece of land or its equivalent +in money. Often this farmer must neglect necessary improvements: if his +cattle and household do not furnish him with sufficient manure--a not +unusual circumstance--then the yield of the farm declines, because its +owner cannot buy fertilizers: often he lacks the means to obtain better +seed. The profitable application of machinery is denied him: a rotation +of crops, in keeping with the chemical composition of his farm, is often +not to be thought of. As little can he turn to profit the advantages +that science and experience offer him in the conduct of his domestic +animals: the want of proper food, the want of proper stabling and +attention, the want of all other means and appliances prevent him. +Innumerable, accordingly, are the causes that bear down upon the small +and middle class farmer, drive him into debt, and his head into the +noose of the capitalist or the large holder. + +The large landholders are generally intent upon buying up the small +holdings, and thereby "rounding up" their estates. The large capitalist +magnates have a predilection for investments in land, this being the +safest form of property, one, moreover, that, with an increasing +population, rises in value without effort on the part of the owners. +England furnishes the most striking instance of this particular increase +of value. Although due to international competition in agricultural +products and cattle-raising, the yield of the land decreased during the +last decades, nevertheless, seeing that in Scotland two million acres +were converted into hunting grounds, that in Ireland four million acres +lie almost waste, that in England the area of agriculture declined from +19,153,900 acres in 1831, to 15,651,605 in 1880, a loss of 3,484,385 +acres, which have been converted into meadow lands, rent increased +considerably. The aggregate rent from country estates amounted, in +pounds sterling, to:-- + + + Countries. 1857. 1875. 1880. Increase. + England and Wales 41,177,200 50,125,000 52,179,381 11,002,181 + Scotland 5,932,000 7,493,000 7,776,919 1,844,919 + Ireland 8,747,000 9,293,000 10,543,000 1,796,700 + ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- + Total 55,856,200 67,911,000 70,499,300 14,643,800 + + +Accordingly, an increase of 26.2 per cent. within 23 years, and that +without any effort on the part of the owners. Although, since 1880, due +to the ever sharper international competition in food, the agricultural +conditions of England and Ireland have hardly improved, the large +English landlords have not yet ventured upon such large demands upon the +population as have the continental, the German large landlords in +particular. England knows no agricultural tariffs; and the demand for a +minimum price, fixed by government, of such nature that they have been +styled "price raisers" and as the large landlords of the East Elbe +region together with their train-bands in the German Reichstag are +insisting on at the cost of the propertyless classes, would raise in +England a storm of indignation. + +According to the agricultural statistics gathered in Germany on June 2, +1882, the farms fell into the following categories according to size:-- + + + Percentage of + Area. Farms. Total Farms. + Under 1 hectare 2,323,316 44.03 + 1 to 5 hectares 1,719,922 32.54 + 5 to 10 hectares 554,174 10.50 + 10 to 20 hectares 372,431 7.06 + 20 to 50 hectares 239,887 4.50 + 50 to 100 hectares 41,623 0.80 + 100 to 200 hectares 11,033 0.21 + 200 to 500 hectares 9,814 0.18 + 500 to 1,000 hectares 3,629 0.07 + 1,000 hectares 515 0.01 + --------- ----- + Total 5,276,344 99.90 + + +According to Koppe, a minimum of 6 hectares are requisite in Northern +Germany for a farmer's family to barely beat itself through; in order +to live in tolerable circumstances, 15 to 20 hectares are requisite. In +the fertile districts of Southern Germany, 3 to 4 hectares are +considered good ground to support a peasant family on. This minimum is +reached in Germany by not four million farms, and only about 6 per cent. +of the farmers have holdings large enough to enable them to get along in +comfort. Not less than 3,222,270 farmers conduct industrial or +commercial pursuits besides agriculture. It is a characteristic feature +of the lands under cultivation that the farms of less than 50 +hectares--5,200,000 in all--contained only 3,747,677 hectares of grain +lands, whereas the farms of more than 50 hectares--66,000 in round +figures--contained 9,636,246 hectares. One and a quarter per cent. of +the farms contained 2 1/2 times more grain land than the other 98-3/4 per +cent. put together. + +And yet the picture presented by these statistics falls by far short of +the reality. It has not been ascertained among how many owners these +5,276,344 farms are divided. The number of owners is far smaller than +that of the farms themselves: many are the owners of dozens of farms: it +is in the instance of large farms, in particular, that many are held by +one proprietor. A knowledge of the concentration of land is of the +highest socio-political importance, yet on this point the agricultural +statistics of 1882 leave us greatly in the lurch. A few facts are, +nevertheless, ascertained from other sources, and they give an +approximate picture of the reality. The percentages of large landed +property--over 100 hectares--to the aggregate agricultural property was +as follows:-- + + + Provinces. Percentage. Provinces. Percentage. + Pomerania 64.87 Brandenburg 42.60 + Posen 61.22 Silesia 42.14 + West Prussia 54.41 Saxony 30.89 + East Prussia 41.79 Schleswig-Holstein 18.03 + + +According to the memorial of the Prussian Minister of Agriculture, +published in the bulletin of the Prussian Bureau of Statistics, the +number of middle class farms sank, from 354,610 with 35,260,084 acres, +in 1816, to 344,737 with 33,498,433 acres, in 1859. The number of these +farms had, accordingly, decreased within that period by 9,873, and +peasant property had been wiped out to the volume of 1,711,641 acres. +The inquiry extended only to the provinces of Prussia, Posen (from 1823 +on), Pomerania, exclusive of Stralsund; Brandenburg, Saxony, Silesia, +and Westphalia. + +What disappears as peasant property usually goes into large estates. In +1885, in the province of Pomerania, 62 proprietors held 118 estates; in +1891, however, the same number of proprietors held 203 estates with an +area of 147,139 hectares. Altogether, there were in the province of +Pomerania, in 1891, 1,353 noble and bourgeois landlords, owning 2,258 +estates with 1,247,201 hectares.[172] The estates averaged 551 hectares +in size. + +Our eastern provinces give this table of landlords for the year 1888:-- + + + Prince of Hohenlohe-Oehringen 39,365 hectares + Prince of Sigmaringen 29,611 " + Prince of Thurn and Taxis 24,482 " + Prince Bismarck 18,600 " + Prince Radziwill 16,398 " + Duke of Milzinski 13,933 " + Representative Kennemann 10,482 " + Duke Serg. v. Czarnecki 9,263 " + v. Hansemann 7,734 " + Etc., etc., etc. + + +We see that we here have to do with owners of latifundia of first rank; +and a portion of these gentlemen own also large estates in Southern +Germany and Austria. + +According to Conrad,[173] there were in the year 1888, in East Prussia, +547 entails, of which 153 were instituted before the beginning of the +nineteenth century. Entailed land is property that an heir can neither +mortgage, divide nor alienate. The owner may go into bankruptcy through +a dissolute life, but the entail and the income that flows therefrom +remain unseizable. These entails, which only the very rich can +institute, are steadily increasing in number since the last decades. The +547 entails in existence in the eastern provinces of Prussia in 1888, +held by 529 persons, 20 of whom were bourgeois, embraced 1,408,860 +hectares, or 2,454 hectares on an average. According to the statistical +figures, submitted in the spring of 1894 by the Prussian Minister of +Agriculture to the Agrarian Commission, the entails of Prussia embraced +at that time 1,833,754 hectares with a net income of 22,992,000 marks. +Estimating the holders of entails at 550, each has an unseizable income +of 41,800 marks. Assuming, however, that these entails are concentrated +in one province, it would mean that the whole province of +Schleswig-Holstein, with an area of 1,890,000 hectares, belonged to 550 +owners. In 1888 there were in the eastern provinces of Prussia 154 +persons--among them 15 ruling Princes (the Kings of Prussia, Saxony, +etc.); 89 Dukes, other Princes and Counts; 40 noblemen and 10 +bourgeois--who alone owned 1,830 estates aggregating 1,768,648 hectares +of land. Probably, the property of these persons has in the meantime +increased considerably, seeing that a good portion of the net incomes +from these estates is expended in acquiring new ones. The nobility of +the first and second rank are the principal elements engaged in this +gigantic concentration of landed property; but they are closely followed +by the aristocracy of finance, who, with increasing predilection, invest +their wealth in land, consisting mainly in magnificent woods, stocked +with roe, deer and wild boar, that the owners may gratify their passion +for the hunt. A large number of the baronial manors consist of the +estates of dispossessed peasants, who were driven from their homes and +reduced to day laborers. According to Neumann, in the provinces of East +and West Prussia alone, there were from twelve to thirteen thousand +small holdings appropriated in that way between 1825 to 1859. This +process of dispossessing, proletarianizing the country population by the +capitalist landlords, has the laying waste of the land as a natural +consequence. The population emigrates, or moves to the cities and +industrial centers. Woods and meadows gain upon cultivated lands, the +remaining territories are operated with machinery, that render human +labor superfluous, or that need such only for short periods during the +plowing and sowing seasons, or when the crops are gathered. The rapidly +increasing number of movable steam engines, already mentioned, consists +mainly of engines employed in the cultivation of the land. The decrease +of the rural population, resulting upon these and other causes of +secondary nature, is sharply expressed in the statistics on population. +Within the eight old provinces of Prussia, the proportion between the +rural and the city population revealed, between 1867 and 1890, the +following progression:-- + + + Year. City Population. Country Population. + 1867 7,452,000 16,568,000 + 1890 11,783,000 18,173,000 + ---------- ---------- + Increase 4,331,000 1,605,000 + = 58 per cent. = 9.7 per cent. + + +The rapidity is obvious with which the city is surpassing the country +population. But the situation is still more unfavorable to the country +if the fact is considered that 148 communities, with from 5,000 to +40,000 inhabitants, and aggregating a population of 1,281,000 strong, +are included in the rural but really belong to the industrial districts. +They are essentially proletarian villages, located near large cities. +Furthermore, 647 communities, with from 2,000 to 5,000 inhabitants, and +aggregating a population of 1,884,000, are likewise included in the +rural, while, to a perceptible degree, they belong to the industrial +districts. + +Similar conditions exist in Saxony and Southern Germany. In Baden and +Wurtemberg also the population of many districts is on the decline. The +small farmer can no longer hold his head above water; to thousands upon +thousands of them the fate of a factory hand is inevitable; they enter +the field of industry; and, with the help of their families, they +cultivate during leisure hours the plot of land that may still be +theirs. At the same time the large landlord's hunger for land knows no +bounds; his appetite increases the more peasant lands he devours. + +As in Germany so are things developing in neighboring Austria, where +large landed property has long ruled almost unchecked. The difference +there is that the Catholic Church shares the land with the nobility and +the bourgeoisie. The process of smoking-out the farmer is in full swing +in Austria. All manner of efforts are put forth in order to push the +peasants and mountaineers of Tyrol, Salzburg, Steiermark, Upper and +Lower Austria, etc., off their inherited patrimony and to drive them to +relinquish their property. The spectacle, once presented to the world by +England and Scotland, is now on the boards of the most beautiful and +charming regions of Austria. Enormous tracts of land are bought in lump +by rich men, and what cannot be bought outright is leased. Access to the +valleys, manors, hamlets and even houses is thus barred by these new +masters, and stubborn owners of separate small holdings are driven by +all manner of chicaneries to dispose of their property at any price to +these wealthy owners of the woodlands. Old farmlands, on which numerous +generations have been supported for thousands of years, are being +transformed into wilderness, in which the roe and the deer house, while +the mountains, that the noble or bourgeois capitalist calls his own, +become the abode of large herds of chamois. Whole communities are +pauperized, the turning of their cattle upon the Alpine pastures being +made impossible to them, or their right to do so being even disputed. +And who is it that thus raises his hand against the peasant's property +and independence? Princes, noblemen and rich bourgeois. Side by side +with Rothschild and Baron Mayer-Melnhof are found the Dukes of Koburg +and Meiningen, the Princes of Hohenlohe, the Prince of Lichtenstein, the +Duke of Braganza, Prince Rosenberg, Prince Pless, the Counts of +Schoenfeld, Festetics, Schafgotsca, Trautmannsdorff, the hunting +association of the Count of Karolysche, the hunting association of Baron +Gustaedtsche, the noble hunting association of Bluehnbacher, etc. + +Large landed property is everywhere on the increase in Austria. The +number of large landlords rose 9.5 per cent. from 1873 to 1891, and that +means a considerable decrease of small holders: land cannot be +increased. + +In Lower Austria, of a total area embracing 3,544,596 yokes, 521,603 +were taken up by large estates (247 owners), and 94,882 yokes by the +Church. Nine families alone owned, in the middle of the eighties, +157,000 yokes, among these owners was the Count of Hoyos, with 54,000 +yokes. The area of Moravia is 2,222,190 hectares. Of these, the Church +held 78,496, 3.53 per cent.; 145 private persons held 525,632, and one +of these alone held 107,247 hectares. Of Austrian Silesia's area of +514,085 hectares, the Church owned 50,845, or 9.87 per cent.; 36 +landlords owned 134,226, or 26.07 per cent. The area of Bohemia is +5,196,700 hectares: of these the clergy owned 103,459 hectares; 362 +private persons owned 1,448,638. This number is distributed among Prince +Colloredo-Mansfeld with 58,239 hectares; Prince Fuerstenberg with +39,814; Imperial Duke Waldstein with 37,989; Prince Lichtenstein with +37,937; the Count of Czerin with 32,277; the Count of Clam-Gallas with +31,691; Emperor Franz Joseph with 28,800; the Count von Harrach with +28,047; Prince von Lobkowitz with 27,684; Imperial Count Kinsky with +26,265; the Count of Buquoy with 25,645; the Prince of Thurn and Taxis +with 24,777; Prince Schwarzenberg with 24,037; Prince +Metternich-Winneburg with 20,002; Prince Auersperg with 19,960; Prince +Windischgraetz with 19,920 hectares, etc.[174] + +The absorption by the large landlords of the small holdings in land +frequently proceeds in "alarming manner." For instance, in the judicial +district of Aflenz, community of St. Ilgen, an Alpine hill of over 5,000 +yokes, with pasture ground for 300 head of cattle, and a contiguous +peasant estate of 700 yokes, was all converted into a hunting ground. +The same thing happened with Hoellaep, located in the community of +Seewiesen, which had pasture land for 200 head of cattle. In the same +judicial district of Aflenz, 47 other pieces of land, holding 840 head +of cattle, were gradually absorbed and turned into hunting grounds. +Similar doings are reported from all parts of the Alps. In Steiermark, a +number of peasants find it more profitable to sell the hay to the lordly +hunters as _feed for the game in winter_, than give it to their own +cattle. In the neighborhood of Muerzzuschlag, some peasants no longer +keep cattle, but sell all the feed for the support of the game. + +In the judicial district of Schwarz, 7, and in the judicial district of +Zell, 16 Alpine hills, formerly used for pasture, were "cashiered" by +the new landlords and converted into hunting grounds. The whole region +of the Karwendel mountain has been closed to cattle. It is generally the +high nobility of Austria and Germany, together with rich bourgeois +upstarts, who bought up Alpine stretches of land of 70,000 yokes and +more at a clip and had them arranged for hunting parks. Whole villages, +hundreds upon hundreds of holdings are thus wiped out of existence; the +inhabitants are crowded off; and in the place of human beings, together +with cattle meet for their sustenance, roes, deer and chamois put in +their appearance. Oddest of all, more than one of the men, who thus lay +whole provinces waste, is seen rising in the parliaments and declaiming +on the "distress of landed property," and abuses his power to secure the +protection of Government in the shape of duties on corn, wood and meat, +and premiums on brandy and sugar,--all at the expense of the +propertyless masses. + +According to the census of the eighties, there were 8,547,285 farms in +France; 2,993,450 farm owners had an average annual income of 300 +francs, the aggregate income of these being 22.5 per cent. of the total +income from farms; 1,095,850 farm owners had an average annual income of +1,730 francs, the aggregate income of these being 47 per cent. of the +total income from farms; 65,525 large landlords, owning 109,285 farms, +drew 25.4 per cent. of the total agricultural revenues:--_their +possessions embraced more than one-half of the agricultural lands of +France_. + +Large agricultural property is becoming the standard in all countries of +civilization, and, in virtue of its political influence, it sways +legislation without regard to the welfare of the commonwealth. +Nevertheless, the tenure of agricultural land and its cultivation is of +high importance to social development. Upon land and its productivity +depends first of all the population and its subsistence. Land can not be +multiplied at will, hence the question is of all the greater magnitude +to everyone how the land is cultivated and exploited. Germany, whose +population increases yearly by from 5,600,000 heads, needs a large +supply of breadstuffs and meat, if the prices of the principal +necessaries of life shall remain within the reach of the people. + +At this point an important antagonism arises between the industrial and +the agricultural population. The industrial population, being +independent of agriculture, has a vital interest in cheap food: the +degree in which they are to thrive both as men and as workers depends +upon that. Every rise in the price of food leads, either to further +adulterations, or to a decline of exports, and thereby of wages as a +consequence of increased difficulties of competition. The question is +otherwise with the cultivator of the soil. As in the instance of the +industrial producer, the farmer is bent upon making the largest gains +possible out of his trade, whatever line that may be in. If the +importation of corn and meat reduces the high prices for these articles +and thereby lowers his profits, then he gives up raising corn and +devotes his soil to some other product that may bring larger returns: he +cultivates sugar-beet for the production of sugar, potatoes and grain +for distilleries, instead of wheat and rye for bread. He devotes the +most fertile tracts to tobacco instead of vegetables. In the same way, +thousands of hectares are used as horse pastures because horses for +soldiers and other purposes of war fetch good prices. On the other hand, +extensive forests, that can be made fertile, are kept at present for the +enjoyment of the hunting lords, and this often happens in neighborhoods +where the dismantling of a few hectares of woodland and their conversion +to agricultural purposes could be undertaken without thereby injuriously +affecting the humidity of the neighborhood. + +Upon this particular point, forestry to-day denies the influence of +woodlands upon moisture. Woods should be allowed in large masses only at +such places where the nature of the soil permits no other form of +cultivation, or where the purpose is to furnish mountain regions with a +profitable vegetation, or with a check to the rapid running down of +water in order to prevent freshets and the washing away of the land. +From this point of view, thousands of square kilometers of fertile land +could be reclaimed in Germany for agriculture. But such an alteration +runs counter as well to the interests of the hierarchy of +office-holders--foresters--as to the private and hunting interests of +the large landlords, who are not inclined to forfeit their hunting +grounds and pleasures of the chase. + +To what extent the process of rendering "hands" superfluous is +progressing in agriculture and in the industries therewith connected has +been shown in the palpable depopulation of the rural districts of +Germany. It may, furthermore, be specified that in the period between +1885 and 1890, the decrease of the rural population in 74 districts east +of the Elbe was above 2 per cent.; in 44 of these 74 districts it was +even above 3 per cent. In western Prussia, a decrease was established of +over 2 per cent. in 16 districts, in two of which the decrease exceeded +3 per cent. Especially high was the percentage of decrease in those +neighborhoods where large landlords figure as special dispensations of +Providence. In Wurtemberg, during the period between 1839 and 1885, the +population of 22 peasant districts declined from 29,907 heads to +19,213,--not less than 35.7 per cent. In East and West Prignitz, the +rural population declined during the period of 1868-1885 from 100,000 +heads to 85,000,--15 per cent. + +The decrease of the rural working population is marked also in England +where, as well known, latifundia property reigns supreme. The +progression in the decrease of agricultural workers was there as +follows:-- + + + Sexes. 1861. 1871. Decrease. + Males 1,833,652 1,328,151 505,501 + Females 376,797 186,450 193,127 + --------- --------- ------- + Total 2,210,449 1,514,601 698,628 + + +Since then the decrease has proceeded further. According to Dr. B. J. +Brock, in the year 1885 there was the following yield per acre in +bushels:-- + + + Countries. Wheat. Barley. + Great Britain 35.2 37.8 + Germany 18.7 23.6 + France 16.0 19.5 + Austria 15.5 16.8 + Hungary 11.7 16.0 + + +The difference in productivity between Great Britain and the other +countries is, we see, considerable, and it is attained through a more +extensive operation of the soil. In Hungary also the number of persons +engaged in agriculture has decreased considerably:-- + + + 1870 4,417,514 + 1880 3,669,177 + + +a decrease of 748,457, or more than 17 per cent. in ten years. The +agricultural lands passed into the hands of large magnates and +capitalists, who employed machines instead of human workers, and thus +rendered the latter "superfluous." These phenomena manifest themselves +everywhere in agriculture,--just as in large industrial production. The +productivity of labor increases, and in the same measure a portion of +the working class is promoted to the sidewalk. + +As a matter of course, this process has its evil consequences for woman +also. Her prospects of being a proprietor and housewife decline, and the +prospects increase of her becoming a servant, a cheap hand for the large +landlord. As a sexual being she is more exposed even than in the city to +the illicit wishes and cravings of the master or his lieutenants. More +so than in industry, on the land proprietary rights in the labor-power +frequently expand to proprietary rights over the whole person. Thus, in +the very midst of "Christian" Europe a quasi Turkish harem system has +developed. In the country, woman is isolated to a higher degree than in +the city. The magistrate or a close friend of his is her employer: +newspapers and a public opinion, to which she otherwise might look for +protection, there are none: furthermore, male labor itself is generally +in a disgraceful state of dependence. But "the heavens are away up, and +the Tsar is away off." + +The census of occupation of 1882 established that, out of 5,273,344 +farms, only 391,746, or 7 1/2 per cent., employ machinery. Out of the +24,999 large farms, however, containing over 100 hectares of land, +machinery was in use on 20,558, or 82 1/4 per cent. Naturally, it is the +larger farms only that can utilize machinery. The application of +machinery on a large surface, all of one product, engages labor only a +comparatively short time, the number of male and female hands, +absolutely needed on the place and for tending the cattle, is reduced, +and after the field work is done, the day laborers are discharged. Thus +with us, just as in England and in a still higher degree in the United +States, a rural proletariat of grave aspect springs up. If, in view of +the shortness of the season, these workingmen demand correspondingly +high wages when they are needed, their impudence is denounced; if, upon +their discharge, they roam about in hunger and idleness, they are called +vagabonds, are abused, and not infrequently dogs are set upon them to +chase them from the yards as "tramps," unwilling to work, and they are +handed over to the constabulary for the workhouse. A pretty social +"order." + +Capitalist exploitation of agriculture leads in all directions to +capitalist conditions. One set of our farmers, for instance, has for +years made enormous profits out of beet-root and the production of sugar +therewith connected. Our system of taxation favored the exportation of +sugar, and it was so framed that the tax on beets yielded but an +infinitesimal revenue to the treasury of the Empire, the premium on the +exportation of sugar being large enough to almost swallow the tax. + +The rebate allowed the sugar manufacturers per double quintal was +actually higher than the tax paid by them on beets; and this premium +enabled them to sell large quantities of sugar at the expense of the +domestic tax-payers, and to extend ever more the cultivation of the +sugar-beet. The profit that accrued from this system of taxation to +about 400 sugar factories was estimated at over 30 million marks for +1889-1890: on an average 78,000 marks per factory. Several hundreds of +thousands of hectares of land, previously devoted to raising grain, were +turned into beet-root fields; factories upon factories were started, and +are still being started; the inevitable consequence is an eventual +crash. The large returns yielded by the beet-root cultivation affected +favorably the price of land. It rose. The result was the buying up of +the small farms, whose owners, seduced by the high prices, allowed +themselves to be inveigled into selling. While the land was thus being +used for industrial speculation, the raising of potatoes and grain was +being confined to narrower fields, hence the increasing need of +importation of food from abroad. The demand exceeds the supply. +Thereupon, the large supply of foreign farm products and their cheaper +transportation from Russia, the Danubian Principalities, North and South +America, India, etc., finally leads to prices on which the domestic +farmers--weighed down with mortgages and taxes, and hampered by the +smallness of their farms, and their often faultily organized and +deficiently conducted farming--can no longer exist. High duties are then +placed upon importations; but these duties accrue only to the large +farmer; the small fellow profits little by them, or none at all; and +they become heavy burdens to the non-agricultural population. The +advantage of the few becomes the injury of the many; small farming +retrogresses; for it there is no balm in Gilead. That the condition of +the small peasants in the tariff areas of Germany has been steadily +deteriorating, will be generally admitted. The advantages to the large +farmer from high duties, prohibitions of importations and measures of +exclusion enable him all the more easily to buy out the small holder. +The large number of those who do not produce in meat and bread what they +consume themselves--and a glance at the statistics of occupation and +division of the soil shows that these are by far the larger majority of +the farmers--even suffers a direct injury from the increased prices +resulting upon higher tariffs and indirect taxes. An unfavorable crop, +that lowers still more the returns from the farm, not only aggravates +the pressure, but also increases the number of the agriculturists who +are compelled to become purchasers of farm products themselves. Tariffs +and indirect taxes can not improve the economic condition of the +majority of the farmers: he who has little or nothing to sell, what, to +him, does the tariff boot, be it never so high! The incumbrance of the +small farmer and his final ruin are thereby promoted rather than +checked. + +For Baden--overwhelmingly a State of small farms--the increase of +mortgage indebtedness during the period of 1884-1894 is estimated at 140 +to 150 million marks. The mortgage indebtedness of the Bern peasants +aggregated in round figures 200 million francs in 1860; in 1890 it +aggregated 500 million francs. According to a report of the Bohemian +representative Gustave Eim, made to his constituents in 1893, the +indebtedness that weighed upon the farms of Bohemia stood as follows:-- + + + 1879 2,716,641,754 guilders + 1889 3,105,587,363 guilders + + +We see that inside of that period the burden of indebtedness increased +14.13 per cent.--that of small holdings 13.29 per cent., while that of +the large holdings increased only 3.77 per cent. The bulk of the +increased indebtedness fell to the share of middle class property. + +How the cultivator of the soil operates his farm is--under the aegis of +St. Private Property--his own business. His private interest decides. +What cares he about the commonwealth and its well-being? He has to look +out for himself: so, then, stand aside! Does not the industrialist +proceed on that plan? He produces obscene pictures, turns out immoral +books, sets up factories for adulterating food. These and many other +occupations are harmful to society: they undermine morality and incite +corruption. What does that matter! It brings in money, even more money +than moral pictures, scientific books, and honest dealing in +unadulterated food. The industrialist, greedy after profits, needs to +concern himself only about escaping the too sharp eye of the police; he +can quietly pursue his shameful trade, assured that the money he will +thereby rake in will earn for him the envy and esteem of society. + +The Mammon character of our age is best typified by the Exchange and its +doings. Land and industrial products; means of transportation; +meteorologic and political conditions; scarcity and abundance; +mass-misery and accidents; public debts, inventions and discoveries; the +health, sickness and death of influential persons; war and rumors of +war, often started for the express purpose;--all this and much more is +made objects of speculation, for exploitation and mutual cheating. The +matadors of capital attain decided influence upon society, and, favored +by the powerful means at their disposal and their connections, they +amass enormous fortunes. Cabinet ministers and whole Governments become +puppets in their hands, compelled to act according as matadors of the +Exchange pull the wires behind the scenes. Not the State has the +Exchange, but the Exchange has the State in its power. Will he, nill he, +a Minister is often forced to water the upas tree, which he might prefer +to tear up by the roots, but that he now must aid in growing. + +All these facts, that, seeing the evils gain by the day in magnitude, +daily force themselves with increasing importunity upon the +consideration of everyone, demand speedy and radical help. But modern +society stands bewildered before all these phenomena, just as certain +animals are said to stand before a mountain;[175] it turns like a horse +in the treadmill, constantly in a circle,--lost, helpless, the picture +of distress and stupidity. Those who would bring help are yet too weak; +those who should bring help still lack the necessary understanding; +those who could bring help will not, they rely upon force; at best, they +think with Madame Pompadour "_apres nous le deluge_" (after us the +deluge). But how if the deluge were to come before their departure from +life? + +The flood rises and is washing out the foundations upon which our State +and Social structure rests. All feel that the ground shakes, and that +only the strongest props can now stead. But these demand great +sacrifices on the part of the ruling classes. There is the rub. Every +proposition injurious to the material interests of the ruling classes, +and that threatens their privileged position, is bitterly opposed and +branded as a scheme looking to the overthrow of the modern political and +social order. Neither is the sick world to be cured without any danger +to the privileges and immunities of the ruling classes, nor without +their final abolition by the abolition of the classes themselves. + +"The struggle for the emancipation of the working class is no struggle +for privileges, but a struggle for equal rights and equal duties; it is +a struggle for the abolition of all privileges"--thus runs the programme +of the Socialist Movement. It follows that half-measures and small +concessions are fruitless. + +Until now, the ruling classes regard their privileged position as quite +natural and normal, as to the justice of which no doubt may be +entertained. It is a matter of course, therefore, that they should +object and resolutely oppose every attempt to shake their prerogatives. +Even propositions and laws, that affect neither the fundamental +principles of the existing social order nor the privileged position of +the ruling classes, throw them into great commotion the moment their +purses are or might be touched. Mountains of paper are filed in the +parliaments full of speeches and printed matter, until the heaving +mountains bring forth a ridiculous mouse. The simplest and most obvious +questions regarding the protection of Labor are met by them with such a +resistance as though the existence of society hinged on such +concessions. After endless struggles a few concessions are finally wrung +from them, and then they act as if they had sacrificed a large part of +their fortunes. The same stubborn resistance do they display if the +point is the formal recognition of the equality of the oppressed +classes, to allow these, for instance, to have an equal voice with them +in wage and other labor agreements. + +This resistance to the simplest matters and the most obvious demands +confirms the old principle founded in experience, that no ruling class +can be convinced by _reasoning_, until the force of circumstances drives +them to sense and to submission. This force of circumstances lies in the +development of society, and in the increasing intelligence awakened by +this very development among the oppressed. The class-antagonism--the +sketch of our social conditions has pointed them out--grow more +pronounced, visible and sensible. Along therewith increases the +understanding of the untenableness of the existing order among the +oppressed and exploited classes; their indignation mounts higher, and, +as a result thereof, also the imperious demand for a change and for +improved conditions. By penetrating ever wider circles, such +understanding of the situation finally conquers the vast majority of +society, most directly interested in the change. In the same measure, +however, as the popular understanding increases regarding the +untenableness of the existing order and the necessity of its radical +change, the power of resistance decreases on the part of the ruling +classes, whose power rests upon ignorance and lack of intelligence on +the part of the oppressed and exploited. This cross effect is evident; +hence, everything that promotes it must be welcome. The progress made by +large capitalization, on one side, is amply compensated, on the other, +by the increasing perception by the proletariat of the contradiction in +which the social order stands with the well-being of the enormous +majority. The dissolution and abolition of the social antagonisms may +cost extraordinary pains, sacrifices and efforts, it may depend upon +factors that lie beyond the influence of the individual, or even of a +class. Nevertheless, the solution is reached the moment these +antagonisms have reached their acme,--a point towards which they are +rushing. + +The measures to be adopted at the various phases of development depend +upon the then conditions. It is impossible to foretell what measures may +become necessary under given circumstances. No Government, no Minister, +be he ever so powerful, can foresee what circumstances may require in +the next few years. All the less is it possible to foretell measures, +that will be influenced by circumstance, which elude all accurate +calculation. The question of "measures" is a question of tactics in +battle. These depend upon the enemy and upon the means at his disposal, +and at mine. A measure that would be excellent to-day, may be harmful +to-morrow, the circumstances that yesterday justified its application +having changed to-day. With the goal in view, the means to attain it by +depend upon time and tide; imperative is but the seizing of the most +effective and thorough going ones that time and tide may allow. In +forecasting the future, hypotheses alone are available: things must be +supposed to exist that have not yet set in. + +_Accordingly, we suppose the arrival of a day when all the evils +described will have reached such maturity that they will have become +oppressingly sensible to the feeling as to the sight of the vast +majority, to the extent of being no longer bearable; whereupon a general +irresistible desire for a radical change will seize society, and then +the quickest will be regarded the most effective remedy._ + +All social evils, without exception, have their source in that social +order of things, which, as has been shown, rests upon capitalism, upon +the capitalist system of production. Under this system, the capitalist +class is the possessor of all instruments of labor--land, mines, +quarries, raw material, tools, machines, means of transportation and +communication--and it exploits and oppresses the vast majority of the +people. The result of such abuses is an increased precariousness of +livelihood, increased misery, oppression and degradation of the +exploited classes. It is, consequently, necessary to convert this +capitalist property into social property by means of a general +expropriation. _Production for sale must be converted into socialist +production, conducted for and by Society. Production on a large scale, +and the increasing fertility of social labor,--until now a source of +misery and of oppression for the exploited classes--must be turned into +a source of highest well-being and of full and harmonious culture._ + +FOOTNOTES: + +[160] Let also one American instance be cited. It occurred on April 1, +1894, in Dolgeville, N. Y., where an employe of the "profit-sharing" +concern of Alfred Dolge--at whose annual dinners Professor, now +President George Gunton was regularly a star guest, and orator to the +"dined" workingmen on the beauties of "profit-sharing,"--one of the +workingmen, driven by the pinching poverty and incertitude inflicted +upon him by the "profit-sharing" practice, killed his wife, four +children and himself, and left a letter describing his plight. (See "The +People," April 8, 1894)--THE TRANSLATOR. + +[161] As early as the days of Plato were the consequences of such +conditions understood. He writes: "A nation in which classes exist, is +not one, but two: one class is made up of the poor, the other of the +rich, both living together, yet on the watch against each other.... In +the end, the ruling class is unable to conduct a war, because it would +then have to avail itself of the masses, whom, armed, it fears more than +the enemy himself"; Plato, "The Republic." Aristotle says: "Widespread +poverty is an evil, inasmuch as it is hardly possible to prevent such +people from becoming inciters of sedition"; Aristotle, "Politics." + +[162] "Natuerliche Schoepfungsgeschichte." + +[163] Similarly Plato in "The Republic": "Crimes have their roots in +want of culture, in bad education and bad social institutions." +Evidently, Plato understood the nature of society better than one of his +learned successors twenty-three hundred years later,--not a cheering +contemplation. + +[164] In the sense of German industrial statistics, every employer is +placed under the head of "small producer" who employs less than five +persons. + +[165] Clemens Heiss: "Die grossen Einkommen in Deutschland." + +[166] Clemens Heiss, _ubi supra._ + +[167] Clemens Heiss: "Die grossen Einkommen in Deutschland." + +[168] According to the census of 1900, the capital invested in industry +was 9,831 million dollars,--an increase over 1890 of 3,307 million; and +the value of the industrial products was 13,010 million dollars,--an +increase over 1890 of 3,640 millions.--THE TRANSLATOR. + +[169] Professor Adolf Wagner expresses the same thought in his first +revised edition of Raus' "Lehrbuch der politischen Oekonomie." He says, +p. 361: "The social question is the consciousness gained by the people +of the contradiction between the economic development and the social +principle of freedom and equality, that hovers over their minds as the +ideal, and is realized in political life." + +[170] Dr. E. Sax says in his work "Die Hausindustrie in Thueringen," +among other things, that in 1869 the production of 244 1/4 million slate +pencils had given from 122,000 to 200,000 gilders in wages to the labor, +but the final price paid by the consumer rose to 1,200,000 gilders; it +was, accordingly, at least six times as much as the producer received. +In the summer of 1888, there were 5 marks paid at first hand for 5 +hundredweights of shellfish; the retailer paid the wholesale dealer 15 +marks; and the public paid 125 marks. Moreover, large quantities of +foodstuffs are destroyed because the prices will not pay for +transportation. For instance, in years of great herring draughts, whole +boatloads are turned to manure, while inland there are hundreds of +thousands of people who can buy no herrings. It was likewise in 1892 +with the large potato crops in California. And yet sense is claimed for +such a state of things. + +[171] The industrial census of June 5, 1882, gives Germany 386,157 large +and 154,474 small stores, a total of 531,631. In the large shops, there +were 705,906 persons employed. + +[172] Dr. Rud. Meyer, "Das Sinken der Grundrente." + +[173] "Die Fideikommisse in den westlichen Provinzen Pruessens." + +[174] For further details see, "Das soziale Elend und die besitzenden +Klassen in Oesterreich," T. W. Teisen. + +[175] A German idiom, expressive of dumb bewilderment, uses the simile: +"Like oxen before a mountain."--THE TRANSLATOR. