SOCIALISM AND WOMAN, THE FAMILY AND THE HOME
Men in all classes of society save and endeavour to become owners of
some property, not so much for their own sake as for the sake of their
wives and of their children, whom they wish to leave "provided for."
Married men are notoriously more provident and thrifty than unmarried
ones. Property is the defence of the family. The fundamental aim of
Socialism is the abolition of that private property which is the prop
of the family. Consequently every prudent head of a family is likely
to resist Socialism, and thus there exists a natural and innate
hostility between Socialism and the family.
Besides, the idea of the family is not easily reconcilable with the
idea of the Socialistic State. The maintenance of the family requires
private capital, and the present capitalistic and individualistic
system of society, the modern State and modern civilisation, are based
upon the family and have sprung from it. The citizen of the modern
civilised State places the interest of his family above the interest
of the community. Socialism wishes to reverse the situation and to
subordinate the interest of the family to the interest of the
community.
Socialism strives after equality among the citizens. Therefore many
British Socialists are avowed communists, as will be shown in Chapter
XXIX. Now it is clear that a perfect equality among the citizens
cannot be created by abolishing merely the institution of private
property. The man who envied his neighbour for the exclusive
possession of his property may, after the abolition of private
property, envy him for the exclusive possession of a particularly
attractive wife. Therefore most of the great thinkers since Plato who
have mapped out systems for the equalisation of fortunes, have
logically insisted on the community of wives.
Lastly, the subordination of the private family under the State, the
control of work and food for all by the State, must logically lead
also to State control of the increase of the population. Two thousand
two hundred years ago, when in Athens the idea of the equalisation of
fortunes had come to the front, Aristotle wrote: "Whoever would
regulate the extent of private fortunes must also regulate the
increase of families. If children multiply beyond the means of
supporting them, the intention of the law will be frustrated and
families will be suddenly reduced from opulence to beggary, a
revolution always dangerous to public tranquillity."[896] At the same
time Aristophanes showed in his comedy "Ecclesiazusae" that the
community of goods would necessarily lead to the community of wives.
The assertion of the opponents of Socialism that Socialism means the
dissolution of the marriage tie and the abolition of the family has
been met with an indignant denial by many Socialists: "Socialism does
not 'threaten the sanctity of the home.' Socialism has no more to do
with the marriage laws than Toryism has."[897] "No party--neither
Socialist nor non-Socialist--has openly identified itself with the
views of its prominent members on this question. The idea that
marriage, as an institution, ought to be abolished has never received
the sanction of any political organisation in Great Britain."[898] "No
Socialist entertains the remotest idea of 'abolishing' the family,
whether by law or otherwise. Only the grossest misrepresentation can
fasten upon them such a purpose; moreover, it takes a fool to imagine
that any form of family can either be created or abolished by
decree."[899]
The above is confirmed by an official declaration of recent date. At a
meeting of the National Council of the Independent Labour Party, which
took place in London on October 4 and 5, 1907, the following
resolution was adopted:
"The National Council of the Independent Labour Party repudiates the
attack upon Socialism on the ground that Socialism is opposed to
religion, and declares that the Socialist movement embraces men and
women of all religions and forms of belief, and offers the most
complete freedom in this respect within its ranks. It further
repudiates the charge that Socialism is antagonistic to the family
organisation, and reminds the public that the disintegration of the
family, which has been in progress for some generations, has been
owing to the creation of slums, the employment of children in
factories, the dragging of mothers into workshops and factories, owing
to the economic pressure created by low wages, sweating, and other
operations of capitalism which the anti-Socialist campaign is designed
to support, and which it is the purpose of Socialism to supplant."
Now let us compare with these emphatic denials addressed to the
general public the deliberate statements of the intellectual leaders
of British and foreign Socialism regarding marriage and the family,
addressed to their followers.
