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Vol. I. MARCH, 1906 No. 1
MOTHER EARTH
[Illustration]
P. O. Box EMMA GOLDMAN, Publisher 10c. a Copy
Madison Sq. Station, N. Y.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Mother Earth E. GOLDMAN and M. BAGINSKI 1
The Song of the Storm-Finch MAXIM GORKY 4
Observations and Comments 5
The Tragedy of Women's Emancipation E. GOLDMAN 9
Try Love GRACE POTTER 18
Without Government MAX BAGINSKI 20
Vive Le Roi FRANCES WAULS BJORKMAN 27
Reflections of a Rich Man 28
Comstockery JOHN R. CORYELL 30
Don Quixote and Hamlet TURGENIEFF 40
On the Banks of Acheron EDWIN BJORKMAN 42
The British Elections and the Labor Parties H. KELLY 44
And You? BOLTON HALL 48
National Atavism INTERNATIONALIST 49
Mine Owners' Revenge M. B. 56
International Review 58
Literary Notes 61
Advertisements 63
10c. A COPY $1.00 PER YEAR
Mother Earth
EMMA GOLDMAN, PUBLISHER
P. O. BOX MADISON SQ. STATION, N. Y. CITY
Vol. I MARCH, 1906 No. 1
[Illustration]
MOTHER EARTH
There was a time when men imagined the Earth as the center of the
universe. The stars, large and small, they believed were created merely
for their delectation. It was their vain conception that a supreme
being, weary of solitude, had manufactured a giant toy and put them into
possession of it.
When, however, the human mind was illumined by the torch-light of
science, it came to understand that the Earth was but one of a myriad of
stars floating in infinite space, a mere speck of dust.
Man issued from the womb of Mother Earth, but he knew it not, nor
recognized her, to whom he owed his life. In his egotism he sought an
explanation of himself in the infinite, and out of his efforts there
arose the dreary doctrine that he was not related to the Earth, that she
was but a temporary resting place for his scornful feet and that she
held nothing for him but temptation to degrade himself. Interpreters and
prophets of the infinite sprang into being, creating the "Great Beyond"
and proclaiming Heaven and Hell, between which stood the poor, trembling
human being, tormented by that priest-born monster, Conscience.
In this frightful scheme, gods and devils waged eternal war against
each other with wretched man as the prize of victory; and the priest,
self-constituted interpreter of the will of the gods, stood in front of
the only refuge from harm and demanded as the price of entrance that
ignorance, that asceticism, that self-abnegation which could but end in
the complete subjugation of man to superstition. He was taught that
Heaven, the refuge, was the very antithesis of Earth, which was the
source of sin. To gain for himself a seat in Heaven, man devastated the
Earth. Yet she renewed herself, the good mother, and came again each
Spring, radiant with youthful beauty, beckoning her children to come to
her bosom and partake of her bounty. But ever the air grew thick with
mephitic darkness, ever a hollow voice was heard calling: "Touch not the
beautiful form of the sorceress; she leads to sin!"
But if the priests decried the Earth, there were others who found in it
a source of power and who took possession of it. Then it happened that
the autocrats at the gates of Heaven joined forces with the powers that
had taken possession of the Earth; and humanity began its aimless,
monotonous march. But the good mother sees the bleeding feet of her
children, she hears their moans, and she is ever calling to them that
she is theirs.
To the contemporaries of George Washington, Thomas Paine and Thomas
Jefferson, America appeared vast, boundless, full of promise. Mother
Earth, with the sources of vast wealth hidden within the folds of her
ample bosom, extended her inviting and hospitable arms to all those who
came to her from arbitrary and despotic lands--Mother Earth ready to
give herself alike to all her children. But soon she was seized by the
few, stripped of her freedom, fenced in, a prey to those who were
endowed with cunning and unscrupulous shrewdness. They, who had fought
for independence from the British yoke, soon became dependent among
themselves; dependent on possessions, on wealth, on power. Liberty
escaped into the wilderness, and the old battle between the patrician
and the plebeian broke out in the new world, with greater bitterness and
vehemence. A period of but a hundred years had sufficed to turn a great
republic, once gloriously established, into an arbitrary state which
subdued a vast number of its people into material and intellectual
slavery, while enabling the privileged few to monopolize every material
and mental resource.
During the last few years, American journalists have had much to say
about the terrible conditions in Russia and the supremacy of the Russian
censor. Have they forgotten the censor here? a censor far more powerful
than him of Russia. Have they forgotten that every line they write is
dictated by the political color of the paper they write for; by the
advertising firms; by the money power; by the power of respectability;
by Comstock? Have they forgotten that the literary taste and critical
judgment of the mass of the people have been successfully moulded to
suit the will of these dictators, and to serve as a good business basis
for shrewd literary speculators? The number of Rip Van Winkles in life,
science, morality, art, and literature is very large. Innumerable
ghosts, such as Ibsen saw when he analyzed the moral and social
conditions of our life, still keep the majority of the human race in
awe.