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE SOCIALIZATION OF SOCIETY. + + +The soon as possible general expropriation of all the means of +production furnishes society with a new foundation. The conditions of +life and labor--in manufacture, agriculture, transportation and +communication, education, marriage, science, art and intercourse--are +radically changed for both sexes. Human existence acquires a new sense. +The present political organization gradually loses ground: the State +vanishes: in a measure it abolishes itself. + +It was shown in the first part of this book why the State arose. It +arises, as the product of a social growth, from a primitive form of +society, that rested on communism and that dissolved in the measure that +_private property_ developed. With the rise of private property, +antagonistic interests take shape within society; in the course of its +development these antagonisms lead to rank and class contrasts, and +these, in turn, grow into enmities between the several groups of +interests, and finally into rank and class struggles, that threaten the +existence of the new social order. In order to keep down these rank and +class struggles, and to protect the property-holders, an organization is +requisite that parries the assaults on property, and that pronounces +"legal and sacred" the property obtained under certain forms. _This +organization and power, that guards and upholds property, is the State._ +Through the enactment of laws it secures the owner in his ownership, and +it steps as judge and avenger before him who assails the established +order. By reason of its innermost being, the interest of a ruling +property class, and of the Government therewith connected, is ever +conservative. The organization of the State changes only when the +interest of property so demands. The State is, accordingly, the +_inevitably necessary_ organization of a social order that rests upon +class rule. The moment class antagonisms fall through the abolition of +private property, the State loses both the _necessity_ and the +_possibility_ for its existence. With the removal of the conditions for +rulership, the State gradually ceases to be, the same as creeds wane +when the belief ceases in supernatural beings, or in transcendental +powers gifted with reason. Words must have sense; if they lose that they +cease to convey ideas. + +"Yes," interjects at this point a capitalist-minded reader, "that is all +very well, but by what 'legal principle' can society justify such a +change?" The legal principle is the same that ever prevailed, whenever +it was the question of changes and reforms,--_public policy_. Not the +State, but society is the source of right; the State is but the +committee of Society, authorized to administer and dispense right. +Hitherto, "Society" has been a small minority; yet it acted in the name +of the whole community (the people) by pronouncing itself "Society," +much as Louis XIV. pronounced himself the "State,"--"_L'etat c'est moi_" +(I am the State). When our newspapers announce: "The season begins; +society is returning to the city," or "The season has closed; society is +rushing to the country," they never mean the people, but only the upper +ten thousand, who constitute "Society" as they constitute the "State." +The masses are "plebs," "vile multitude," "canaille," "people." In +keeping therewith, all that the State has done in the name of Society +for the "public weal" has always been to the advantage and profit of the +ruling class. It is in its interests that laws are framed. "_Salus +reipublicae suprema lex esto_" (Let the public weal be the supreme law) +is a well known legal principle of Old Rome. But who constituted the +Roman Commonwealth? Did it consist of the subjugated peoples, the +millions of slaves? No. A disproportionately small number of Roman +citizens, foremost among these the Roman nobility, all of whom were +supported by the subject class. + +When, in the Middle Ages, noblemen and Princes stole the common +property, they did so "according to law," in the "interest of the public +weal," and how drastically the common property and that of the helpless +peasants was treated on the occasion we have sufficiently explained. The +agrarian history of the last fifteen centuries is a narration of +uninterrupted robbery perpetrated upon common and peasant property by +the nobility and the Church in all the leading countries of Europe. When +the French Revolution expropriated the estates of the nobility and the +Church, it did so "in the name of the public weal"; and a large part of +the seven million of landed estates, that are to-day the prop of modern +bourgeois France, owe their existence to this expropriation. "In the +name of the public weal," Spain more than once embargoed Church +property, and Italy wholly confiscated the same,--both with the plaudits +of the zealous defenders of "sacred property." The English nobility has +for centuries been robbing the Irish and English people of their +property, and, during the period of 1804-1832 made itself a present of +not less than 3,511,710 acres of commons "in the interest of the public +welfare." When during the great North American war for the emancipation +of the negro, millions of slaves, the regular property of their masters, +were declared free without indemnity to the latter, the thing was done +"in the name of the public weal." Our whole capitalist development is an +uninterrupted process of expropriation and confiscation, at which the +manufacturer expropriates the workingman, the large landlord +expropriates the peasant, the large merchant expropriates the small +dealer, and finally one capitalist expropriates another, i. e., the +larger expropriates and absorbs the smaller. To hear our bourgeoisie, +all this happens in the interest of the "public weal," for the "good of +society." The Napoleonites "saved Society" on the 18th Brumaire and 2d +of December, and "Society" congratulated them. If hereafter Society +shall save itself by resuming possession of the property that itself has +produced, it will enact the most notable historic event--_it is not +seeking to oppress some in the interest of others, but to afford to all +the prerequisite for equality of existence, to make possible to each an +existence worthy of human beings_. It will be morally the cleanest and +most stupendous measure that human society has ever executed. + +In what manner this gigantic process of social expropriation will be +achieved, and under what modality, eludes all surmise. Who can tell how +general conditions will then be, and what the demands of public interest +will be? + +In his fourth social letter to v. Kirchmann, entitled "Capital," +Rodbertus says: "The dissolution of all capitalist property in land is +no chimera; on the contrary, it is easily conceivable in national +economy. It would, moreover, be the most radical aid to society, that, +as might be put in a few words, is suffering of rent-rising--rent of +land and capital. Hence the measure would be the only manner of +abolishing property in land and capital, _a measure that would not even +for a moment interrupt the commerce and progress of the nation_." What +say our agrarians to this opinion of their former political +co-religionist? + +In the contemplation of how matters will probably shape themselves along +the principal lines of human activity, upon such a measure of general +expropriation, there can be no question of establishing hard and fast +lines, or rigid institutions. No one is able to forecast the detailed +molds in which future generations may cast their social organizations, +and how they will satisfy their wants. In Society as in Nature, +everything is in constant flux and reflux; one thing rises, another +wanes; what is old and sered is replaced with new and living forms. +Inventions, discoveries and improvements, numerous and various, the +bearing and significance of which often none can tell, are made from day +to day, come into operation, and, each in its own way, they +revolutionize and transform human life and all society. + +We can, accordingly, be concerned only with general principles, that +flow inevitably from the preceding _expose_, and whose enforcement may +be supervised, up to a certain point. If even hitherto society has been +no automatic entity, leadable and guidable by an individual, much as +appearances often pointed the other way; if even hitherto those who +imagined they pushed were themselves pushed; if even hitherto society +was an organism, that developed according to certain inherent laws;--if +that was hitherto the case, in the future all guiding and leading after +individual caprice is all the more out of question. Society will have +discovered the secret of its own being, it will have discovered the laws +of its own progress, and it will apply these consciously towards its own +further development. + +So soon as society is in possession of all the means of production, _the +duty to work, on the part of all able to work, without distinction of +sex, becomes the organic law of socialized society_. Without work +society can not exist. Hence, society has the right to demand that all, +who wish to satisfy their wants, shall exert themselves, according to +their physical and mental faculties, in the production of the requisite +wealth. The silly claim that the Socialist does not wish to work, that +he seeks to abolish work, is a matchless absurdity, which fits our +adversaries alone. Non-workers, idlers, exist in capitalist society +_only_. Socialism agrees with the Bible that "He who will not work, +neither shall he eat." But work shall not be mere activity; it shall be +useful, productive activity. The new social system will demand that each +and all pursue some industrial, agricultural or other useful occupation, +whereby to furnish a certain amount of work towards the satisfaction of +existing wants. _Without work no pleasure, no pleasure without work._ + +All being obliged to work, all have an equal interest in seeing the +following three conditions of work in force:-- + +First, that work shall be moderate, and shall overtax none; + +Second, that work shall be as agreeable and varied as possible; + +Third, that work shall be as productive as possible, seeing that both +the hours of work and fruition hinge upon that. + +These three conditions hinge, in turn, upon the nature and the number of +the productive powers that are available, and also upon the aspirations +of society. But Socialist society does not come into existence for the +purpose of living in proletarian style; _it comes into existence in +order to abolish the proletarian style of life of the large majority of +humanity_. It seeks to afford to each and all the fullest possible +measure of the amenities of life. The question that does rise is, How +high will the aspirations of society mount? + +In order to determine this, an administration is requisite that shall +embrace all the fields of social activity. Our municipalities constitute +an effective basis thereto: if they are too large to allow a ready +supervision, they can be divided into wards. As in primitive society, +all members of the community who are of age participate in the +elections, _without distinction of sex_, and have a voice in the choice +of the persons who are to be entrusted with the administration. At the +head of all the local administrations stands the central +administration--as will be noted, not a Government, with power to rule, +but an executive college of administrative functions. Whether the +central administration shall be chosen directly by popular vote or +appointed by the local administration is immaterial. These questions +will not then have the importance they have to-day: the question is then +no longer one of filling posts that bestow special honor, or that vest +the incumbent with greater power and influence, or that yield larger +incomes: it is then a question of filling positions of trust, for which +the fittest, whether male or female, are taken; and these may be +recalled or re-elected as circumstances may demand, or the electors may +deem preferable. All posts are for given terms. The incumbents are, +accordingly, clothed with no special "official qualities"; the feature +of continuity of office is absent, likewise a hierarchical order of +promotion. Hence it is also immaterial to us whether there shall be +middle stages, say provincial administrations, between the central and +the local administrations. If they are deemed necessary, they are set +up; if they are not deemed necessary, they are left alone. All such +matters are decided by actual exigencies, as ascertained in practice. If +the progress of society has rendered any old organization superfluous, +it is abolished without further ado and dispute, there being no longer +any personal interest in conflict; and new ones are similarly +established. Obviously, _such an administration, resting upon the +broadest democratic foundation, differs radically from what we have +to-day_. What a battle of newspapers, what a war of tongues in our +parliaments, what mountains of public documents in our bureaus, if but a +trivial change is made in the administration or the Government! + +The principal thing to ascertain is the number and the nature of the +forces that are available, the quantity and nature of the means of +production,--the factories, workshops, means of transportation and +communication, land--and also their productivity. The next thing to +ascertain is the quantity of the supplies that are on hand and the +extent to which these can satisfy the wants of society. As to-day the +State and the several municipalities yearly cast up their budgets, the +thing will then be done with an eye to all the wants of society, without +thereby excluding changes that increased or new wants may demand. +Statistics here play the chief _role_: they become the most important +subsidiary science of the new order: they furnish the measure for all +social activities. + +Statistics are extensively used to-day for similar purposes. The +Imperial, State and municipal budgets are based upon a large amount of +statistical reports, made yearly by the several administrative branches. +Long experience and a certain degree of stability in the running wants +facilitate their gathering. Every operator of a large factory, every +merchant is, under normal conditions, able to determine accurately what +he will need during the next three months, and how he should regulate +his production and purchases. Unless excessive changes set in, his +calculations will be found safe. + +The experience that crises are caused by blind, anarchic production, i. +e., that production is carried on without a knowledge of the volume of +supply, of sales and of demand of and for the several goods in the +world's market, has, as indicated in previous passages, caused large +manufacturers in several branches of industry to join in Trusts and +rings, partly with the view of steadying prices, partly also for the +purpose of regulating production by the light of previous experience and +of the orders received. According to the capability of each +establishment and to the probable demand, the output of each is +determined for the next few months. Infractions are punished with heavy +conventional mulcts, and even expulsion. The capitalists do not conclude +these agreements for the benefit of the public, but to its injury and to +their own profit. Their purpose is to utilize the power of combination +in order to secure the greatest advantages to themselves. This +regulation of production has for its object to enable the capitalist to +demand from the public prices that could not be got if the competitive +struggle was on between the several capitalists. These enrich themselves +at the expense of the consumers who are forced to pay whatever price is +demanded for the goods they need. As the consumer, so is the workingman +injured by the Trusts. The artificial regulation of production throws a +part of the working class out of work, and, in order that these may +live, they underbid their fellows at work. Thus the employer derives a +double advantage: he receives higher prices, and he pays lower wages. +Such a regulation of production by combinations of capitalists _is +exactly the reverse of that which will be practiced in Socialist +society_. While to-day the interests of the capitalists is the +determining factor, the interests of all will then be the guide. +Production will then be carried on for the satisfaction of human wants, +and not in order to obtain, through high prices, large profits for +private individuals. Nevertheless, the best planned combination in +capitalist society can not take in and control all the factors needed in +the calculation: competition and speculation run wild despite all +combinations: finally the discovery is made that the calculation had a +leak, and the scheme breaks down. + +The same as production on a large scale, commerce also has extensive +statistics. Every week the larger centers of commerce and the ports +publish reports on the supply of petroleum, coffee, cotton, sugar, +grain, etc. These statistics are frequently inaccurate, seeing that the +owners of the goods frequently have a personal interest in concealing +the truth. On the whole, however, the statistics are pretty safe and +furnish to those interested, information on the condition of the +market. But here also speculation steps in, upsets all calculations, and +often renders all legitimate business impossible. Seeing how impossible +is a general regulation of production in capitalist society, due to the +existence of many thousands of private producers with conflicting +interests, it will be obvious why the speculative nature of commerce, +the number of merchants and their conflicting interests render equally +impossible the regulation of distribution. Nevertheless, what is done in +these directions indicates what could be done so soon as private +interest were to drop out and the interests of all were alone dominant. +A proof of this is furnished by the statistics of crops, that are yearly +issued by the leading countries of civilization, and that enable certain +general conclusions to be drawn upon the size of the crops, the extent +that they will supply the demand, and the probable price. + +In a socialized society matters are fully regulated; society is held in +fraternal bonds. Everything is done in order; there, it is an easy +matter to gauge demand. With a little experience, the thing is easy as +play. If, for instance, the demand is statistically established for +bread, meat, shoes, linen, etc., and, on the other hand, the +productivity of the respective plants is equally known, _the average +daily amount of socially necessary labor is thereby ascertained. The +figures would, furthermore, point out where more plants for the +production of a certain article may be needed, or where such may be +discontinued as superfluous, or turned to other purposes._ + +Everyone decides the pursuit he chooses: the large number of different +fields of activity caters to the tastes of all. If on one field there is +a surplus and on another a dearth of labor-power, the administration +attends to the equalization of forces. To organize production, and to +furnish the several powers with the opportunity to apply themselves at +the right places will be the principal task of these functionaries. In +the measure that the several forces are broken in, the wheels will move +with greater smoothness. The several branches and divisions of labor +choose their foremen, who superintend the work. These are no +slave-drivers, like most foremen of to-day; they are fellow workers, +who, instead of a productive, exercise an administrative function +entrusted to them. The idea is by no means excluded that, with the +attainment of higher perfection, both in point of organization and of +individuals, these functions should alternate so that, within a certain +time, and in certain order, they are filled by all _regardless of sex_. + +A system of labor, organized upon a plan of such absolute liberty and +democratic equality, where each stands for all, and all stand for each, +and where the sense of solidarity reigns supreme,--such a system would +generate a spirit of industry and of emulation nowhere to be found in +the modern economic system. Nor could such a spirit of industry fail to +react both upon the productivity of labor and the quality of labor's +product. + +Furthermore--seeing that all are mutually active--the interest becomes +general in the best and most complete, as well as in the quickest +possible production of goods, with the object of saving labor, and of +gaining time for the production of further wealth, looking to the +gratification of higher wants. _Such a common interest spurs all to bend +their thoughts towards simplifying and quickening the process of labor. +The ambition to invent and discover is stimulated to the highest pitch: +each will seek to outdo the other in propositions and ideas._[176] + +Just the reverse will, accordingly, happen of which the adversaries of +Socialism claim. How many are not the inventors and discoverers who go +to pieces in the capitalist world! How many has it not exploited and +then cast aside! If talent and intellect, instead of property, stood at +the head of bourgeois society, _the larger part of the employers would +have to make room for their workingmen, master mechanics, technical +overseers, engineers, chemists, etc._ These are the men, who, in +ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, make the inventions, discoveries and +improvements, which the man with the money-bag exploits. How many +thousands of discoverers and inventors have gone to pieces unable to +find the man of means ready to provide the wherewithal for the execution +of their thoughts; how many germs of inventions and discoveries have +been and continue to be nipped by the social stress for bare existence, +is a matter that eludes all calculation. Not the men of head and brain, +but those of large wealth are to-day the masters of the world,--which, +however, does not exclude the occasional and exceptional phenomenon of +brains and wealth being united in one person. The exception only proves +the rule. + +Everyone in practical life knows with what suspicion the workingman +to-day regards every improvement, every invention introduced in the +shop. And he is right. He rarely derives any advantage therefrom; it all +accrues to the employer. The workingman is assailed with the fear lest +the new machine, the new improvement cast him off to-morrow as +superfluous. Instead of gladsome applause for an invention that does +honor to man and is fraught with benefit for the race, he only has a +malediction on his lips. We also know, from personal experience, how +many an improvement perceived by the workingman, is not introduced: the +workingman keeps silent, fearing to derive no benefit but only harm from +it. Such are the natural consequences of an antagonism of +interests.[177] + +This antagonism of interests is removed in Socialist society. Each +unfolds his faculties in his own interest, and, by so doing, +simultaneously benefits the commonweal. To-day personal gratification is +generally antagonistic to the common weal; the two exclude each other. +In the new Order, the antagonisms are removed: _The gratification of the +ego and the promotion of the common weal harmonize, they supplement each +other._[178] + +The marvelous effect of such a mental and moral condition is obvious. +The productivity of labor will rise mightily, and such increased +productivity makes possible the satisfaction of higher wants. Especially +will the productivity of labor rise through the discontinuance of the +present and enormous disintegration of labor, in hundreds of thousands, +even millions of petty establishments, conducted with imperfect tools. +According to the industrial census of the German Empire for the year +1882, there were 3,005,457 leading establishments, exclusive of +commerce, transportation, hotels and inns, in which 6,396,465 persons +were occupied. Of these leading establishments, 61.1 per cent. employed +less than 5 persons, and 16.8 per cent. employed from 6 to 50 persons. +The former are small concerns, the latter middle class ones. Through the +concentration of the small and middle class establishments into large +ones, equipped with all the advantages of modern technique, an enormous +waste in power, time, material (light, heat, etc.) space, now incurred, +would be avoided, and the productivity of labor would gain +proportionally. What difference there is in the productivity of small, +middle class and large establishments, even where modern technique is +applied, may be illustrated by the census of manufactories of the State +of Massachusetts for 1890. The establishments in ten leading industries +were divided into three classes. Those that produced less than $40,000 +worth of goods were placed in the lowest class; those that produced from +$40,000 to $150,000 were placed in the middle class; and those that +produced over $150,000 worth of goods were placed in the upper class. + +The result was this:-- + + + Number of Percentage Productivity Percentage + Establishments. of All of of Total + Classes. Establishments. Each Class. Productivity. + Lower 2,042 55.2 51,660,617 9.4 + Middle 968 26.2 106,868,635 19.5 + Upper 686 18.6 390,817,300 71.1 + ----- ----- ----------- ----- + 3,696 100.0 549,346,552 100.0 + + +The more than twice as large number of small establishments turned out +only 9.4 per cent. of the total product. But even the large +establishments could, with hardly any exception, be conducted far more +rationally than now, so that, under a system of collective production, +aided by the most highly perfected technical process, an infinitely +larger demand could be supplied. + +Upon the subject of the saving of time, possible under a system of +production planted on a rational basis, Th. Hertzka of Vienna has made +some interesting calculations.[179] He investigated the amount of +labor-power and time requisite for the satisfaction of the wants of the +22 million inhabitants of Austria by means of production on a large +scale. To this end Hertzka gathered information upon the capacity of +large establishments in several fields, and he based his calculations +upon the data thus ascertained. In Hertzka's calculation are included +10,500,000 hectares of agricultural and 3,000,000 hectares of pasture +lands, that should suffice for the production of agricultural products +and of meat for the said population. Hertzka also included in his +computation the building of houses on the basis of a house of 150 square +meters, 5 rooms and strong enough to last 50 years, to each family. The +result was that, for agricultural, building, the production of flour, +sugar, coal, iron, machinery, clothing and chemicals, only 615,000 +workingmen were needed, at work the whole year and at the present +average hours of daily labor. These 615,000 workingmen are, however, +_only 12.3 per cent. of the population of Austria, capable to work, +exclusive of all the women as well as the males under 16 and over 50 +years of age_. If all the 5,000,000 men, and not merely the above figure +of 615,000, were engaged, then, _each of them would need to work only +36.9 days--six weeks in round figures_--in order to produce the +necessaries of life for 22 million people. Assuming 300 work days in the +year, instead of 37, and 11 as the present daily hours of work, it +follows that, under this new organization of labor, _only 1-3/8 hours a +day would be needed to cover the most pressing needs of all_. + +Hertzka further computes the articles of luxury that the better situated +demand, and he finds that the production of the same for 22 million +people would require an additional 315,000 workingmen. Altogether, +according to Hertzka, and making allowance for some industries that are +not properly represented in Austria, one million in round figures, equal +to 20 per cent. of the male population able to work, exclusive of those +under 16 and above 50 years of age, would suffice to cover _all the +needs of the population_ in 60 days. If, again, the whole male +population able to work is made the basis of the computation, these +would need to furnish but _two and a half hours work a day_.[180] + +This computation will surprise none who take a comprehensive view of +things. Considering, then, that, at such moderate hours, even the men 50 +years old--all the sick and invalid excepted--are able to work; +furthermore, that also youths under 16 years of age could be partially +active, as well as a large number of women, in so far as these are not +otherwise engaged in the education of children, the preparation of food, +etc.;--considering all that, it follows that even these hours could be +considerably lowered, or the demand for wealth could be considerably +increased. None will venture to claim that no more and unforeseen +progress, and considerable progress, at that, is possible in the +process of production, thus furnishing still greater advantages. But +the issue now is to satisfy a mass of wants felt by all that to-day are +satisfied only by a minority. With higher culture ever newer wants +arise, and these too should be met. We repeat it: _the new Social order +is not to live in proletarian style; it lives as a highly developed +people demand to live, and it makes the demand in all its members from +the first to the last_. But such a people can not rest content with +satisfying merely its material wants. All its members are to be allowed +fullest leisure for their development in the arts and sciences, as well +as for their recreation. + +Also in other important respects will Socialist society differ from the +bourgeois individualist system. The motto: "Cheap and bad"--which is and +must be standard for a large portion of bourgeois production, seeing +that the larger part of the customers can buy only cheap goods, that +quickly wear out--likewise drops out. Only the best will be produced; it +will last longer and will need replacing at only wider intervals. The +follies and insanities of fashion, promoted by wastefulness and +tastelessness, also cease. People will probably clothe themselves more +properly and sightfully than to-day, when, be it said in passing, the +fashions of the last hundred years, especially as to men, distinguish +themselves by their utter tastelessness. No longer will a new fashion be +introduced every three months, an act of folly that stands in intimate +relation with the competitive struggle of women among themselves, with +the ostentatiousness and vanity of society, and with the necessity for +the display of wealth. To-day a mass of establishments and people live +upon this folly of fashion, and are compelled by their own interests to +stimulate and force it. Together with the folly of fashion in dress, +falls the folly of fashion in the style of architecture. Eccentricity +reaches here its worst expression. Styles of architecture that required +centuries for their development and that sprang up among different +peoples--we are no longer satisfied with European styles, we go to the +Japanese, Indians and Chinese--are used up in a few decades and laid +aside. Our poor professional artists no longer know whither and whereto +they should turn with and for their samples and models. Hardly have they +assorted themselves with one style, and expect to recover with ease the +outlays they have made, when a new style breaks in upon them, and +demands new sacrifices of time and money, of mental and physical powers. +The nervousness of the age is best reflected in the rush from one +fashion to the other, from one style to the other. No one will dare to +claim any sense for such hurrying and scurrying, or the merit of its +being a symptom of social health. + +_Socialism alone will re-introduce a greater stability in the habits of +life._ It will make repose and enjoyment possible; it will be a +liberator from hurry and excessive exertion. Nervousness, that scourge +of our age, will disappear. + +But labor is also to be made pleasant. To that end practical and +tastefully contrived workshops are required; the utmost precautions +against danger; the removal of disagreeable odors, gases and smoke,--in +short, of all sources of injury or discomfort to health. At the start, +the new social system will carry on production with the old means, +inherited from the old. But these are utterly inadequate. Numerous and +unsuitable workshops, disintegrated in all directions; imperfect tools +and machinery, running through all the stages of usefulness;--this heap +is insufficient both for the number of the workers and for their demands +of comfort and of pleasure. The establishment of a large number of +spacious, light, airy, fully equipped and ornamented workshops is a +pressing need. Art, technique, skill of head and hand immediately find a +wide field of activity. All departments in the building of machinery, in +the fashioning of tools, in architecture and in the branches of work +connected with the internal equipment of houses have the amplest +opportunity. Whatever human genius can invent with regard to comfortable +and pleasant homes, proper ventilation, lighting and heating, mechanical +and technical provisions and cleanliness is brought into application. +The saving of motor power, heating, lighting, time, as well as the +promotion of all that tends to render work and life agreeable, demand a +suitable concentration of the fields of labor on certain spots. +Habitations are separated from places of work and are freed from the +disagreeable features of industrial and other manual work. These +disagreeable features are, in their turn, reduced to the lowest measure +possible by means of suitable arrangements and provisions of all sorts, +until wholly removed. The present state of technique has now means +enough at command to wholly free from danger the most dangerous +occupations, such as mining and the preparation of chemicals, etc. But +these means can not be applied in capitalist society because they are +expensive, and there is no obligation to do more than what is absolutely +necessary for the workingman. The discomforts attached to mining can be +removed by means of a different sort of draining, of extensive +ventilation, of electric lighting, of a material reduction of hours of +work, and of frequent shifts. Nor does it require any particular +cleverness to find such protective means as would render building +accidents almost impossible, and transform work in that line into the +most exhilarating of all. Ample protections against sun and rain are +possible in the construction of the largest edifices. Furthermore, in a +society with ample labor-power at its disposal, such as Socialist +society would be, frequent shifts and the concentration of certain work +upon certain seasons of the year and certain hours of day would be an +easy matter. + +The problem of removing dust, smoke, soot and odors could likewise be +completely solved by modern chemistry and technique; it is solved only +partially or not at all, simply because the private employers care not +to make the necessary sacrifice of funds. The work-places of the future, +wherever located, whether above or under ground, will, accordingly, +distinguish themselves most favorably from those of to-day. Many +contrivances are, under the existing system of private enterprise, first +of all, a question of money: can the business bear the expenditure? Will +it pay? If the answer is in the negative, then let the workingmen go to +pieces. Capital does not operate where there is no profit. Humanity is +not an "issue" on the Exchange.[181] + +The question of "profit" has exhausted its _role_ in Socialist society: +_in Socialist society the only consideration is the welfare of its +members_. Whatever is beneficent to these and protects them must be +introduced; whatever injures them must stop. None is forced to join in a +dangerous game. If matters are undertaken that have dangers in prospect, +volunteers will be numerous, all the more so seeing that the object can +never be to the injury, but only to the promotion of civilization. + +The amplest application of motor powers and of the best machinery and +implements, the utmost subdivision of labor, and the most efficient +combinations of labor-power will, accordingly, carry production to such +pitch that the hours of work can be materially reduced in the production +of the necessaries of life. The capitalist lengthens the hours of labor, +whenever he can, especially during crises, when the worker's power of +resistance is broken, and by squeezing more surplus values out of him, +prices may be lowered. In Socialist society, an increase of production +accrues to the benefit of all: _The share of each rises with the +productivity of labor and increased productivity again makes possible +the reduction of the hours of work, socially determined as necessary._ + +Among the motor powers that are coming into application, electricity +will, according to all appearances, take a decisive place.[182] +Capitalist society is now everywhere engaged in harnessing it to its +service. The more extensively this is done the better. The +revolutionizing effect of this mightiest of all the powers of Nature +will but all the sooner snap the bonds of bourgeois society, and open +the doors to Socialism. But only in Socialist society will electricity +attain its fullest and most widespread application. If the prospects now +opened for its application are even but partially realized--and on that +head there can be no doubt--electricity, as a motor power as well as a +source of light and heat, will contribute immeasurably towards the +improvement of the conditions of life. Electricity distinguishes itself +from all other motor power in that, above all, its supply in Nature is +abundant. Our water courses, the ebb and tide of the sea, the winds, the +sun-light--all furnish innumerable horse-powers, the moment we know how +to utilize them in full. Through the invention of accumulators it has +been proved that large volumes of power, which can be appropriated only +periodically, from the ebbs and tides, the winds and mountain streams, +can be stored up and kept for use at any given place and any given time. +All these inventions and discoveries are still in embryo: their full +development may be surmised, but can not be forecast in detail. + +The progress expected from the application of electricity sounds like a +fairy tale. Mr. Meems of Baltimore has planned an electric wagon able to +travel 300 kilometers an hour--actually race with the wind. Nor does Mr. +Meems stand alone. Prof. Elihu Thomson of Lynn, Mass., also believes it +possible to construct electromotors of a velocity of 160 kilometers, +and, with suitable strengthening of the rolling stock and improvement of +the signal system, of a velocity of 260 kilometers; and he has given a +plausible explanation of his system. The same scientist holds, and in +this Werner Siemens, who expressed similar views at the Berlin +Convention of Naturalists in 1887, agrees with him, that it is possible +by means of electricity _to transform the chemical elements directly +into food_--a revolution that would hoist capitalist society off its +hinges. While in 1887 Werner Siemens was of the opinion that it was +possible, though only in the remote future, to produce artificially a +hydrate of carbon such as grape sugar and later the therewith closely +related starch, whereby "bread could be made out of stone," the chemist +Dr. B. Meyer claims that ligneous fibre could eventually be turned into +a source of human food. Obviously, we are moving towards ever newer +chemical and technical revolutions. In the meantime, the physiologist E. +Eiseler has actually produced grape sugar artificially, and thus made a +discovery that, in 1887, Werner Siemens considered possible only in the +"remote future." In the spring of 1894, the French ex-Minister of Public +Worship, Prof. Berthelot, delivered an address in Paris at the banquet +of the Association of Chemical Manufacturers upon the significance of +chemistry in the future. The address is interesting in more respects +than one. Prof. Berthelot sketched the probable state of chemistry at +about the year 2000. While his sketch contains many a droll +exaggeration, it does contain so much that is serious and sound that we +shall present it in extract. After describing the achievements of +chemistry during the last few decades, Prof. Berthelot went on to say:-- + +"The manufacture of sulphuric acids and of soda, bleaching and coloring, +beet sugar, therapeutic alkaloids, gas, gilding and silvering, etc.; +then came electro-chemistry, whereby metallurgy was radically +revolutionized; thermo-chemistry and the chemistry of explosives, +whereby fresh energy was imparted to mining and to war; the wonders of +organic chemistry in the production of colors, of flavors, of +therapeutic and antiseptic means, etc. But all that is only a start: +soon much more important problems are to be solved. About the year 2000 +there will be no more agriculture and no more farmers: chemistry will +have done away with the former cultivation of the soil. There will be no +more coal-shafts, consequently, neither will there be any more miners' +strikes. Fuel is produced by chemical and physical processes. Tariffs +and wars are abolished: aerial navigation, that helped itself to +chemicals as motor power, pronounced the sentence of death upon those +obsolete habits. The whole problem of industry then consists in +discovering sources of power, that are inexhaustible and resortable to +with little labor. Until now we have produced steam through the chemical +energy of burning mineral coal. But mineral coal is hard to get and its +supply decreases daily. Attention must be turned towards utilizing the +heat of the sun and of the earth's crust. The hope is justified that +both sources will be drawn upon without limit. The boring of a shaft +3,000 to 4,000 meters deep does not exceed the power of modern, less yet +it will exceed that of future engineers. The source of all heat and of +all industry would be thus thrown open. Add water to that, and all +imaginable machinery may be put in perpetual operation on earth: the +source of this power would experience hardly any diminution in hundreds +of years. + +"With the aid of the earth's heat, numerous chemical problems will +become solvable, among these the greatest of all--_the chemical +production of food_. In principle, the problem is solved now. The +synthesis of fats and oils has been long known; likewise are sugar and +hydrates of carbon known; nor will it be long before the secret of +compounding azote is out. The food problem is a purely chemical one. +The day when the corresponding cheap power shall have been obtained, +food of all sort will be producable with carbon out of carbon oxides, +and with hydrogen and acids out of water, and with nitrogen out of the +atmosphere. What until now vegetation has done, industry will +thenceforth perform, and more perfectly than Nature itself. The time +will come when everyone will carry about him a little box of chemicals +wherewith to provide his food supply of albumen, fat and hydrates of +carbon, regardless of the hour of the day or the season of the year, +regardless of rain or drought, of frost or hail, or insects. A +revolution will then set in of which no conception is so far possible. +Fields bearing fruit, wine-bearing mountain slopes and pastures for +cattle will have vanished. Man will have gained in gentleness and +morality seeing he no longer lives on the murder and destruction of +living beings. Then also will the difference drop away between fertile +and barren districts; perchance deserts may then become the favorite +homes of man being healthier than the damp valleys and the +swamp-infected plains. Then also will Art, together with all the +beauties of human life reach full development. No longer will the face +of earth be marred, so to speak, with geometrical figures, now entailed +by agriculture: it will become a garden in which, at will, grass or +flowers, bush or woods, can be allowed to grow, and in which the human +race will live in plenty, in a Golden Age. Nor will man thereby sink +into indolence and corruption. Work is requisite to happiness, and man +will work as much as ever, because he will be working for himself aiming +at the highest development of his mental, moral and esthetical powers." + +Every reader may accept what he please of this address of Prof. +Berthelot; certain, however, is the prospect that in the future and in +virtue of the progress of science, wealth--the volume and variety of +products--will increase enormously, and that the pleasures of life of +the coming generations will take undreamed of increment. + +An aspiration, deeply implanted in the nature of man, is that of freedom +in the choice and change of occupation. As uninterrupted repetition +renders the daintiest of dishes repulsive, so with a daily +treadmill-like recurring occupation: it dulls and relaxes the senses. +Man then does only mechanically what he must do; he does it without +swing or enjoyment. There are latent in all men faculties and desires +that need but to be awakened and developed to produce the most beautiful +results. Only then does man become fully and truly man. Towards the +satisfaction of this need of change, Socialist society offers, as will +be shown, the fullest opportunity. The mighty increase of productive +powers, coupled with an ever progressing simplification of the process +of labor, not only enables a considerable lowering of hours of work, it +also _facilitates the acquisition of skill in many directions_. + +The old apprentice system has survived its usefulness: it exists to-day +only and is possible only in backward, old-fashioned forms of +production, as represented by the small handicrafts. Seeing, however, +that this vanishes from the new social Order, all the institutions and +forms peculiar thereto vanish along with it. New ones step in. Every +factory shows us to-day how few are its workingmen, still engaged at a +work that they have been apprenticed in. The employes are of the most +varied, heterogeneous trades; a short time suffices to train them in any +sub-department of work, at which, in accord with the ruling system of +exploitation, they are then kept at work longer hours, without change or +regard to their inclinations, and, lashed to the machine, become +themselves a machine.