The celebrated "Manifesto" issued by the founder of modern
international Socialism declares: "On what foundation is the present
family, the bourgeois family, based? On capital, on private gain. The
bourgeois family will vanish as a matter of course when its
complement vanishes. Bourgeois marriage is in reality a system of
wives in common, and thus, at the most, what the Communists might
possibly be reproached with is that they desire to introduce, in
substitution for a hypocritically concealed, an openly legalised,
community of women."[900] The founders of British Socialism state:
"Even now it is necessary that a certain code of morality should be
supposed to exist, and to have some relation to that religion which,
being the creation of another age, has now become a sham. With this
sham, moreover, its accompanying morality is also stupid, and this is
clung to with a determination, or even ferocity, natural enough, since
its aim is the perpetuation of individual property in wealth, in
workman, in wife, in child."[901]
"Like every other institution of existing society, marriage, as we
know it, is a consequence of private property. The primitive
swag-monger could think of no better method of keeping his swag
together after his death than by making the child of a particular
slave-wife his heir. The chief pre-eminence of the Sultana of the
harem lay in the fact that she acted, so to speak, as the conveyancer
of the estate."[902] The spokesmen of the Social-Democratic Federation
say: "What is the position of Socialism towards the question of
marriage as at present constituted? The existing monogamic relation is
simply the outcome of the institution of private or individual
property. It has developed, in proportion to the accentuation of the
institution of private, as against communal, property. When private
property ceases to be the fulcrum around which the relations between
the sexes turn, any attempt at coercion, moral or material, in these
relations must necessarily become repugnant to the moral sense of the
community."[903]
The foregoing statements lead to the inevitable conclusion that "The
transformation of the current family form into a freer, more real, and
therefore a higher form, must inevitably follow the economic
revolution which will place the means of production and distribution
under the control of all for the good of all."[904]
Another authority informs us "Socialism, Communism, or whatever one
chooses to call it, by converting private property into public wealth
and substituting co-operation for competition, will restore society to
its proper condition of a thoroughly healthy organism, and ensure the
material well-being of each member of the community. It will, in fact,
give life its proper basis and its proper environment. Socialism
annihilates family life, for instance. With the abolition of private
property, marriage in its present form must disappear. This is part of
the programme."[905] A distinguished Fabian proclaims: "The Socialist
no more regards the institution of marriage as a permanent thing than
he regards a state of competitive industrialism as a permanent
thing."[906] The leading book of the Fabian Society states: "The
economic independence of women and the supplanting of the head of the
household by the individual as the recognised unit of the State will
materially alter the status of children and the utility of the
institution of the family."[907] The leading periodical of the Fabians
says: "Of all the stupid theories regarding the family, the most
stupid is the belief that it is natural. On the contrary, the
trinitarian family organisation is plainly a work of art, a
deliberate device of man's. Nothing is more plain than the fact that
the hierarchy of the family has been employed, and is still employed,
as a model for the hierarchy of the State and of human society
generally; in other words, as a prop of aristocracy."[908] A leading
member of the Independent Labour Party tells us: "I do not believe it
is desirable to cultivate the family idea as at present understood,
which in the main is designed to teach the children to think more of
their own family than any other; I want to see the broader family life
of society taught in the spirit of the West Country motto, 'One for
all and all for each.'"[909]
Marriage is, according to many Socialists, not only incompatible with
Socialistic progress, but is also immoral. The philosopher of British
Socialism, going a step further than did Marx in his Manifesto,
endeavours to prove that marriage and prostitution are equally immoral.
"Both legalised monogamic marriage and prostitution are based
essentially on commercial considerations. The one is purchase, the
other hire. The higher and only really moral form of the marriage
relation which transcends both is based neither on sale nor hire.