MOTHER EARTH will endeavor to attract and appeal to all those who
oppose encroachment on public and individual life. It will appeal to
those who strive for something higher, weary of the commonplace; to
those who feel that stagnation is a deadweight on the firm and elastic
step of progress; to those who breathe freely only in limitless space;
to those who long for the tender shade of a new dawn for a humanity free
from the dread of want, the dread of starvation in the face of mountains
of riches. The Earth free for the free individual!
EMMA GOLDMAN,
MAX BAGINSKI.
[Illustration]
The Song of the Storm-Finch[A]
By MAXIM GORKY
The strong wind is gathering the storm-clouds together
Above the gray plain of the ocean so wide.
The storm-finch, the bird that resembles dark lightning,
Between clouds and ocean is soaring in pride.
Now skimming the waves with his wings, and now shooting
Up, arrow-like, into the dark clouds on high,
The storm-finch is clamoring loudly and shrilly;
The clouds can hear joy in the bird's fearless cry.
In that cry is the yearning, the thirst for the tempest,
And anger's hot might in its wild notes is heard;
The keen fire of passion, the faith in sure triumph--
All these the clouds hear in the voice of the bird....
The storm-wind is howling, the thunder is roaring;
With flame blue and lambent the cloud-masses glow
O'er the fathomless ocean; it catches the lightnings,
And quenches them deep in its whirlpool below.
Like serpents of fire in the dark ocean writhing,
The lightnings reflected there quiver and shake
As into the blackness they vanish forever.
The tempest! Now quickly the tempest will break!
The storm-finch soars fearless and proud 'mid the lightnings,
Above the wild waves that the roaring winds fret;
And what is the prophet of victory saying?
"Oh, let the storm burst! Fiercer yet--fiercer yet!"
FOOTNOTE:
[A] From "Songs of Russia," rendered into English by ALICE
STONE BLACKWELL
[Illustration]
To the Readers
The name "Open Road" had to be abandoned, owing to the existence of a
magazine by that name.
Observations and Comments
+The importance+ of written history for the people can easily be compared
with the importance of a diary for the individual. It furnishes data for
recollections, points of comparison between the Past and Present. But as
most diaries and auto-biographies show a lack of straight-forward, big,
simple, sincere self-analyses, so does history seldom prove a
representation of facts, of the truth, of reality.
The way history is written will depend altogether on whatever purpose
the writers have in view, and what they hope to achieve thereby. It will
altogether depend upon the sincerity or lack thereof, upon the broad or
narrow horizon of the historian. That which passes as history in our
schools, or governmentally fabricated books on history, is a forgery, a
misrepresentation of events. Like the old drama centering upon the
impossible figure of the hero, with a gesticulating crowd in the
background. Quacks of history speak only of "great men" like Bonapartes,
Bismarcks, Deweys, or Rough Riders as leaders of the people, while the
latter serve as a setting, a chorus, howling the praise of the heroes,
and also furnishing their blood money for the whims and extravagances of
their masters. Such history only tends to produce conceit, national
impudence, superciliousness and patriotic stupidity, all of which is in
full bloom in our great Republic.
Our aim is to teach a different conception of historical events. To
define them as an ever-recurring struggle for Freedom against every form
of Might. A struggle resultant from an innate yearning for
self-expression, and the recognition of one's own possibilities and
their attitude toward other human beings. History to us means a
compilation of experiences, out of which the individual, as well as the
race, will gain the right understanding how to shape and organize a mode
of life best suited to bring out the finest and strongest qualities of
the human race.
* * * * *
+The American Brutus+ is, of course, a business man and has no time to
overthrow Caesar. Recently, however, the imperialistic stew became hot
and too much for him. The marriage of Miss Alice Roosevelt produced such
a bad odor of court gossip, as to make the poor American Brutus ill with
nausea. He grew indignant, draped his sleeve in mourning, and with
gloomy mien and clenched fists, went about prophesying the downfall of
the Republic.
Between ourselves, the number of those who still believe in the American
Republic can be counted on one's fingers. One has either pierced through
the lie, all for the people and by the people--in that case one must
become a Revolutionist; or, one has succeeded in putting one's bounty
in safety--then he is a conservative. "No disturbances, please. We are
about to close a profitable contract." Modern bourgeoisie is absolutely
indifferent as to who is to be their political boss, just so they are
given opportunity to store their profits, and accumulate great wealth.
Besides, the cry about the decline of the great Republic is really
meaningless. As far as it ever stood for liberty and well-being of the
people, it has long ceased to be. Therefore lamentations come too late.
True, the American Republic has not given birth to an aristocracy. It
has produced the power of the parvenu, not less brutal than European
aristocracy, only narrower in vision and not less vulgar in taste.