[183] Such a state of things has no place in a +changed organization of society. There is ample time for the acquisition +of dexterity of hand and the exercise of artistic skill. Spacious +training schools, equipped with all necessary comforts and technical +perfections will facilitate to young and old the acquisition of any +trade. Chemical and physical laboratories, up to all the demands of +these sciences, and furnished with ample staffs of instructors will be +in existence. Only then will be appreciated to its full magnitude what a +world of ambitions and faculties the capitalist system of production +suppresses, or forces awry into mistaken paths.[184] + +It is not merely possible to have a regard for the need of change; it is +the purpose of society to realize its satisfaction: the harmonious +growth of man depends upon that. The professional physiognomies that +modern society brings to the surface--whether the profession be in +certain occupations of some sort or other, or in gluttony and idleness, +or in compulsory tramping--will gradually vanish. There are to-day +precious few people with any opportunity of change in their occupations, +or who exercise the same. Occasionally, individuals are found who, +favored by circumstances, withdraw from the routine of their daily +pursuits and, after having paid their tribute to physical, recreate +themselves with intellectual work; and conversely, brain workers are met +off and on, who seek and find change in physical labors of some sort or +other, handwork, gardening, etc. Every hygienist will confirm the +invigorating effect of a pursuit that rests upon alternating physical +and mental work; only such a pursuit is natural. The only qualification +is that it be moderately indulged, and in proportion to the strength of +the individual. + +Leo Tolstoi lashes the hypertrophic and unnatural character that art and +science have assumed under the unnatural conditions of modern +society.[185] He severely condemns the contempt for physical labor, +entertained in modern society, and he recommends a return to natural +conditions. Every being, who means to live according to the laws of +nature and enjoy life, should divide the day between, first, physical +field labor; secondly, hand work; thirdly, mental work; fourthly, +cultured and companionable intercourse. More than eight hours' physical +work should not be done. Tolstoi, who practices this system of life, and +who, as he says, has felt himself human only since he put it into +practice, perceives only what is possible to him, a rich, independent +man, but wholly impossible to the large mass of mankind, under existing +conditions. The person who must do hard physical work every day ten, +twelve and more hours, to gain a meager existence, and who was brought +up in ignorance, can not furnish himself with the Tolstoian system of +life. Neither can they, who are on the firing line of business life and +are compelled to submit to its exactions. The small minority who could +imitate Tolstoi have, as a rule, no need to do so. It is one of the +illusions that Tolstoi yields to, the belief that social systems can be +changed by preaching and example. The experiences made by Tolstoi with +his system of life prove how rational the same is; in order, however, to +introduce such a system of life as a social custom, a social foundation +is requisite other than the present. It requires a new society. + +_Future society will have such a foundation; it will have scientists and +artists of all sorts in abundance; but all of them will work physically +a part of the day, and devote the rest, according to their liking, to +study, the arts or companionable intercourse._[186] + +The existing contrast between mental and manual labor--a contrast that +the ruling classes seek to render as pronounced as possible with the +view of securing for themselves also the intellectual means of +sovereignty--will likewise be removed. + +It follows from the preceding arguments that crises and compulsory +idleness are impossible phenomena in the new social Order. Crises arise +from the circumstance that individualist, capitalist production--incited +by profit and devoid of all reliable gauge with which to ascertain the +actual demand--brings an overstocking of the world's market, and thus +overproduction. The merchandise feature of the products under +capitalism, of the products that their owners endeavor to exchange, +makes the use of the product dependent upon the consumer's _capacity to +buy_. The capacity to buy is, however, limited, in so far as the +overwhelming majority are concerned, they being under-paid for their +labor, or even wholly unable to sell the same if the capitalist does not +happen to be able to squeeze a surplus value out of it. _The capacity to +buy and the capacity to consume are two wholly distinct things in +capitalist society._ Many millions of people are in want of clothes, +shoes, furniture, linen, eatables and drinkables, but they have no +money, and their wants, i. e., their capacity to consume, remains +unsatisfied. The market is glutted with goods, but the masses suffer +hunger; they are willing to work, but they find none to buy their +labor-power because the holder of money sees nothing to "make" in the +purchase. "Die, canaille; become vagabonds, criminals! I, the +capitalist, can not help it. I have no use for goods that I have no +purchaser to buy from me with corresponding profit." And, in a way, the +man is right. + +In the new social Order this contradiction is wiped out. Socialist +society produces not "merchandise," in order to "buy" and to "sell;" _it +produces necessaries of life, that are used, consumed, and otherwise +have no object_. In Socialist society, accordingly, the capacity to +consume is not bounded, as in bourgeois society, by the individual's +capacity to buy; _it is bounded by the collective capacity to produce_. +If labor and instruments of labor are in existence, all wants can be +satisfied; the social capacity to consume is bounded only by _the +satisfaction of the consumers_. + +There being no "merchandise" in Socialist society, neither can there be +any "money." Money is the visible contrast of merchandise; yet itself is +merchandise! Money, though itself merchandise, is at the same time the +social equivalent for all other articles of merchandise. But Socialist +society produces no articles of merchandise, only articles of use and +necessity, whose production requires a certain measure of social labor. +The time, on an average requisite for the production of an article is +the only standard by which it is measured for social use. Ten minutes +social labor in one article are equal to ten minutes social labor in +another--neither more nor less. Society is not "on the make"; it only +seeks to effect among its members the exchange of articles of equal +quality, equal utility. It need not even set up a standard of use value. +It merely produces what it needs. If society finds that a three-hour +work day is requisite for the production of all that is needed, it +establishes such a term of work.[187] If the methods of production +improve in such wise that the supply can be raised in two hours, the +two-hour work day is established. If, on the contrary, society demands +the gratification of higher wants than, despite the increase of forces +and the improved productivity of the process of labor, can be satisfied +with two or three hours work, then the four-hour day is introduced. Its +will is law. + +How much social labor will be requisite for the production of any +article is easily computed.[188] The relation of the part to the whole +of the working time is measured accordingly. Any voucher--a printed +piece of paper, gold or tin--certifies to the time spent in work, and +enables its possessor to exchange it for articles of various kinds.[189] +If he finds that his wants are smaller than what he receives for his +labor, he then works proportionally shorter hours. If he wishes to give +away what he does not consume, nothing hinders him. If he is disposed to +work for another out of his own free will, so that the latter may revel +in the _dolce far niente_,--if he chooses to be such a blockhead, +nothing hinders him. But none can compel him to work for another; none +can withhold from him a part of what is due him for labor performed. +Everyone can satisfy all his legitimate desires--only not at the expense +of others. He receives the equivalent of what he has rendered to +society--neither more nor less, and he remains free from all +exploitation by third parties. + +"But what becomes of the difference between the lazy and the +industrious? between the intelligent and the stupid?" That is one of the +principal questions from our opponents, and the answer gives them no +slight headache. That this distinction between the "lazy" and the +"industrious," the "intelligent" and the "stupid" is not made in our +civil service hierarchy, but that the term of service decides in the +matter of salary and generally of promotion also--these are facts that +occur to none of these would-be puzzlers and wiseacres. The teachers, +the professors--and as a rule the latter are the silliest +questioners--move into their posts, not according to their own +qualities, but according to the salaries that these posts bring. That +promotions in the army and in the hierarchies of the civil service and +the learned professions are often made, not according to worth, but +according to birth, friendship and female influence, is a matter of +public notoriety. That, however, wealth also is not measured by +diligence and intelligence may be judged by the Berlin inn-keepers, +bakers and butchers, to whom grammar often is a mystery, and who figure +in the first of the three classes of the Prussian electorate, while the +intellectuals of Berlin, the men of science, the highest magistrates of +the Empire and the State, vote with the second class. There is not now +any difference between the "lazy" and the "diligent," the "intelligent" +and the "stupid" for the simple reason that what is understood by these +terms exists no longer. A "lazy" fellow society only calls him who has +been thrown out of work, is compelled to lead a vagabond's life and +finally does become a vagabond, or who, grown up under improper +training, sinks into vice. But to style "lazy fellow" the man who rolls +in money and kills the day with idleness or debauchery, would be an +insult: he is a "worthy and good man." + +How do matters stand in Socialist society? All develop under equal +conditions, and each is active in that to which inclination and skill +point him, whence differences in work will be but insignificant.[190] +The intellectual and moral atmosphere of society, which stimulates all +to excel one another, likewise aids in equalizing such differences. If +any person finds that he cannot do as much as others on a certain field, +he chooses another that corresponds with his strength and faculties. +Whoever has worked with a large number of people in one establishment +knows that men who prove themselves unfit and useless in a certain line, +do excellent work in another. There is no normally constructed being who +fails to meet the highest demands in one line or another, the moment he +finds himself in the right place. By what right does any claim +precedence over another? If any one has been treated so step-motherly by +Nature that with the best will he can not do what others can, _Society +has no right to punish him for the shortcomings of Nature_. If, on the +contrary, a person has received from Nature gifts that raise him above +others, _Society is not obliged to reward what is not his personal +desert_. In Socialist society all enjoy equal conditions of life and +opportunities for education; all are furnished the same opportunities to +develop their knowledge and powers according to their respective +capacities and inclinations. In this lies a further guarantee that not +only will the standard of culture and powers be higher in Socialist than +in bourgeois society, but also that both will be more equally +distributed and yet be much more manifold. + +When, on a journey up the Rhine, Goethe studied the Cathedral of +Cologne, he discovered in the archives that the old master-builders paid +their workmen equal wages for equal time. They did so because they +wished to get good and conscientious work. This looks like an anomaly to +modern bourgeois society. It introduced the system of piece-work, that +drives the workingmen to out-work one another, and thus aids the +employer in underpaying and in reducing wages. + +As with manual, so with mental work. Man is the product of the time and +circumstances that he lives in. A Goethe, born under equally favorable +conditions in the fourth, instead of the eighteenth, century might have +become, instead of a distinguished poet and naturalist, a great Father +of the Church, who might have thrown St. Augustine into the shade. If, +on the other hand, instead of being the son of a rich Frankfort +patrician, Goethe had been born the son of a poor shoemaker of the same +town, he never would have become the Minister of the Grand Duke of +Weimar, but would probably have remained a shoemaker, and died an +honorable member of the craft. Goethe himself recognized the advantage +he had in being born in a materially and socially favorable station in +order to reach his stage of development. It so appears in his "Wilhelm +Meister." Were Napoleon I. born ten years later, he never would have +been Emperor of France. Without the war of 1870-1871, Gambetta had never +become what he did become. Place the naturally gifted child of +intelligent parents among savages, and he becomes a savage. _Whatever a +man is, society has made him._ Ideas are not creations that spring from +the head of the individual out of nothing, or through inspiration from +above; they are products of social life, of the _Spirit of the Age_, +raised in the head of the individual. An Aristotle could not possibly +have the ideas of a Darwin, and a Darwin could not choose but think +otherwise than an Aristotle. Man thinks according as the Spirit of the +Age, i. e., his surroundings and the phenomena that they present to him +drive him to think. Hence the experience of different people often +thinking simultaneously the same thing, of the same inventions and +discoveries being made simultaneously in places far apart from each +other. Hence also the fact that an idea, uttered fifty years too early, +leaves the world cold; fifty years later, sets it ablaze. Emperor +Sigismund could risk breaking his word to Huss in 1415 and order him +burned in Constance; Charles V., although a more violent fanatic, was +compelled to allow Luther to depart in peace from the Reichstag at Worms +in 1521. Ideas are, accordingly, the product of combined social causes +and social life. What is true of society in general, is true in +particular of the several classes that, at given historic epochs, +constitute society. As each class has its special interests, it also has +its special ideas and views, that lead to those class struggles of which +recorded history is full, and that reach their climax in the class +antagonisms and class struggles of modern days. Hence, it depends not +merely upon the age in which a man lives, but also upon the social +stratum of a certain age in which he lived or lives, and whereby his +feelings, thoughts and actions are determined. + +Without modern society, no modern ideas. That is obvious. With regard to +the future social Order, it must be furthermore added that the means +whereby the individual develops are the property of society. Society +can, accordingly, not be bound to render special homage to what itself +made possible and is its own product. + +So much on the qualification of manual and brain work. It follows that +there can be no real distinction between "higher" and "lower" manual +work, such as not infrequently a mechanic to-day affects towards the +day-laborer, who performs work on the street, or the like. Society +demands only socially necessary work; hence all work is of equal value +to society. If work that is disagreeable and repulsive can not be +performed mechanically or chemically and by some process converted into +work that is agreeable--a prospect that may not be put in doubt, seeing +the progress made on the fields of technique and chemistry--and if the +necessary volunteer forces can not be raised, then the obligation lies +upon each, as soon as is his turn, to do his part. False ideas of shame, +absurd contempt for useful work, become obsolete conceptions. These +exist only in our society of drones, where to do nothing is regarded as +an enviable lot, and the worker is despised in proportion to the +hardness and disagreeableness of his work, and in proportion to its +social usefulness. To-day work is badly paid in proportion as it is +disagreeable. The reason is that, due to the constant revolutionizing of +the process of production, a permanent mass of superfluous labor lies on +the street, and, in order to live, sells itself for such vile work, and +at such prices that the introduction of machinery in these departments +of labor does not "pay." Stone-breaking, for instance, is proverbially +one of the worst paid and most disagreeable kinds of work. It were a +trifling matter to have the stone-breaking done by machinery, as in the +United States; but we have such a mass of cheap labor-power that the +machine would not "pay."[191] Street and sewer cleaning, the carting +away of refuse, underground work of all sorts, etc., could, with the aid +of machinery and technical contrivances, even at our present state of +development, be all done in such manner that no longer would any trace +of disagreeableness attach to the work. Carefully considered, the +workingman who cleans out a sewer and thereby protects people from +miasmas, is a very useful member of society; whereas a professor who +teaches falsified history in the interest of the ruling classes, or a +theologian who seeks to befog the mind with supernatural and +transcendental doctrines are highly injurious beings. + +The learned fraternity of to-day, clad in offices and dignities, to a +large extent represents a guild intended and paid to defend and justify +the rule of the leading classes with the authority of science; to make +them appear good and necessary; and to prop up existing superstitions. +In point of fact this guild is largely engaged in the trade of quackery +and brain-poisoning--a work injurious to civilization, intellectual +wage-labor in the interest of the capitalist class and its clients.[192] +A social condition, that should make impossible the existence of such +elements, would perform an act towards the liberation of humanity. + +Genuine science, on the other hand, is often connected with highly +disagreeable and repulsive work, such, for instance, as when a physician +examines a corpse in a state of decomposition, or operates on supurating +wounds, or when a chemist makes experiments. These often are labors more +repulsive than the most repulsive ones ever performed by day-laborers +and untutored workingmen. Few recognize the fact. The difference lies in +that the one requires extensive studies in order to perform it, whereas +the other can be performed by anyone without preparatory studies. Hence +the radical difference in the estimation of the two. But in a society +where, in virtue of the amplest opportunities of education afforded to +all, the present distinction between "cultured" and "uncultured" ceases +to exist, the contrast is likewise bound to vanish between learned and +unlearned work, all the more seeing that technical development knows no +limits and manual labor may be likewise performed by machinery or +technical contrivances. We need but look at the development of our art +handicrafts--xylography and copper-etching, for instance. As it turns +out that the most disagreeable kinds of work often are the most useful, +so also is our conception regarding agreeable and disagreeable work, +like so many other modern conceptions, utterly superficial; it is a +conception that has an eye to externals only. + + * * * * * + +The moment production is carried on in Socialist society upon the lines +traced above, it no longer produces "merchandise," but only articles of +use for the direct demand of society. Commerce, accordingly, ceases, +having its sense and reason for being only in a social system that rests +upon the production of goods for sale. A large army of persons of both +sexes is thus set free for productive work.[193] This large army, set +free for production, not only increases the volume of wealth produced, +but makes possible a reduction of the hours of work. These people are +to-day more or less parasites: they are supported by the work of others: +in many instances they must toil diligently in return for a meagre +existence. In Socialist society they are superfluous as merchants, +hosts, brokers and agents. In lieu of the dozens, hundreds and thousands +of stores and commercial establishments of all sorts, that to-day every +community holds in proportion to its size, large municipal stores step +in, elegant bazaars, actual exhibitions, requiring a relatively small +administrative personnel. This change in itself represents a revolution +in all previous institutions. The tangled mass of modern commerce is +transformed into a centralized and purely administrative department, +with only the simplest of functions, that can not choose but grow still +simpler through the progressive centralization of all social +institutions. Likewise does the whole system of transportation and +communication undergo a complete change. + +The telegraph, railroads, Post Office, river and ocean vessels, street +railways--whatever the names of the vehicles and institutions may be +that attend to the transportation and communication of capitalist +society--now become _social_ property. Many of these institutions--Post +Offices, telegraph and railroads generally--are now State institutions +in Germany. Their transformation into social property presents no +difficulties: there no private interests are left to hurt: if the State +continues to develop in that direction, all the better. But these +institutions, administered by the State, are no Socialist institutions, +as they are mistakenly taken for. They are business plants, that are +exploited as capitalistically as if they were in private hands. Neither +the officers nor the workingmen have any special benefit from them. The +State treats them just as any private capitalist. When, for instance, +orders were issued not to engage any workingman over 40 years of age in +the railway or marine service of the Empire, the measure carries on its +brows the class stamp of the State of the exploiters, and is bound to +raise the indignation of the working class. Such and similar measures +that proceed from the State as an employer of labor are even worse than +if they proceed from private employers. As against the State, the latter +is but a small employer, and the occupation that this one denies another +might grant. The State, on the contrary, being a monopolistic employer, +can, at one stroke, cast thousands of people into misery with its +regulations. That is not Socialist, it is capitalist conduct; and the +Socialist guards against allowing the present State ownership being +regarded as Socialism, or the realization of Socialist aspirations. In a +Socialist institution there are no employers. The leader, chosen for the +purpose, can only carry out the orders and superintend the execution of +the disciplinary and other measures prescribed by the collectivity +itself. + +As in the instance of the millions of private producers, dealers and +middlemen of all sorts, large centralized establishments take their +place, so does the whole system of transportation and communication +assume new shape. The myriads of small shipments to as many consignees +that consume a mass of powers and of time, now grow into large shipments +to the municipal depots and the central places of production. Here also +labor is simplified. The transportation of raw material to an +establishment of a thousand workers is an infinitely simpler matter than +to a thousand small and scattered establishments. Thus centralized +localities of production and of transportation for whole communities, or +divisions of the same, will introduce a great saving of time, of labor, +of material, and of means both of production and distribution. The +benefit accrues to the whole community, and to each individual therein. +The physiognomy of our productive establishments, of our system of +transportation and communication, especially also of our habitations, +will be completely altered for the better. The nerve-racking noise, +crowding and rushing of our large cities with their thousands of +vehicles of all sorts ceases substantially: society assumes an aspect of +greater repose. The opening of streets and their cleaning, the whole +system of life and of intercourse acquires new character. Hygienic +measures--possible to-day only at great cost and then only partially, +not infrequently only in the quarters of the rich--can be introduced +with ease everywhere. To-day "the common people" do not need them; they +can wait till the funds are ready; and these never are. + +Such a system of communication and transportation can not then choose +but reach a high grade of perfection. Who knows but aerial navigation +may then become a chief means of travel. The lines of transportation and +communication are the arteries that carry the exchange of +products--circulation of the blood--throughout the whole body social, +that effect personal and mental intercourse between man and man. They +are, consequently, highly calculated to establish an equal level of +well-being and culture throughout society. The extension and +ramification of the most perfect means of transportation and +communication into the remotest corners of the land is, accordingly, _a +necessity and a matter of general social interest_. On this field there +arise before the new social system tasks that go far beyond any that +modern society can put to itself. Finally, such a perfected system of +transportation and communication, will promote the decentralization of +the mass of humanity that is to-day heaped up in the large cities. It +will distribute the same over the country, and thus--in point of +sanitation as well as of mental and material progress--it will assume a +significance of inestimable value. + + * * * * * + +Among the means of production in industry and transportation, land holds +a leading place, being the source of all human effort and the foundation +of all human existence, hence, of Society itself. Society resumes at its +advanced stage of civilization, what it originally possessed. Among all +races on earth that reached a certain minimum degree of culture, we find +community in land, and the system continues in force with such people +wherever they are still in existence. Community in land constituted the +foundation of all primitive association: the latter was impossible +without the former. Not until the rise and development of private +property and of the forms of rulership therewith connected, and then +only under a running struggle, that extends deep into our own times, was +the system of common ownership in land ended, and the land usurped as +private property. The robbery of the land and its transformation into +private property furnished, as we have seen, the first source of that +bondage that, extending from chattel slavery to the "freedom" of the +wage-earner of our own century, has run through all imaginable stages, +until finally the enslaved, after a development of thousands of years +re-convert the land into common property. + +The importance of land to human existence is such that in all social +struggles the world has ever known--whether in India, China, Egypt, +Greece (Cleomenes), Rome (the Gracchi), Christian Middle Ages (religious +sects, Munzer, the Peasants War), in the empires of the Aztecs and of +the Incas, or in the several upheavals of latter days--the possession of +land is the principal aim of the combatants. And even to-day, the public +ownership of land finds its justifiers in such men as Adolf Samter, +Adolf Wagner, Dr. Schaeffle, who on other domains of the Social Question +are ready to rest content with half-measures.[194] + +The well-being of the population depends first of all upon the proper +cultivation of the land. To raise the same to the highest degree of +perfection is eminently a matter of public concern. That the +cultivation of the land can reach the necessary high degree of +perfection neither under the large, nor the middle, least of all under +the small landlord system, has been previously shown. The most +profitable cultivation of land depends not merely upon the special care +bestowed upon it. Elements come here into consideration that neither the +largest private holder, nor the mightiest association of these is equal +to cope with. These are elements that lap over, even beyond the reach of +the State and require international treatment. + +Society must first of all consider the land as a whole--its +topographical qualities, its mountains, plains, woods, lakes, rivers, +ponds, heaths, swamps, moors, etc. The topography, together with the +geographical location of land, both of which are unchangeable, exercises +certain influences upon climate and the qualities of the soil. Here is +an immense field on which a mass of experience is to be gathered and a +mass of experiments to be made. What the State has done until now in +this line is meager. What with the small means that it applies to these +purposes, and what with the limitations imposed upon it by the large +landlords, who even if the State were willing, would check it, little or +nothing has been done. The State could do nothing on this field without +greatly encroaching upon private property. Seeing, however, that its +very existence is conditioned upon the safe-keeping and "sacredness" of +private property, the large landlords are vital to it, and it is +stripped of the power, even if it otherwise had the will, to move in +that direction. Socialist society will have the task of undertaking vast +improvements of the soil,--raising woods here, and dismantling others +yonder, draining and irrigating, mixing and changing of soil, planting, +etc., in order to raise the land to the highest point of productivity +that it is capable of. + +An important question, connected with the improvement of the land, is +the contrivance of an ample and systematically planned network of rivers +and canals, conducted upon scientific principles. The question of +"cheaper" transportation on the waterways--a question of such gravity to +modern society--loses all importance in Socialist society, seeing that +the conceptions "cheap" and "dear" are unknown to it. On the other hand, +however, waterways, as comfortable means of transportation, that can, +moreover, be utilized with but slight expenditure of strength and +matter, deserve attention. Moreover river and canal systems play +important _roles_ in the matter of climate, draining and irrigation, and +the supply of fertilizers and other materials needed in the improvement +of agricultural land. + +Experience teaches that poorly-watered regions suffer more severely from +cold winters and hot summers than well-watered lands, whence coast +regions are exempt from the extremes of temperature, or rarely undergo +them. Extremes of temperature are favorable neither to plants nor man. +An extensive system of canalization, in connection with the proper +forestry regulations, would unquestionably exercise beneficent +influences. Such a system of canalization, along with the building of +large reservoirs, that will collect the water in cases of freshets +through thaws or heavy rainfalls, would be of great usefulness. Freshets +and their devastating results would be impossible. Wide expanses of +water, together with their proportional evaporations, would also, in all +probability, bring about a more regular rain-fall. Finally such +institutions would facilitate the erection of works for an extensive +system of irrigation whenever needed. + +Large tracts of land, until now wholly barren or almost so, could be +transformed into fertile regions by means of artificial irrigation. +Where now sheep can barely graze, and at best consumptive-looking pine +trees raise their thin arms heavenward, rich crops could grow and a +dense population find ample nutriment. It is merely a question of labor +whether the vast sand tracts of the Mark, the "holy dust-box of the +German Empire," shall be turned into an Eden. The fact was pointed out +in an address delivered in the spring of 1894 on the occasion of the +agricultural exposition in Berlin.[195] The requisite improvements, +canals, provisions for irrigation, mixing of soil, etc., are matters, +however, that can be undertaken neither by the small nor the large +landlords of the Mark. Hence those vast tracts, lying at the very gates +of the capital of the Empire, remain in a state of such backward +cultivation that it will seem incredible to future generations. Again, a +proper canalization would, by draining, reclaim for cultivation vast +swamps and marshes in North as well as South Germany. These waterways +could be furthermore utilized in raising fish; they could thus be vast +sources of food; in neighborhoods where there are no rivers, they would +furnish opportunity for commodious bath-houses. + +Let a few examples illustrate the effectiveness of irrigation. In the +neighborhood of Weissensfels, 7 1/2 hectares of well-watered meadows +produced 480 cwt. of after-grass; 5 contiguous hectares of meadow land +of the same quality, but not watered, yielded only 32 cwt. The former +had, accordingly, a crop ten times as large as the latter. Near Reisa in +Saxony, the irrigation of 65 acres of meadow lands raised their revenue +from 5,850 marks to 11,100 marks. The expensive outlays paid. Besides +the Mark there are in Germany other vast tracts, whose soil, consisting +mainly of sand, yields but poor returns, even when the summer is wet. +Crossed and irrigated by canals, and their soil improved, these lands +would within a short time yield five and ten times as much. There are +examples in Spain of the yield of well-irrigated lands exceeding +thirty-seven fold that of others that are not irrigated. Let there but +be water, and increased volumes of food are conjured into existence. + +Where are the private individuals, where the States, able to operate +upon the requisite scale? When, after long decades of bitter experience, +the State finally yields to the stormy demands of a population that has +suffered from all manner of calamities, and only after millions of +values have been destroyed, how slow, with what circumspection, how +cautious does it proceed! It is so easy to do too much, and the State +might by its precipitancy lose the means with which to build some new +barracks for the accommodation of a few regiments. Then also, if one is +helped "too much," others come along, and also want help. "Man, help +yourself and God will help you," thus runs the bourgeois creed. Each for +himself, none for all. And thus, hardly a year goes by without once, +twice and oftener more or less serious freshets from brooks, rivers or +streams occurring in several provinces and States: vast tracts of +fertile lands are then devastated by the violence of the floods, and +others are covered with sand, stone and all manner of debris; whole +orchard plantations, that demanded tens of years for their growth, are +uprooted; houses, bridges, dams are washed away; railroad tracks torn +up; cattle, not infrequently human beings also, are drowned; soil +improvements are carried off; crops ruined. Vast tracts, exposed to +frequent inundations, are cultivated but slightly, lest the loss be +double. + +On the other hand, unskilful corrections of the channels of large rivers +and streams,--undertaken in one-sided interests, to which the State ever +yields readily in the service of "trade and transportation"--increase +the dangers of freshets. Extensive cutting down of forests, especially +on highlands and for private profit, adds more grist to the flood mill. +The marked deterioration of the climate and decreased productivity of +the soil, noticeable in the provinces of Prussia, Pomerania, the +Steuermark, Italy, France, Spain, etc., is imputed to this vandalic +devastation of the woods, done in the interest of private parties. + +Frequent freshets are the consequence of the dismantling of mountain +woodlands. The inundations of the Rhine, the Oder and the Vistula are +ascribed mainly to the devastation of the woods in Switzerland, Galicia +and Poland; and likewise in Italy with regard to the Po. Due to the +baring of the Carnian Alps, the climate of Triest and Venice has +materially deteriorated. Madeira, a large part of Spain, vast and once +luxurious fields of Asia Minor have in a great measure forfeited their +fertility through the same causes. + +It goes without saying that Socialist society will not be able to +accomplish all these great tasks out-of-hand. But it can and will +undertake them, with all possible promptness and with all the powers at +its command, seeing that its sole mission is to solve problems of +civilization and to tolerate no hindrance. Thus it will in the course of +time solve problems and accomplish feats that modern society can give no +thought to, and the very thought of which gives it the vertigo. + +The cultivation of the soil will, accordingly, be mightily improved in +Socialist society, through these and similar measures. But other +considerations, looking to the proper exploitation of the soil, are +added to these. To-day, many square miles are planted with potatoes, +which are to be applied mainly to the distilling of brandy, an article +consumed almost exclusively by the poor classes of the population. +Liquor is the only stimulant and "care-dispeller" that they are able to +procure. The population of Socialist society needs none of that, hence +the raising of potatoes and corn for that purpose, together with the +labor therein expended, are set free for the production of healthy +food.[196] The speculative purposes that our most fertile fields are put +to in the matter of the sugar beet for the exportation of sugar, have +been pointed out in a previous chapter. About 400,000 hectares of the +best wheat fields are yearly devoted to the cultivation of sugar beet, +in order to supply England, the United States and Northern Europe with +sugar. The countries whose climate favors the growth of sugar cane +succumb to this competition. Furthermore, our system of a standing army, +the disintegration of production, the disintegration of the means of +transportation and communication, the disintegration of agriculture, +etc.,--all these demand hundreds of thousands of horses, with the +corresponding fields to feed them and to raise colts. The completely +transformed social and political conditions free the bulk of the lands +that are now given up to these various purposes; and again large areas +and rich labor-power are reclaimed for purposes of civilization. +Latterly, extensive fields, covering many square kilometers, have been +withdrawn from cultivation, being needed for the manoeuvering and +exercising of army corps in the new methods of warfare and long +distance firearms. All this falls away. + +The vast field of agriculture, forestry and irrigation has become the +subject of an extensive scientific literature. No special branch has +been left untouched: irrigation and drainage, forestry, the cultivation +of cereals, of leguminous and tuberous plants, of vegetables, of fruit +trees, of berries, of flowers and ornamental plants; fodder for cattle +raising; meadows; rational methods of breeding cattle, fish and poultry +and bees, and the utilization of their excrements; utilization of manure +and refuse in agriculture and manufacture; chemical examinations of +seeds and of the soil, to ascertain its fitness for this or that crop; +investigations in the rotations of crops and in agricultural machinery +and implements; the profitable construction of agricultural buildings of +all nature; the weather;--all have been drawn within the circle of +scientific treatment. Hardly a day goes by without some new discovery, +some new experience being made towards improving and ennobling one or +other of these several branches. With the work of J. v. Liebig, the +cultivation of the soil has become a science, indeed, one of the +foremost and most important of all, a science that since then has +attained a vastness and significance unique in the domain of activity in +material production. And yet, if we compare the fullness of the progress +made in this direction with the actual conditions prevailing in +agriculture to-day, _it must be admitted that, until now, only a small +fraction of the private owners have been able to turn the progress to +advantage_, and among these there naturally is none who did not proceed +from the view point of his own private interests, acted accordingly, +kept only that in mind, and gave no thought to the public weal. The +large majority of our farmers and gardeners, we may say 98 per cent. of +them, are in no wise in condition to utilize all the advances made and +advantages that are possible: they lack either the means or the +knowledge thereto, if not both: as to the others, they simply do as they +please. Socialist society finds herein a theoretically and practically +well prepared field of activity. It need but to fall to and organize in +order to attain wonderful results. + +The highest possible concentration of productions affords, of itself, +mighty advantages. Hedges, making boundary lines, wagon roads and +footpaths between the broken-up holdings are removed, and yield some +more available soil. The application of machinery is possible only on +large fields: agricultural machinery of fullest development, backed by +chemistry and physics could to-day transform unprofitable lands, of +which there are not a few, into fertile ones. The application of +accumulated electric power to agricultural machinery--plows, harrows, +rollers, sowers, mowers, threshers, seed-assorters, chaff-cutters, +etc.--is only a question of time. Likewise will the day come when +electricity will move from the fields the wagons laden with the crops: +draught cattle can be spared. A scientific system of fertilizing the +fields, hand in hand with thorough management, irrigation and draining +will materially increase the productivity of the land. A careful +selection of seeds, proper protection against weeds--in itself a head +much sinned against to-day--sends up the yield still higher. + +According to Ruhland, a successful war upon cereal diseases would of +itself suffice to render superfluous the present importation of grain +into Germany.[197] Seeding, planting and rotation of crops, being +conducted with the sole end in view of raising the largest possible +volume of food, the object is then obtainable. + +What may be possible even under present conditions is shown by the +management of the Schnistenberg farm in the Rhenish Palatinate. In 1884 +the same fell into the hand of a new tenant, who, in the course of eight +years, raised three or four times as much as his predecessor.