Prostitution is immoral as implying the taking advantage by the woman
of a monopoly which costs her no labour for the sake of extorting money
from the man. But the condition of legal marriage--maintenance--does
the same."[910] This opinion is shared by the leading American
Socialist writer, who says: "The one has sold her person for money
under cover of marriage, the other has done the same thing outside
marriage."[911] Other Socialists express similar opinions: "The present
marriage system cannot be claimed by anyone as a success. Complete
economic independence of women will, however, solve the question. Under
Communism will and affection will be supreme. Marriage will be
infinitely holier and more permanent than it is to-day."[912] "Mere
legal matrimony and familism could not survive the communalisation of
property, and it may be well so. Marriage as we know it is merely one
of the many unwholesome fungi that grow out of the reeking, rotting
corpus of private property, and it would not be difficult to conceive
of a sexual order infinitely more angelic."[913]
There is no reason why an "infinitely more angelic sexual order"
should not replace marriage as at present conceived and constituted,
for "Marriage is no more a Christian ethic than it is a Mohammedan
ethic, or a Japanese custom. We have already 'considered' the marriage
laws and altered them. Where, then, is the immorality in demanding a
further consideration? Our notions concerning the relations of men and
women have changed with the changing times, and at each stage we have
reached a more exalted plane of understanding. What right have we to
assume, therefore, that the future does not hold a nobler ideal than
our present one?"[914]
The direction in which inter-sexual relations should be changed in
order to attain a nobler ideal than the present one is obvious: "What
we need is freedom from the restraints of an artificial existence;
liberty to make the most of our inherent capacity, and human longing
for a higher life will do all the rest."[915] "Socialism will strike
at the root at once of compulsory monogamy and of prostitution by
inaugurating an era of marriage based on free choice and intention,
and characterised by the absence of external coercion. For where the
wish for the maintenance of the marriage relation remains, there
external compulsion is unnecessary; where it is necessary, because the
wish has disappeared, there it is undesirable."[916] "The present
marriage system was based on the general supposition of the economic
dependence of the woman on the man, and the consequent necessity for
his making provision for her which she can legally enforce. This basis
would disappear with the advent of social economic freedom, and no
binding contract would be necessary between the parties as regards
livelihood; while property in children would cease to exist, and every
infant that came into the world would be born into full citizenship
and would enjoy all its advantages, whatever the conduct of its
parents might be. Thus a new development of the family would take
place, on the basis not of a predetermined life-long business
arrangement to be formally and nominally held to, irrespective of
circumstances, but on mutual inclination and affection, an association
terminable at the will of either party. There would be no vestige of
reprobation weighing on the dissolution of one tie and the forming of
another."[917]
Many Socialists, led by Bax, the philosopher of Socialism in Great
Britain, and by Bebel, the head of the Social-Democratic party in
Germany, take a very broad and a very primitive view with regard to
marital relations and to the greater freedom in these relations in the
Socialistic State of the future: "The whole of our sexual morality (as
such), in so far as it has a rational, as opposed to a mystical,
basis, is nothing but a 'plant' to save the ratepayers' pockets by
fixing the responsibility for the maintenance of children on the
individuals responsible for the procreation of them. To the consistent
Socialist, the sexual relation is, _per se_, morally indifferent
(neither moral nor immoral) like any other bodily function, but it
may easily become immoral _per accidentem_, i.e., from the special
circumstances under which it takes place, and whereby it acquires the
character of an act of injustice or treachery, such as seduction of a
friend's wife or daughter."[918] A very influential Socialist writer
asks: "Is chastity a virtue, and is there such a vice as unchastity?"
and he answers his question by quoting the above statement of
Bax.[919] "If it be asked, Is marriage a failure? the answer of any
impartial person must be--monogamic marriage is a failure--the rest is
silence. We know not what new form of the family the society of the
future, in which men and women will be alike economically free, may
evolve and which may be generally adopted therein. Meanwhile, we ought
to combat by every means within our power the metaphysical dogma of
the inherent sanctity of the monogamic principle. Economic development
on the one side and the free initiative of individuals on the other
will do the rest."[920]
Bebel thinks, "The satisfying of amatory desires is a law which every
individual must fulfil as a sacred duty towards himself, if his
development is to be healthy and normal, and he must refuse
gratification to no natural impulse. The so-called animal passions
occupy no lower rank than the so-called mental passions. A healthy
manner of life, healthy employment, and a healthy education in the
broadest sense of the word, combined with the natural gratification of
natural and healthy instincts, must be brought within the reach of
all."[921] Freedom of love is to be equal to men and women: "In the
choice of love woman is free just as man is free. She woos and is wooed
and has no other inducement to bind herself than her own free will.