Instead of mourning one ought to rejoice that the latest display of
disgusting servility has completely thrown off the mantle of liberty and
independence of Dame Columbia, now exposed before the civilized world in
all her slavish submissiveness.
* * * * *
+The storm in Russia+ has frightened many out of their warm bed-clothes.
A real Revolution in these police-regulated times. More than one voice
was raised against the possibility of a Revolution, and they who dared
to predict it were considered fit for the lunatic asylum.
The workingmen, peasants and students of Russia, however, have proven
that the calculations of the "wise" contained a hitch somewhere. A
Revolution swept across the country and did not even stop to ask
permission of those in authority.
Authority and Power are now taking revenge on their daring sons and
daughters. The Cossacks, at the command of the "good Czar" are
celebrating a bloody feast--knouting, shooting, clubbing people to
death, dragging great masses to prisons and into exile, and it is not
the fault of that vicious idiot on the throne, nor that of his advisors,
Witte and the others, if the Revolution still marches on, head erect.
Were it in their power, they would break her proud neck with one
stroke, but they cannot put the heads of a hundred million people on the
block, they cannot deport eighty millions of Peasants to Siberia, nor
can they order all the workingmen in the industrial districts shot. Were
the working bees to be killed, the drones would perish of
starvation--that is why the Czar of the Peace Treaty still suffers some
of his people to live?----
* * * * *
+In Mayville, Wis.+, a transvaluation society has been formed, the purpose
of which is, to bring about the transvaluation of all values in matters
of love and the relations of the sexes. The members of this society are
to contribute by word and deed towards the breaking of all barriers that
prevent an ideal and healthy conception of love.
The president of this society, Emil Ruedebusch, known in this country
through his work, "The Old and New Ideal," which, by the way, was
confiscated upon the grounds of obscenity and the author put on trial.
It is an undisputed fact that robust, graft-greedy Columbia abhors every
free expression on love or marriage. Emil Ruedebusch, like many others
who have dared to lift the veil of hypocrisy, was condemned to a heavy
fine. A second work of the author, "Die Eigenen," was published in
Germany.
His idea, that the relation of the sexes must be freed from the
oppressing fetters of a lame morality that degrades every human emotion
to the plane of utility and purpose, I heartily endorse. His method of
achieving the ideal seems to me too full of red tape. However, I welcome
every effort against the conspiracy of ignorance, hypocrisy and stupid
prudery, against the simplest manifestation of nature.
[Illustration]
The Tragedy of Woman's Emancipation
By EMMA GOLDMAN
I begin my article with an admission: Regardless of all political and
economic theories, treating of the fundamental differences between the
various groups within the human race, regardless of class and race
distinctions, regardless of all artificial boundary lines between
woman's rights and man's rights, I hold that there is a point where
these differentiations may meet and grow into one perfect whole.
With this I do not mean to propose a peace treaty. The general social
antagonism which has taken hold of our entire public life to-day,
brought about through the force of opposing and contradictory interests,
will crumble to pieces when the reorganization of our social life, based
upon the principles of economic justice, shall have become a reality.
Peace and harmony between the sexes and individuals does not necessarily
depend on a superficial equalization of human beings; nor does it call
for the elimination of individual traits or peculiarities. The problem
that confronts us to-day, and which the nearest future is to solve, is
how to be oneself, and yet in oneness with others, to feel deeply with
all human beings and still retain one's own innate qualities. This seems
to me the basis upon which the mass and the individual, the true
democrat and the true individuality, man and woman can meet without
antagonism and opposition. The motto should not be forgive one another;
it should be, understand one another. The oft-quoted sentence of Mme. de
Stael: "To understand everything means to forgive everything," has never
particularly appealed to me; it has the odor of the confessional; to
forgive one's fellow being conveys the idea of pharisaical superiority.
To understand one's fellow being suffices. This admission partly
represents the fundamental aspect of my views on the emancipation of
woman and its effect upon the entire sex.
Emancipation should make it possible for her to be human in the truest
sense. Everything within her that craves assertion and activity should
reach its fullest expression; and all artificial barriers should be
broken and the road towards greater freedom cleared of every trace of
centuries of submission and slavery.
This was the original aim of the movement for woman's emancipation. But
the results so far achieved have isolated woman and have robbed her of
the fountain springs of that happiness which is so essential to her.
Merely external emancipation has made of the modern woman an artificial
being who reminds one of the products of French arboriculture with its
arabesque trees and shrubs--pyramids, wheels and wreaths; anything
except the forms which would be reached by the expression of their own
inner qualities. Such artificially grown plants of the female sex are to
be found in large numbers, especially in the so-called intellectual
sphere of our life.
Liberty and equality for woman! What hopes and aspirations these words
awakened when they were first uttered by some of the noblest and bravest
souls of those days. The sun in all its light and glory was to rise upon
a new world; in this world woman was to be free to direct her own
destiny, an aim certainly worthy of the great enthusiasm, courage,
perseverance and ceaseless effort of the tremendous host of pioneer men
and women, who staked everything against a world of prejudice and
ignorance.