[198] The +said property is situated 320 meters above the level of the sea, 286 +acres in size, of which 18 are meadows, and has generally unfavorable +soil, 30 acres being sandy, 60 stony, 55 sand loam and 123 hard loam. +The new method of cultivation had astonishing results. The crops rose +from year to year. The increase during the period of 1884-1892 was as +follows per acre: + + + Product. 1884. 1892. + Rye 7.75 cwts. 19.50 cwts. + Wheat 3.50 " 15.30 " + Barley 12.00 " 18.85 " + Oats 7.00 " 18.85 " + + +The neighboring community of Kiegsfeld, the witness of this marvelous +development, followed the example and reached similar results on its own +ground. The yield per acre was on an average this: + + + Product. 1884. 1892. + Wheat 10 to 12 cwts. 13 to 18 cwts. + Rye 12 to 15 " 15 to 20 " + Oats 7 to 9 " 14 to 22 and even 24 + Barley 9 to 11 " 18 to 22 cwts. + + +Such results are eloquent enough. + +The cultivation of fruits, berries and garden vegetables will reach a +development hardly thought possible. How unpardonably is being sinned at +present in these respects, a look at our orchards will show. They are +generally marked by a total absence of proper care. This is true of the +cultivation of fruit trees even in countries that have a reputation for +the excellence of these; Wurtemberg, for instance. The concentration of +stables, depots for implements and manure and methods of +feeding--towards which wonderful progress has been made, but which can +to-day be applied only slightly--will, when generally introduced, +materially increase the returns in raising cattle, and thereby +facilitate the procurement of manure. Machinery and implements of all +sorts will be there in abundance, very differently from the experience +of ninety-nine one hundredths of our modern farmers. Animal products, +such as milk, eggs, meat, honey, hair, wool, will be obtained and +utilized scientifically. The improvements and advantages in the dairy +industry reached by the large dairy associations is known to all +experts, and ever new inventions and improvements are daily made. Many +are the branches of agriculture in which the same and even better can be +done. The preparation of the fields and the gathering of the crops are +then attended to by large bodies of men, under skilful use of the +weather, such as is to-day impossible. Large drying houses and sheds +allow crops being gathered even in unfavorable weather, and save losses +that are to-day unavoidable, and which, according to v. d. Goltz, often +are so severe that, during a particularly rainy year, from eight to nine +million marks worth of crops were ruined in Mecklenburg, and from twelve +to fifteen in the district of Koenigsberg. + +Through the skilful application of artificial heat and moisture on a +large scale in structures protected from bad weather, the raising of +vegetables and all manner of fruit is possible at all seasons in large +quantities. The flower stores of our large cities have in mid-winter +floral exhibitions that vie with those of the summer. One of the most +remarkable advances made in the artificial raising of fruit is +exemplified by the artificial vineyard of Garden-Director Haupt in +Brieg, Silesia, which has found a number of imitators, and was itself +preceded long before by a number of others in other countries, England +among them. The arrangements and the results obtained in this vineyard +were so enticingly described in the "Vossische Zeitung" of September 27, +1890, that we have reproduced the account in extracts: + +"The glass-house is situated upon an approximately square field of 500 +square meters, i. e., one-fifth of an acre. It is 4.5 to 5 meters high, +and its walls face north, south, east and west. Twelve rows of double +fruit walls run inside due north and south. They are 1.8 meters apart +from each other and serve at the same time as supports to the flat roof. +In a bed 1.25 meters deep, resting on a bank of earth 25 centimeters +strong and which contains a net of drain and ventilation pipes,--a bed +'whose hard ground is rendered loose, permeable and fruitful through +chalk, rubbish, sand, manure in a state of decomposition, bonedust and +potash'--Herr Haupt planted against the walls three hundred and sixty +grape vines of the kind which yields the noblest grape juice in the +Rhinegau:--white and red Reissling and Tramine, white and blue +Moscatelle and Burgundy. + +"The ventilation of the place is effected by means of large fans, twenty +meters long, attached to the roof, besides several openings on the +side-walls. The fans can be opened and shut by means of a lever, +fastened on the roof provided with a spindle and winch, and they can be +made safe against all weather. For the watering of the vines 26 +sprinklers are used, which are fastened to rubber pipes 1.25 meters +long, and that hang down from a water tank. Herr Haupt introduced, +however, another ingenious contrivance for quickly and thoroughly +watering his 'wine-hall' and his 'vineyard', to wit, an artificial rain +producer. On high, under the roof, lie four long copper tubes, +perforated at distances of one-half meter. The streams of water that +spout upward through these openings strike small round sieves made of +window gauze and, filtered through these, are scattered in fine spray. +To thoroughly water the vines by means of the rubber pipes requires +several hours. But only one faucet needs to be turned by this second +contrivance and a gentle refreshing rain trickles down over the whole +place upon the grape vines, the beds and the granite flags of the walks. +The temperature can be raised from 8 to 10 degrees R. above the outside +air without any artificial contrivance, and simply through the natural +qualities of the glass-house. In order to protect the vines from that +dangerous and destructive foe, the vine louse, should it show itself, it +is enough to close the drain and open all the water pipes. The +inundation of the vines, thus achieved, the enemy can not withstand. The +glass roof and walls protect the vineyard from storms, cold, frost and +superfluous rain; in cases of hail, a fine wire-netting is spread over +the same; against drought the artificial rain system affords all the +protection needed. The vine-dresser of such a vineyard is his own +weather-maker, and he can laugh at all the dangers from the incalculable +whims and caprices of indifferent and cruel Nature,--dangers that ever +threaten with ruin the fruit of the vine cultivator. + +"What Herr Haupt expected happened. The vines thrived remarkably under +the uniformly warm climate. The grapes ripened to their fullest, and as +early as the fall of 1885 they yielded a juice not inferior to that +generally obtained in the Rhinegau in point of richness of sugar and +slightness of sourness. The grapes thrived equally the next year and +even during the unfavorable year of 1887. On this space, when the vines +have reached their full height of 5 meters, and are loaded with their +burden of swollen grapes, 20 hectoliters of wine can be produced yearly, +and the cost of a bottle of noble wine will not exceed 40 pennies. + +"There is no reason imaginable why this process should not be conducted +upon a large scale like any other industry. Glass-houses of the nature +of this one on one-fifth of an acre can be undoubtedly raised upon a +whole acre with equal facilities of ventilation, watering, draining and +rain-making. Vegetation will start there several weeks sooner than in +the open, and the vine-shoots remain safe from May frosts, rain and cold +while they blossom; from drought during the growth of the grapes; from +pilfering birds and grape thieves and from dampness while they ripen; +finally from the vine-louse during the whole year and can hang safely +deep into November and December. In his address, held in 1888 to the +Society for the Promotion of Horticulture, and from which I have taken +many a technical expression in this description of the 'Vineyard', the +inventor and founder of the same closed his words with this alluring +perspective of the future: 'Seeing that this vine culture can be carried +on all over Germany, especially on otherwise barren, sandy or stony +ground, such as, for instance, the worst of the Mark, that can be made +arable and watered, it follows that the great interests in the +cultivation of the soil receive fresh vigor from "vineyards under +glass." I would like to call this industry "the vineyard of the +future".' + +"Just as Herr Haupt has furnished the practical proof that on this path +an abundance of fine and healthy grapes can be drawn from the vine, he +has also proved by his own pressing of the same what excellent wine they +can yield. More thorough, more experienced, better experts and tried +wine-drinkers and connoisseurs than myself have, after a severe test, +bestowed enthusiastic praise upon the Reissling of the vintage of '88, +upon the Tramine and Moscatelle of the vintage of '89, and upon the +Burgundy of the vintage of '88, pressed from the grapes of this +'vineyard'. It should also be mentioned that this 'vineyard' also +affords sufficient space for the cultivation of other side and twin +plants. Herr Haupt raises between every two vines one rose bush, that +blossoms richly in April and May; against the east and west walls he +raises peaches, whose beauty of blossom must impart in April an +appearance of truly fairy charm to this wine palace." + +The enthusiasm with which the reporter describes this artificial +"vineyard" in a serious paper testifies to the deep impression made upon +him by this extraordinary artificial cultivation. There is nothing to +prevent similar establishments, on a much more stupendous scale and for +other branches of vegetation. The luxury of a double crop is obtainable +in many agricultural products. To-day all such undertakings are a +question of money, and their products are accessible only to the +privileged classes. A Socialist society knows no other question than +that of sufficient labor-power. If that is in existence, the work is +done in the interest of all. + +Another new invention on the field of food is that of Dr. Johann +Hundhausen of Hamm in Westphalia, who succeeded in extracting the +albumen of wheat--the secret of whose utilization in the legume was not +yet known--in the shape of a thoroughly nutritive flour. This is a +far-reaching invention. It is now possible to render the albumen of +plants useful in substantial form for human food. + +The inventor erected a large factory which produces vegetal albumen or +aleurone meal from 80 to 83 per cent. of albumen, and a second quality +of about 50 per cent. That the so-called aleurone meal represents a very +concentrated albuminous food appears from the following comparison with +our best elements of nourishment: + + + Carbon- + Water Albumen Fat hydrate Cellulose Salt + Aleurone meal 8.83 82.67 0.27 7.01 0.45 0.78 + Hen's eggs 73.67 12.55 12.11 0.55 0.55 1.12 + Beef 55.42 17.19 26.58 .... .... 1.08 + + +Aleurone meal is not only eaten directly, it is also used as a condiment +in all sorts of bakery products, as well as soups and vegetables. +Aleurone meal substitutes in a high degree meat preserves in point of +nutrition; moreover, it is by far the cheapest albumen obtainable +to-day. One kilogram of albumen costs: + + + In aleurone meal 1.45 marks + In white bread or white flour 4 to 4.5 " + In hen's eggs, according to the season 8 to 16 " + In beef 12 to 13 " + + +Beef, accordingly, is about eight times dearer, as albuminous food, than +aleurone meal; eggs five times as dear; white bread or common white +flour about three times as dear. Aleurone meal also has the advantage +that, with the addition of about one-eighth of the weight of a potato, +it not only furnishes a considerable quantity of albumen to the body, +but produces a complete digestion of the starch contained in the potato. +Dogs, that have a nose for albumen, eat aleurone meal with the same +avidity as meat, even if they otherwise refuse bread, and they are then +better able to stand hardships. + +Aleurone meal, as a dry vegetal albumen, is of great use as food on +ships, in fortresses and in military hospitals during war. It renders +large supplies of meat unnecessary. At present aleurone meal is a side +product in starch factories. Within short, starch will become a side +product of aleurone meal. A further result will be that the cultivation +of cereals will crowd out that of potatoes and other less productive +food plants; the volume of nutrition of a given field of wheat or rye is +tripled or quadrupled at one stroke. + +Dr. Rudolf Meyer of Vienna, whose attention was called by us to the +aleurone meal says[199] that he furnished himself with a quantity of it +and had it examined on June 19, 1893, by the bureau of experiments of +the Board of Soil Cultivation of the Kingdom of Bohemia. The examination +fully confirmed our statements. For further details Meyer's work should +be read. Meyer also calls attention to a discovery made by Otto Redemann +of Bockenheim near Frankfort-on-the-Main. After granulating the peanut +and removing its oil, he analyzed its component elements of nutrition. +The analysis showed 47 per cent. of albumen, 19 of fat and 19 of +starch--altogether 2,135 units of nutritious matter in one kilo. +According to this analysis the peanut is one of the most nutritious +vegetal products. The pharmacist Rud. Simpson of Mohrungen discovered a +process by which to remove the bitterness from the lupine, which, as may +be known, thrives best on sandy soil, and is used both as fodder and as +a fertilizer; and he then produced from it a meal, which, according to +expert authority, baked as bread tastes very good, is solid, is said to +be more nutritious than rye-bread, and, besides all that, much cheaper. + +Even under present conditions a regular revolution is plowing its way in +the matter of human food. _The utilization of all these discoveries is, +however, slow, for the reason that mighty classes--the farmer element +together with its social and political props--have the liveliest +interest in suppressing them._ To our agrarians, a good crop is to-day a +horror--although the same is prayed for in all the churches--because it +lowers prices. Consequently, they are no wise anxious for a double and +threefold nutritive power of their cereals; it would likewise tend to +lower prices. Present society is everywhere at fisticuffs with its own +development. + +The preservation of the soil in a state of fertility depends primarily +upon fertilization. The obtaining of fertilizers is, accordingly, for +future society also one of the principal tasks.[200] Manure is to the +soil what food is to man, and just as every kind of food is not equally +nourishing to man, neither is every kind of manure of equal benefit to +the soil. The soil must receive back exactly the same chemical +substances that it gave up through a crop; and the chemical substances +especially needed by a certain vegetable must be given to the soil in +larger quantities. Hence the study of chemistry and its practical +application will experience a development unknown to-day. + +Animal and human excrements are particularly rich in the chemical +elements that are fittest for the reproduction of human food. Hence the +endeavor must be to secure the same in the fullest quantity and cause +its proper distribution. On this head too modern society sins +grievously. Cities and industrial centers, that receive large masses of +foodstuffs, return to the soil but a slight part of their valuable +offal.[201] The consequence is that the fields, situated at great +distances from the cities and industrial centers, and which yearly send +their products to the same, suffer greatly from a dearth of manure; the +offal that these farms themselves yield is often not enough, because the +men and beasts who live on them consume but a small part of the product. +Thus frequently a soil-vandalism is practiced, that cripples the land +and decreases the crops. All countries that export agricultural products +mainly, but receive no manure back, inevitably go to ruin through the +gradual impoverishment of the soil. This is the case with Hungary, +Russia, the Danubian Principalities, North America, etc. Artificial +fertilizers, guano in particular, indeed substitute the offal of men and +beasts; but many farmers can not obtain the same in sufficient +quantity; it is too dear; at any rate, it is an inversion of nature to +import manure from great distances, while it is allowed to go to waste +nearby. + +Several years since has the Thomas-slag been recognized as an eminently +fit manure for certain soils. The manufacturers, however, who grind the +Thomas-slag into flour and carry it to market, have built a ring, and, +to the injury of the farming interests who make bitter complaints on +that score, they keep the prices high. Thus every progress is crippled +by greed in bourgeois society. Another and at present inexhaustable +source of fertilizers is offered by the deposits of potash in the +province of Saxony and contiguous regions. The Prussian State owns a +number of potash works and it also made the attempt to monopolize the +industry, to the end of raising the largest possible revenues for the +Treasury. + +If the opinion of Julius Hensel on the subject of fertilizers proves +correct, it will mean a revolution in the theory of fertilization, and a +complete saving of the expenses now made for the importation of +fertilizers, amounting for guano and Chile saltpeter to from 80 to 100 +million marks a year.[202] Hensel makes the emphatic claim, and produces +numerous proofs of the correctness of his views, that the mineral of our +mountains contain an inexhaustible supply of the best fertilizing +stuffs. Granite, porphyry, basalt, broken and ground up, spread upon the +fields or vineyards and furnished with a sufficiency of water, furnished +a fertilizer that excelled all others, even animal and human +refuse.[203] These minerals, he claims, contain all the elements for the +cultivation of plants: potash, chalk, magnesia, phosphoric, sulphuric +and silicic acids, and also hydrochlorides. According to Hensel, the +Sudeton, Riesen, Erz, Tichtel, Hartz, Rhone, Vogel, Taunus, Eisel and +Weser mountains, the woods of Thuringen, Spessart and Oden had an +inexhaustible supply of fertilizers. It will be literally possible to +"make bread out of stones." The dust and dirt of our highways also are, +according to Hensel, inexhaustible sources of the same blessing. In this +matter we are laymen and can not test the correctness of Hensel's +theories; a part of them, however, sound most plausible. Hensel charges +the manufacturers of and dealers in artificial fertilizers with +hostility to his discovery and with systematic opposition, because they +would suffer great loss. + +According to Heider, a healthy adult secretes on an average 48.8 +kilograms of solid and 438 of liquid matter a year. Estimated by the +present standard of the prices of manure, and if utilized without loss +by evaporation, etc., this offal represents a money value of 11.8 +marks. Calculating the population of Germany to be 50,000,000 in round +figures, and estimating the average value of the human offal at 8 marks, +the sum of 400,000,000 marks is obtained, which now is almost totally +lost to agriculture, owing to the present imperfect methods for +utilizing it. The great difficulty in the way of a full utilization of +these stuffs lies in the establishment of proper and extensive +provisions for their collection, and in the cost of transportation. +Relatively, this cost is now higher than the importation of guano from +far-away transmarine deposits, which, however, decline in mass in the +measure that the demand increases. Every living being, however, casts +off regularly an annual supply of manure about enough for a field that +yields food for one person. The enormous loss is obvious. A large +portion of the city excrement runs out into our rivers and streams, and +pollutes them. Likewise is the refuse from kitchens and factories, also +serviceable as manure, recklessly squandered. + +Future society will find means and ways to stop this waste. What is done +to-day in this direction is mere patchwork, and utterly inadequate. As +an illustration of what could be done to-day, may be cited the +canalization and the laying out of vast fields in the capital of the +Empire, on whose value, however, experts are of divided opinion. +Socialist society will solve the question more easily, due, in a great +measure, to the fact that _large cities will gradually cease to exist, +and population will decentralize_. + +No one will regard our modern rise of metropoles as a healthy +phenomenon. The modern system of manufacture and production in general, +steadily draws large masses of the population to the large cities.[204] +There is the seat of manufacture and commerce; there the avenues of +communication converge; there the owners of large wealth have their +headquarters, the central authorities, the military staffs, the higher +tribunals. There large institutions rear their heads--the academies of +art, large pleasure resorts, exhibitions, museums, theaters, concert +halls, etc. Hundreds are drawn thither by their professions, thousands +by pleasure, and many more thousands by the hope of easier work and an +agreeable life. + +But, speaking figuratively, the rise of metropolitan cities makes the +impression of a person whose girth gains steadily in size, while his +legs as steadily become thinner, and finally will be unable to carry the +burden. All around, in the immediate vicinity of the cities, the +villages also assume a city aspect, in which the proletariat is heaped +up in large masses. The municipalities, generally out of funds, are +forced to lay on taxes to the utmost, and still remain unable to meet +the demand made upon them. When finally they have grown up to the large +city and it up to them, they rush into and are absorbed by it, as +happens with planets that have swung too close to the sun. But the fact +does not improve the conditions of life. On the contrary, they grow +worse through the crowding of people in already overcrowded spaces. +These gatherings of masses--inevitable under modern development, and, to +a certain extent, the raisers of revolutionary centers,--will have +fulfilled their mission in Socialist society. Their gradual dissolution +then becomes necessary: _the current will then run the other way: +population will migrate from the cities to the country: it will there +raise new municipalities corresponding with the altered conditions, and +they will join their industrial with their agricultural activities_. + +So soon as--due to the complete remodeling and equipment of the means of +communication and transportation, and of the productive establishments, +etc., etc.--the city populations will be enabled to transfer to the +country all their acquired habits of culture, to find there their +museums, theaters, concert halls, reading rooms, libraries, etc.--just +so soon will the migration thither set in. Life will then enjoy all the +comforts of large cities, without their disadvantages. The population +will be housed more comfortably and sanitarily. The rural population +will join in manufacturing, the manufacturing population in agricultural +pursuits,--a change of occupation enjoyed to-day by but few, and then +often under conditions of excessive exertion. + +As on all other fields, bourgeois society is promoting this development +also: every year new industrial undertakings are transferred to the +country. The unfavorable conditions of large cities--high rents and high +wages--drive many employers to this migration. At the same time, the +large landlords are steadily becoming industrialists--manufacturers of +sugar, distillers of liquor, beer brewers, manufacturers of cement, +earthen wares, tiles, woodwork, paper goods, etc. In the new social +order offal of all sorts will then be easily furnished to agriculture, +especially through the concentration of production and the public +kitchens. Each community will, in a way, constitute a zone of culture; +it will, to a large extent, itself raise its necessaries of life. +Horticulture, perhaps the most agreeable of all practical occupations, +will then reach fullest bloom. The cultivation of vegetables, fruit +trees and bushes of all nature, ornamental flowers and shrubs--all offer +an inexhaustible field for human activity, a field, moreover, whose +nature excludes machinery almost wholly. + +_Thanks to the decentralization of the population, the existing contrast +and antagonism between the country and the city will also vanish._ + +The peasant, this Helot of modern times, hitherto cut off from all +cultural development through his isolation in the country, now becomes a +free being because he has fully become a limb of civilization.[205] The +wish, once expressed by Prince Bismarck, that he might see the large +cities destroyed, will be verified, but in a sense wholly different from +that which he had in mind.[206] + +If the preceding arguments are rapidly passed in review, it will be seen +that, with the abolition of private property in the means of production +and their conversion into social property, the mass evils, that modern +society reveals at every turn and which grow ever greater and more +intolerable under its sway, will gradually disappear. The over-lordship +of one class and its representatives ceases. Society applies its forces +planfully and controls itself. As, with the abolition of the wage system +the ground will be taken from under the exploitation of man by man, +likewise will it be taken from under swindle and cheating--the +adulteration of food, the stock exchange, etc.,--with the abolition of +private capitalism. The halls in the Temples of Mammon will stand +vacant; national bonds of indebtedness, stocks, pawn-tickets, mortgages, +deeds, etc., will have become so much waste paper. The words of +Schiller: "Let our book of indebtedness be annihilated, and the whole +world reconciled" will have become reality, and the Biblical maxim: "In +the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread" will now come into force for +the heroes of the stock exchange and the drones of capitalism as well. +Yet the labor that, as equal members of society they will have to +perform, will not oppress them: their bodily health will be materially +improved. The worry of property--said to be, judging from the pathetic +assurances of our employers and capitalists in general, harder to bear +than the uncertain and needy lot of the workingman--will be forever +removed from those gentlemen. The excitements of speculation, that breed +so many diseases of the heart and bring on so many strokes of apoplexy +among our exchange jobbers, and that render them nervous wrecks, will +all be saved to them. A life free from mental worry will be their lot +and that of our descendants; and in the end they will gladly accommodate +themselves thereto. + +With the abolition of private property and of class antagonism, the +State also gradually vanishes away;--it vanishes without being missed. + +"By converting the large majority of the population more and more into +proletarians, the capitalist mode of production creates the power, that, +under penalty of its own destruction, is forced to accomplish this +revolution. By urging more and more the conversion of the large, already +socialized means of production into State property, it points the path +for the accomplishment of this revolution.... The State was the official +representative of the whole society; it was the constitution of the +latter into a visible body; but it was so only in so far as it was the +State of that class which itself, at its time, represented the whole +society; in antiquity, the State of slave-holding citizens; in the +middle ages, the State of the feudal nobility; in our own days, the +State of the capitalist class. By at last becoming actually the +representative of the whole social body, it renders itself superfluous. +As soon as there is no longer any social class to be kept down; as soon +as, together with class rule and the individual struggle for life, +founded in the previous anarchy of production, the conflicts and +excesses that issued therefrom have been removed, there is nothing more +to be repressed, and the State or Government, as a special power of +repression, is no longer necessary. The first act, wherein the State +appears as the real representative of the whole body social--the seizure +of the means of production in the name of society--is also its last +independent act as State. The interference of the State in social +relations becomes superfluous in one domain after another, and falls of +itself into desuetude. The place of a government over persons is taken +by the administration of things and the conduct of the processes of +production. The State is not 'abolished'--_it dies out!_"[207] + +Along with the State, die out its representatives--cabinet ministers, +parliaments, standing armies, police and constables, courts, district +attorneys, prison officials, tariff and tax collectors, in short, the +whole political apparatus. Barracks, and such other military structures, +palaces of law and of administration, prisons--all will now await better +use. Ten thousand laws, decrees and regulations become so much rubbish; +they have only historic value. The great and yet so petty parliamentary +struggles, with which the men of tongue imagine they rule and guide the +world, are no more, they will have made room for administrative colleges +and delegations whose attention will be engaged in the best means of +production and distribution, in ascertaining the volume of supplies +needed, in introducing and applying effective improvements in art, in +architecture, in intercourse, in the process of production, etc. These +are all practical matters, visible and tangible, towards which everyone +stands objectively, there being no personal interests hostile to society +to affect their judgment. None has any interest other than the +collectivity, and that interest consists in instituting and providing +everything in the best, most effective and most profitable manner. + +The hundreds of thousands of former representatives of the State pass +over into the various trades, and help with their intelligence and +strength to increase the wealth and comforts of society. Henceforth +there are known neither political crimes nor common ones. There are no +more thieves, seeing that private property has ceased to be in the means +of production, and everyone can now satisfy his wants with ease and +comfort by work. Tramps and vagabonds likewise cease to be; they are the +product of a social system based on private property; the former cease +to be with the latter. And murder? Why? None can grow rich at the +expense of another. Even murder out of hatred and revenge flows directly +or indirectly from the modern social system. Perjury, false testimony, +cheating, thefts of inheritance, fraudulent failures? There is no +private property on and against which to commit these crimes. Arson? Who +is to derive pleasure or satisfaction therefrom, seeing that society +removes from him all sources of hatred? Counterfeiting? Why, money has +become a chimera, love's labor would be lost. Contempt for religion? +Nonsense. It is left to the "omnipotent and good God" to punish him who +should offend Him--provided there be still controversies on the +existence of God. + +Thus all the cornerstones of the present "order" become myths. Parents +will tell their children stories on those heads, like legends from olden +days. The narrations of the persecutions, that men with new ideas are +to-day overwhelmed with, will sound to them just as the stories of the +burning of heretics and witches sound to us to-day. The names of all the +great men, who to-day distinguish themselves by their persecutions of +the new ideas, and who are applauded by their narrow-minded +contemporaries, are forgotten and blown over, and they are run across +only by the historian who may happen to dive into the past. What remarks +may escape him, we care not to tell, seeing that, unhappily, we do not +yet live in an age where man is free to breathe. + +As with the State, so with "Religion."[208] It is not "abolished." God +will not be "dethroned"; religion will not be "torn out of the hearts of +people"; nor will any of the silly charges against the Socialists +materialize. Such mistaken policies the Socialists leave to the +Bourgeois ideologists, who resorted to such means in the French +Revolution and, of course, suffered miserable shipwreck. Without any +violence whatever, and without any manner of oppression of thought, +religion will gradually vanish. + +Religion is the transcendental reflection of the social conditions of +given epochs. In the measure that human development advances and society +is transformed, religion is transformed along with it. It is, as Marx +puts it, a popular striving after the illusory happiness that +corresponds with a social condition which needs such an illusion.[209] +The illusion wanes so soon as real happiness is descried, and the +possibility of its realization penetrates the masses. The ruling classes +endeavor, in their own interest, to prevent this popular conception. +Hence they seek to turn religion into a means to preserve their +domination. The purpose appears fully in their maxim: "The people must +be held to religion." This particular business becomes an official +function in a society that rests upon class rule. A caste is formed that +assumes this function and that turns the whole acumen of their minds +towards preserving, and enlarging such a social structure, seeing that +thereby their own power and importance are increased. + +Starting in fetishism at low stages of civilization and primitive social +conditions, religion becomes polytheism at a higher, and monotheism at a +still higher stage. It is not the gods that create men, it is man who +turns the gods into God. "In the image of himself (man) he created Him" +(God), not the opposite way. Monotheism has also suffered changes. It +has dissolved into a pantheism that embraces and permeates the +universe--and it volatilizes day by day. Natural science reduced to myth +the dogma of the creation of the earth in six days; astronomy, +mathematics, physics have converted heaven into a structure of air, and +the stars, once fastened to the roof of heaven in which angels had their +abodes, into fixed stars and planets whose very composition excludes all +angelic life. + +The ruling class, finding itself threatened in its existence, clings to +religion as a prop of all authority, just as every ruling class has done +heretofore.[210] The bourgeoisie or capitalist class itself believes in +nothing. Itself, at every stage of its development and through the +modern science that sprang from none but its own lap, has destroyed all +faith in religion and authority. Its faith is only a pretence; and the +Church accepts the help of this false friend because itself is in need +of help. "Religion is necessary for the people." + +No such considerations animate Socialistic Society. Human progress and +unadulterated science are its device. If any there be who has religious +needs, he is free to please himself in the company of those who feel +like him. It is a matter that does not concern society. Seeing that the +clergyman's own mind will be improved by work, the day will dawn to him +also when he will realize that _the highest aim is to be man_. + +Ethics and morality exist without organized religion. The contrary is +asserted only by weak-minded people or hypocrites. Ethics and morality +are the expression of conceptions that regulate the relations of man to +man, and their mutual conduct. Religion embraces the relations of man +with supernal beings. And, just as with religion, moral conceptions also +are born of existing social conditions at given times. Cannibals regard +the eating of human beings as highly moral; Greeks and Romans regarded +slavery as moral; the feudal lord of the Middle Ages regarded serfdom as +moral; and to-day the modern capitalist considers highly moral the +institution of wage-slavery, the flaying of women with night work and +the demoralization of children by factory labor.[211] Here we have four +different social stages, and as many different conceptions of morality, +and yet in none does the highest moral sense prevail. Undoubtedly the +highest moral stage is that in which men stand to one another free and +equal; that in which the principle: "What you do not wish to be done +unto you, do not unto others" is observed inviolate throughout the +relations of man to man. In the Middle Ages, the genealogical tree was +the standard; to-day it is property; in future society, the standard of +man is man. And the future is Socialism in practice. + + * * * * * + +The late Reichstag delegate, Dr. Lasker, delivered, in the seventies, an +address in Berlin, in which he arrived at the conclusion that an equal +level of education for all members of society was possible. Dr. Lasker +was an anti-Socialist a rigid upholder of private property and of the +capitalist system of production. The question of education is to-day, +however, a question of money. Under such conditions, an equal level of +education for all is an impossibility. Exceptional persons, situated in +relatively favorable conditions, may, by dint of overcoming all +difficulties and by the exertion of great energy, not given to +everybody, succeed in acquiring a higher education. The masses never, so +long as they live in a state of social oppression.[212] + +In the new social order, the conditions of existence are equal for all. +Wants and inclinations differ, and, differences being grounded in the +very nature of man, will continue so to be. Each member, however, can +live and develop under the same favorable conditions that obtain for +all. The uniformity, generally imputed to Socialism, is, as so many +other things, false and nonsensical. Even if Socialism did so wish it, +the wish were absurd; it would come in conflict with the nature of man; +Socialism would have to give up the idea of seeing society develop +according to its principles.[213] Aye, even if Socialism were to succeed +in overpowering society and to force upon it unnatural conditions, it +would not be long before such conditions, felt to be shackles, would be +snapped, and Socialism would be done for. Society develops out of +itself, according to laws latent in it, and it acts accordingly.[214] + +One of the principal tasks of the new social system will be the +education of the rising generation in keeping with its improved +opportunities. Every child that is born, be it male or female, is a +welcome addition to society. Society sees therein the prospect of its +own perpetuity, of its own further development. It, therefore, also +realizes the duty of providing for the new being according to its best +powers. The first object of its attention must, consequently, be the one +that gives birth to the new being--the mother. A comfortable home; +agreeable surroundings and provisions of all sorts, requisite to this +stage of maternity; a careful nursing--such are the first requirements. +The mother's breast must be preserved for the child as long as possible +and necessary. This is obvious. Moleschott, Sonderegger, all hygienists +and physicians are agreed that nothing can fully substitute the mother's +nourishment. + +People who, like Eugen Richter, indignate at the idea of a young mother +being placed in a lying-in establishment, where she is surrounded by all +that to-day is possible only to the very wealthiest, and which even +these cannot furnish in the fullness attainable at institutions +especially equipped for the purpose--such people we wish to remind of +the fact that, to-day, at least four-fifths of the population are born +under the most primitive circumstances and conditions, that are a +disgrace to our civilization. Of the remaining one-fifth of our mothers, +only a minority is able to enjoy the nursing and comforts that should be +bestowed upon a woman in that state. _The fact is that in cities with +excellent provisions for child-birth--Berlin for instance, and all +University cities--even to-day not a few women resort to such +institutions as soon as they feel their time approaching, and await +their delivery. Unfortunately, however, the expenses at such +institutions are so high, that but few women can use them, while others +are held back by prejudice._ Here again we have an instance of how +everywhere bourgeois society carries in its own lap the germ of the +future order. + +For the rest, maternity among the rich has a unique taste; the maternal +duties are transferred as soon as possible to a _proletarian nurse_. As +is well known, the Wendt Lausitz (Spreewald) is the region that the +women of the Berlin bourgeoisie, who are unwilling or unable to nurse +their own babies, draw their wet-nurses from. The "cultivation of +nurses" is there carried on as a peculiar trade. It consists in the +girls of the district causing themselves to be impregnated, with the end +in view of being able, after the birth of their own children, to hire +themselves out as nurses to rich Berlin families. Girls who give birth +to three or four illegitimate children, so as to be able to go out as +nurses, are no rarity; and they are sought after by the males of the +Spreewald according to their earnings in this business. Such a system is +utterly repellant from the view-point of bourgeois morality; from the +view-point of the family interests of the bourgeoisie it is considered +praiseworthy and desirable. + +So soon as in the society of the future the child has grown up, it falls +in with the other children of its own age for play, and under common +surveillance. All that can be furnished for its mental and physical +culture is at hand, according to the measure of general intelligence. +Whosoever has watched children knows that they are brought up best in +the company of their equals, their sense of gregariousness and instinct +of imitation being generally strong. The smaller are strongly inclined +to take the older ones as example, and rather follow them than their own +parents. These qualities can be turned to advantage in education.[215] +The playgrounds and kindergartens are followed by a playful introduction +into the preliminaries of knowledge and of the various manual +occupations. This is followed up by agreeable mental and physical work, +connected with gymnastic exercises and free play in the skating rink and +swimming establishments; drills, wrestling, and exercises for both sexes +follow and supplement one another. The aim is to raise a healthy, hardy, +physically and mentally developed race. Step by step follows the +induction of the youth in the various practical pursuits--manufacturing, +horticulture, agriculture, the technique of the process of production, +etc.; nor is the development of the mind neglected in the several +branches of science. + +The same process of "dusting" and improvement observed in the system of +production, is pursued in that of education; obsolete, superfluous and +harmful methods and subjects are dropped. The knowledge of natural +things, introduced in a natural way, will spur the desire for knowledge +infinitely more than a system of education in which one subject is at +odds with another, and each cancels the other, as, for instance, when +"religion" is taught on one hand, and on the other natural sciences and +natural history. The equipment of the school rooms and educational +establishments is in keeping with the high degree of culture of the new +social order. All the means of education and of study, clothing and +support are furnished by society; no pupil is at a disadvantage with +another.[216] That is another chapter at which our "men of law and +order" bristle up indignantly.[217] "The school-house is to be turned +into barracks; parents are to be deprived of all influence upon their +children!" is the cry of our adversaries. All false! Seeing that in the +future society parents will have infinitely more time at their disposal +than is the case to-day with the large majority--we need but to call +attention to the ten to fifteen hour day of many workingmen in the post +office, the railroads, the prisons, the police department, and to the +demands made upon the time of the industrial workers, the small farmers, +merchants, soldiers, many physicians, etc.