The contract between the two lovers is of a private nature as in
primitive times. The gratification of the sexual impulse is as strictly
the personal affair of the individual as the gratification of every
other natural instinct. No one has to give an account of him or herself
and no third person has the slightest right of intervention."[922]
A prominent British Socialist shares Bebel's views: "For the
non-childbearing woman the sex-relationship, both as to form and
substance, ought to be a pure question of taste, a simple matter of
agreement between the man and her, in which neither the society nor
the State would have any need to interfere, a free sexual union, a
relation solely of mutual sympathy and affection, its form and
direction varying according to the feelings and wants of the
individuals."[923] The founders of British Socialism agree with the
foregoing opinion. "Under a Socialistic system contracts between
individuals would be free and unenforced by the community. This would
apply to the marriage contract as well as others, and it would become
a matter of simple inclination. Nor would a truly enlightened public
opinion, freed from mere theological views as to chastity, insist on
its permanently binding Nature in the face of any discomfort or
suffering that might come of it."[924]
"Socialists expect that, under Socialism, the terrible evil of
prostitution will disappear. If it does not, it will be either because
women are still denied political power, or because their votes have
decided that the prostitute must remain. But if, as at present, the
'unfortunate woman' be regarded as a necessity in those days of
advanced thought and increased opportunities, then her status must be
raised. She must not be an acknowledged necessity and a scorned
outcast at the same time, as is the case now. Her position in the
State will be clearly defined. She will be held to be performing a
necessary social service. Whether this idea meets with favour or not,
it is the only fair, the only possible, solution, if the prostitute is
to remain."[925]
"In a Socialistic State, no woman will be economically dependent upon
any one man, father, brother, or husband. Her living will be assured
to her by the community. Marriage will not make her the more
dependent. If she should have children, she will be salaried, or
otherwise supported, according to the number and the healthiness of
her offspring. If no children are born to her, she will be at liberty
to occupy herself with some other profitable work--not necessarily
household labour, certainly not household labour all the time--for
that will be reduced to a minimum. But she will engage in such useful
work as her special tastes will direct. A free woman, she will thus be
able to give her love freely."[926] "The 'subjection of woman' being
at an end in consequence of her economic emancipation, actions for
breach of promise or seduction, as well as prostitution itself, will
be rendered meaningless. When a woman sues for breach of promise she
is really suing for loss of a lucrative situation. When she plies for
hire on the public street, she does so because the scourge of
starvation is laid on her shoulders. Remove that scourge, and instead
of the hideous commerce between lust and lucre we shall, in all cases,
have the fair exchange of genuine human love for love."[927] "Free as
the wind, the Socialist wife will be bound only by her natural love
for husband and children."[928]
Men and women being sexually free in the Socialist State of the
future, the law will take cognisance neither of breach of promise,
seduction, prostitution, and desertion of the family, nor of even
graver offences against the present code of morality. The philosopher
of British Socialism informs us: "Society is directly concerned--(1)
with the production of offspring, (2) with the care that things
sexually offensive to the majority shall not be obtruded on public
notice, or obscenity on 'young persons.' Beyond this, all sexual
actions (of course excluding criminal violence or fraud) are matters
of purely individual concern."
"Offences connected with sexual matters, from rape downwards, may be
viewed from two or three different sides, and are complicated in ways
which render the subject difficult of discussion in a work intended
for promiscuous circulation. Here, as in the last case--viz. of theft
or robbery--we must be careful in considering such offences to
eliminate the element of brutality or personal injury, which may
sometimes accompany the crime referred to, from the offence itself.
For the rest I confine myself to remarking that this class also,
though not so obviously as the last, springs from an instinct
legitimate in itself but which has been suppressed or distorted. The
opinions of most, even enlightened, people on such matters are,
however, so largely coloured by the unconscious survival in their
minds of sentiment derived from old theological and theosophical views
of the universe, that they are not of much value. This is partly the
reason why the ordinary good-natured bourgeois, who can complacently
pass on by the other side after casting a careless look on the most
fiendish and organised cruelty in satisfaction of the economic
craving--gain--is galvanised into a frenzy of indignation at some
sporadic case of real or supposed ill-usage perpetrated in
satisfaction of some bizarre form of the animal craving--lust. Until
people can be got to discuss this subject in the white light of
physiological and pathological investigation rather than the dim
religious gloom of semi-mystical emotion, but little progress will be
effected towards a due appreciation of the character of the offences
referred to. It is a curious circumstance, as illustrating the change
of men's view of offences, that an ordinary indecent assault, which in
the Middle Ages--in Chaucer's time, for instance--would evidently have
been regarded as a species of rude joke, should now be deemed one of
the most serious of crimes."[929]
"When a sexual act, from whatever cause, is not, and cannot be,
productive of offspring, the feeling of the majority has no _locus
standi_ in the matter. Not only is it properly outside the sphere of
coercion, but it does not concern morality at all. It is a question
simply of individual taste. The latter may be good or bad, but this is
an aesthetic, and not directly a moral or social question."[930] "No
social and secular argument readily presents itself against the act
for which the brilliant and wretched Wilde is to-day the associate of
felons. In view of the exclamations of bated horror over this offence,
and the tacit assumption that it stands second only to murder in its
enormity, it may be worth while to point out that, tested by a
non-theological ethic, it is not quite certain that such practices are
immoral at all."[931] "It has been well said that there are few laws
so futile as those that profess to seek out and punish acts--normal or
abnormal--done in secret and by mutual consent between adult persons.