My hopes also move towards that goal, but I insist that the emancipation
of woman, as interpreted and practically applied to-day, has failed to
reach that great end. Now, woman is confronted with the necessity of
emancipating herself from emancipation, if she really desires to be
free. This may sound paradoxical, but is, nevertheless, only too true.
What has she achieved through her emancipation? Equal suffrage in a few
states. Has that purified our political life, as many well-meaning
advocates have predicted? Certainly not. Incidentally it is really time
that persons with plain, sound judgment should cease to talk about
corruption in politics in a boarding-school tone. Corruption of politics
has nothing to do with the morals or the laxity of morals of various
political personalities. Its cause is altogether a material one.
Politics is the reflex of the business and industrial world, the mottoes
of which are: "to take is more blessed than to give"; "buy cheap and
sell dear"; "one soiled hand washes the other." There is no hope that
even woman, with her right to vote, will ever purify politics.
Emancipation has brought woman economic equality with man; that is, she
can choose her own profession and trade, but as her past and present
physical training have not equipped her with the necessary strength to
compete with man, she is often compelled to exhaust all her energy, use
up her vitality and strain every nerve in order to reach the market
value. Very few ever succeed, for it is a fact that women doctors,
lawyers, architects and engineers are neither met with the same
confidence, nor do they receive the same remuneration. And those that do
reach that enticing equality generally do so at the expense of their
physical and psychical well-being. As to the great mass of working girls
and women, how much independence is gained if the narrowness and lack of
freedom of the home is exchanged for the narrowness and lack of freedom
of the factory, sweat-shop, department store, or office? In addition is
the burden which is laid on many women of looking after a "home, sweet
home"--cold, dreary, disorderly, uninviting--after a day's hard work.
Glorious independence! No wonder that hundreds of girls are so willing
to accept the first offer of marriage, sick and tired of their
independence behind the counter, or at the sewing or typewriting
machine. They are just as ready to marry as girls of middle class people
who long to throw off the yoke of parental dependence. A so-called
independence which leads only to earning the merest subsistence is not
so enticing, not so ideal that one can expect woman to sacrifice
everything for it. Our highly praised independence is, after all, but a
slow process of dulling and stifling woman's nature, her love instinct
and her mother instinct.
Nevertheless, the position of the working girl is far more natural and
human than that of her seemingly more fortunate sister in the more
cultured professional walk of life. Teachers, physicians, lawyers,
engineers, etc., who have to make a dignified, straightened and proper
appearance, while the inner life is growing empty and dead.
The narrowness of the existing conception of woman's independence and
emancipation; the dread of love for a man who is not her social equal;
the fear that love will rob her of her freedom and independence; the
horror that love or the joy of motherhood will only hinder her in the
full exercise of her profession--all these together make of the
emancipated modern woman a compulsory vestal, before whom life, with its
great clarifying sorrows and its deep, entrancing joys, rolls on without
touching or gripping her soul.
Emancipation as understood by the majority of its adherents and
exponents, is of too narrow a scope to permit the boundless joy and
ecstasy contained in the deep emotion of the true woman, sweetheart,
mother, in freedom.
The tragic fate of the self-supporting or economically free woman does
not consist of too many, but of too few experiences. True, she surpasses
her sister of past generations in knowledge of the world and human
nature; and it is because of that that she feels deeply the lack of
life's essence, which alone can enrich the human soul and without which
the majority of women have become mere professional automatons.
That such a state of affairs was bound to come was foreseen by those who
realized that in the domain of ethics, there still remained many
decaying ruins of the time of the undisputed superiority of man; ruins
that are still considered useful. And, which is more important, a goodly
number of the emancipated are unable to get along without them. Every
movement that aims at the destruction of existing institutions and the
replacement thereof with such as are more advanced, more perfect, has
followers, who in theory stand for the most extreme radical ideas, and
who, nevertheless, in their every-day practice, are like the next best
Philistine, feigning respectability and clamoring for the good opinion
of their opponents. There are, for example, Socialists, and even
Anarchists, who stand for the idea that property is robbery, yet who
will grow indignant if anyone owe them the value of a half-dozen pins.
The same Philistine can be found in the movement for woman's
emancipation. Yellow journalists and milk and water literateurs have
painted pictures of the emancipated woman that make the hair of the good
citizen and his dull companion stand up on end. Every member of the
women's rights movement was pictured as a George Sand in her absolute
disregard of morality. Nothing was sacred to her. She had no respect for
the ideal relation between man and woman. In short, emancipation stood
only for a reckless life of lust and sin; regardless of society,
religion and morality. The exponents of woman's rights were highly
indignant at such a misrepresentation, and, lacking in humor, they
exerted all their energy to prove that they were not at all as bad as
they were painted, but the very reverse. Of course, as long as woman was
the slave of man, she could not be good and pure, but now that she was
free and independent she would prove how good she could be and how her
influence would have a purifying effect on all institutions in society.