--it follows that they will be +able to devote themselves to their children in a measure that is +impossible to-day. _Moreover, the parents themselves have the regulation +of education in their hands; it is they who determine the measures that +shall be adopted and introduced. We are then living in a thoroughgoing +democratic society. The Boards of Education, which will exist, of +course, are made up of the parents themselves--men and women--and of +those following the educational profession._ Does any one imagine they +will act against their own interests? That happens only to-day when the +State seeks but to enforce its own exclusive interests. + +Our opponents furthermore demean themselves as though to-day one of the +greatest pleasures of parents was to have their children about them all +day long, and to educate them. It is just the reverse in reality. What +hardships and cares are to-day caused by the education of a child, even +when a family has but one of them, those parents are best able to judge +who are themselves so situated. Several children, in a manner, +facilitate education, but then again they give rise to so much more +trouble that their father and especially the mother, who is the one to +bear the heaviest burden, is happy when the school hour arrives, and +thus the house is rid of the children for a portion of the day. Most +parents can afford but a very imperfect education to their children. +The large majority of fathers and mothers lack time; the former have +their business, the latter their household to attend to, and their time +is furthermore taken up with social duties. Even when they actually have +time, in innumerable instances they lack the ability. How many parents +are able to follow the course of their children's education at school, +and to take them under the arm in their schoolwork at home? Only few. +The mother, who in most such cases has greater leisure at her disposal, +lacks capacity; she has not herself received sufficient training. +Moreover, the method and the courses of education change so frequently +that these are strange to the parents. + +Again, the home facilities are generally so poor that the children enjoy +neither the necessary comfort, nor order, nor quiet to do their +schoolwork at home, or to find there the needed aid. Everything +necessary is generally wanting. The home is narrow and overcrowded; +small and grown-up brothers and sisters move about over that narrow +space; the furniture is not what it should be, and furnishes no +facilities to the child for study. Not infrequently light, also air and +heat are wanting; the materials for study and work, if there be any of +them, are poor; frequently even hunger gnaws at the stomach of the child +and robs it of mind and pleasure for its work. As a supplement to this +picture, the fact must be added that hundreds of thousands of children +are put to all manner of work, domestic and industrial, that embitters +their youth and disables them from fulfilling their educational task. +Again, often do children have to overcome the resistance of +narrow-minded parents when they try to take time for their schoolwork or +for play. In short, the obstacles are so numerous that, if they are all +taken into account, the wonder is the youth of the land is as well +educated. It is an evidence of the health of human nature, and of its +inherent ambition after progress and perfection. + +Bourgeois society itself recognizes some of these evils by the +introduction of public education and by facilitating the same still more +through the free supply, here and there, of school material--two things +that, as late as about the year 1885 the then Minister of Education of +Saxony designated as a "Social Democratic demand," and as such flung the +designation in the face of the Socialist Representative in the Landtag. +In France, where, after long neglect, popular education advanced so much +more rapidly, progress has gone still further. At least in Paris, the +school children are fed at public expense. The poor obtain food free, +and the children of parents who are better circumstanced contribute +thereto a slight tax toward the common treasury--a communistic +arrangement that has proved satisfactory to parents and children alike. + +An evidence of the inadequacy of the present school system--it is +unable to fulfil even the moderate demands made upon it--is the fact +that thousands upon thousands of children _are unable to fulfil their +school duties by reason of insufficient food_. In the winter of 1893-94, +it was ascertained in Berlin that _in one school district alone 3,600 +children went to school without breakfast_. In such shocking conditions +there are hundreds of thousands of children in Germany to-day at certain +seasons of the year. With millions of others the nourishment is utterly +insufficient. For all these children public alimentation and clothing +also would be a godsend. A commonwealth that pursued such a policy and +thus, by the systematic nourishing and clothing of the children, would +bring humanity home to them, is not likely to see the sight of +"penitentiaries." Bourgeois society cannot deny the existence of such +misery, which itself has called forth. Hence we see compassionate souls +foregathering in the establishment of breakfast and soup houses, to the +end of partially filling by means of charity what it were the duty of +society to fill in full. Our conditions are wretched--_but still more +wretched is the mental make-up of those who shut their eyes to such +facts_. + +The system of reducing so-called home school work, and of having the +same done at school under the supervision of a teacher is progressing; +the inadequacy of home facilities is realized. Not only is the richer +pupil at an advantage over the poorer by reason of his position, but +also by reason of his having private teachers and such other assistance +at his command. On the other hand, however, laziness and shiftlessness +are promoted with the rich pupil by reason of the effects of wealth, +luxury and superfluity; these make knowledge appear superfluous to him, +and often they place before him such immoral sights that he easily +slides into temptation. He who every day and every hour hears the +praises sung of rank, position, money, property, and that they are +all-essential, acquires abnormal conceptions regarding man and his +duties, and regarding State and social institutions. + +Closely looked into, bourgeois society has no reason to feel indignant +at the communistic education, which Socialists aim at. Bourgeois society +has itself partly introduced such a system for the privileged classes, +but only as a caricature of the original. Look at the cadet and alumni +establishments, at the seminaries, at the schools for clergymen, and at +the homes for military orphans. In them many thousands of children, +partly from the so-called upper classes, are educated in a one-sided and +wrongful manner, and in strict cloister seclusion; they are trained for +certain specific occupations. And again, many members of the better +situated classes, who live in the country or in small places as +physicians, clergymen, government employes, factory owners, landlords, +large farmers, etc., send their children to boarding schools in the +large cities and barely get a glimpse of them, except possibly during +vacations. + +There is, accordingly, an obvious contradiction between the indignation +expressed by our adversaries at a communistic system of education and at +"the estrangement of children from their parents," on the one hand, and +their own conduct, on the other, in _introducing the identical system +for their own children--only in a bungling, absolutely false and +inadequate style_. + +In equal tempo with the increased opportunities for education must the +number of teachers increase. In the matter of the education of the +rising generations the new social order must proceed in a way similar to +that which prevails in the army, in the drilling of soldiers. There is +one "under-officer" to each eight or ten men. With one teacher to every +eight or ten pupils, the future may expect the results that should be +aimed at. + +The introduction of mechanical activities in the best equipped +workshops, in garden and field work, will constitute a good part of the +education of the youth. It will all be done with the proper change and +without excessive exertion, to the end of reaching the most perfectly +developed beings. + +Education must also be equal and in common for both sexes. Their +separation is justifiable only in the cases where the difference in sex +makes such separation absolutely necessary. In this manner of education +the United States is far ahead of us. There education of the two sexes +is in common from the primary schools up to the universities. Not only +is education free, but also school materials, inclusive of the +instruments needed in manual training and in cooking, as also in +chemistry, physics, and the articles needed for experimenting and at +bench-work. To many schools are attached gymnastic halls, bath houses, +swimming basins and playgrounds. In the higher schools, the female sex +is trained in gymnastics, swimming, rowing and marching.[218] + +The Socialist system of education, properly regulated and ordered and +placed under the direction of a sufficient force, continues up to the +age when society shall determine that its youth shall enter upon their +majority. Both sexes are fully qualified to exercise all the rights and +fill all the duties that society demands from its adult members. Society +now enjoys the certainty of having brought up only thorough, fully +developed members, human beings to whom nothing natural is strange, as +familiar with their nature as with the nature and conditions of society +which they join full-righted. + +The daily increasing excesses of our modern youth--all of them the +inevitable consequences of the present tainted and decomposing state of +society--will have vanished. Impropriety of conduct, disobedience, +immorality and rude pleasure-seeking, such as is especially noticeable +among the youth of our higher educational institutions--the gymnasia, +polytechnics, universities, etc.--vices that are incited and promoted by +the existing demoralization and unrest of domestic life, by the +poisonous influence of social life such as the immoral literature that +wealth procures--all these will likewise have vanished. In equal measure +will disappear the evil effects of the modern factory system and of +improper housing, that dissoluteness and self-assurance of youths at an +age when the human being is most in need of reining and education in +self-control. All these evils future society will escape without the +need of coercive measures. The nature of the social institutions and of +the mental atmosphere, that will spring from them and that will rule +society itself, rendering impossible the breaking out of such evils; as +in Nature disease and the destruction of organisms can appear only when +there is a state of decay that invites disease; so likewise in society. + +No one will deny that our present system of instruction and of education +suffers of serious defects--the higher schools and educational +establishments even more so than the lower. The village school is a +paragon of moral health compared with the college; common schools for +the manual training of poor girls are paragons of morality compared with +many leading boarding schools for girls. The reason is not far to seek. +In the upper classes of society, every aspiration after higher human +aims is smothered; _those classes no longer have any ideal_. As a +consequence of the absence of ideals and of noble endeavor, an unbounded +passion for physical indulgence and hankering after excesses spread +their physical and moral gangrene in all directions. How else can the +youth be that is brought up in such an atmosphere? Purely material +indulgence, without stint and without bounds, is the only aim that it +sees or knows of. Why exert themselves, if the wealth of their parents +makes all effort seem superfluous? The maximum of education with a large +majority of the sons of our bourgeoisie consists in passing the +examinations for the one year's service in the army. Is this goal +reached, then they imagine to have climbed Pelion and Ossa, and regard +themselves at least as demi-gods. Have they a reserve officer's +certificate in their pocket, then their pride and arrogance knows no +limit. The influence exercised by this generation--a generation it has +become by its numbers--weak in the character and knowledge of its +members, but strong in their designs and the spirit of graft, +characterizes the present period as the "Age of Reserve Officers." Its +peculiarities are: Characterlessness and ignorance, but a strong will; +servility upward, arrogance and brutality downward. + +The daughters of our bourgeoisie are trained as show-dolls, fools of +fashion and drawingroom-ladies, on the chase after one enjoyment after +another, until, finally, surfeited with _ennui_, they fall a prey to all +imaginable real and supposed diseases. Grown old, they become devotees +and beads-women, who turn up their eyes at the corruption of the world +and preach asceticism. As regards the lower classes, the effort is on +foot to lower still more the level of their education. The proletariat +might become too knowing, it might get tired of its vassalage, and might +rebel against its earthly gods. The more stupid the mass, all the easier +is it to control and rule. + +And thus modern society stands before the question of instruction and +education as bewildered as it stands before all other social questions. +What does it? It calls for the rod; preaches "religion," that is, +submission and contentment to those who are now but too submissive; +teaches abstinence where, due to poverty, abstinence has become +compulsory in the utmost necessaries of life. Those who in the rudeness +of their nature rear up brutally are taken to "reformatories," that +usually are controlled by pietistic influences;--and the pedagogic +wisdom of modern society has about reached the end of its tether. + +From the moment that the rising generation in future society shall have +reached its majority, all further growth is left to the individual: +society will feel sure that each will seize the opportunity to unfold +the germs that have been so far developed in him. Each does according as +inclination and faculties serve him. Some choose one branch of the ever +more brilliant natural sciences: anthropology, zoology, botany, +mineralogy, geology, physics, chemistry, prehistoric sciences, etc.; +others take to the science of history, philologic researches, art; +others yet become musicians from special gifts, or painters, or +sculptors, or actors. The future will have "guild artists" as little as +"guild scientists" or "guild artisans." Thousands of brilliant talents, +hitherto kept down, unfold and assert themselves and display their +knowledge and ability wherever opportunity offers. No longer are there +any musicians, actors, artists and scientists by profession; they will +exist only by inspiration, talent and genius; and the achievements of +these bid fair to excel modern achievements on these fields as vastly as +the industrial, technical and agricultural achievements of future +society are certain to excel those of to-day. An era of art and sciences +will spring up such as the world never saw before; nor will its +creations fail to correspond to such a _renaissance_. + +What transformation and new-birth science will experience when +conditions shall have become worthy of the human race, no less a man +than the late Richard Wagner foresaw and expressed as early as 1850 in +his work "Art and Revolution." This work is all the more significant +seeing that it made its appearance immediately after a revolution that +had just been beaten down, that Wagner took part in, and by reason of +which he had to flee from Dresden. In this book Wagner foretells what +the future will bring on. He turns directly to the working class as the +one called upon to emancipate true art. Among other things he says: + +"When, with the free human race of the future, the earning of a living +shall no longer be the object of life; when, on the contrary, thanks to +the rise of a new faith, or of higher knowledge, the gaining of a +livelihood by means of compatible work shall be raised above all +uncertainty;--in short, when industry shall no longer be our master but +our servant, then will we place the object of life in the pleasure of +life, and seek to make our children fit and worthy through education. An +education that starts from the exercise of strength, from the care of +the beauty of the body will, due to the undisturbed love for the child +and to the joy experienced at the thriving of its charms, become purely +artistic; and thus in some sense or another every being will be an +artist in truth. The diversity of natural inclinations will develop the +most manifold aptitudes into an unprecedented wealth of beauty!"--at all +points a Socialist line of thought, and fully in keeping with the +arguments herein made. + + * * * * * + +Social life in future will be ever more public. What the trend is may be +gathered from the wholly changed position of woman, compared with former +times. Domestic life will be confined to what is absolutely necessary, +while the widest field will be opened to the gratification of the social +instincts. Large gathering places for the holding of addresses and +discussions, and for conferring upon all social questions, over which +the collectivity has the sovereign word; play, meal and reading rooms; +libraries, concert halls and theaters; museums and gymnastic +institutions; parks, promenades, public baths, educational institutions +of all sorts; laboratories, etc.;--all of these, erected in the best and +equipped in the fittest manner possible, will afford richest opportunity +for all manner of intercourse, of art and of science to achieve the +highest. Likewise will the institutions for the nursing of the sick, the +weak, the infirm through old age, meet the highest demands. + +How little will then our much boasted about age seem in comparison. +This fawning for favor and sunshine from above; this cringing and +dog-like frame of mind; this mutual struggle of enviousness, with the +aid of the most hateful and vilest means, for the privileged place. All +along the suppression of convictions; the veiling of good qualities, +that might otherwise give offence; the emasculation of character; the +affectation of opinions and feelings;--in short, all those qualities +that may be summed up in words "cowardice and characterlessness" are now +every day more pronounced. Whatever elevates and ennobles +man--self-esteem, independence and incorruptibility of opinion and +convictions, freedom of utterance--modern conditions generally turn into +defects and crimes. Often do these qualities work the ruin of their +owners, unless he suppresses them. Many do not even realize their +degradation; they have grown accustomed thereto. The dog regards it a +matter of course that he has a master, who, when out of temper, visits +him with the whip. + +Such altered conditions in social life will impart a radically different +aspect to literary productions. Theological literature, whose entries +are at present most numerous in the yearly catalogues of literary works, +drops out in company with its juridic cousin,--there is no more interest +in the former, and no more use for the latter. All the literary +productions that refer to the struggle over political institutions will +be seen no more,--their subject-matter has ceased to be. The study of +all such matters will belong to the history of civilization. The vast +mass of inane productions--the evidences of a spoiled taste, often +possible only through sacrifices at the altar of the author's +vanity--are gone. Even speaking from the view-point of present +conditions, it may be said without exaggeration that four-fifths of all +literary productions could disappear from the market without loss to a +single interest of civilization. Such is the vastness of the mass of +superficial or harmful books, palpable trash, extant to-day on the field +of literature. + +Belles-lettres and the press will be equally hit. There is nothing +sorrier, more spiritless or superficial than the large majority of our +newspaper literature. If our stage in civilization and scientific +attainments were to be gauged by the contents of that set of papers, it +would be low indeed. The actions of men and the condition of things are +judged from a view-point that corresponds with centuries gone by, and +that has been long since proved laughable and untenable by science. A +considerable portion of our journalists are people who, as Bismarck once +put it, "missed their calling," but whose education and standard of +wages fit with bourgeois interests. Furthermore, these newspapers, as +well as the majority of the belles-lettric magazines, have the mission +of circulating impure advertisements; the interests of their purses are +on this field the same as on the former: the material interests of +their owners determine their contents. + +On an average, belles-lettric literature is not much superior to +newspaper literature. Its forte is to cultivate sex excesses: it renders +homage either to shallow enlightenment or to stale prejudices and +superstitions. Its general purpose is to represent the capitalist order +of society, all its shortcomings notwithstanding, which are conceded in +trifles, as the best of all possible worlds. + +On this extensive and important field, future society will institute +some thorough-going housecleaning. Science, truth, beauty, the contest +of the intellect after the best will rule supreme. Everyone who achieves +what is worthy will enjoy the opportunity to exercise his faculties. He +no longer depends upon the favor of a publisher, moneyed considerations +or prejudice, but only upon the impartial judgment of experts whom he +himself joins in electing, and from whose unfavorable decision he can +always appeal to the general vote of the whole community,--all of which +is to-day against him or impossible. The childish notion that all +contest of intellect would be held down in a Socialist society they +alone can maintain who hold the bourgeois world to be the most perfect +social system, and who, out of enmity to Socialism seek to slander and +to belittle it. A society, that rests upon full democratic equality, +neither knows nor tolerates oppression. Only the fullest freedom of +thought makes uninterrupted progress possible, and this is the principle +of life with society. Moreover, it is an act of deception to represent +bourgeois society as the paladin of true freedom of thought. Parties +that represent class interests will publish in the press only that which +does not injure their class' own interests, and woe to him who would +attempt the contrary. His social ruin would be sealed, as every one +knows. In what manner publishers handle literary work that does not suit +them, every writer almost could tell a tale of woe on. Finally, the +German press and criminal laws betray the spirit that animates our +ruling and leading classes. Actual freedom of thought is looked upon by +them as the most dangerous of evils. + + * * * * * + +The individual is to develop himself fully. That must be the law of +human association. Accordingly, the individual may not remain fettered +to the soil on which the accident of birth first placed him. Men and the +world should be known, not from books and papers only: personal +observation, practical experience are also needed. Accordingly, future +society must enable everyone to do what is now done by many, although in +most instances it happens to-day under the whip that want cracks. The +wish for change in all the relations of life is a craving strongly +stamped in man. It springs from the instinct after perfection, inherent +in all organic beings. The plant that stands in a dark room, stretches +and strains, as though endowed with consciousness, towards the light +that falls from some crevice. Just so with man. An instinct implanted in +man, consequently a natural instinct, must be rationally gratified. The +conditions of future society will not balk the instinct after change; on +the contrary, they promote its gratification with all: it is facilitated +by the highly developed system of intercommunication; it is demanded by +international relations. In future days, infinitely more people will +travel through the world, and for the most varied of purposes, than +happens to-day. + +In order to meet all demands, society furthermore requires an ample +provision of all the necessaries of life. Society regulates its hours of +work accordingly. It makes them longer or shorter, according as its +needs or the season of the year may suggest. It may turn its strength at +one season mainly to agriculture, at another mainly to industrial and +similar production. It directs its labor forces as occasion may require. +Through the combination of numerous forces, equipped with the best +technical provisions, it can carry through with swiftness, aye, +playingly, undertakings that to-day seem impossible. + +As society assumes the care of its youth, so it does of its aged, sick +or invalid members. It guards whoever, by whatever circumstance, has +become unable to work. There is in this no question of _charity_, but of +_duty_; not of an alms morsel, but of an assistance born of every +possible consideration due him, who, during the time of his strength and +ability to work, fulfilled his duties to the commonwealth. The setting +sun of old age is beautiful with all that society can offer: everyone +being buoyed up with the confidence that he will some day himself enjoy +what now he affords to others. No longer are the aged now disturbed with +the thought that others are awaiting their death in order to "inherit;" +likewise has the fear vanished from the mind of man that, grown old and +helpless, he will be cast off like a squeezed lemon. Man now feels +himself left neither to the benevolence of his children, nor to the alms +of the community. What the condition is in which most parents find +themselves, who depend in old age upon the support of their children, is +notorious. How demoralizing is not the effect of the hope of inheriting +upon the children, and, in a still greater degree, upon relatives! What +vile qualities are not awakened; and how many are not the crimes that +such hopes have led to!--murder, forgery, perjury, extortion, etc. +Capitalist society has no reason to be proud of its laws of +inheritance; to them are ascribable part of the crimes that are +committed every year; and yet the large majority of people have nothing +to bequeath or to inherit.[219] + +The moral and physical condition of future society; the nature of its +work, homes, food, clothing, its social life--everything will greatly +contribute to avoid accidents, sickness, debility. Natural death by the +decline of the vigor of life will become the rule. The conviction that +"heaven" is on earth, and that to be dead means to be ended, will cause +people to lead rational lives.[220] He enjoys most who enjoys longest. +None know how to appreciate a long life better than the very clergy who +prepare people for the "after world;" a life free from care makes it +possible for these gentlemen to reach the highest age average.[221] + +Life requires, first of all, food and drink. Friends of the so-called +"natural way of living" often ask why is Socialism indifferent to +vegetarianism. The question causes us to take up the subject in a few +lines. Vegetarianism, that is, the doctrine that prescribes an exclusive +vegetal diet, found its first supporters in such circles as are in the +agreeable position of being able to choose between a vegetal and an +animal diet. To the large majority of people there is no such choice: +they are forced to live according to their means, the meagerness of +which in many instances keeps them almost exclusively to a vegetal diet, +and to the least nutritive, at that. With our working class population +in Silesia, Saxony, Thuringen, etc., the potato is the principal +nourishment; even bread comes in only secondarily; meat, and then only +of poor quality, is hardly ever seen on the table. Even the largest part +of the rural population, although they are the raisers of cattle, rarely +partake of meat: they must sell the cattle in order to satisfy other +pressing wants with the money obtained therefor. + +For the innumerable people, who are compelled to live as vegetarians, an +occasional solid beefsteak, or good leg of mutton, would be a decided +improvement in the diet. When vegetarianism directs itself against the +overrating of the nutrition contained in meat, it is right; it is wrong, +however, when it combats the partaking of meat as harmful and fatal, +mainly on sentimental grounds--such as "the nature of man forbids the +killing of animals and to partake of a corpse." In order to live +comfortably and undisturbed, we are compelled to declare war upon and +destroy a large number of living beings in the shape of all manner of +vermin; in order not to be ourselves eaten up, we must undertake the +killing and extirpating of wild animals. The quiet toleration of those +"good friends of man," the domestic animals, would increase the number +of these "good friends" in a few decades so immensely that they would +"devour" us by robbing us of food. Neither is the claim true that a +vegetarian diet produces mildness of temperament. The "beast" was +awakened even in the mild, vegetarian Hindoo when the severity of the +Englishmen drove him to mutiny. + +In our opinion Sonderegger hits the nail on the head when he says: +"There is no order of rank in the matter of the different kinds of food; +but there is an unalterable law in the matter of combining their several +nutritious qualities." It is true that no one can nourish himself on an +exclusively meat diet, but that he can on an exclusively vegetal diet, +provided always he can select to suit; but neither would any one be +satisfied with one vegetable, let it be the most nutritive. Beans, for +instance, peas, lentils, in short, the leguminosae, are the most +nutritive of all food. Nevertheless, to be forced to feed exclusively on +them--which is said to be possible--were a torture. Karl Marx mentions +in "Capital" that the Chilian mine-owners compel their workingmen to eat +beans year in and year out, because the food imparts to them great +strength and enables them to carry burdens that they could not carry +with any other diet. Despite its nutrition, the workingmen turn against +such food, but get none other, and are thus obliged to rest content +therewith. Under no circumstances do the happiness and well-being of +people depend upon a certain diet, as is claimed by the fanatics among +the vegetarians. Climate, custom, individual tastes are the determining +factors. + +In the measure that civilization advances, a vegetal diet progressively +takes the place of the exclusive meat diet, such as is indulged in by +hunting and pastoral peoples. A many-sided agriculture is a sign of +higher culture. On a given field, vegetal nutritive matter can be raised +in larger quantities than could meat be obtained through cattle raising. +This development imparts to vegetal nutrition an ever greater +preponderance. The transportation of meat, that the modern vandalic +economic system furnishes us with from foreign lands, especially from +South America and Australia, has been very nearly exhausted within few +decades. On the other hand, animals are raised, not merely for the sake +of meat, but also for that of wool, hair, bristles, skin and hides, +milk, eggs, etc., upon which many industries and human wants are +dependent. Again offal of several kinds can be turned in no way to +better advantage than through cattle raising. The seas will also in +future be made to yield to man their wealth of animal food to a much +larger extent than now. It will be in future a rare occurrence to see, +as we do to-day, whole loads of fish turned to manure, because the +facilities and costs of transportation, or the facilities of +preservation prevent their being otherwise used. It follows that a +purely vegetal diet is neither probable nor necessary in the future. + +In the matter of food, _quality_ rather than _quantity_ is to be +considered. Quantity is of little use if not good. Quality is greatly +improved by the manner of preparation. The preparation of food must be +conducted as scientifically as any other function, if it is to reach the +highest point of utility possible. Knowledge and equipment are thereto +requisite. That our women, upon whom to-day mainly devolves the +preparation of food, do not and can not possess this knowledge, needs no +proof. They lack all the necessary equipments therefor. As every well +equipped hotel kitchen, the steam kitchen of barracks or of hospitals +and especially the cooking expositions teach us, the cooking +apparatuses, together with many technical arrangements for all manner of +food preparation, have reached a high degree of perfection and have been +contrived upon scientific principles. That will in the future be the +rule. The object aimed at must be to obtain the best results with the +smallest expenditure of power, time and material. _The small private +kitchen is, just like the workshop of the small master mechanic, a +transition stage, an arrangement by which time, power and material are +senselessly squandered and wasted._ The preparation of food also will +in future society be a social establishment, conducted on the most +improved plane, in proper and advantageous manner. The private kitchen +disappears, as it has now disappeared in the instance of those families +who, although they generally provide themselves through their own +kitchen, always resort to hotel kitchens or to those of caterers, the +moment the question is to provide for banquets or to procure dishes a +knowledge of which both they and their domestics lack.[222] + +The Chicago Exposition of 1893 brought out a mass of interesting facts +on the revolution that has taken place in the kitchen also, and in the +preparation of food;--among other things a kitchen in which the heating +and cooking was done wholly through electricity. Electricity not only +furnished the light, but was also active in the washing of dishes, which +thereupon required the aid of the human hand only in finishing up. In +this kitchen of the future there was no hot air, no smoke, no vapors. +Numberless apparatuses and subsidiary machinery performed a number of +operations that until then had to be performed by human hands. This +kitchen of the future resembled more a parlor than a kitchen that +everyone who has nothing to do in, likes to stay away from. Work therein +at the Chicago Exposition was pleasurable and free from all the +unpleasantness that are features of the modern kitchen. Can a private +kitchen be imagined even approximately equipped like that? And then, +what a saving in all directions through such a central kitchen! Our +women would seize the opportunity with both hands to exchange the +present for the kitchen of the future. + +The nutritive value of food is heightened by its facility of +assimilation. This is a determining factor.[223] A natural system of +nourishment for all can be reached only by future society. Cato praises +the Rome of before his days for having had experts in the art of +healing, but, down to the sixth century of the city, no occupation for +exclusive physicians. People lived so frugally and simply, that disease +was rare, and death from old age was the usual form of decease. Not +until gourmandizing and idleness--in short, license with some, want and +excessive work with others--had permeated society, did matters change, +and radically so. In future, gluttony and license will be impossible, +and likewise want, misery and privation. There is enough, and an +abundance, for all. More than fifty years ago Henrich Heine sang: + + + Why, there grows down here abundance + And a plentitude for all; + Roses, myrtles, beauty and joy; + Yes, and sugar beans withal-- + + Aye, sugar beans in bursting pods + For everyone are here, + But they're left to heaven's angels + And the sparrows of the air. + + +"He who eats little lives well"--that is, long, said the Italian Cornaro +in the sixteenth century, as quoted by Niemeyer. In the end chemistry +will be active in the preparation and improvement of nourishment to a +degree thitherto unknown. To-day the science is greatly abused in the +interest of adulterations and fraud. It is obvious that a chemically +prepared food that has all the qualities of the natural product will +accomplish the same purpose. The form of the preparation is of secondary +importance, provided the product otherwise meets all requirements. + +As in the kitchen, the revolution will be accomplished throughout +domestic life: it will remove numberless details of work that must be +attended to to-day. As in the future the domestic kitchen is rendered +wholly superfluous by the central institutions for the preparation of +food, so likewise are all the former troubles of keeping ranges, lamps, +etc., in working order, removed by the central heating and electric +apparatuses for lighting. Warm and cold water supplies place bathing +within the reach of all at pleasure, and without the aid of any person. +The central laundries assume the washing, drying, etc., of clothes; the +central cleaning establishments see to the dusting, etc., of clothing +and carpets. In Chicago, carpet-cleaning machines were exhibited that +did the work in so short a time as to call forth the admiration of the +ladies who visited the Exposition. The electric door opens at a slight +pressure of the finger, and shuts of itself. Electric contrivances +deliver letters and newspapers on all the floors of the houses; electric +elevators save the climbing of stairs. The inside arrangement of the +houses--floorings, garnishing of the walls, furnitures--will be +contrived with an eye to the facility of cleaning and to the prevention +of the gathering of dust and bacteria. Dust, sweepings and offal of all +sorts will be carried by pipes out of the houses as water, that has +been used, is carried off to-day. In the United States, in many a +European city--Zurich, for instance--there are to-day tenements, +exquisitely equipped, in which numerous affluent families--others could +not bear the expense--live and enjoy a large part of the conveniences +just sketched. + +Here again we have an illustration of how capitalist society breaks the +way in revolutionizing human affairs, in this instance in domestic +life,--but only for its elect. Domestic life being thus radically +transformed, the servant, this "slave of all the whims of the mistress," +is no more,--and the mistress neither. "No servants, no culture!" cries +the horrified Herr v. Treitschke with comic pathos. He can as little +imagine society without servants as Aristotle could without slaves. The +matter of surprise is that Herr v. Treitschke looks upon our servants as +the "carriers of civilization." Treitschke, like Eugen Richter, is +furthermore greatly worried by the shoe-polishing and clothes-dusting +question, which neither is able to attend to personally. It so happens, +however, that with nine-tenths of the people everyone sees to that +himself, or the wife does for her husband, or a daughter or son for the +family. We might answer that what the nine-tenths have hitherto done, +the remnant tenth may also do. But there is another way out. Why should +not in future society the youth of the land, without distinction of sex, +be enlisted for such necessary work? Work does not dishonor, even if it +consist in polishing boots. Many a member of the old nobility, and +officers of the army at that, learned the lesson when, to escape their +debts, they ran off to the United States, and there became servants, or +shoe-polishers. Eugen Richter, in his pamphlets, goes even so far as to +cause the downfall of the "Socialist Imperial Chancellor" on the +"Shoe-polishing Question," and the consequent falling to pieces of the +"Socialist State." The "Socialist Imperial Chancellor" refuses to polish +his own shoes; hence his troubles. The bourgeoisie has hugely enjoyed +this description of Richter, and it has thereby furnished evidence of +the modesty of its demands upon a criticism of Socialism. But Eugen +Richter lived to experience the sorrow of not only seeing one of his own +party members in Nuerenberg invent a shoe-polishing machine soon after +the appearance of that pamphlet, but of also learning that at the +Chicago Exposition of 1893 an electric shoe-polishing machine was +exhibited that did the work perfectly. Thus the principal objection, +raised by Richter and Treitschke against Socialist society, has been +practically thrown overboard by an invention made under the bourgeois +social system itself. + +The revolutionary transformation, that radically changes all the +relations of man, especially the position of woman, is, as we see, going +on now under our own eyes. It is only a question of time when society +will take the process into its own hands and upon a large scale, thus +quickening and perfecting the change and affording to all, without +exception, the opportunity to share its innumerable advantages. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[176] "The power of emulation, in exciting to the most strenuous +exertions for the sake of the approbation and admiration of others, is +borne witness to by experience in every situation in which human beings +publicly compete with one another, even if it be in things frivolous, or +from which the public derives no benefit. A contest, who can do most for +the common good, is not the kind of competition which Socialists +repudiate."--John Stuart Mill's "Principles of Political Economy." Every +union, every association of people, who pursue equal aims, likewise +furnishes numerous examples of greater effort with no material, but only +an ideal, reward in view. The emulators are moved by the ambition to +distinguish themselves, by the desire to serve the common cause. But +this sort of ambition is no vice; it is a virtue; it is put forth in the +interest of all; and the individual finds his satisfaction in that along +with all others. Ambition is harmful and objectionable only when it is +put forth to the injury of the whole, and at the expense of others. + +[177] Von Thuenen says in his "Der isolirte Staat": "The reason why the +proletarians, on the one hand, and property classes, on the other, face +each other permanently as enemies lies in the antagonism of their +interests; and they will remain unreconciled _so long as this division +of interests is not removed_. Not only the well-being of his wage-giver +but--through discoveries in industry, the pavement of streets and +building of railroads, the forming of new business connections--the +revenues of the Nation also may increase. Under our present social +order, however, the workingman is touched by none of these; his +condition remains what it was, and _the whole increase of revenues +accrues to the employers, the capitalists and the landlords_." This last +sentence is an almost literal anticipation of the words of Gladstone in +the English Parliament, when he declared in 1864 "this intoxicating +increase of incomes and power" that England had experienced in the +course of the previous twenty years, "has been confined exclusively to +the possessing classes." Again on p. 207 of his work, v. Thuenen says: +"The evil lies in the divorce of the workingman from his product." + +Morelly declares in his "Principles of Legislation": "Property divides +us into two classes--Rich and Poor. The former love their property and +care not to defend the State; the latter can not possibly love the +Fatherland, seeing that it bestows upon them naught but misery. Under +the system of Communism, however, all love the Fatherland, seeing that +all receive from it life and happiness." + +[178] In weighing the advantages and the disadvantages of Communism, +John Stuart Mill says in his "Principles of Political Economy": "No soil +could be more favorable to the growth of such a feeling, than a +Communist association, since all the ambition, and the bodily and mental +activity, which are now exerted in the pursuit of separate and +self-regarding interests, would require another sphere of employment, +and would naturally find it in the pursuit of the general benefit of the +community." + +[179] "Die Gesetze der sozialen Entwickelung." + +[180] What does Herr Eugene Richter say to this calculation? In his +"Irrelehren" (False Doctrines) he makes merry over the enormous +shortening of the hours of work that we have held out in this work as +the result that would follow upon the obligation of all to work and upon +the higher technical organization of the process of production. He seeks +to minimize as much as possible the productivity of production on a +large scale, and to enhance the importance of production on a small +scale. He does so in order that he might claim that the expected +increased production was not practicable. In order to make Socialism +seem impossible, these defenders of the existing "order" are forced to +discredit the merits of their own social system. + +[181] "Capital is said by a Quarterly Reviewer to fly turbulence and +strife, and to be timid, which is very true; but this is very +incompletely stating the question. Capital eschews no profit, or very +small profit, just as Nature was formerly said to abhor a vacuum. With +adequate profit, capital is very bold. A certain 10 per cent. will +ensure its employment anywhere; 20 per cent. certain will produce +eagerness; 50 per cent. positive audacity; 100 per cent. will made it +ready to trample on all human laws; 300 per cent., and there is not a +crime at which it will scruple, nor a risk it will not run, even to the +chance of its owner being hanged. If turbulence and strife will bring a +profit, it will freely encourage both. Smuggling and the slave-trade +have amply proved all that is here stated." (P. J. Dunning, 1. c., p. +35.) Cited by Karl Marx in "Capital," p. 786, edition Swan-Sonnenscheim +& Co., London, 1896. + +[182] A competitor with electricity, applied to lighting purposes, has +recently arisen in the shape of the so-called acetylene gas, which was +discovered in the United States, by means of an electrolytic process, +similar to that used in the preparation of aluminum. A compound is made +of calcium and carbon, called calcium-carbide, which, in touch with +water, produces the acetylene gas. Its lighting power is fifteen times +that of the ordinary illuminating gas, besides being much cheaper. + +[183] "The generality of laborers in this and most other countries, have +as little choice of occupation or freedom of locomotion, are practically +as dependent on fixed rules, and on the will of others, as they could be +on any system short of actual slavery."