There are also few laws more unjust when the acts thus branded by law
are the natural outcome of inborn disposition and not directly
injurious to the community at large. The Moltke-Harden case brings
these considerations clearly before us afresh, and compels us to ask
ourselves whether it would not be possible to amend our laws in the
direction not only of social purity and sincerity but of reason and
humanity."[932]
The "social purity" of Socialism would be the purity of Sodom and
Gomorrah. It would be unrestricted bestiality.
The majority of Socialists who have seriously considered the marriage
problem in the Socialist State of the future--Marx, Lassalle,
Rodbertus, and others, consider only the economic problems--have
pronounced themselves in favour of free love in some form or the
other. In this the conclusions of the Socialists agree with those of
the Anarchists.[933] Indeed, "collective" marriage and other
abominations have been freely practised during a long time in the
Socialist colonies of North America, such as Oneida and
Wallingsford.[934] Some Socialist thinkers, such as Saint-Simon and
Enfantin, following the footstep of Plato, condemn marriage for life
and recommend the organisation of procreation by the State. Others,
such as Fourier, favour polygamy and polyandry. Others, such as
Bellamy[935] and Kautsky,[936] believe that the people will remain
attached to marriage as at present constituted. Others again find
consolation in the fact that "despite the marital customs of the East,
there is in the average human animal a strong monogamous
instinct."[937] Anton Menger compares free love with free competition,
and therefore objects to it[938] for the same reason for which
Aristophanes objected to it in his "Ecclesiazusae" 2200 years ago. He
thinks that free love would benefit the young, strong and
good-looking, and believes that the doctrine of free love owes its
rise to hatred of Christianity among Socialists,[939] monogamous
marriage being a Christian institution.
Socialists propose to break all the bonds which at present connect
woman with her husband and her children, and to put her into an
artificial and unnatural position calculated to unsex her. "For the
first time since the world began, woman will in every respect be the
equal of man. She will be the guardian of her own honour, and marriage
will assume an entirely novel character. All unions will be unions of
affection and esteem, and children, as of old, will primarily be the
children of the mother. Her right to select the father of her own
children is absolute. In such a society all children will be equally
'legitimate,' and the Seventh Commandment will become practically
obsolete, because the economic circumstances in which it was
formulated will have passed away. She will be the complete arbiter of
her own destiny. Her unsullied conscience will be the foundation of a
purer morality than is at present even conceivable."[940] The
principles expressed in the foregoing recall to one's mind the decree
of the French Convention, dated June 28, 1793, which runs as follows:
"La nation se charge de l'education physique et morale des enfants
abandonnes. Desormais ils seront designes sous le seul nom
d'orphelins. Aucune autre qualification ne sera permise"; and the
principle of the French Code, "La recherche de la paternite est
interdite," will become a principle of British law. The State will
have to become the protector of the husbandless mothers and the
fatherless children.
"Woman stands to gain much from the growth of a Socialist State. Among
the free communistic services the right of the wife to maintenance
during the period of maternity will quickly find a place."[941] "For
every child born, the State will make provision. Either the mother
will be paid so much per child so long as it lives and thrives, as her
wages for important work done for society in bearing and rearing it"
(it should be noted that children will belong no more to their parents
but to "society," that childbearing will be "work" paid for by
"wages," and that the breeding of children will become as much a
business on the part of independent women as is now the breeding of
cats and dogs for profit), "or her absolute independence of her
husband will be secured in some other way. The State doctor (a woman
for this office) will prescribe and care for the child from the moment
of its birth, and State nurses will be in attendance to see that the
mother is in need of nothing for her own and the child's
well-being."[942] "Socialism will simply be the scientific development
of those natural tendencies which augment the happiness or improve the
comfort of the people. It is conceivable that every child shall come
under the care of the administrative assembly. The right of the child
is not interwoven with parental responsibility. They are separate
considerations. Only a madman will hold that in the event of its
parents being unmindful of their duties a helpless little one should
be allowed to suffer. The fact of its being is the child's title to
whatever provision society is able to make for it."[943] "Socialism
therefore teaches men to expect a communal watchfulness over infant
life. If parents refuse, or are unable, to meet the requirements of
the case, the State will supply the deficiency."[944] "A State that
truly represents its members will legislate generously for those who
announce frankly and without cant that they have no desire for the
care of children."[945]
In the Socialist State of the future, people could therefore get rid
of new-born babes far more easily than they now can of puppies and
kittens. The institution round the corner would be the general
foster-mother. Hordes of fatherless and motherless children would
throng the State nurseries. The words "father" and "mother" would lose
their meaning. However, we are told that "Socialism would begin by
making sure that there should not be a single untaught, unloved,
hungry child in the kingdom."[946] Love would evidently also be
"organised" by the authorities.