True, the movement for woman's rights has broken many old fetters, but
it has also established new ones. The great movement of true
emancipation has not met with a great race of women, who could look
liberty in the face. Their narrow puritanical vision banished man as a
disturber and doubtful character out of their emotional life. Man was
not to be tolerated at any price, except perhaps as the father of a
child, since a child could not very well come to life without a father.
Fortunately, the most rigid puritanism never will be strong enough to
kill the innate craving for motherhood. But woman's freedom is closely
allied to man's freedom, and many of my so-called emancipated sisters
seem to overlook the fact that a child born in freedom needs the love
and devotion of each human being about him, man as well as woman.
Unfortunately, it is this narrow conception of human relations that has
brought about a great tragedy in the lives of the modern man and woman.
About fifteen years ago appeared a work from the pen of the brilliant
Norwegian writer, Laura Marholm, called "Woman, a Character Study." She
was one of the first to call attention to the emptiness and narrowness
of the existing conception of woman's emancipation and its tragic effect
upon the inner life of woman. In her work she speaks of the fate of
several gifted women of international fame: The genius, Eleanora Duse;
the great mathematician and writer, Sanja Kovalevskaja; the artist and
poet nature, Marie Bashkirzeff, who died so young. Through each
description of the lives of these women of such extraordinary mentality,
runs a marked trail of unsatisfied craving for a full, rounded, complete
and beautiful life, and the unrest and loneliness resulting from the
lack of it. Through these masterly psychological sketches, one cannot
help but see that the higher the mental development of woman, the less
possible it is for her to meet a congenial mate, who will see in her,
not only sex, but also the human being, the friend, comrade and strong
individuality, who cannot and ought not lose a single trait of her
character.
The average man with his self-sufficiency, his ridiculously superior
airs of patronage towards the female sex, is an impossibility for woman,
as depicted in the "Character Study" by Laura Marholm. Equally
impossible for her is the man who can see in her nothing more than her
mentality and genius, and who fails to awaken her woman nature.
A rich intellect and a fine soul are usually considered necessary
attributes of a deep and beautiful personality. In the case of the
modern woman, these attributes serve as a hindrance to the complete
assertion of her being. For over a hundred years, the old form of
marriage, based on the Bible, "till death us do part" has been denounced
as an institution that stands for the sovereignty of the man over the
woman, of her complete submission to his whims and commands and the
absolute dependence upon his name and support. Time and again it has
been conclusively proven that the old matrimonial relation restricted
woman to the function of man's servant and the bearer of his children.
And yet we find many emancipated women who prefer marriage with all its
deficiencies to the narrowness of an unmarried life; narrow and
unendurable because of the chains of moral and social prejudice that
cramp and bind her nature.
The cause for such inconsistency on the part of many advanced women is
to be found in the fact that they never truly understood the meaning of
emancipation. They thought that all that was needed was independence
from external tyrannies; the internal tyrants, far more harmful to life
and growth, such as ethical and social conventions, were left to take
care of themselves; and they have taken care of themselves. They seem to
get along beautifully in the heads and hearts of the most active
exponents of woman's emancipation, as in the heads and hearts of our
grandmothers.
These internal tyrants, whether they be in the form of public opinion or
what will mother say, or brother, father, aunt or relative of any sort;
what will Mrs. Grundy, Mr. Comstock, the employer, the Board of
Education say? All these busybodies, moral detectives, jailers of the
human spirit, what will they say? Until woman has learned to defy them
all, to stand firmly on her own ground and to insist upon her own
unrestricted freedom, to listen to the voice of her nature, whether it
call for life's greatest treasure, love for a man, or her most glorious
privilege, the right to give birth to a child, she cannot call herself
emancipated. How many emancipated women are brave enough to acknowledge
that the voice of love is calling, wildly beating against their breasts
demanding to be heard, to be satisfied.
The French novelist, Jean Reibrach, in one of his novels, "New Beauty,"
attempts to picture the ideal, beautiful, emancipated woman. This ideal
is embodied in a young girl, a physician. She talks very clearly and
wisely of how to feed infants, she is kind and administers medicines
free to poor mothers. She converses with a young man of her acquaintance
about the sanitary conditions of the future and how various bacilli and
germs shall be exterminated by the use of stone walls and floors, and
the doing away of rugs and hangings. She is, of course, very plainly and
practically dressed, mostly in black. The young man, who, at their first
meeting was overawed by the wisdom of his emancipated friend, gradually
learns to understand her, and recognizes one fine day that he loves her.