--John Stuart Mill's "Principles +of Political Economy." + +[184] "A French workman, on his return from San Francisco, writes as +follows: 'I never could have believed that I was capable of working at +the various occupations I was employed on in California. I was firmly +convinced that I was fit for nothing but letter-press printing.... Once +in the midst of this world of adventurers, who change their occupation +as often as they do their shirt, egad, I did as the others. As mining +did not turn out remunerative enough, I left it for the town, where in +succession I became typographer, slater, plumber, etc. In consequence of +this finding out that I am fit for any sort of work, I feel less of a +mollusk and more of a man.'" (A. Courbou, "De l'Enseignement +Professional," 2eme ed. p. 50.) Cited by Karl Marx in "Capital", p. 493, +edition Swan-Sonnenschein Co., London, 1896. + +[185] Tolstoi's "The Significance of Science and Art." + +[186] What may be made of a man under favorable circumstances is +illustrated by Leonardo da Vinci, who was a distinguished painter, +celebrated sculptor, favorite architect and engineer, excellent builder +of fortifications, musician and improvisator. Benvenuto Cellini was a +celebrated goldsmith, excellent molder, good sculptor, leading builder +of fortifications, first-rate soldier and thorough musician. Abraham +Lincoln was a splitter of rails, agriculturist, boatman, shop-assistant +and lawyer, until he was placed in the Presidential chair of the United +States. It may be said without exaggerating, most people are engaged in +occupations that do not correspond with their faculties, simply because, +not freedom of choice, but the force of necessity dictated their career. +Many a bad professor would do good work as a shoemaker, and many a good +shoemaker could be a good professor as well. + +[187] It should always be kept in mind that production is then organized +up to the highest point of technical perfection, and all the people are +at work. It may thus happen that, under given circumstances, a +three-hour day is rather longer, and not shorter, than necessary. Owen +in his time--first quarter of the nineteenth century--considered two +hours' work sufficient. + +[188] "It is not necessary to go a round-about way in order to ascertain +the amount of social labor crystallized in a given product. Daily +experience shows directly the requisite average. Society can easily +calculate how many hours are contained in a steam engine, in a +hectoliter of last year's wheat, in a hundred square meters of cloth of +a certain quality. Society will, therefore, never dream of re-expressing +these units of work,--crystallized in the products and known to it +directly and absolutely--by a merely relative, varying and insufficient +measure, formerly used by it as a make-shift that it could not get along +without; a measure, moreover, which itself is a third product, instead +of by their natural, adequate and absolute measure--time.... Society +will have to organize the plan of production according to the means of +production, under which category labor-power especially belongs. The +various utilities of the several articles of use, balanced with one +another and with the amount of labor necessary for their production, +will in the end determine the plan. People settle matters a good deal +more simply without the intervention of the celebrated 'money +value.'"--Fr. Engels' "Herr Eugene Duehring's Umwaelzung der +Wissensehaft." + +[189] Herr Eugene Richter is so astonished at the dropping away of money +in Socialist society--abolished money will not be: with the abolition of +the merchandise character from the products of labor, money drops away +of itself--that he devotes to the subject a special chapter in his +"Irrelehren." What is particularly hard for him to understand is the +idea that it is immaterial whether the voucher for labor performance be +a piece of paper, gold or tin. On this head he says: "With gold, the +devil of the modern social order would re-enter the Social Democratic +State"--that there could then be only a Socialist society, and not a +Social Democratic State, Herr Richter stubbornly overlooks: he must, +else a good portion of his polemic would fall through--"seeing that gold +has an independent metal value, can be easily saved, and thus the +possession of gold pieces would enable the heaping up of values +wherewith to purchase escape from the obligation to work, and wherewith +even to lay out money on interest." + +Herr Richter must take his readers for great blockheads to dare dish up +such trash to them on the subject of our gold. Herr Richter, who can not +rid himself of the concept of capital, can, of course, not understand +that where there is no capital, neither is there any merchandise, nor +can there be any "money"; and where there is no "capital" and no +"money", neither could there be any "interest." Herr Richter is nailed +so fast to the concept of capital that he is unable to conceive a world +without "capital." We should like to know how a member of a Socialist +society could "save up" his gold certificates of labor, or even loan +them out to others and thereby rake in interest, when all other members +possess what that one is offering them and--_on which he lives_. + +[190] "All people of average healthy build _are born with almost equal +intellectual powers, but education, laws and circumstances alter them +relatively_. The correctly understood interest of the individual is +blended into one with the common or public interest."--Helvetius' "On +Man and His Education." Helvetius is right with regard to the large +majority of people; but that does not take away that the natural +faculties of each are different for different occupations. + +[191] "If, therefore, the choice were to be made between Communism with +all its chances, and the present state of society with all its +sufferings and injustices; if the institution of private property +necessarily carried with it as a consequence, that the produce of labor +should be apportioned as we now see it, almost in an inverse ratio to +the labor--the largest portions to those who have never worked at all, +the next largest to those whose work is almost nominal, and so in a +descending scale, the remuneration dwindling as the work grows harder +and more disagreeable, until the most fatiguing and exhausting bodily +labor cannot count with certainty on being able to earn even the +necessaries of life; if this or Communism, were the alternative, all the +difficulties, great or small, of Communism would be but as dust in the +balance."--John Stuart Mill, "Principles of Political Economy." Mill +strove diligently to "reform" the bourgeois world, and to "bring it to +reason." Of course, in vain. And so it came about that he, like all +clear-sighted men, became a Socialist. He dared not, however, admit the +fact in his life time, but ordered that, after his death, his +auto-biography be published, containing his Socialist confession of +faith. It happened to him as with Darwin, who cared not to be known in +his life as an atheist. The bourgeoisie affects loyalty, religion and +faith in authority because through the acceptance of these "virtues" by +the masses its own rule is safeguarded; in its own sleeves, however, it +laughs at them. + +[192] "Scholarship is as often the hand-maid of ignorance as of +progress."--Buckle's "History of Civilization in England." + +[193] According to the census of 1882 there were in Germany engaged in +trade and transportation 1,570,318 persons, inclusive of those occupied +in hotels and inns, and exclusive of 295,451 domestics. + +[Some opinion may be formed of the volume of useless labor, parasitism, +in the United States, from the census figures for 1900. Under this head +of "Trade and Transportation" alone come 4,766,964 persons. Among them, +substantially useless, are the 241,162 agents, the 73,277 brokers, the +92,919 commercial travelers, the 76,649 hucksters and peddlers, the +790,886 merchants and dealers (except wholesale), the 42,293 merchants +and dealers (wholesale), the 74,072 officials of banks and companies, +the 33,656 livery stable keepers, the 71,622 messengers and errand and +office boys, and the 59,545 packers and shippers--in all 1,556,081. Of +the remaining 3,210,883--among whom are 254,880 bookkeepers and +accountants, 632,127 clerks and copyists, 611,139 salesmen and +women--fully two-thirds could be spared to-day under a rational social +system. The proportion of wasteful forces, and even parasitism, is still +larger under the heads of "Professional Service" and "Domestic and +Personal Service," among which--to pick up only a few of the worst +items--are 111,638 clergymen, 114,460 lawyers, 86,607 government +officials, including officers of the United States army and navy, 33,844 +saloon keepers, 1,560,721 servants and waiters, 43,235 soldiers, sailors +and marines (U. S.), etc., etc.--THE TRANSLATOR.] + +[194] Even the Fathers of the Church, Bishops and Popes could not +refrain from preaching in a communistic vein during those early +centuries when community of property still prevailed, but its theft was +assuming larger proportions. The Syllabus and the encyclicals of the +nineteenth century have lost all recollection of this tone, and even the +Roman Popes have been compelled to become subjects of capitalist +society, and now pose as its zealous defenders against the Socialists. + +In contrast therewith Bishop Clemens I. (deceased 102 of our reckoning) +said: "The use of all things in this world is to be common to all. It is +an injustice to say: 'This is my property, this belongs to me, that +belongs to another.' Hence the origin of contentions among men." + +Bishop Ambrose of Milan, who lived about 347, exclaimed: "Nature bestows +all things on all men in common, for God has created all things that +their enjoyment might be common to all, and that the earth might become +the common possession of all. Common possession is, therefore, a right +established by Nature, and only unjust usurpation (usurpatio) has +created the right of private property." + +St. John Chrysostomus (deceased 407) declared in his homilies directed +against the immorality and corruption of the population of +Constantinople: "Let none call aught his own; we have received +everything from God for enjoyment in common, and 'mine' and 'thine' are +words of falsehood." + +St. Augustine (deceased 430) expressed himself thus: "Because private +property exists there exists also law suits, enmities, dissensions, +wars, rebellions, sins, injustice, murder. Whence proceed all these +scourges? From property only. Let us then, my brothers, refrain from +possessing anything as our property; at least let us refrain from loving +it." + +Pope Gregory the Great declares about 600: "Let them know that the earth +from which they spring and of which they are formed belongs to all men +in common, and that therefore the fruits which the earth brings forth +must belong to all without distinction." + +And one of the moderns, Zacharia, says in his "Forty Books on the +State": "All the evils with which civilized nations have to contend, can +be traced back to private property in land." + +All these authorities have recognized more or less accurately the nature +of private property, which, since its existence, as St. Augustine +correctly puts it, brought law suits, enmities, dissensions, wars, +rebellions, injustice and murder into the world,--all of them evils that +will disappear with its abolition. + +[195] "The employment of water in the cultivation of fruit as well as of +vegetables is highly desirable; water associations with these ends in +view could turn with us also deserts into paradises." Official report on +the Chicago Exposition of 1893, rendered by the Imperial Commissioner, +Berlin, 1894. + +[196] This prospect seems nearer realization and in a quite different +manner than the most far-sighted could have imagined. The discovery of +acetylene gas is the point of departure for a long line of products of +organic chemistry, that, with proper treatment, can be drawn from it. +Among the articles of enjoyment, that may be expected to be gained first +of all on this path, is alcohol, the production of which promises to be +the easiest of all and very cheap, and is expected in but few years. If +this succeeds, a large part of the agriculture of the East Elbian +district, which depends upon the production of alcohol, will be put in +jeopardy. The circumstance will bring on a revolution in the respective +agricultural interests that will play mightily into the hands of +Socialism. Evidently, what Werner, Siemens and Berthelot held out, is +approaching reality. + +[197] Dr. G. Ruhland, "Die Grundprinzipien aktueller Agrarpolitik." + +[198] A petition by Julius Zuns, which finally was not sent to the +Reichstag, on the subject of an agrarian investigation. + +[199] Dr. Rudolf Meyer, "Der Kapitalismus fin de siecle." + +[200] "There is a prescription for securing the fertility of the fields +and perpetual repetition of their produce. If this prescription be +consistently carried out it will prove more remunerative than any which +has ever been applied in agriculture. It is this: Let every farmer, like +the Chinese coolie, who carries a sack of corn or a hundred weight of +rape, or carrots or potatoes, etc., to town, bring back with him as much +if possible or more of the ingredients of his field products as he took +with him, and restore it to the field whence it came. He must not +despise a potato paring or a straw, but remember that one of his +potatoes still needs a skin, and one of his ears of corn a stalk. The +expense for this importation is slight, the outlay secure; a savings +bank is not securer, and no investment brings in a higher rate of +interest. The returns of his fields will be doubled in ten years: he +will produce more corn, more meat and more cheese without expending more +time or labor, and he will not be driven by constant anxiety to seek for +new and unknown means, which do not exist, to make his ground fertile in +another manner.... Old bones, soot, ashes, whether washed out or not, +and blood of animals and refuse of all kinds ought to be collected in +storehouses, and prepared for distribution.... Governments and town +police should take precautions for preventing the loss of these +materials by a suitable arrangement of drains and closets."--Liebig's +"Chemical Letters." + +[201] "Every coolie (in China) who carries his produce to market in the +morning, brings home two buckets full of manure on a bamboo rod in the +evening. The appreciation of manure goes so far that every one knows how +much a man secretes in a day, a month and a year, and the Chinaman +considers it more than rude if his guest leaves his house carrying with +him a benefit to which his host thinks himself justly entitled as a +return for his hospitality.... Every substance derived from plants or +animals is carefully collected and used as manure by the Chinese.... To +complete the idea of the importance attached to animal refuse, it will +suffice to mention the fact that the barbers carefully collect and trade +with the hairs cut from the heads and beards of the hundred millions of +customers whom they daily shave. The Chinese are acquainted with the use +of gypsum and chalk, and it not infrequently occurs that they renew the +plaster in their kitchens merely for the purpose of using the old +plaster as manure."--Liebig's "Chemical Letters." + +[202] Karl Schober, Address delivered on the agricultural, municipal and +national economic significance of city refuse; Berlin, 1877. + +[203] "Life, Its Elements and the Means of Its Conservation." + +[204] According to the census of 1890, Germany had 26 large cities of +over 100,000 inhabitants each. In 1871 it had only 8 of them. In 1871, +Berlin had, in round figures, 826,000 inhabitants; in 1890 it had +1,578,794--it had almost doubled. A number of these large cities were +compelled to take within their municipalities the contiguous industrial +towns, that in themselves had populations large enough for cities. +Through the process, the population of the former rose immediately. +Thus, within the period of 1885 to 1890, Leipsic rose from 170,000 to +353,000; Cologne from 161,000 to 282,000; Madgeburg from 114,000 to +201,000; Munich from 270,000 to 345,000 inhabitants, etc. At the same +time, most of the other cities that incorporated no contiguous towns +increased considerably during that period. Breslau grew from 299,000 to +335,000; Dresden from 246,000 to 276,000; Frankfurt-on-Main from 154,000 +to 180,000; Hanover from 140,000 to 163,000; Dusseldorf from 115,000 to +146,000; Nuerenberg from 115,000 to 142,000; Chemnitz from 111,000 to +139,000 inhabitants. Similar growths were also registered by many +middle-sized cities of 50,000 to 100,000 inhabitants. + +[In the United States, the concentration of population in large cities +has been marked. In 1790 only 3.4 per cent. of the total population +lived in cities. The proportion of urban to the total population then +grew from census year to census year (decade to decade) as follows: 4.0 +in 1800; 4.9 in 1810; 4.9 in 1820; 6.7 in 1830; 8.5 in 1840; 12.5 in +1850; 16.1 in 1860; 20.9 in 1870; 22.6 in 1880; 29.2 in 1890; and 33.1 +in 1900. According to the census of 1900 there live 14,208,347 of the +population in cities of at least 100,000 inhabitants; 5,549,271 in +cities of 25,000 to 100,000 inhabitants; 5,286,375 in cities of 8,000 to +25,000 inhabitants; 3,380,193 in cities of 4,000 to 8,000 inhabitants; +and 2,214,136 in cities of 2,500 to 4,000 inhabitants. In country +districts there live 45,573,846 of a total population of 76,212,168, +including Alaska and Hawaii.--THE TRANSLATOR.] + +[205] Prof. Adolf Wagner says in his work "Lehrbuch der politischen +Oekonomie von Rau": "Small private holdings in land constitute an +economic basis, that can be substituted by no other institution for a +most important part of the population--an independent, self-sustaining +peasantry, together with its peculiar socio-political position and +function." Where, for the sake of his conservative friends, the author +does not enthuse _a tout prix_ for the small farmer, he is bound to +regard this class as one of the poorest. Under existing circumstances, +the small farmer is downright inaccessible to higher culture: he toils +at hard labor from early dawn till late, and lives often worse than a +dog. Meat, butter, eggs, milk, which he produces, he does not enjoy: he +produces them for others: under present circumstances he can not raise +himself into better conditions: he thus becomes an element that clogs +civilization. He who loves retrogression, seeing he finds his account +therein, may also find satisfaction in the continuance of such a social +stratum. Human progress demands its disappearance. + +[206] At the Erfurt "Union Parliament" of 1850, Prince Bismarck +thundered against the large cities as "the hot-beds of revolution," that +should be razed to the ground. He was quite right: capitalist society +produces its own "grave-diggers" in the modern proletariat. + +[207] Frederick Engels, "The Development of Socialism from Utopia to +Science." + +[208] ["Religion" In English is not quite the same as "Die Religion" in +German. For all their etymology is identical, custom and social +institutions have imparted to the German term a meaning, or a shade of a +meaning, that it lacks in English. "Die Religion" is in Germany a State +institution; it is part of the curriculum of colleges; and it is there +so utterly creedy, churchianic, and dogmatic that it is a positive +abomination even to the students who mean to devote themselves to +theology. That, however, even in the German language the word has a +varying meaning may be gathered from the epigram of Schiller: "To what +religion I belong? To none. Why? Out of religiousness"--literally in +German, "out of religion." The reproduction in this translation of the +idea conveyed by the term "Die Religion" presented its difficulties. As +none could be found in English to convey its varying sense, the word +"religion" has been preserved throughout as the nearest equivalent.--THE +TRANSLATOR.] + +[209] Karl Marx: "Zur Kritik der Hegelschen Rechts-Philosophie." + +[210] How the ancients thought upon the subject appears from the +following utterance of Aristotle: "A tyrant (the term applied to +autocrats in Old Greece) must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion +to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a +ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they +do not easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his +side."--Aristotle's "Politics." Aristotle was born 384 B. C. at Stagira, +whence he is frequently called "the Stagirite." + +"A prince, then, is to have particular care that nothing falls from his +mouth but what is full of the five qualities aforesaid, and that to see +and to hear him, he appears all goodness, integrity, humanity and +religion, which last he ought to pretend to more than ordinarily because +more men do judge by the eye than by the touch; for everybody sees, but +few understand; everybody sees how you appear, but few know what in +reality you are, and those few dare not oppose the opinion of the +multitude who have the majesty of their prince to defend them; and in +the actions of all men, especially princes, where no man has power to +judge, every one looks to the end. Let a prince, therefore, do what he +can to preserve his life, and continue his supremacy, the means which he +uses shall be thought honorable, and be commended by everybody; because +the people are always taken with the appearance and event of things, +and, the greatest part of the world consists of the people; those few +who are wise taking place when the multitude has nothing else to rely +upon."--Macchiavelli in his celebrated work, "The Prince." Macchiavelli +was born in Florence, 1469. + +[211] Whenever the modern bourgeois is at a loss for reasons to justify +some enormity with, a thousand to one he falls back upon "morality." In +the spring of 1894, it went so far that, at a meeting of the Evangelical +Synod, a "liberal" member of the Berlin Chamber of the Exchequer +pronounced it "moral" that only taxpayers should have the right to vote +at Church meetings (!) + +[212] "A certain degree of well-being and culture is a necessary +external condition for the development of the philosophic spirit.... +Thence we find that people began to philosophize only in those nations, +that had raised themselves to a considerable height of well-being and +culture."--Tennemann, quoted by Buckle in a foot note, _ubi supra_. + +"Material and intellectual interests go hand in hand. The one can not +exist without the other. Between the two there is the same connection as +between body and soul: to separate them is to bring on death."--v. +Thuenen's "Der Isolirte Staat." + +"The best life, as well for the individual in particular, as for the +State in general, is that life in which virtue is decked out with +_external_ goods also, sufficient to make possible an active indulgence +in beautiful and good actions."--Aristotle's "Politics." + +[213] When Eugene Richter in his "Irrelehren" (False Doctrines) repeats +the old wornout phrase about the Socialists aiming at a "Penitentiary +State"--that the question is no longer about a "State" will have by this +time become clear to our readers--he presupposes the existence of a +"State" or social order _that will violate its own interests_. A new +State or social order radically different from the preceding one can not +possibly be produced at will; to imagine such a thing would be to ignore +and deny all the laws of development, obedient to which State and +Society have hitherto risen and developed. Eugen Richter and those who +share his views may take comfort: if Socialism really implies the silly +and unnatural aims imputed to it by them, it will go to pieces, and +without the aid of the "Irrelehren" of Richter. But it happens that +there is no political party that stands as squarely and logically upon +the evolutionary field as the Social Democratic. + +Quite as unfounded as all the other objections are the remarks of Eugene +Richter: "For a social condition, such as the Socialists want, the +people must be angels." As is well known, there are no angels, nor do we +need any. Partly are men influenced by conditions, and partly are +conditions influenced by men, and the latter will be increasingly the +case in the measure that men learn to know the nature of the social +system that they themselves rear, and in the measure that the experience +thus gathered is consciously applied by them by corresponding changes in +their social organization,--and that is Socialism. What we need is not +other people, but wiser and more intelligent people than most of them +are to-day. It is with the end in view of making people wiser and more +intelligent that we agitate, Herr Richter, and that we publish works +like this one. + +[214] It is surprising that, considering the fathomless blockishness of +our adversaries, none has yet claimed that in Socialist society everyone +would receive an equal portion of food and an equal quantity of linen +and clothing so as to "crown the work of uniformity." Such a claim is +quite stupid enough to expect its being made by our opponents. + +[215] Fourier made this the subject of a brilliant argument, although he +ran into utopianism in the elaboration of his ideas. + +[216] Condorcet demands in his plan of education: "Education must be +free, equal, general, bodily, mental, industrial and political, and it +must aim at real and actual equality." + +Likewise Rousseau in his "Political Economy": "Above all, education must +be public, equal and mixed, for the purpose of raising men and +citizens." + +Aristotle also demands: "Seeing the State has but one object, it must +also provide one and the same education for all its members. The care +hereof must be the concern of the State and not a private affair." + +[217] Eugene Richter among them, in his "Irrelehren." + +[218] "America's Bildungswesen," by Prof. Emil Hausknecht. + +[219] "The person who has led an honorable and active life until old age +should not then have to live either on the charity of his children or of +bourgeois society. An independent old age, free from cares or toil, is +the natural reward for continuous exertions in the days of strength and +health."--v. Thuenen's "Der Isolirte Staat." But how is it to-day in +this bourgeois society? Millions look with dread towards the time when, +having grown old, they are thrown upon the street. And our industrial +system causes people to age prematurely. The very much boasted about +old-age and invalid pensions in the German Empire afford but a very +scanty substitute: even its most zealous defenders admit that. Their +aids are still more inadequate than the pensions which the +municipalities allow to the large majority of the officials whom they +provide with pensions. + +[220] [It is a feature of theology to be positive, precise and emphatic +in descriptions of what the describer knows nothing about. No less +theologic, in this sense of the term, are negative assertions concerning +matters that science has not yet illumined. Whether "to be dead means to +be ended" or not, is no part either of the general question of +Socialism, or the specific question of Woman. Nevertheless, while +respecting the author's private opinion in the matter, and leaving his +sentence untouched, the following phrasing would seem preferable, as +free from the taint of what may be called the "theologic method," and +also more in keeping with the mental posture of positive knowledge: +"Whether to be dead means to be ended or not, is a matter on which man +awaits the fiat of Science."--THE TRANSLATOR.] + +[221] [It is otherwise in the United States, where, as a rule, clergymen +have to "hustle"--both to curry favor with their parishioners and to +countermine the mines laid by their competitors for fatter "calls," or +by their numerous unemployed "brothers of the cloth." According to the +census of 1900, clergymen had the very highest death rate (23.5) among +the professional occupations for the registration area,--and it was +among the highest altogether. It was excelled only by the death rate of +the coopers (23.8); of the millers, flour and grist, (26.6); of the +sailors, pilots, fishermen and oystermen (27.7); and of the stock +raisers, herders and drovers (32.1). The census also shows that the +death rate of clergymen is on the increase--18.2 in 1890; now 23.5.--THE +TRANSLATOR.] + +[222] Herr Eugen Richter in his "Irrelehren" is also raving mad over the +idea of abolishing the private kitchen. As far as we know, Herr Richter +is a bachelor. Obviously he does not miss his own kitchen: to judge from +the rotundity of his body, he does not fare ill. If Herr Richter were a +married man and possessed a wife, who had herself to administer the +kitchen department and to perform in it the needed work, instead of +leaving all that to servants, as is the fashion with the women of the +property classes, then, a hundred to one his wife would nicely prove to +him how happy she would be if she only could be freed from the bondage +of the kitchen through the large and thoroughly equipped communal +institute for meals. + +[223] Niemeyer, "Gesundheitslehre." + + + + +PART III + +WOMAN IN THE FUTURE + + + + +WOMAN IN THE FUTURE. + + +This chapter can be condensed in few words. It only contains the +conclusions that flow from what has been said, conclusions that the +reader may draw for himself. + +The woman of future society is socially and economically independent; +she is no longer subject to even a vestige of dominion and exploitation; +she is free, the peer of man, mistress of her lot. Her education is the +same as that of man, with such exceptions as the difference of sex and +sexual functions demand. Living under natural conditions, she is able to +unfold and exercise her mental powers and faculties. She chooses her +occupation on such field as corresponds with her wishes, inclinations +and natural abilities, and she works under conditions identical with +man's. Even if engaged as a practical working-woman on some field or +other, at other times of the day she may be educator, teacher or nurse, +at yet others she may exercise herself in art, or cultivate some branch +of science, and at yet others may be filling some administrative +function. She joins in studies, enjoyments or social intercourse with +either her sisters or with men,--as she may please or occasion may +serve. + +In the choice of love, she is, like man, free and unhampered. She woos +or is wooed, and closes the bond from no considerations other than her +own inclinations. This bond is a private contract, celebrated without +the intervention of any functionary--just as marriage was a private +contract until deep in the Middle Ages. Socialism creates in this +nothing new: it merely restores, at a higher level of civilization and +under new social forms, that which prevailed at a more primitive social +stage, and before private property began to rule society. + +Under the proviso that he inflict injury upon none, the individual shall +himself oversee the satisfaction of his own instincts. _The satisfaction +of the sexual instinct is as much a private concern as the satisfaction +of any other natural instinct._ None is therefor accountable to others, +and no unsolicited judge may interfere. How I shall eat, how I shall +drink, how I shall sleep, how I shall clothe myself, is my private +affair,--exactly so my intercourse with a person of the opposite sex. +Intelligence and culture, perfect individual freedom--qualities that +become normal through the education and the conditions of future +society--will guard everyone against the commission of acts that will +redound to his injury. Self-training and the knowledge of their own +being are possessions of the men and the women of future society to a +degree much above the present. The simple circumstance that all bashful +prudery and affectation of secrecy regarding natural matters will have +vanished is a guarantee of a more natural intercourse of the sexes than +that which prevails to-day. If incompatibility, disenchantment, or +repulsion set in between two persons that have come together, morality +commands that the unnatural, and therefore immoral, bond be dissolved. +Seeing, moreover, that all the circumstances and conditions, which until +then condemned large numbers of women to celibacy and to prostitution, +will have vanished, man can no longer superimpose himself. On the other +hand, the completely changed social conditions will have removed the +numerous inconveniences that to-day affect married life, that often +prevent its favorable unfolding, or that even render it wholly +impossible. + +The contradictions in and the unnatural features of the present position +of woman are realized with ever increasing force in wide social circles. +The sentiment finds lively utterance in the literature of the Social +Question as well as in works of fiction,--often, it must be confessed, +in wrongful manner. That the present form of marriage corresponds ever +less with its purpose, no thinking person any longer denies. Thus is +seen the phenomenon of the demand for freedom in the choice of love, and +for the untrammeled dissolution of the marriage bond, when necessary, +made by people who refuse to draw the requisite conclusions for the +change of the present social system. They believe that the freedom of +sexual intercourse must be asserted only in behalf of the privileged +classes. In a polemic against Fanny Lewald's efforts in behalf of the +emancipation of woman, Mathilde Reichhardt-Stromberg expresses herself +this wise: + +"If you (Fanny Lewald) claim the complete equality of woman with man in +social and political life, George Sand also must be right in her +struggles for emancipation, which aim no further than at what man has +long been in undisputed possession of. Indeed, there is no reasonable +ground for admitting the head and not the heart of woman to this +equality, to give and to take as freely as man. On the contrary, if +woman has by nature the right, and, consequently, also the duty--for we +should not bury the talent bestowed upon us--of exerting her brain +tissue to the utmost in the race with the intellectual Titans of the +opposite sex, she must then have precisely the same right to preserve +her equilibrium by quickening the circulation of her heart's blood in +whatever way it may seem good to her. Do we not all read without the +slightest moral indignation how Goethe--to begin with the greatest as an +illustration--again and again wasted the warmth of his heart and the +enthusiasm of his great soul on a different woman? Reasonable people +regard this as perfectly natural by the very reason of the greatness of +his soul, and the difficulty of satisfying it. Only the narrow-minded +moralist stops to condemn his conduct. Why, then, deride the 'great +souls' among women!... Let us suppose that the whole female sex +consisted of great souls like George Sand, that every woman were a +Lucretia Floriani, whose children are all children of love and who +brought up all these children with true motherly love and devotion, as +well as with intelligence and good sense. What would become of the +world? There can be no doubt that it could continue to exist and to +progress, just as it does now; it might even feel exceptionally +comfortable under the arrangement."[224] + +Accordingly, Mathilde Reichhardt-Stromberg is of the opinion that, if +every woman were a Lucretia Floriani, that is, a great soul like George +Sand, who draws her own picture in Lucretia Floriani, they should be +free for the "preservation of their equilibrium to quicken the +circulation of their heart's blood in whatever way it may seem good to +them." But why should that be the privilege of the "great souls" only, +and not of the others also, who are no "great souls," and can be none? +No such difference exists to us. If a Goethe and a George Sand--to take +these two from the many who have acted and are acting like them--live +according to the inclinations of their hearts--and about Goethe's love +affairs whole libraries are published that are devoured by his male and +female admirers in wrapt ecstasy--why condemn in others that, which done +by a Goethe or a George Sand, becomes the subject of ecstatic +admiration? + +Indeed, such freedom in the choice of love is an impossibility in +bourgeois society. This fact was the objective point in our preceding +array of evidence. But place the whole community under social conditions +similar to those enjoyed by the material and intellectual elect, and +forthwith the opportunity is there of equal rights and freedom for all. +In "Jacques," George Sand depicts a husband who judges the adulterous +relations of his wife with another man in these words: "No human being +can command love; and none is guilty if he feels, or goes without it. +What degrades the woman is the lie: what constitutes her adultery is not +the hour that she grants to her lover, but the night that she thereupon +spends with her husband." Thanks to this view of the matter, Jacques +feels obliged to yield the place to his rival, Borel, and he proceeds to +philosophize: "Borel, in my place, would have quietly beaten his wife, +and perhaps would not have blushed to receive her afterwards into his +bed, debased by his blows and his kisses. There are men who cut the +throat of an unfaithful wife without ceremony, after the fashion of the +Orientals, because they consider her as legal property. Others fight +with their rival, kill him or drive him away, and again seek the kisses +of the woman they pretend to love, and who shrinks from them with +horror, or resigns herself in despair. These, in cases of conjugal love, +are the most common ways of acting, and I say that the love of the hogs +is less vile and less gross than that of these men." Commenting on these +passages, Brandes observes: "These truths, which are considered +elemental with our cultured classes, were 'sophisms that cried to +heaven' only fifty years ago." But the "property and cultured world" +dare not to this day openly avow the principles of George Sand, +although, in point of fact, it lives up to them in the main. As in +morality and religion, the bourgeois is a hypocrite in marriage also. + +What Goethe and George Sand did, has been done and continues to be done +by thousands of others, who are not to be compared with Goethe, yet +without in the least losing the esteem and respect of society. All that +is needed is a respectable position, the rest comes of itself. All this +notwithstanding, the liberties of a Goethe and a George Sand are +improper, judged from the standpoint of bourgeois morality, and stand in +contradiction with the nature of its social principles. Compulsory +marriage is the normal marriage of bourgeois society: it is the only +"moral" union of the sexes: all other sexual union, by whomsoever +entered into, is immoral. Bourgeois marriage--we have proved the point +beyond cavil--is the result of bourgeois property relations. This +marriage, which is intimately related with private property and the +right of inheritance--demands "legitimate" children as heirs: it is +entered into for the purpose of acquiring these: under the pressure of +social conditions, it is forced even upon those who have nothing to +bequeath:[225] it becomes a social law, the violation of which the State +punishes by imprisoning for a term of years the men or women who live in +adultery and have been divorced. + +In future society there is nothing to bequeath, unless the domestic +equipment and personal inventory be regarded as inheritance: the modern +form of marriage is thus devoid of foundation and collapses. The +question of inheritance is thereby solved, and Socialism need not +concern itself about abolishing the same. No right of inheritance can +arise where there is no private property. + +Woman is, accordingly, free, and her children, where she has any, do not +impair her freedom: they can only fill all the fuller the cup of her +enjoyments and her pleasure in life. Nurses, teachers, female friends, +the rising female generations--all these are ready at hand to help the +mother when she needs help. + +It is possible that there may be men in the future who will say with +Alexander von Humboldt: "I am not built for the father of a family. +Moreover, I consider marriage a sin, and the begetting of children a +crime." What of it? The power of natural instincts will restore the +equilibrium. We are alarmed neither by a Humboldt's hostility to +marriage nor by the philosophic pessimism of a Schopenhauer, a +Mainlaender or a v. Hartmann, who raise to man the prospect of +self-destruction in the "ideal State," In this matter we hold with Fr. +Ratzel, who justly says: + +"Man may no longer look upon himself as an exception to the laws of +Nature; he should rather begin at last to ascertain the law that +underlies his own acts and thoughts, and to endeavor to live his life +according to the laws of Nature. He will arrive at the point when he +will arrange his social life with his fellows, that is, his family and +the State, not after the precepts of far-back centuries, but after the +rational principles of natural sense. Politics, morals, principles of +justice--all of which are at present fed from all possible sources--will +be determined according to the laws of Nature alone. An existence worthy +of human beings, dreamed of for thousands of years, will finally become +reality."