Some Socialists fear that, under a _regime_ of free love and free
State maintenance for mothers and children, life will become a riot,
that husbands will constantly change wives and wives husbands, and
that, owing to the absence of all responsibility on the part of the
parents for their offspring, over-population and consequent
pauperisation will take place. Therefore some Socialists think that "A
time will come when the patriot will consider it to be his duty, not
to kill as many enemies as possible in time of war, but to restrict
his family as far as possible in time of peace."[947] Socialist
daydreamers seem to be unaware that the best preventive against
over-population lies in the duty of parents to bring up and educate
their children, a duty which they wish to abolish.
As Aristotle pointed out 2200 years ago, the all-regulating State
would also have to regulate the increase of population. "If the State
is to guarantee wages, it is bound in self-protection to provide that
no person shall be born without its consent. The State is to sanction
the number of births; all others are immoral, because anti-social. As
national wealth increased, a larger number of births would be allowed,
or a larger sum would be expended on such as were allowed. An
unsanctioned birth would receive no recognition from the State, and in
times of over-population it might be needful to punish, positively or
negatively, both father and mother. As such births may be due to
ignorance or inefficiency of some check system, it would be the duty
of the State to scientifically investigate the whole system of checks,
and to spread among its citizens a thorough knowledge of such as were
harmless and efficient in practice."[948]
The State would control procreation. Intending couples would
apparently have to take out a procreation licence, which would be
granted only to those able to pass a searching examination. "Marriage
between the mentally weak will not be allowed. Imbeciles, lunatics,
and those with dangerous and ineradicable criminal tendencies will not
be permitted to reproduce their species at all."[949]
Unfortunately the writer fails to specify how unauthorised
reproduction of the species would be prevented, and how contravention
of the procreation laws would be punished. These details are furnished
by another writer. "All those actually certified as degenerates must
be prevented from procreating. Society has not only a right but a duty
to protect itself against such by-products, and it can only do this by
State control of marriage."[950] "Marriage without a satisfactory
medical certificate should be subjected to a penalty which would be in
effect prohibitive. In certain cases asexualisation and sterilisation
should be applicable under special safeguards and conditions."[951]
Free love has apparently its limitations and its dangers. The
procreation inspector might make an irreparable mistake.
There are, of course, Socialists who think that the family ought to be
preserved, and who oppose State nurseries. One of them writes: "The
State, in its own interests, will do everything it can to develop
individuality in its children. The barrack school and State
nursery--never much more than the Utopian dreams of amiable
people--are condemned by up-to-date psychologists. The personal touch
and affection of the mother, the surroundings and ethics of a small
community, the sense of continuity which comes to the maturing child's
mind from a personal organisation like the family, are all invaluable
to a State which must take as much care of its citizens of to-morrow
as it does of its citizens of to-day."[952] Mr. Macdonald's views on
Socialism are hardly orthodox, and he has been denounced by
thorough-going Socialists as an agent of the bourgeoisie.