They are young and she is kind and beautiful, and though always in rigid
attire, her appearance is softened by spotlessly clean white collar and
cuffs. One would expect that he would tell her of his love, but he is
not one to commit romantic absurdities. Poetry and the enthusiasm of
love cover their blushing faces before the pure beauty of the lady. He
silences the voice of his nature and remains correct. She, too, is
always exact, always rational, always well behaved. I fear if they had
formed a union, the young man would have risked freezing to death. I
must confess that I can see nothing beautiful in this new beauty, who is
as cold as the stone walls and floors she dreams of. Rather would I have
the love songs of romantic ages, rather Don Juan and Madame Venus,
rather an elopement by ladder and rope on a moonlight night, followed by
a father's curse, mother's moans, and the moral comments of neighbors,
than correctness and propriety measured by yardsticks. If love does not
know how to give and take without restriction it is not love, but a
transaction that never fails to lay stress on a plus and a minus.
The greatest shortcoming of the emancipation of the present day lies in
its artificial stiffness and its narrow respectabilities which produce
an emptiness in woman's soul that will not let her drink from the
fountain of life. I once remarked that there seemed to be a deeper
relationship between the old-fashioned mother and hostess, ever on the
alert for the happiness of her little ones and the comfort of those she
loved and the truly new woman, than between the latter and her average
emancipated sister. The disciples of emancipation pure and simple
declared me heathen, merely fit for the stake. Their blind zeal did not
let them see that my comparison between the old and the new was merely
to prove that a goodly number of our grandmothers had more blood in
their veins, far more humor and wit, and certainly a greater amount of
naturalness, kind-heartedness and simplicity than the majority of our
emancipated professional women who fill our colleges, halls of learning,
and various offices. This does not mean a wish to return to the past,
nor does it condemn woman to her old sphere, the kitchen and the
nursery.
Salvation lies in an energetic march onward towards a brighter and
clearer future. We are in need of unhampered growth out of old
traditions and habits. The movement for woman's emancipation has so far
made but the first step in that direction. It is to be hoped that it
will gather strength to make another. The right to vote, equal civil
rights, are all very good demands, but true emancipation begins neither
at the polls nor in courts. It begins in woman's soul. History tells us
that every oppressed class gained its true liberation from its masters
through its own efforts. It is necessary that woman learn that lesson,
that she realize that her freedom will reach as far as her power to
achieve her freedom reaches. It is therefore far more important for her
to begin with her inner regeneration, to cut loose from the weight of
prejudices, traditions, and customs. The demand for various equal rights
in every vocation in life is just and fair, but, after all, the most
vital right is the right to love and be loved. Indeed if the partial
emancipation is to become a complete and true emancipation of woman, it
will have to do away with the ridiculous notion that to be loved, to be
sweetheart and mother, is synonomous with being slave or subordinate.
It will have to do away with the absurd notion of the dualism of the
sexes, or that man and woman represent two antagonistic worlds.
Pettiness separates, breadth unites. Let us be broad and big. Let us not
overlook vital things, because of the bulk of trifles confronting us. A
true conception of the relation of the sexes will not admit of conqueror
and conquered; it knows of but one great thing: to give of one's self
boundlessly in order to find oneself richer, deeper, better. That alone
can fill the emptiness and replace the tragedy of woman's emancipation
with joy, limitless joy.
[Illustration]
TRY LOVE
By GRACE POTTER
In the human heart it lies. The key to happiness Men call the key love.
In the sweet time of youth, every man and every maid knows where lies
the key that will unlock happiness. Sometimes, they, laughing, hold the
key in eager, willing hands and will not put it in the door for very
bliss and waiting. Just outside they laugh and play and blow wild kisses
to the world. The whole world of men and women, who in their youth found
happiness in just that way, is gathered round to see it found again.
When at last the man and maid unlock the door and go in joy to find
their happiness, the men and women who have been watching them bury
their faces in their hands and weep. Why do they weep? Because they are
thinking that soon other doors in life will be met by this man and maid
and that there will be no keys to unlock them. They, themselves, could
find no key.
They never thought of trying the key of love in all the doors of life.
Long and wearily, eyes searching wide, hands eagerly groping, they have
spent their time trying to find other keys. They have looked for and
found knowledge. And tried that. Looked for and found fame. And tried
that. Looked for and found wealth. And tried that. Looked for and found
many, many other keys. And tried them all. And when at last they have
lain down on their deathbeds, they have turned gray hopeless faces to
the world and died saying, "We could not find the right key."
Some few, some very few, there are, who try the key of love in all
life's doors. Radiant, they turn to the men and women about and cry,
"Try love! It unlocks all other doors as surely as it does the first in
life. Try love!"
And though their fellow beings see that these are the only ones in all
the world who find happiness, they turn doubting from them. "It cannot
be," they say, "that the key we used in youth should be used again in
all the other doors of life." And so they keep on trying the keys that
every disappointed, dying man calls out in warning voice will fail.
Only a few there are who learn--a very few--that love unlocks all other
doors in life as surely as it does the first. Try love!