[226] + +That day is approaching with giant strides. Human society has traversed, +in the course of thousands of years, all the various phases of +development, to arrive in the end where it started from,--communistic +property and complete equality and fraternity, but no longer among +congeners alone, but among the whole human race. In that does the great +progress consist. What bourgeois society has vainly striven for, and at +which it suffers and is bound to suffer shipwreck--the restoration of +freedom, equality and fraternity among men--Socialism will accomplish. +Bourgeois society could only set up the theory; here, as in so many +other respects, their practice was at odds with their theories. It is +for Socialism to harmonize the theory with the practice. + +Nevertheless, while man returns to the starting point in his +development, the return is effected upon an infinitely higher social +plane than that from which he started. Primitive society held property +in common in the gens and clan, but only in the rawest and most +undeveloped stage. The process of development that took place since, +reduced, it is true, the common property to a small and insignificant +vestige, broke up the gentes, and finally atomized the whole of society; +but, simultaneously, it raised mightily the productivity of that society +in its various phases and the manifoldness of social necessities, and it +created out of the gentes and tribes nations and great States, although +again it produced a condition of things that stood in violent +contradiction with social requirements. The task of the future is to end +the contradiction by the re-transformation upon the broadest basis, of +property and productive powers into collective property. + +Society re-takes what once was its own, but, in accord with the newly +created conditions of production, it places its whole mode of life upon +the highest stage of culture, which enables all to enjoy what under more +primitive circumstances was the privilege of individuals or of +individual classes only. + +Now woman again fills the active _role_ that once was hers in primitive +society. She does not become the mistress, she is the equal of man. + +"The end of social development resembles the beginning of human +existence. The original equality returns. The mother-web of existence +starts and rounds up the cycle of human affairs"--thus writes Bachofen, +in his frequently quoted work "Das Mutterrecht," forecasting coming +events. Like Bachofen, Morgan also passes judgment upon bourgeois +society, a judgment that, without his having any particular information +on Socialism, coincides essentially with our own. He says: + +"Since the advent of civilization, the outgrowth of property has been so +immense, its forms so diversified, its uses so expanding and its +_management so intelligent in the interests of its owners, that it has +become, on the part of the people, an unmanageable power_. The human +mind stands bewildered in the presence of its own creation. The time +will come, nevertheless, when human intelligence will rise to the +mastery over property, and define the relations of the State to the +property it protects, as well as the obligations and the limits of the +rights of its owners. _The interests of society are paramount to +individual interests, and the two must be brought into just and +harmonious relations._ A mere property career is not the final destiny +of mankind, if progress is to be the law of the future as it has been of +the past. The time which has passed away since civilization began is but +a fragment of the past duration of man's existence; and but a fragment +of the ages yet to come. _The dissolution of society bids fair to become +the termination of a career of which property is the end and aim; +because such a career contains the elements of self-destruction. +Democracy in government, brotherhood in society, equality in rights and +privileges, and universal education, foreshadow the next higher plane of +society to which experience, intelligence and knowledge are steadily +tending. It will be a revival, in a higher form, of the liberty, +equality and fraternity of the ancient gentes._"[227] + +Thus we see how men, proceeding from different starting-points, are +guided by their scientific investigations to the identical conclusions. +The complete emancipation of woman, and her equality with man is the +final goal of our social development, whose realization no power on +earth can prevent;--and this realization is possible only by a social +change that shall abolish the rule of man over man--hence also of +capitalists over workingmen. Only then will the human race reach its +highest development. The "Golden Age" that man has been dreaming of for +thousands of years, and after which he has been longing, will have come +at last. Class rule will have reached its end for all time, and, along +with it, the rule of man over woman. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[224] "Frauenrecht und Frauenpflilcht. Eine Antwort auf Fanny Lewald's +Briefe 'Fuer und wider die Frauen.'" + +[225] In his work "Bau und Leben des sozialen Koerpers" (The Structure +and Life of the Social Body), Dr. Schaeffle says: "A loosening of the +bonds of matrimony by the facilitation of divorce is certainly +undesirable. It flies in the face of the moral objects of human pairing, +and would be injurious to the preservation of the population as well as +the education of the children." After what has been said herein it +follows that we not only consider this view wrong, but are inclined to +regard it as "immoral." Nevertheless, Dr. Schaeffle will allow that the +idea of introducing and maintaining institutions that do violence to its +own conceptions of morality, is simply unimaginable in a society of much +higher culture than the present. + +[226] Quoted in Haeckel's "Natuerliche Schoepfungsgeschichte." + +[227] Morgan's "Ancient Society." + + + +PART IV + +INTERNATIONALITY + + + + +INTERNATIONALITY. + + +In the very nature of things, an existence worthy of human beings can +never be the exclusive possession of a single privileged people. +Isolated from all others, no nation could either raise or keep up such +an establishment. The development that we have reached is the product of +the co-operation of national and international forces and relations. +Although with many the national idea still wholly sways the mind, and +subserves the purpose of maintaining political and social dominations, +possible only within national boundaries, the human race has reached far +into internationalism. + +Treaties of commerce, of tariffs and of shipping, postal unions, +international expositions, conventions on international law and on +international systems of measurement, international scientific +congresses and associations, international expeditions of discovery, our +trade and intercommunication, especially the international congresses of +workingmen, who are the carriers of the new social order and to whose +moral influence was mainly due the international congress for factory +legislation in the interest of the workingmen, assembled in Berlin in +the spring of 1890 upon the invitation of the German Empire,--these and +many other phenomena testify to the international character that, +despite national demarcations, the relations between the various +civilized nations have assumed. National boundary lines are being broken +through. The term "world's economy" is taking the place of "national +economy": an increasing significance is attaching to it, seeing that +upon it depends the well-being and prosperity of individual nations. A +large part of our own products is exchanged for those of foreign +nations, without which we could no longer exist. As one branch of +industry is injured when another suffers, so likewise does the +production of one nation suffer materially when that of another is +paralyzed. Despite all such transitory disturbances as wars and race +persecutions, the relations of the several nations draw ever closer, +because material interests, the strongest of all, dominate them. Each +new highway, every improvement in the means of intercommunication, every +invention or improvement in the process of production, whereby goods are +made cheaper, strengthens these relations. The ease with which personal +contact can be established between distantly located countries and +peoples is a new and powerful link in the chain that draws and holds the +nations together. Emigrations and colonizations are additional and +powerful levers. One people learns from the other. Each seeks to excel. +Along with the interchange of material products, the interchange of the +products of the mind is going on, in the original tongue as well as in +translations. To millions the learning of foreign living languages +becomes a necessity. Next to material advantages, nothing contributes +more towards removing antipathies than to penetrate into the language +and the intellectual products of a foreign people. + +The effect of this process of drawing together, that is going on upon an +international scale, is that the several nations are resembling one +another ever more in their social conditions. With the most advanced, +and therefore pace-setting nations, the resemblance is now such that he +who has learned to understand the social structure of one, likewise +knows that of all the others in essentials. It happens similarly as in +Nature where, among animals of the same species the skeleton formation +and organization is the same, and, if in possession of a part of such a +skeleton, one can theoretically construct the whole animal. + +A further result is this, that where the same social foundations are +found, their effects must be the same--the accumulation of vast wealth, +and its opposite pole of mass-poverty, wage-slavery, dependence of the +masses upon the machinery of production, their domination by the +property-holding minority, and the rest of the long train of +consequences. + +Indeed, we see that the class antagonisms and the class struggles, that +rage throughout Germany, equally keep all Europe, the United States, +Australia, etc., in commotion. In Europe, from Russia across to +Portugal, from the Balkans, Hungary and Italy across to England and +Ireland, the same spirit of discontent is prevalent, the identical +symptoms of social fermentation, of general apprehension and of +decomposition are noticeable. Externally unlike, according to the degree +of development, the character of the people and their political +organization, these movements are all essentially alike. Deep-reaching +social antagonisms are their cause. Every year these antagonisms become +more pronounced, the fermentation and discontent sinks deeper and +spreads wider, until finally some provocation, possibly insignificant in +seeming, brings on the explosion, that then spreads like lightning +throughout the civilized world, and calls upon the people to take +sides--pro or con. + +The battle is then on between New and Old Society. Masses of people step +upon the stage; an abundance of intelligence is enlisted, such as the +world never before saw engaged in any contest, and never again will see +gathered for such a purpose. _It is the last social struggle of all._ +Standing at the elevation of this century, the sight is obvious of the +steady coming to a head of the forces for the struggle in which the New +Ideas will triumph. + +The new social system will then rear itself upon an international basis. +The peoples will fraternize; they will reach one another the hand, and +they will endeavor to gradually extend the new conditions over all the +races of the earth.[228] No people any longer approaches another as an +enemy, bent upon oppression and exploitation; or as the representative +of a strange creed that it seeks to impose upon others;--they will meet +one another as friends, who seek to raise all human beings to the height +of civilization. The labors of the new social order in its work of +colonization and civilization will differ as essentially in both purpose +and method from the present, as the two social orders are essentially +different from each other. Neither powder nor lead, neither "firewater" +(liquor) nor Bible will be used. The task of civilization is entered +upon with the instruments of peace, which will present the civilizers to +the savages, not as enemies, but as benefactors. Intelligent travelers +and investigators have long learned to know how successful is that path. + +When the civilized peoples shall have reached the point of joining in a +large federation, the time will have come when for evermore the storms +of war shall have been lain. Perpetual peace is no dream, as the +gentlemen who strut about in uniforms seek to make people believe. That +day shall have come the moment the peoples shall have understood their +true interests: these are not promoted by war and dissension, by +armaments that bear down whole nations; they are promoted by peaceful, +mutual understandings, and jointly laboring in the path of civilization. +Moreover, as was shown on page 238, the ruling classes and their +Governments are seeing to it that the military armaments and wars break +their own backs by their own immensity. Thus the last weapons will +wander into the museums of antiquity, as so many of their predecessors +have done before, and serve as witnesses to future generations of the +manner in which the generations gone by have for thousands of years +frequently torn up one another like wild animals--until finally the +human in them triumphed over the beast. + +National peculiarities are everywhere nourished by the ruling classes in +order that, at a given conjuncture, a great war may furnish a drainage +for dangerous tendencies at home. As a proof of the extent to which +these national peculiarities engender wars, an utterance of the late +General Fieldmarshal Moltke may here be quoted. In the last volume of +his posthumous work, which deals with the German-French war of 1870-71, +this passage occurs among others in the introductory observations: + +"So long as nations lead separate existences there will be dissensions +that only strokes can arbitrate. In the interest of humanity, however, +it is to be hoped that wars may become as much rarer as they have become +more fearful." + +Now then, this national separate existence, that is, the hostile +shutting off of one nation from another, will vanish. Thus future +generations will be able to achieve without trouble tasks that gifted +heads have long conceived, and unsuccessfully attempted to accomplish. +Condorcet, among others, conceived the idea of an international +language. The late Ulysses S. Grant, ex-President of the United States, +uttered himself this wise on a public occasion: "Seeing that commerce, +education and the rapid exchange of thought and of goods by telegraphy +and steam have altered everything, I believe that God is preparing the +world to become one nation, to speak one language and to reach a state +of perfection in which armies and navies will no longer be needed." It +is natural that with a full-blooded Yankee the leading _role_ be played +by the "dear God," who, after all, is but the product of historic +development. Hypocrisy, or perhaps also ignorance in matters that +concern religion, is nowhere as stupendous as in the United States. The +less the power of the State presses upon the masses, all the more must +religion do the work. Hence the phenomenon that the bourgeoisie is most +pious wherever the power of the State is laxest. Next to the United +States, come England, Belgium and Switzerland in this matter. Even the +revolutionary Robespierre, who played with the heads of aristocrats and +priests as with nine-pin balls, was, as is known, very religious, whence +he ceremoniously introduced the "Supreme Being," which shortly before +had, with equal bad taste, been dethroned by the Convention. And seeing +that the frivolous and idle aristocrats of France had been greatly +bragging about their atheism, Robespierre regarded atheism as +aristocratic, and denounced it in his speech to the Convention on the +"Supreme Being" with these words: "Atheism is aristocratic. The idea of +a Supreme Being, that watches over oppressed innocence and punishes +triumphant crime, comes from the people. If there were no God, one would +have to be invented." The virtuous Robespierre had his misgivings +concerning the power of his virtuous republic to cancel the existing +social antagonisms, hence his belief in a Supreme Being that wreaks +vengeance and seeks to smooth the difficulties that the people of his +time were unable to smooth. Hence also was such a belief a necessity to +the first republic. + +One step in progress will bring another. Mankind will ever set new +tasks to itself, and the accomplishment of the same will lead it to such +a degree of social development that wars, religious quarrels and similar +manifestations of barbarism will be unknown. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[228] "National and human interests stand to-day opposed to each other. +At a higher stage of civilization these interests will coincide and +become one."--v. Thuenen, "Der Isolirte Staat." + + + + +PART V + +POPULATION _and_ OVER-POPULATION + + + + +POPULATION AND OVER-POPULATION + + +It has become quite fashionable with people who occupy themselves with +the social question to consider the question of population as the most +important and burning of all. They claim that we are threatened with +"over-population;" aye, that the danger is upon us. This, more than any +other division of the Social Question, must be treated from an +international standpoint. The feeding and the distribution of the people +have pre-eminently become international issues of fact. Since Malthus, +the law underlying the increase of population has been the subject of +extensive dispute. In his celebrated and now notorious "Essay on the +Principles of Population," which Marx has characterized as a +"school-boyish, superficial and pulpiteer piece of declamatory +plagiarism on Sir James Stewart, Townsend, Franklin, Wallace and others" +and which "contains not one original sentence," Malthus lays down the +proposition that mankind has the tendency to increase in geometric +progression (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc.), while food could increase only +in arithmetic progression (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.); and that the +consequence is a rapid disproportion between the numbers of the +population and the supply of food, that inevitably leads to want and +starvation. The final conclusion was the necessity of "abstinence" in +the procreation of children, and abstinence from marriage without +sufficient means for the support of a family, contrariwise there would +be no place at "the banquet table of Nature" for the descendants. + +The fear of over-population is very old. It was touched upon in this +work in connection with the social conditions of the Greeks and Romans, +and at the close of the Middle Ages. Plato and Aristotle, the Romans, +the small bourgeois of the Middle Ages were all swayed by it, and it +even swayed Voltaire, who, in the first quarter of the eighteenth +century, published a treatise on the subject. The fear ever turns up +again--this circumstance must be emphasized--_at periods when the +existing social conditions are disintegrating and breaking down_. Seeing +on all sides privation and discontent at such periods, the privation and +discontent are forthwith ascribed to the shortness of the supply of +food, instead of to the manner in which the existing supply is +distributed. + +All advanced social stages have hitherto rested upon class-rule, and the +principal means of class-rule was the appropriation of the land. The +land gradually slips from the hands of a large number of proprietors +into those of a small number that utilize and cultivate it only +partially. The large majority are rendered propertyless and are stripped +of the means of existence; their share of food then depends upon the +good will of their masters, for whom they now have to work. According to +the social condition of things, the struggle for the land takes its form +from period to period; the end, however, was that the land continued +steadily to concentrate in the hands of the ruling class. If undeveloped +means of transportation or political isolation impede the intercourse +abroad of a community and interfere with the importation of food when +the crops fail and provisions are dear, forthwith the belief springs up +that there are too many people. Under such circumstances, every increase +in the family is felt as a burden; the specter of over-population rises; +and the terror that it spreads is in direct proportion to the +concentration of the land in few hands, together with its train of +evils--the partial cultivation of the soil, and its being turned to +purposes of pleasure for its owners. Rome and Italy were poorest off for +food at the time when the whole soil of Italy was held by about 3,000 +latifundia owners. Hence the cry: "The latifundia are ruining Rome!" The +soil was converted into vast hunting-grounds and wonderful +pleasure-gardens; not infrequently it was allowed to be idle, seeing +that its cultivation, even by slaves, came out dearer to the magnates +than the grain imported from Sicily and Africa. It was a state of things +that opened wide the doors for usury in grain, a practice in which the +rich nobility likewise led. In consideration of this usury of grain the +domestic soil was kept from cultivation. Thereupon the impoverished +Roman citizen and the impoverished aristocracy resolved to renounce +marriage and the begetting of children; hence the laws placing premiums +on marriage and children in order to check the steady decrease of the +ruling classes. + +The same phenomenon appeared towards the close of the Middle Ages, after +the nobility and clergy had, in the course of centuries and with the aid +of all the crafty and violent means at their command, robbed unnumbered +peasants of their property and appropriated the common lands to +themselves. When, thereupon, the peasants revolted and were beaten down, +the robber-trade gained new impetus, and it was then also practiced upon +the Church estates by the Princes of the Reformation. The number of +thieves, beggars and vagabonds was never larger than immediately before +and after the Reformation. The expropriated rural population rushed to +the cities; but there, due to causes that have been described in +previous pages, the conditions of life were likewise +deteriorating,--hence "over-population" was felt all around. + +The appearance of Malthus coincides with that period of English industry +when, due to the inventions of Hargreaves, Arkwright and Watt, powerful +changes set in both in mechanism and technique, changes that affected, +first of all, the cotton and linen industries, and rendered breadless +the workingmen engaged in them. The concentration of capital and land +assumed at the time large proportions in England: along with the rapid +increase of wealth, on the one hand, there went the deepening misery of +the masses, on the other. At such a juncture, the ruling classes, who +have every reason to consider the existing world the "best of all +possible worlds," were bound to seek an explanation for so contradictory +a phenomenon as the pauperization of the masses in the midst of swelling +wealth and flourishing industry. Nothing was easier than to throw the +blame upon the too-rapid procreation of the workingmen, and not upon +their having been rendered superfluous through the capitalist process of +production, and the accumulation of the soil in the hands of landlords. +With such circumstances for its setting, the "school-boyish, superficial +and pulpiteer piece of declamatory plagiarism," that Malthus published, +was a work that gave drastic utterance to the secret thoughts and wishes +of the ruling class, and justified their misdeeds to the world. Hence +the loud applause that it met from one side, and violent opposition from +another. Malthus had spoken the right word at the right time for the +English bourgeoisie; hence, although his essay "contained not one +original sentence," he became a great and celebrated man, and his name a +synonym for the doctrine.[229] + +Now, then, the conditions that caused Malthus thus to give his signal of +alarm and proclaim his brutal doctrine--he addressed it to the working +class, thus adding insult to injury--have since grown worse from decade +to decade. They have grown worse, not alone in the fatherland of +Malthus, Great Britain, but in all the countries of the world run by the +capitalist system of production, whose consequences ever are the robbery +of the soil and the dependence and subjugation of the masses through +machinery and the factory. This system consists, as has been shown, in +the separation of the workingman from his means of production--be these +land or tools--and in the transfer of the latter to the capitalist +class. That system produces ever new branches of industry, develops and +concentrates them, and thereby throws ever larger masses of the people +upon the street as "superfluous." On the field of agriculture it +promotes, as the Rome of old, the latifundia ownership with all its +sequences. Ireland, in this respect the classic land of Europe, and +afflicted worst of all by the English system of land-grabbing, had in +1887 an area of 884.4 square miles of meadow and pasture land, but only +263.3 square miles of agricultural fields and the conversion of +agricultural fields into meadows and pastures for sheep and cattle and +into hunting grounds for the landlords makes every year further +strides.[230] + +Moreover the agricultural fields of Ireland are, in great measure, in +the hands of a large number of small tenants, who are not able to +cultivate the land in the most profitable manner. Thus Ireland presents +the aspect of a country that is retrogressing from an agricultural into +a pastoral condition. The population, that at the beginning of the +nineteenth century was over eight million strong, has declined to about +five million, and still several millions are "in excess." Ireland's +normal state of rebellion against England is thus easily explained; and +yet the struggle of the "Home Ruler" aims only at the creation of an +Irish landlord class and no wise carries the wished-for deliverance to +the mass of the Irish people. The Irish people will perceive that so +soon as the Home Ruler shall carry out his plans. Scotland presents a +picture similar to that of Ireland with regard to the ownership and +cultivation of its soil.[231] + +A similar development reappears in Hungary, a country that entered upon +the modern field of development only recently. Hungary, a land in point +of the fertility of her soil, as rich as few in Europe, is overloaded +with debt, and her population, pauperized and in the hands of usurers, +emigrates in large numbers. Hungary's soil is now concentrated in the +hands of modern capitalist magnates, who carry on a ruinous system of +cultivation in forest and field so that Hungary is not far from the +time when it will have ceased to be a grain exporting country. It is +quite similarly with Italy. In Italy, just as in Germany, the political +unity of the nation has taken capitalist development powerfully under +the arm; but the thrifty peasants of Piedmont and Lombardy, of Tuscany, +Romagna and Sicily are ever more impoverished and go to ruin. Swamps and +moors are reappearing on the sites occupied but recently by the well +cultivated gardens and fields of small peasants. Before the very gates +of Rome, in the so-called Campagna, a hundred thousand hectares of land +lie fallow in a region that once was the "garden of Rome." Swamps cover +the ground, and exhale their poisonous miasmas. If, with the application +of the proper means the Campagna were thoroughly drained and properly +irrigated, the population of Rome would have a fertile source of food. +But Italy suffers of the ambition to become a "leading power:" she is +ruining herself with military and naval armaments and with African +colonization plans, and, consequently, has no funds left for such tasks +as the reclaiming of the Campagna for cultivation. And as the Campagna, +so are South Italy and particularly Sicily. The latter, once the granary +of Rome, sinks ever more into deepening poverty. There is no more +sucked-out, poverty-stricken and maltreated people in all Europe than +the Sicilian. The easily-contented sons of the most beautiful region of +all Europe overrun half Europe and the United States as lowerers of +wages because they care not to starve to death upon the native soil that +has ceased to be their property. Malaria, that frightful fever, is +spreading over Italy to an extent that, frightened at the prospect, the +government instituted in 1882 an investigation, which brought to light +the deplorable fact that, of the 69 provinces of the country, 32 were +severely afflicted by the disease, 32 were infected, and only 5 had so +far remained free. The disease, once known only in the rural districts, +penetrated the cities, where the urban, increased by the rural +proletariat, constitutes a center of infection. + +These facts, together with what has been said touching the effects and +results of the capitalist system of production, teach us that want and +misery with the masses are not the results of insufficiency in the means +of existence, but of an unequal distribution, that furnishes some with a +superfluity and condemns others to privation. It causes the destruction +and squandering of supplies, and, along with that, negligence in +producing these. The Malthusian assertions have sense only from the +standpoint of the system of capitalist production. Whoever stands on +that principle has every reason to defend it, otherwise the ground would +slip from under him. + +On the other side, however, the capitalist system itself favors the +production of children, in so far as it needs cheap "hands" in the shape +of such in its factories. The begetting of children, moreover, often +becomes a matter of calculation with the proletariat. They cost the +parents little or nothing: they soon earn their own support. In the +house industries the proletarian is even obliged to have many children: +they equip him all the better for the competitive struggle. It certainly +is an abominable system: it conceals the pauperization of the workingman +and it provokes his own rendering of himself superfluous through the +children who work for the most miserable of wages. The immorality and +harmfulness of this system are obvious, and they spread with the +extension of capitalism. It is precisely for that reason that the +bourgeois ideologists--and all bourgeois economists are that--defend the +Malthusian theories. Hence in Germany also and in particular the notion +of "over-production" ever finds support among the bourgeoisie. Capital +is the innocent defendant, the workingman is the criminal. + +Unfortunately, however, for this theory Germany has "superfluity," not +of proletarians only, but also of "intellectuals." Capital brings about +not only an over-production of soil, goods, workingmen, women and +children, but also of "officials and learning"--as we shall show. There +is only one thing that is not "superfluous" in this capitalist +world--capital and its owner, the capitalist. + +If the capitalist economists are Malthusians they are simply what their +capitalist interests compel them to be. Only, they should not shift +their bourgeois whims to the shoulders of Socialist society. John Stuart +Mill says among other things: "But Communism is precisely the state of +things in which opinion might be expected to declare itself with +greatest intensity against this kind of selfish intemperance. An +augmentation of numbers which diminished the comfort or increased the +toil of the mass, would then cause (which now it does not) immediate and +unmistakable inconvenience to every individual in the association; +inconvenience which could not then be imputed to the avarice of +employers, or the unjust privileges of the rich. In such altered +circumstances, opinion could not fail to reprobate, and if reprobation +did not suffice, to repress by penalties of some description, this or +any other culpable self-indulgence at the expense of the community. The +Communistic scheme, instead of being peculiarly open to the objection +drawn from danger of over-population, has the recommendation of tending +in an especial degree to the prevention of that evil." And Prof. Ad. +Wagner says: "Least of all could freedom of marriage or freedom of +procreation be tolerated in a Socialist community."[232] These authors +proceed from the theory that the tendency towards over-population is +one common to all social conditions, but both allow that Socialism is +better able than any other social system to establish the equilibrium +between population and food. The latter is true, not so the former. + +True enough, there were one time Socialists, who, tainted by the +Malthusian theories, perceived the "imminent danger" of over-population. +But these Socialist Malthusians have disappeared. A clearer insight into +the nature of bourgeois society, together with the fact that, judging +from the plaintive songs of our Agrarians, we produce not too little but +too much food, and that the resulting low prices render the production +of foodstuffs unprofitable, has enlightened them on the subject. + +A part of our Malthusians imagine--and the chorus of the mouth-pieces of +the bourgeoisie parrot-like echo their utterances--that a Socialist +society, in which there is freedom in the choice of love and ample +provision for a livelihood worthy of human beings, must soon degenerate +into a rabbit warren: it would succumb to excessive sexual indulgence +and to excessive procreation. Exactly the reverse is most likely to +happen, as certain observations go to prove. Until now the largest +number of children were had, not by the best, but by the worst situated. +It may even be said without being guilty of exaggeration: the poorer the +condition of a proletarian stratum, the more numerous also is its +average blessing of children, conceding exceptions here and there. Even +Virchow confirms this. He says: "As the English workingman in his +deepest degradation, in the utter vacancy of the mind, finally knows but +two sources of enjoyment, drunkenness and coition, so did the population +of Upper Silesia, until recent years, concentrate all its wishes, all +its desires upon these two things. Liquor and the gratification of +sexual cravings had become sovereign with it. Hence it is easy to +understand that its population gained as rapidly in numbers as it lost +in physical vigor and moral fibre." Karl Marx expresses himself +similarly when he says in "Capital:" "As a matter of fact, not only the +number of births and deaths but the absolute size of families is in +reverse ratio to the height of wages, i. e., to the means of subsistence +which the various categories of workmen have at their disposal. _This +law of capitalist society would sound absurd among savages, or even +civilized colonists._ It reminds us of the enormous power of +reproduction among animals that are individually weak and much hunted +down;" and Marx furthermore quotes Laing, who says: "If all the world +were in comfortable circumstances, the earth would soon be depopulated." +We see Laing's views are opposed to Malthus: he is of the opinion that a +good living is not conducive to the increase but to the decrease of +births. In the same vein says Herbert Spencer: "Always and everywhere +progress and procreative capacity are opposed to each other. It follows +that the higher development, that mankind looks forward to, will +probably have as a result a decline in procreation." + +Thus we see men, who otherwise differ, absolutely at one on this head, +and their views coincide wholly with ours. + +The whole question of population could be practically disposed of off +hand with the observation that there is no danger of over-population +within sight: we find ourselves in front of such a superabundance of +food, which even threatens to increase, that the greatest worry, now +afflicting the producers of means of subsistence, is to furnish this +wealth of food at tolerable prices. A rapid increase of consumers would +even be the most desirable thing for producers. But our Malthusians are +tireless in the raising of objections: thus we are forced to meet these, +lest they have the excuse that they can not be refuted. + +They claim that the danger of an over-population in a not-distant future +lies in the law of a "decreasing yield of the soil." Our fields become +"tired of cultivation;" increasing crops are no longer to be looked for; +seeing that fields, fit for cultivation, become daily rarer, the danger +of a scarcity of food is imminent, if the population continue to +increase. We believe to have proved beyond doubt, in the passages on the +agricultural utilization of the soil, what enormous progress mankind can +make with respect to the acquisition of new masses of nutriment. But we +shall give further illustrations. A very able landlord of wide acres and +economist of acknowledged worth, a man, accordingly who excelled Malthus +in both respects, said as early as 1850--a time when chemical +agriculture was still in its swaddling clothes--on the subject of +agricultural production: "The productivity of raw products, especially +foodstuffs, will in future no longer lag behind the productivity of the +factory and of transportation.... Chemical agriculture has only started +in our days to open to agriculture prospects that will no doubt lead to +many false roads, but that in the end will place the production of +foodstuffs as fully in the power of society, as it lies now in its power +to furnish yards of cloth, if but the requisite supply of wool is at +hand."[233] + +Justus v. Liebig, the founder of chemical agriculture, holds that "if +human labor and manure are available in sufficient quantity, the soil is +inexhaustible, and can yield uninterruptedly the richest harvests." The +"law of a decreasing yield of the soil" is a Malthusian notion, that had +its justification at a time when agriculture was in an undeveloped +state; the notion has long since been refuted by science and +experience. The law is rather this: "The yield of a soil stands in +direct ratio to the human labor expended (science and technique being +included), and to the proper fertilizers applied to it." If it was +possible for small-peasant France to more than quadruple the yield of +her soil during the last ninety years, without the population even +doubling, much better results are to be expected from a Socialist +society. Our Malthusians, furthermore, overlook the fact that, under our +existing conditions, not our soil merely is to be taken into account, +but the soil of the whole earth, that is, to a great extent, territories +whose fertility yields twenty, thirty and many more times as much as our +corresponding fields of the same size. The earth is now extensively +appropriated by man; nevertheless, a small fraction excepted, it is +nowhere cultivated and utilized as it could be cultivated and utilized. +Not Great Britain alone could, as has been shown, produce a much larger +quantity of food than she does to-day, but France, Germany, Austria and +to a still much greater extent the other countries of Europe also could +do the same. In little Wurtemberg, with her 879,970 hectares of grain +soil, the mere application of the steam plow would raise the average +crop of 6,410,000 to 9,000,000 cwts. + +European Russia--measured by the present standard of the population of +Germany--would be able to nourish, instead of her present population, of +90,000,000, one of 475,000,000 souls. To-day European Russia has about +1,000 inhabitants to the square mile, Saxony over 12,000. + +The objection that Russia contains vast stretches of territory, whose +climate renders impossible any higher degree of cultivation, is true; on +the other hand, however, she has to the south a climate and fertility of +soil by far unknown in Germany. Then, again, due to the denseness of +population and the improved cultivation of soil therewith connected, +such as clearings of woods, draining, etc., changes, wholly +unmeasureable to-day, will be brought on in climate. Wherever man +aggregates in large numbers climatic changes are perceived. To-day we +attach too little importance to this phenomenon; we are even unable to +realize the same to its full extent, seeing that we have no occasion +therefor, and, as things are to-day, lack the means to undertake the +needed experiments on an adequate scale. Furthermore, all travelers are +agreed that in the high latitudes of Northern Siberia, where spring, +summer and autumn crowd together in rapid succession within a few +months, an astonishing luxuriance of vegetation suddenly springs forth. +Thus Sweden and Norway, to-day so sparsely populated, would, with their +mammoth woods and positively inexhaustible mineral wealth, their +numerous rivers and long stretch of coast lines, furnish rich sources of +food for a dense population. The requisite means and appliances are not +obtainable under present circumstances, and thus even that sparse +population casts off its shoals of emigrants. + +What may be said of the north applies with still more force to the south +of Europe--Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, the Danubian States, Hungary, +Turkey, etc. A climate of surpassing quality, a soil so luxuriant and +fertile as is hardly found in the best regions of the United States, +will some day furnish an abundance of food to unnumbered people. The +decrepit political and social conditions of those countries cause +hundreds of thousands of our own people to prefer crossing the ocean +rather than to settle in those much nearer and more comfortably located +States. Soon as rational social conditions and international relations +will prevail there, new millions of people will be needed to raise those +large and fertile lands to a higher grade of civilization. + +In order to be able to reach materially higher rungs on the ladder of +civilization we shall, for a long time to come, have in Europe, not a +superfluity, but a dearth of people. Under such circumstances, it is an +absurdity to yield to the fear of over-population. It must ever be kept +in mind that the utilization of existing sources of food, by the +application of science and labor, knows no limit: every day brings new +discoveries and inventions which increase the yield of the sources of +food. + +If we pass from Europe to the other parts of the earth, the lack of +people and the excess of soil is still more glaring. The most luxuriant +and fruitful lands of the earth still lie wholly or almost wholly idle: +the work of bringing them under cultivation and turning them to use can +not be undertaken with a few hundred or thousand people: it demands mass +colonizations of many millions in order to be able to bring the +but-too-luxuriant Nature under human control. Under this head belong, +among others, Central and South America--a territory of hundreds of +thousands of square miles. Argentina, for instance, had in 1892 about +5,000,000 hectares under cultivation, the country has, however, +96,000,000 hectares at its disposal. The soil of South America, fit for +the cultivation of corn and lying fallow, is estimated at 200,000,000 +hectares, at least. The United States, Austria-Hungary, Great Britain +and Ireland, Germany and France have all together only about 105,000,000 +hectares devoted to cereals. Carey maintains that the 360-mile long +valley of the Orinoco alone could furnish enough food to supply the +whole present human race. Let us halve the estimate, and there is still +an abundance. At any rate, South America alone could feed the majority +of the population now extant on earth. The nutritive value of a field +planted with banana trees and one of equal size planted with wheat +stands as 133 to 1. While our wheat yields in favorable soil 12 to 20 +times its seed, rice in its home yields 80 to 100, maize 250 to 300 +times as much. In many regions, the Philippine Islands among them, the +productivity of rice is estimated at 400 times as much. The question +with all these articles of food is to render them as nourishing as +possible by the manner in which they are prepared. Chemistry has in this +a boundless field for development. + +Central and South America, especially Brazil, which alone is almost as +large as all Europe--Brazil has 152,000 square miles with about +15,000,000 inhabitants, as against Europe's 178,000 square miles and +about 340,000,000 inhabitants--are big with a luxuriance and fertility +that stir the astonishment and wonderment of all travelers, besides +being inexhaustibly rich in minerals. Nevertheless, until now they are +almost closed to the world because their population is indolent and +stands, both in point of numbers and of culture, too low to overmaster +the power of Nature. How matters look in Africa we have been enlightened +on by the discoveries of recent years. Even if a good part of Central +Africa never be fit for European agriculture, there are other regions of +vast size that can be put to good use the moment rational principles of +colonization are applied. On the other hand, there are in Asia not only +vast and fertile territories, able to feed thousands of millions of +people, but the past has also shown how in places that are there now +sterile and almost desert, the mild climate once conjured up an +abundance of food from the soil, provided only man knows how to lead to +it the blessing-bestowing water. What with the destruction of the +marvelous aqueducts and contrivances for irrigation in Asia Minor and in +the regions of the Tigris and the Euphrates, with vandalic wars of +conquest and the insane oppression of the people by the conquerors, +fields, thousands of square miles wide, have been transformed into sandy +deserts. Likewise in Northern Africa, Spain, Mexico and Peru. Let there +be produced millions of civilized human beings, and inexhaustible +sources of food will be unlocked. The fruit of the date tree thrives +marvelously in Asia and Africa, and it takes up so little room that 200 +trees can go on one acre of land. The durria bears in Egypt more than +3,000 fold, and yet the country is poor--not by reason of excessive +population, but as the result of a robber system that accomplishes the +feat of spreading the desert ever further from decade to decade. The +marvelous results attainable in all these countries by the agriculture +and horticulture of middle Europe is a matter that eludes all +calculation. + +With the present state of agriculture, the United States could easily +feed fifteen and twenty times its present population (63,000,000)--that +is, 1,200,000,000 people. Under the same conditions, Canada could feed, +instead of 5,000,000 people, 100,000,000 people. Then there are +Australia, the numerous and in some instances large and extraordinarily +fertile islands of the great Indian Ocean, etc. "Multiply!"