As women may be the strongest opponents to the dissolution of the
family, Socialists addressing themselves to women try to persuade them
that they are forced into matrimony by necessity, that marriage is a
degradation to them and to their children, and that Socialism will
elevate them and make them free and happy. "The average young woman of
the working class, who is not herself employed in some well-paid
occupation, has nothing but marriage to which to look forward. She
gives herself and all she has or is in exchange for such board as her
husband's means permit."[953] "For the sake of bread and shelter she
marries and becomes the unpaid cook and housekeeper of a husband and
the mother of his children."[954] "Woman has been degraded, the mother
has been kept down; so the children have been born with slavish
instincts, ready to creep for any favour, and only just awakening to
the need for self-assertion and independence of action."[955]
Socialism will change all that, for "Socialism means freedom for
women, just as it does for men."[956]
What is the Socialistic conception of "freedom for women"? What are
its privileges and its advantages? "In considering the position of the
woman Socialist, one great central fact must be borne constantly in
mind. What she will be, what she will do, how she will live--all will
depend upon one great fact, the greatest fact in Socialism--a fact
which constitutes Socialism--namely, that she will be economically
free."[957] "The new order will make husband and wife equals simply by
enabling the wife to earn her living by fitting employment."[958] "A
living will be assured to every woman."[959] "In the new community
woman is entirely independent, a free being, the equal of man. Her
education is the same as that of man except where the difference of
sex makes a deviation from this rule and special treatment absolutely
unavoidable. She works under exactly the same conditions as a
man."[960] "Under a Socialist _regime_ every profession will be open
to women as to men."[961] "Socialism means enfranchising them, giving
them the vote, so that they can lift their voice alongside with men's
voice and fight with the same weapon for a better, happier
life."[962] "It is only by removing the disabilities and restraints
imposed upon woman, and permitting her to enter freely into
competition with men in every sphere of human activity, that her true
position and function in the economy of life will ultimately be
ascertained."[963] "Socialism alone offers woman complete economic
emancipation, with all that that implies. It provides her with
suitable work, and it pays her exactly as men are paid. It educates
her as men are educated, and protects her in pregnancy with tender
regard; and, in so doing, Socialism will raise the whole level of
society to a height of moral grandeur never yet attained and hardly
ever dreamed of by the most optimist of poets and philosophers."[964]
Apparently Socialists will elevate downtrodden woman by compelling her
to work for a living, and it is doubtful, as will be seen in Chapter
XXXVI., whether she will be allowed to select her task or whether she
will have to work under a system of forced labour. She will be given
that freedom and liberty which is now called licence by the abolition
of all the laws of morality. In the words of an exceedingly
straightforward Socialist, "Independence for women will mean a heavy
sacrifice for them, for it will mean for them compulsory work."[965]
In return for such work they will be given full sexual license and the
vote.
There is another aspect to be taken note of with regard to the
emancipation of woman. Many Socialists, in giving to woman equality
with man as a wage-earner and voter, wish to unsex her completely.
They wish to deprive her of those privileges which she possesses at
present owing to her sex. The philosopher of British Socialism informs
us: "The law nowadays makes no distinction of persons between men.
True; but it makes distinctions between men and women, and where law
draws no distinction, practice does. 'Benefit of clergy' is superseded
by 'benefit of sex.'"[966] "The tendency of the bourgeoisie world, as
expressed in its legislation and sentiment, has been towards a
factitious exaltation of the woman at the expense of the man--in other
words, the cry for 'equality between the sexes' has in the course of
its realisation become a sham, masking a _de facto_ inequality. The
inequality in question presses, as usual, heaviest upon the working
man, whose wife, to all intents and purposes, now has him completely
in her power. If dissolute or drunken, she can sell up his goods or
break up his home at pleasure and still compel him to keep her and
live with her to her life's end. There is no law to protect him. On
the other hand, let him but raise a finger in a moment of exasperation
against this precious representative of the sacred principle of
'womanhood,' and straightway he is consigned to the treadmill for his
six months amid the jubilation of the 'Daily Telegraph' and its
kindred, who pronounce him a brute and sing paeans over the power of
the 'law' to protect the innocent and helpless female. Thus does
bourgeois society offer sacrifice to the idol 'equality between the
sexes.' For the law jealously guards the earnings or property of the
wife from possible spoliation. She on any colourable pretext can
obtain magisterial separation and protection."[967] Bax concludes that
if the law is right in flogging men it should flog women too, for "the
brutality and cowardice of the proceeding is no greater in the one
case than in the other."[968]
The abolition of the marriage tie may mean that general barracks will
take the place of private houses. Is the home worth preserving? Most
Socialists think it is not. "It may be doubted after all whether it
is necessary to regard 'the home' in the sense in which the phrase is
here used as the final and immutable form of social organisation.