[Illustration]
+Japan.+--A new civilization. The land of a new culture! was the cry of
every penny-a-liner at the time when she began to display her
battleships, cannon, and her accomplished method of drilling her
soldiers. They were mocking themselves and did not know how. They talk
of culture and civilization and their criterion thereof is the
development of the technique of murder. Again, Japan a modern state. She
can take her place in the ranks of other civilized countries. Rejoice!
and then learn that victorious Japan is on the threshold of a famine.
Nearly a million people, it is laconically reported, are in danger of
dying of starvation. Surely, no one will possibly doubt now that Japan
is a civilized country.
WITHOUT GOVERNMENT
By MAX BAGINSKI
The gist of the anarchistic idea is this, that there are qualities
present in man, which permit the possibilities of social life,
organization, and co-operative work without the application of force.
Such qualities are solidarity, common action, and love of justice.
To-day they are either crippled or made ineffective through the
influence of compulsion; they can hardly be fully unfolded in a society
in which groups, classes, and individuals are placed in hostile,
irreconcilable opposition to one another. In human nature to-day such
traits are fostered and developed which separate instead of combining,
call forth hatred instead of a common feeling, destroy the humane
instead of building it up. The cultivation of these traits could not be
so successful if it did not find the best nourishment in the foundations
and institutions of the present social order.
On close inspection of these institutions, which are based upon the
power of the State that maintains them, mankind shows itself as a huge
menagerie, in which the captive beasts seek to tear the morsels from
each other's greedy jaws. The sharpest teeth, the strongest claws and
paws vanquish the weaker competitors. Malice and underhand dealing are
victorious over frankness and confidence. The struggle for the means of
existence and for the maintenance of achieved power fill the entire
space of the menagerie with an infernal noise. Among the methods which
are used to secure this organized bestiality the most prominent ones are
the hangman, the judge with his mechanical: "In the name of the king,"
or his more hypocritical: "In the name of the people I pass sentence";
the soldier with his training for murder, and the priest with his:
"Authority comes from God."
The exteriors of prisons, armories, and churches show that they are
institutions in which the body and soul are subdued. He whose thoughts
reach beyond this philosophy of the menagerie sees in them the
strongest expression of the view, that it is not possible to make life
worth living the more with the help of reason, love, justice,
solidarity. The family and school take care to prepare man for these
institutions. They deliver him up to the state, so to speak, blindfolded
and with fettered limbs. Force, force. It echoes through all history.
The first law which subjected man to man was based upon force. The
private right of the individual to land was built up by force; force
took way the claims upon homesteads from the majority and made them
unsettled and transitory. It was force that spoke to mankind thus: "Come
to me, humble yourself before me, serve me, bring the treasures and
riches of the earth under MY roof. You are destined by Providence to
always be in want. You shall be allowed just enough to maintain strength
with which to enrich me infinitely by your exertions and to load me down
with superfluity and luxury."
What maintains the material and intellectual slavery of the masses and
the insanity of the autocracy of the few? Force. Workingmen produce in
the factories and workshops the most varied things for the use of man.
What is it that drives them to yield up these products for speculation's
sake to those who produce nothing, and to content themselves with only a
fractional part of the values which they produce? It is force.
What is it that makes the brain-worker just as dependent in the
intellectual realm as the artisan in the material world? Force. The
artist and the writer being compelled to gain a livelihood dare not
dream of giving the best of their individuality. No, they must scan the
market in order to find out what is demanded just then. Not any
different than the dealer in clothes who must study the style of the
season before he places his merchandise before the public. Thus art and
literature sink to the level of bad taste and speculation. The artistic
individuality shrinks before the calculating reckoner. Not that which
moves the artist or the writer most receives expression; the
vacillating demands of mediocrity of every-day people must be satisfied.
The artist becomes the helper of the dealer and the average men, who
trot along in the tracks of dull habit.
The State Socialists love to assert that at present we live in the age
of individualism; the truth, however, is that individuality was never
valued at so low a rate as to-day. Individual thinking and feeling are
incumbrances and not recommendations on the paths of life. Wherever they
are found on the market they meet with the word "adaptation." Adapt
yourself to the demands of the reigning social powers, act the obedient
servant before them, and if you produce something be sure that it does
not run against the grain of your "superiors," or say adieu to success,
reputation and recompense. Amuse the people, be their clown, give them
platitudes about which they can laugh, prejudices which they hold as
righteousness and falsehoods which they hold as truths. Paint the whole,
crown it with regard for good manners, for society does not like to hear
the truth about itself. Praise the men in power as fathers of the
people, have the devourers of the common wealth parade along as
benefactors of mankind.
Of course, the force which humbles humanity in this manner is far from
openly declaring itself as force. It is masked, and in the course of
time it has learned to step forward with the least possible noise. That
diminishes the danger of being recognized.