--such, and +not "Reduce your numbers!"--is the call that in the name of civilization +reaches the human race. + +Everywhere, it is the social conditions--the existing method of +production and distribution--that bring on privation and misery, not the +number of people. A few rich crops in succession lower the prices of +food in such manner that a considerable number of our cultivators of the +soil are ruined. Instead of the condition of the cultivator being +improved, it declines. A large number of farmers to-day look upon a good +crop as a misfortune: it lowers prices so that the cost of production is +barely covered. And this is called a rational state of things! With the +view of keeping far away from us the abundance of the harvests of other +countries, high duties are placed on grain: thus the entry of foreign +grain is made difficult and the price of the domestic article is raised. +We have no scarcity but a superabundance of food, the same as of +industrial products. The same as millions of people need the yield of +the factories, but can not satisfy their wants under the existing system +of property and production, so are millions in want of food, being +unable to pay for it, although the prices are low and the necessaries of +life abundant. We ask again, Can this be called a rational state of +things? The craziness and insanity of it all is obvious. Our speculators +in corn often, when the crops are good, deliberately allow a large part +to perish: they know the prices rise in the measure that the products +are scarce. And yet we are told to look out for overpopulation! In +Russia, southern Europe and many other countries of the world, hundreds +of thousands of loads of grain perish yearly for want of proper storage +and transportation. Many millions of hundredweights of food are yearly +squandered because the provisions for gathering in the crops are +inadequate, or there is a scarcity of hands at the right time. Many a +corn field, many a filled barn, whole agricultural establishments are +burned down, because the insurance fetches higher gains. Food and goods +are destroyed for the same reason that ships are caused to go to the +bottom with their whole crews.[234] A large part of the crops is yearly +ruined by our military manoeuvres; the costs of manoeuvres that last +only a few days run up to hundreds of thousands of marks; and there are +many of them every year. Moreover, as stated before, large fields are +taken from cultivation for these purposes. + +Nor must it be forgotten that there is the sea yet to be added to the +means for increasing the volume of food. The area of water is as 18 to 7 +to that of land,--two and a half times as large. Its enormous wealth of +food still awaits a rational system of exploitation. The future opens a +prospect to mankind, wholly different from the gloomy picture drawn by +our Malthusians. + +Who can say where the line is to be drawn to our chemical, physical, +physiologic knowledge? Who would venture to predict what giant +undertakings--so considered from our modern standpoint--the people of +future centuries will execute with the object in view of introducing +material changes in the climates of the nations and in the methods of +exploiting their soil? + +We see to-day, under the capitalist social system, undertakings executed +that were thought impossible or insane a century ago. Wide isthmuses are +cut through; tunnels, miles long and bored into the bowels of the earth, +join peoples whom towering mountains separate; others are dug under the +beds of seas to shorten distances, and avoid disturbances and dangers +that otherwise the countries thus separated are exposed to. Where is the +spot at which could be said: "So far and no farther?" + +If all these improvements were to be undertaken simultaneously, we would +be found to have, not too many but too few people. The race must +multiply considerably if it is to do justice to all the tasks that are +waiting for it. Neither is the soil under cultivation utilized as it +should be, nor are there people enough to cultivate three-fourths of its +face. Our relative over-production, continuously produced by the +capitalist system to the injury of the workingman and of society, will, +at a higher grade of civilization, prove itself a benefit. Moreover, a +population as large as possible is, even to-day, not an impediment to +but a promoter of progress--on the same principle that the existing +over-production of goods and food, the destruction of the family by the +enlisting of women and children in the factories, and the expropriation +of the handicrafts and the peasantry by capital have all shown +themselves to be conditions precedent for a higher state of +civilization. + +We now come to the other side of the question: Do people multiply +indefinitely, and is that a necessity of their being? + +With the view of proving this great reproductive power of man, the +Malthusians usually refer to the abnormal instances of exceptional +families and peoples. Nothing is proven by that. As against these +instances there are others where, under favorable conditions, complete +sterility shortly sets in. The quickness with which often well situated +families die out is surprising. Although the United States offer more +favorable conditions than any other country for the increase of +population, and yearly hundreds of thousands of people immigrate at the +most vigorous age, its population doubles only every thirty years. There +are nowhere instances on a large scale of the assertion concerning a +doubling period of twelve or twenty years. + +As indicated by the quotations from Marx and Virchow, which may be +considered to state the rule, population increases fastest where it is +poorest because, as Virchow justly claims, next to drunkenness, sexual +intercourse is their only enjoyment. When Gregory VII. forced celibacy +upon the clergy, the priests of lower rank in the diocese of Mainz +complained, as stated before, that differently from the upper prelates, +they did not have all possible pleasures, and the only enjoyment left +them was their wives. A lack of varying occupation may be the reason why +the marriages of the rural clergy are, as a rule, so fruitful of +children. It is also undeniable that our poorest districts in +Germany--the Silesian Eulengebirge, the Lausitz, the Erzgebirge and +Fichtelgebirge, the Thuringian Forest, the Harz, etc.,--are the centers +of densest population, whose chief food are potatoes. It is also certain +that sexual cravings are strong with consumptives, and these often beget +children at a state of physical decline when such a thing would seem +impossible. + +It is a law of Nature--hinted at in the quotations made from Herbert +Spencer and Laing--that she supplies in quantity what she loses in +quality. The animals of highest grade and strength--lions, elephants, +camels, etc., our domestic animals such as mares, asses, cows,--bring +few young ones into the world; while animals of lower organization +increase in inverse ratio--all insects, most fishes, etc., the smaller +mammals, such as hares, rats, mice, etc. Furthermore, Darwin established +that certain wild animals, so soon as tamed, forfeit their fecundity. +The elephant is an illustration. This proves that altered conditions of +life, together with the consequent change in the mode of life, are the +determining factors in reproductive powers. + +It happens, however, that it is the Darwinians who lead in the fear of +over-population, and upon whom our modern Malthusians bank. Our +Darwinians are everywhere infelicitous the moment they apply their +theories to human conditions: their method then becomes roughly +empirical, and they forget that, while man is the highest organic +animal, he, being in contradistinction to animals acquainted with the +laws of nature is able to direct and utilize these. + +The theory of the struggle for existence, the doctrine that the germs +of new life exist in much larger numbers than are maintainable with the +existing means of existence, would be wholly applicable to man if man, +instead of straining his brains and enlisting the services of technical +arts for exploiting air, land and water, grazed like cattle, or like +monkeys indulged his sexual impulses with cynic shamelessness,--in +short, if he reverted to the monkey order. In passing be it observed +that the fact that, besides man, monkeys are the only beings with whom +the sexual impulse is not fixed to certain periods, is a striking proof +of the relationship between the two. But though closely related, they +are not identical, and are not to be placed on one level and measured by +one standard,--a fact that we commend to Ziegler, who, in his book +herein frequently referred to, holds up the two together. + +The circumstance that, under the conditions of ownership and production +that have hitherto prevailed, the struggle for existence existed and +continues to exist for man also and many fail to find the conditions for +life, is perfectly true. But these failed, not because of the scarcity +of the means of existence, but because, due to social conditions, the +means of existence, though in greatest abundance, were kept from them. +False also is the conclusion that, because such has hitherto been the +state of things, it is unchangeable and will ever be so. It is here that +the Darwinians slide and fall: they study natural science and +anthropology, but not sociology, and thoughtlessly fall in line with our +bourgeois ideologists. Hence they drop into their false conclusions. + +The sexual instinct is perennial in man; it is his strongest instinct +and demands satisfaction, lest his health suffer. Moreover, as a rule, +this instinct is strong in proportion to man's health and normal +development--just as a good appetite and a good digestion bespeak a +healthy stomach, and are the first prerequisites for a healthy body. But +gratification of the sexual instinct and begetting and conceiving are +not the same thing. The most varied theories have been set up on the +fecundity of the human race. On the whole, we are still groping in the +dark on this important field, mainly because for a couple of thousand +years a senseless shyness has stood in the way of man's occupying +himself freely and naturally with the laws of his own origin, and to +study thoroughly the laws of human procreation. That is gradually +changing and must change much more. + +On one side the theory is set up that higher mental development and +strenuous mental exertion, in short, higher nervous activity, exert a +repressing influence upon the sexual impulse and weaken the procreative +power. This is disputed by the other side. The fact is pointed to that +the better situated classes have, on an average, fewer children and +that this is not to be ascribed solely to preventive measures. +Undoubtedly, intense mental occupation has a depressing influence upon +the sexual impulse, but that such occupation is indulged in by the +majority of our property classes is not so certain. On the other hand, +an excess of physical labor also has a repressing influence. But all +excessive effort is harmful, and therefore objectionable. + +Others, again, claim that the manner of life, especially the food eaten, +coupled with certain physical conditions on the part of the woman, +determine the power to beget and to conceive. The nature of food more +than any other cause, this side argues, determines, as experience shows +in the instance of animals also, the effectiveness of the act of +procreation. Possibly, this is in fact, the determining factor. The +influence of the nature of nourishment on the organism of certain +animals manifests itself surprisingly with bees: they produce at will a +queen by the administering of special food. Bees, accordingly, are +further advanced in the knowledge of sexual development than men. They +have not, probably, been sermonized for two thousand years that it is +"indecent" and "immoral" to concern themselves with sexual matters. + +It is also known that plants raised on good soil and well manured, +thrive luxuriantly, but yield no seed. That the nature of the food has +its influence upon the composition of the male sperm, and upon the +fecundity of the female egg with human beings also, is hardly to be +doubted. Thus mayhap the procreative power of the population depends in +a high degree upon the nature of the food it lives on. Other factors, +whose nature is still but little understood, also play a role. It is a +striking circumstance that a young couple may have no children after +long years of married life, yet, having separated, and each having mated +again, both new marriages are followed by healthy children. + +One factor is of leading importance in the question of population in the +future--_the higher, freer position which all women will then occupy_. +Leaving exceptions aside, intelligent and energetic women are not as a +rule inclined to give life to a large number of children as "the gift of +God," and to spend the best years of their own lives in pregnancy, or +with a child at their breasts. This disinclination for numerous +children, which even now is entertained by most women, may--all the +solicitude notwithstanding that a Socialist society will bestow upon +pregnant women and mothers--be rather strengthened than weakened. In our +opinion, there lies in this the great probability that the increase of +population will proceed slower than in bourgeois society. + +Our Malthusians need really not break their heads on the future of the +human race. Until now nations have gone down through the decline, never +through the increase of their population. In the last analysis, the +number of population is regulated without harmful abstinence and without +unnatural preventives, in a society that lives according to the laws of +Nature. On this head also the future will vindicate Karl Marx. His +theory also that every period of economic development carries with it +its own law of population will prove true under the rule of Socialism. + +The author of the work "Die kuenstliche Beschraenkung der Kinderzahl" +(The Artificial Limitation of Progeny)[235] claims that Socialism is +playing a tricky manoeuvre by its opposition to Malthusianism: a rapid +increase of population promotes mass proletarianization, and this, in +turn, promotes discontent: if over-population is successfully checked, +the spread of Socialism would be done for, and its Socialist State, +together with all its glory, buried for all time. Thus we see one more +weapon added to the arsenal to kill Socialism with--Malthusianism. The +grandiose ignorance of the Socialist-killer Ferdy on Socialism, +transpires strongest from the following sentence, which he perpetrates +on page 40 of his work: + +"Socialism will go further than the Neo-Malthusians in its demands. It +will demand that the minimum wage be so fixed that every workingman +shall be able to produce as many children as possible under given social +facilities for the acquisition of food.... The moment the ultimate +deductions of Socialism are drawn, and private property is abolished, +even the dullest will then say to himself: 'Why should I have to work +long and hard for the simple reason that it pleases my neighbors to +shove a dozen new members into society?'" It should seem that a critic +should first acquaint himself with the A B C of Socialism before +presuming to write upon the subject, and such preposterous stuff at +that! + +In Socialist society, where alone mankind will be truly free and planted +on its natural basis, it will direct its own development knowingly along +the line of natural law. In all epochs hitherto, society handled the +questions of production and distribution, as well as of the increase of +population without the knowledge of the laws that underlie them,--hence, +unconsciously. In the new social order, equipped with the knowledge of +the laws of its own development, society will proceed consciously and +planfully. + + + SOCIALISM IS SCIENCE, APPLIED WITH FULL UNDERSTANDING + TO ALL THE FIELDS OF HUMAN ACTIVITY. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[229] That Darwin and others also became devotees of Malthus only proves +how the lack of economic knowledge leads to one-sided views. + +[230] Fred. Freiligrath sings in his fervid poem "Ireland": + + + Thus naught the Irish landlord cares, + While hart and ox by peasant's toil + For him are raised--he leaves undried + Great bogs and swamps on Erin's soil-- + + Extensive mirelands unreclaimed, + Where sheaf by sheaf rich crops could wave; + He vilely leaves--a wanton waste-- + Where water-fowl and wild ducks lave. + + Four million acres feels his rod; + A wilderness accursed of God. + + +[231] "Two millions of acres ... totally laid waste, embracing within +their area some of the most fertile lands of Scotland. The natural grass +of Glen Tilt was among the most nutritive in the county of Perth. The +deer forest of Ben Aulder was by far the best grazing ground in the wide +district of Badenoch; a part of the Black Mount forest was the best +pasture for black-faced sheep in Scotland. Some idea of the ground laid +waste for purely sporting purposes in Scotland may be formed from the +fact that it embraced an area larger than the whole county of Perth. The +resources of the forest of Ben Aulder might give some idea of the loss +sustained from the forced desolations. The ground would pasture 15,000 +sheep, and as it was not more than one-thirtieth part of the old forest +ground in Scotland.... It might, &c.... All that forest land is as +totally unproductive.... It might thus as well have been submerged under +the waters of the German Ocean."--From the London "Economist," July 2, +1866, cited by Karl Marx in "Capital," p. 757, edition Swan-Sonnenschein +& Co., London, 1896. + +[232] Rau's "Lehrbuch der Politischen Oekonomie," p. 367. + +[233] Rodbertus: "Zur Beleuchtung der sozialen Frage." + +[234] Similar conditions must have existed at the time of St. Basil. He +calls out to the rich: "Wretches that you are, what answer will you make +to the divine Judge? You cover the nakedness of your walls with carpets, +but do not cover the nakedness of human beings! You ornament your horses +with costly and smooth coverlets, and you despise your brother who is +covered with rags. You allow your corn to rot and be devoured in your +barns and your fields, and you do not spare even a look for those who +have no bread." Moral homiletics have since old done precious little +good with the ruling class, and they will do no better in the future. +Let the social conditions be changed so that none can act unjustly +towards his fellowman; the world will then get along easy enough. + +[235] Hans Ferdy. + + + + +PART VI + +CONCLUSION + + + + +CONCLUSION. + + +Our arguments have shown that, with Socialism, the issue is not an +arbitrary tearing down and raising up, but a natural process of +development. All the factors active in the process of destruction, on +the one hand, and of construction, on the other, _are factors that +operate in the manner that they are bound to operate_. Neither +"statesmen of genius" nor "inflammatory demagogues" can direct events at +will. They may imagine they push; but are themselves pushed. But we are +near the time when "the hour has sounded." + +Due to her own peculiar development, Germany, more than any other +country, seems designated as that which is to assume the leading _role_ +in the pending revolution.[236] + +In the course of this work we often spoke of an over-production of +goods, which brings on the crises. This is a phenomenon peculiar to the +capitalist world only; it was seen at no previous period of human +development. + +But the capitalist world yields not merely an over-production of goods +and of men, it also yields _an over-production of intelligence_. Germany +is the classic land in which this over-production of intelligence, which +the bourgeois world no longer knows what to do with, is yielded on a +large scale. A circumstance, that for centuries was a misfortune to +Germany's development, has largely contributed to this state of things. +It consisted in the multiplicity of small States and the check exercised +by these political formations upon the development of upper capitalism. +The multiplicity of small States decentralized the intellectual life of +the nation: it raised numerous small centers of culture, and these +exercised their influence upon the whole. In comparison with a large +central government, the numerous small ones required an extraordinarily +large administrative apparatus, whose members needed a certain degree of +higher culture. Thus high schools and universities sprung up more +numerous than in any other country of Europe. The jealousy and ambition +of the several governments played in this no small _role_. The same +thing repeated itself when some governments began introducing compulsory +education for the people. The passion not to be left behind a +neighboring State had here its good effect. The demand for intelligence +rose when increasing culture, hand in hand with the material progress of +the bourgeoisie, quickened the longing for political activity, popular +representation and self-government on the part of municipalities. These +were small governmental bodies for small countries and circles, +nevertheless they contributed towards the general schooling, and caused +the sons of the bourgeoisie to covet seats in them and to adapt their +education accordingly. + +As science, so did art fare.--No country of Europe has, relatively +speaking, so many painting and other art academies, technical schools, +museums and art collections, as Germany. Other countries may be able to +make better showings in their capitals, but none has such a distribution +over its whole territory as Germany. In point of art, Italy is the only +exception. + +While the bourgeoisie of England had conquered a controlling power over +the State as early as the middle of the seventeenth, and the bourgeoisie +of France towards the end of the eighteenth century, the bourgeoisie of +Germany did not succeed until 1848 to secure for itself a comparatively +moderate influence over the government. That was the birth year of the +German bourgeoisie as a self-conscious class: it now stepped upon the +stage as an independent political party, in the trappings of +"liberalism." The peculiar development that Germany had undergone now +manifested itself. It was not manufacturers, merchants, men of commerce +and finance who came forward as leaders, but chiefly professors, squires +of liberal proclivities, writers, jurists and doctors of all academic +faculties. It was the German ideologists: And so was their work. After +1848 the German bourgeoisie was temporarily consigned to political +silence; but they utilized the period of the sepulchral silence of the +fifties in the promotion of their task. The breaking-out of the +Austro-Italian war and the commencement of the Regency of Prussia, +stirred the bourgeoisie anew to reach after political power. The +"National Verein" (National Union) movement began. The bourgeoisie was +now too far developed to tolerate within the numerous separate States +the many political barriers, that were at the same time +economic--barriers of taxation, barriers of communication. It assumed a +revolutionary air. Herr von Bismarck understood the situation and turned +it to account in his own manner so as to reconcile the interests of the +bourgeoisie with those of the Prussian Kingdom, towards which the +bourgeoisie never had been hostile, seeing it feared the revolution and +the masses. The barriers finally came down that had hampered its +material progress. Thanks to Germany's great wealth in coal and +minerals, together with an intelligent and easily satisfied working +class, the bourgeoisie made within few decades such gigantic progress as +was made by the bourgeoisie of no other country, the United States +excepted, within the same period. Thus did Germany reach the position of +the second industrial and commercial State in Europe; and she covets the +first. + +This rapid material development had its obverse. The system of mutual +exclusion, that existed between the German States up to the +establishment of German unity, had until then furnished a living to an +uncommonly numerous class of artisans and small peasants. With the +precipitous tearing down of all the protective barriers, these people +suddenly found themselves face to face with an unbridled process of +capitalist production and development. At first, the prosperity epoch of +the early seventies caused the danger to seem slighter, but it raged all +the more fearful when the crisis set in. The bourgeoisie had used the +prosperity period to make marvelous progress, and thus now caused the +distress to be felt ten-fold. From now on the chasm between the +property-holding and the propertyless classes widened rapidly. This +process of decomposition and of absorption, which--promoted by the +growth of material power on the one hand, and the declining power of +resistance on the other--proceeds with ever increasing rapidity, throws +whole classes of the population into ever more straitened circumstances. +They find themselves from day to day more powerfully threatened in their +position and their condition of life; and they see themselves doomed +with mathematical certainty. + +In this desperate struggle many seek possible safety in a change of +profession. The old men can no longer make the change: only in the +rarest instances are they able to bequeath an independence to their +children: the last efforts are made, the last means applied towards +placing sons and daughters in positions with fixed salaries, which +require no capital to carry on. These are mainly the civil service +offices in the Empire, States or municipalities--teacherships, the Post +Office and railroad positions, and also the higher places in the service +of the bourgeoisie in the counting rooms, stores and factories as +managers, chemists, technical overseers, engineers, constructors, etc.; +finally the so-called liberal professions: law, medicine, theology, +journalism, art, architecture and lastly pedagogy. + +Thousands upon thousands, who had previously taken up a trade, now--the +possibility of independence and of a tolerable livelihood having +vanished--seek for any position in the said offices. The pressure is +towards higher education and learning. High schools, gymnasiums, +polytechnics, etc., spring up like mushrooms, and those in existence are +filled to overflowing. In the same measure the number of students at the +universities, at the chemical and physical laboratories, at the art +schools, trade and commercial schools and the higher schools of all +sorts for women are on the increase. In all departments, without +exception, there is a tremendous overcrowding, and the stream still +swells: fresh demands are constantly raised for the establishment of +more gymnasiums and high schools to accommodate the large number of +pupils and students.[237] From official and private sources warnings +upon warnings are issued, now against the choice of one then against +that of another career. Even theology, that a few decades ago threatened +to dry up for want of candidates, now receives its spray from the +superabundance, and again sees its livings filled. "I am ready to preach +belief in ten thousand gods and devils, if required, only procure me a +position that may support me"--that is the song that re-echoes from all +corners. Occasionally, the corresponding Cabinet Minister refuses his +consent to the establishment of new institutions of higher education +"because those in existence amply supply the demand for candidates of +all professions." + +This state of things is rendered all the more intolerable by the +circumstance that the competitive and mutually destructive struggle of +the bourgeoisie compels its own sons to seek for public places. +Furthermore, the ever increasing standing army with its swarms of +officers, whose promotion is seriously paralyzed after a long peace, +leads to the placing of large numbers of men in the best years of their +lives upon the pension lists, who thereupon, favored by the State, seek +all manner of appointments. Another swarm of lower grade in the army, +takes the bread from the mouths of the other stratas. Lastly, the still +larger swarm of children of the Imperial, State and municipal officials +of all degrees are and can not choose but be trained especially for such +positions in the civil service. Social standing, culture and +pretensions--all combine to keep the children of these classes away from +the so-called low occupations, which, however, as a result of the +capitalist system, are themselves overcrowded. + +The system of One Year Volunteers, which allows the reduction of the +compulsory military service to one instead of two or three years for +those who have obtained a certain degree of education and can make the +material sacrifice, is another source from which the candidates for +public office is swollen. Many sons of well-to-do peasants, who do not +fancy a return to the village and to the pursuit of their fathers, come +under this category. + +As a result of all these circumstances, Germany has an infinitely more +numerous proletariat of scholars and artists than any other country, as +also a strong proletariat in the so-called liberal professions. This +proletariat is steadily on the increase, and carries the fermentation +and discontent with existing conditions into the higher strata of +society. This youth are roused and spurred to the criticism of the +existing order, and they materially aid in hastening the general work of +dissolution. Thus the existing condition of things is attacked and +undermined from all sides. + +All these circumstances have contributed to cause the German Social +Democratic party to take a hand in the leadership of the giant struggle +of the future. It was German Socialists who discovered the motor laws of +modern society, and who scientifically demonstrated Socialism to be the +social form of the future. First of all Karl Marx and Frederick Engels; +next to them and firing the masses with his agitation, Ferdinand +Lassalle. Finally German Socialists are the chief pioneers of Socialist +thought among the workingmen of all nations. + +Almost half a century ago--grounded on his studies of the German mind +and culture--Buckle could say that, although Germany had a large number +of the greatest thinkers, there was no country in which the chasm +between the class of the scholars and the mass of the population was as +wide. This is no longer true. It was so only so long as knowledge was +confined to learned circles that stood aloof from practical life. Since +Germany has been economically revolutionized, science was compelled to +render itself useful to practical life. Science itself became practical. +It was felt that science attained its full worth only when it became +applicable to human life; and the development of large capitalist +production compelled it thereto. All the tranches of science have been, +accordingly, strongly democratized during the last decades. The large +number of young men, educated for the higher professions, contributed to +carry science among the people; then also the general schooling, higher +to-day in Germany than in most European countries, facilitated the +popular reception of a mass of intellectual products. But above all, the +Socialist Movement--with its literature, its press, its unions and +meetings, its parliamentary representation, and finally the incessant +criticism thereby promoted on all the fields of public life--materially +raised the mental level of the masses. + +The exclusion law against the Social Democratic party did not check this +current. It somewhat hemmed in the Movement, and slightly reduced its +tempo. But, on the other hand, it caused the roots of the Movement to +sink deeper, and aroused an intense bitterness against the ruling +classes and the government. The final abandonment of the exclusion law +was but the consequence of the progress made by the Social Democratic +party under that very law, together with the economic development of the +nation. And thus the Movement goes marching onward, as march it must +under existing conditions. + +As in Germany, the Socialist Movement has made unexpected progress in +all European civilized nations, a fact eloquently attested to by the +International Congresses of Labor, which, with intervals of two or three +years, gather with ever increased representations. + +Thus with the close of the nineteenth century the great battle of minds +is on in all the countries of civilization, and is conducted with fiery +enthusiasm. Along with social science, the wide field of the natural +sciences, hygiene, the history of civilization and even philosophy are +the arsenals from which the weapons are drawn. The foundations of +existing society are being assailed from all sides; heavy blows are +being dealt to its props. Revolutionary ideas penetrate conservative +circles and throw the ranks of our enemies into disorder. Artisans and +scholars, farmers, and artists, merchants and government employes, here +and there, even manufacturers and bankers, in short, men of all +conditions, are joining the ranks of the workingmen, who constitute the +bulk of the army, who combat for victory, and who will win it. All +support and mutually supplement one another. + +To woman also in general, and as a female proletarian in particular, the +summons goes out not to remain behind in this struggle in which her +redemption and emancipation are at stake. It is for her to prove that +she has comprehended her true place in the Movement and in the struggles +of the present for a better future; and that she is resolved to join. It +is the part of the men to aid her in ridding herself of all +superstitions, and to step forward in their ranks. Let none underrate +his own powers, and imagine that the issue does not depend upon him. +None, be he the weakest, can be spared in the struggle for the progress +of the human race. The unremitting dropping of little drops hollows in +the end the hardest stone. Many drops make a brook, brooks make rivers, +many rivers a stream, until finally no obstacle is strong enough to +check it in its majestic flow. Just so with the career of mankind. +Everywhere Nature is our instructress. If all who feel the call put +their whole strength in this struggle, ultimate victory can not fail. + +And this victory will be all the greater the more zealously and +self-sacrificingly each pursues the marked-out path. None may allow +himself to be troubled with misgivings whether, despite all sacrifices, +labor and pains he will live to see the beginning of the new and fairer +period of civilization, whether he will yet taste the fruit of victory; +least of all may such misgivings hold him back. We can foresee neither +the duration nor the nature of the several phases of development that +this struggle for the highest aims may traverse until final +victory,--any more than we have any certainty on the duration of our own +lives. Nevertheless, just as the pleasure in life rules us, so may we +foster the hope of witnessing this victory. Are we not in an age that +rushes forward, so to speak, with seven-mile boots, and therefore causes +all the foes of a new and better world to tremble? + +Every day furnishes fresh proof of the rapid growth and spread of the +ideas that we represent. On all fields there is tumult and push. The +dawn of a fair day is drawing nigh with mighty stride. Let us then ever +battle and strive forward, unconcerned as to "where" and "when" the +boundary-posts of the new and better day for mankind will be raised. And +if, in the course of this great battle for the emancipation of the human +race, we should fall, those now in the rear will step forward; we shall +fall with the consciousness of having done our duty as human beings, and +with the conviction that the goal will be reached, however the powers +hostile to humanity may struggle or strain in resistance. + + + OURS IS THE WORLD, DESPITE ALL;--THAT IS, FOR THE + WORKER AND FOR WOMAN. + + FINIS. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[236] [Aside from the contradiction implied between this sentence and +that other, on page 247, in which the internationally overshadowing +economic development of the United States is admitted, the forecast, +though cautiously advanced, that Germany may take the lead in the +accomplishment of the pending Social Revolution, is justified neither by +her economic nor her social development, least of all by her geographic +location. + +As to her economic development, Germany has made rapid and long strides +during the last twenty years; so rapid and so long that the progress has +caused the Socialists of Germany, in more instances than one, to +realize--and to say so--that, what with her own progress, and with +outside circumstances, Germany was distancing England economically. This +is true. But the same reason that argues, and correctly argues, the +economic scepter off the hands of England places it, not in those of +Germany, but in the hands of the United States. + +As to her social development, Germany is almost half a revolutionary +cycle behind. Her own bourgeois revolution was but half achieved. +Without entering upon a long list of specifications, it is enough to +indicate the fact that Germany is still quite extensively feudal in +order to suggest to the mind robust feudal boulders, left untouched by +the capitalist revolution, and strewing, aye, obstructing the path of +the Socialist Movement in that country. The social phenomenon has been +seen of an oppressed class skipping an intermediary stage of vassalage, +and entering, at one bound, upon one higher up. It happened, for +instance, with our negroes here in America. Without first stepping off +at serfdom, they leaped from chattel slavery to wage slavery. What +happened once may happen again. But in the instance cited and all the +others that we can call to mind, it happened through outside +intervention. Can Germany perform the same feat alone, unaided? Do +events point in that direction? Or do they rather point in the direction +that the work, now being realized there as demanding immediate +attention, and alone possible and practicable, is the completion of the +capitalist revolution, first of all? + +But even discounting both these objections--granting that both in point +of economic and of social development Germany were ripe for the +Socialist Revolution--her geographic location prevents her leadership. +No one single State of the forty-four of the Union, not even the Empire +State of New York, however ripe herself, could lead in the overthrow of +capitalist rule in America unless the bulk of her sister States were +themselves up to a certain minimum of ripeness. Contrariwise, any +attempt by even such a State would be promptly smothered. What is true +of any single State of the Union is true of any one country of Europe. +It is, therefore, true of Germany. Whatever doubt there be as to +Germany's ripeness, there can be none as to the utter unripeness of all +the other European countries with the single exceptions of France and +Belgium,--and surely none as to Russia, that ominous cloud to the East, +well styled the modern Macedon to the modern Greek States of the nations +of Western Europe. Though there is no "District of Columbia" in Europe, +the masses would be mobilized from the surrounding hives of the +Cimmerian Darkness of feudo-capitalism, and they would be marched +convergently with as much precision and despatch upon the venturesome +leader. And what is true as to Germany on this head is true of any other +European country. Facts and their relations to one another must be ever +kept in sight. 'Tis the only way to escape illusions--and their train of +troubles. + +For the rest, not the sordid competitive spirit of the bourgeois world, +but that noble and ennobling emulation, cited by the Author in a +quotation from John Stuart Mill, animates the nations of the world that +are now racing towards the overthrow of capitalist domination. Surely +none will begrudge laurels due that one that shall be the first to scale +the ramparts of the international burg of capitalism, strike the first +blow, and give the signal for the final emancipation of the human +race.--THE TRANSLATOR.] + +[237] The number of students at the German universities averaged as +follows per six months: + + + Protestant Catholic + Quarter. Theology. Theology. Law. Medicine. Philosophy. Total. + + 1841-42--1846 2117 1027 3467 1943 3072 11626 + 1846-47--1851 1798 1297 4061 1827 3046 12029 + 1851-52--1856 1751 1300 4169 2291 2840 12351 + 1861-62--1866 2437 1153 2867 2435 4392 13284 + 1866-67--1871 2154 982 3011 2838 4626 13611 + 1871-72--1876 1780 836 4121 3491 5896 16124 + 1876-77--1881 1961 682 5134 3734 8057 19568 + 1881-82--1886 3880 952 5034 6869 9123 25838 + 1886-87 4546 1178 5239 8450 8666 27828 + 1887 4803 1232 5505 8685 8424 28455 + 1887-88 4632 1137 4810 8435 8450 28480 + 1888 4835 1174 6106 8915 8204 29275 + 1888-89 4642 1207 6304 8886 8255 29294 + + +During the summer six months of 1893--notably the weaker of the two +seasons--the total number of students, exclusive of the University of +Brunswick, of which we had no returns, had risen to 31,976. +Unfortunately we had no like classification of the students, and are +hence prevented from inserting it in the above table. + +The table shows that from 1841-2 to 1871 the number of students +increased little, and less than the population. From that date on the +increase was by leaps and bounds, until 1886-7; from this date on the +increase is again slow. From 1871 to 1888-9 the number of students +increased more than 116 per cent. It is an interesting fact that the +study of theology decreased steadily until 1881, but increased thereupon +all the quicker until it reached high-water mark in 1888. The reason was +that the excess of the supply for all the other posts increased in such +measure that it was difficult to secure a place. People then turned to +theology which had been neglected during the previous ten years. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Woman under socialism, by August Bebel + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN UNDER SOCIALISM *** + +***** This file should be named 30646.txt or 30646.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/6/4/30646/ + +Produced by Peter Vachuska, Martin Pettit and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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