The modern republic is a good example. In it tyranny is veiled so
correctly, that there are really great numbers of people who are
deceived by this masquerade, and who maintain that what they perceive is
a true face with honest eyes.
No czar, no king. But right in line with these are the landowners, the
merchants, manufacturers, landlords, monopolists. They all are in
possession, which is as strong a guarantee for the continuance of their
power, as a castle surrounded by thick walls. Whoever possesses can rob
him who possesses nothing of his independence. If I am dependent for a
living on work, for which I need contrivances and machines, which I my
self cannot procure, because I am without means, I must sacrifice my
independence to him who possesses these contrivances and machines. You
may work here, he will tell me, but only under the condition that you
will deliver up the products of your labor to me, that I may trade with
and make profit on them.
The one without possessions has no choice. He may appeal to the
declaration of human rights; he may point to his political rights, the
equality before the law, before God and the archangels--if he wants to
eat, drink, dress and have a home he must choose such work as the
conditions of the industrial mercantile or agricultural plants impose
upon him.
Through organized opposition the workingmen can somewhat improve this
condition; by the help of trade unions they can regulate the hours of
work and hinder the reduction of wages to a level too low for mere
living. The trade unions are a necessity for the workingmen, a bulwark
against which the most unbearable demands of the class of possessors
rebound; but a complete freeing of labor--be it of an intellectual or of
a physical nature--can be brought about only through the abolition of
wage work and the right of private ownership of land and the sources of
maintenance and nourishment of mankind. There are heart-rending cries
over the blasphemous opinion that property is not as holy a thing as its
possessors would like to make it. They declare that possessions must not
be less protected than human life, for they are necessary foundations of
society. The case is represented as though everybody were highly
interested in the maintenance of the right of private property, whereas
conditions are such that non-possession is the normal condition of most
people.
Because few possess everything, therefore the many possess nothing. So
far as possession can be considered as an oppressive measure in the
hands of a few, it is a monopoly. Set in a paradox it would read: The
abolition of property will free the people from homelessness and
non-possession. In fact, this will happen when the earth with its
treasures shall cease to be an object of trade for usurers; when it
shall vouchsafe to all a home and a livelihood. Then not only the bent
bodies will straighten; the intellect free itself as might the bound
Prometheus rid himself of his fetters and leave the rock to which he is
chained, but we shall look back on the institutions of force, the state,
the hangman, et al, as ghosts of an anxious fantasy.
In free unions the trades will organize themselves and will produce the
means of livelihood. Things will not be produced for profit's sake, but
for the sake of need. The profit-grabber has grown superfluous just as
his patron, the state, which at present serves by means of its taxes and
revenues, his anti-humanitarian purposes and hinders the reasonable
consumption of goods. From the governing mania the foundation will be
withdrawn; for those strata in society will be lacking which therefore
had grown rich and fat by monopolizing the earth and its production.
They alone needed legislatures to make laws against the disinherited.
They needed courts of justice to condemn; they needed the police to
carry out practically the terrible social injustice, the cause of which
lay in their existence and manner of living. And now the political
corruptionists are lacking who served the above-mentioned classes as
helpers, and therefore had to be supported as smaller drones.
What a pleasant surprise! We see now that the production and
distribution of means of livelihood are a much simpler matter without
government than with government. And people now realize that the
governments never promoted their welfare, but rather made it impossible,
since with the help of force they only allowed the right of possession
to the minority.
Life is really worth living now. It ceases to be an endless, mad
drudgery, a repugnant struggle for a mere existence.
Truth and beauty are enthroned upon the necessity of procuring the means
of existence in a co-operative organized manner. The social motives
which to-day make man ambitious, hypocritical, stealthy, are
ineffective. One need not sell his individuality for a mess of pottage,
as Esau sold his primogeniture.
At last the individuality of man has struck a solid social foundation on
which it can prosper. The individual originality in man is valued; it
fructifies art, literature, science, which now, in so far as they are
dependent upon the state and ownership--which is far-reaching--must take
the direction of prescribed models that are acknowledged, and must not
be directed against the continuance of the leisure classes.
Love will be free. Love's favor is a free granting, a giving and taking
without speculation. No prostitution; for the economic and social power
of one person over another exists no longer, and with the falling off of
external oppression many an internal serfdom of feeling will be done
away with, which often is only the reflex of hard external compulsion.
Then the longing of large hearts may take tangible shape. Utopias are
arrows aimed into the future, harbingers of a new reality.
Rabelais, in his description of life in the "Thelemite Abbey," wrote:
"All their life was spent not in laws, statutes, or rules, but according
to their own free will and pleasure. They rose out of their beds when
they thought good; they did eat, drink, labor, sleep, when they had a
mind to it, and were disposed for it. None did awake them, none did
offer to constrain them to eat, drink, nor do any other thing. In all
their rule and strictest tie of their order, there was but this one
clause to be observed: 'Do What Thou Wilt.'