Humanity does not stand or fall by the arrangement whereby families
take their food in segregated cubicles."[969] "The entire preparation
of food will be undertaken by society in the future. The private
kitchen will disappear."[970] "Instead of a hundred kitchens and fires
and cooks, we shall have one. Instead of a hundred meals to prepare,
we shall have one. Instead of a hundred homes being made to reek of
unsavoury dishes, or the detestable odour of bad cooking, the
offensive effluvia will be confined to one building. Under Socialism
domestic duties will be reduced to a minimum."[971] "We set up one
great kitchen, one general dining-hall, and one pleasant
tea-garden."[972] Only a few Socialists are in favour of individual
houses, believing that "Each house should be self-contained."[973]
The proposals of British Socialists regarding woman, the family, the
home, and marriage are not new. They were tried in the French
Revolution, and the consequences of the experiments recommended by the
philosophers of the Revolution were as follows:
"The legislation of the Revolution diminished the paternal authority
and converted the family into a republic. Marriage became a contract
which could be broken at will by either party, a contract which
allowed of short notice and which could be concluded for any space of
time. People married for a year, sometimes only for a month. They
married for fun or for profit, and marriages were dissolved and others
contracted if it paid to do so."[974] The French police reports tell
us: "The depravity of morals is extremely great, and the new
generation is growing up in a state of disorder which promises to have
the most unfortunate and most far-reaching consequences to future
generations. Sodomy and Sapphic love flourish with the same
shamelessness as prostitution, and the progress of all these vices is
terrifying."[975] From another source we learn: "Society has become
terribly depraved; fornication, adultery, incest, and murder by poison
or violence are the fruits of philosophism. Things are as bad in the
villages as in Paris. Justices of the peace report that immorality has
spread to such an extent that many communes will soon no longer be
inhabitable by decent people."[976] This is the new and the better
world towards which Socialism is steering.
FOOTNOTES:
[896] Aristotle, _Politics_, Book ii. Chapter v.
[897] Blatchford, _What is this Socialism?_ p. 2.
[898] Russell Williams, _The Difficulties of Socialism_, p. 13.
[899] Kautsky, _The Socialist Republic_, p. 23.
[900] Marx and Engels, _Manifesto of the Communist Party_, pp. 19, 20.
[901] Morris and Bax, _Socialism: Its Growth and Outcome_, p. 9.
[902] Davidson, _The Old Order and the New_, p. 164.
[903] Bax and Quelch, _A New Catechism of Socialism_, p. 39.
[904] Bax, _The Religion of Socialism_, p. 145.
[905] Oscar Wilde, "The Soul of Man under Socialism," _Fortnightly
Review_, February 1891.
[906] Wells, "Socialism and the Middle Classes," _Fortnightly Review_,
November 1906.
[907] _Fabian Essays in Socialism_, p. 200.
[908] A.R. Orage in the _New Age_, November 21, 1907.
[909] Lansbury, _The Principles of the English Poor Law_, p. 10.
[910] Bax, _Outlooks from the New Standpoint_, p. 160.
[911] Gronlund, _Co-operative Commonwealth_, p. 151.
[912] Benson, _Woman, the Communist_, p. 16.
[913] Davidson, _Gospel of the Poor_, p. 149.
[914] Russell Williams, _The Difficulties of Socialism_, pp. 14, 15.
[915] _Ibid._ p. 15.
[916] Bax, _Outlooks from the New Standpoint_, pp. 159, 160.
[917] Morris and Bax, _Socialism; Its Growth and Outcome_, p. 199.
[918] Bax, _Outlooks from the New Standpoint_, pp. 114, 115.
[919] Leatham, _Socialism and Character_, p. 30.
[920] Bax, _Outlooks from the New Standpoint_, p. 160.
[921] Bebel, _Woman_, pp. 44, 86.
[922] Bebel, _Woman in the Past, Present, and Future_, pp. 229, 230.
[923] Karl Pearson, _The Ethic of Free Thought_, p. 108.
[924] Morris and Bax, _Manifesto of the Socialistic League_, p. 100.
[925] Ethel Snowden, _The Woman Socialist_, p. 56.
[926] _Ibid._ pp. 59, 60.
[927] Davidson, _The Old Order and the New_, p. 165.
[928] Ethel Snowden, _The Woman Socialist_, p. 61,
[929] Bax, _The Ethics of Socialism_, p. 62.
[930] _Ibid._ p. 126.
[931] Leatham, _Socialism and Character_, p. 24.
[932] "The Moltke-Harden Case" in the _New Age_, November 14, 1907.
[933] For details on this subject see Bebel, _Woman_; Meslier, _Le
Testament_, 1864, ii. 226; Dezamy, _Code de la Communaute_, 1842, p.
266; Godwin, _Enquiry concerning Political Justice_, ii. 507; Owen,
_The Marriage System_, 1838, p. 66; Owen, _Manifesto_, 1840, p. 56;
Owen, _What is Socialism?_ 1841, p. 40; Morris, _News from Nowhere_,
1899, p. 90; Tucker, _Instead of a Book_, 1897, p. 15; Grave, _Societe
Future_, ch. xii.; Charles Albert, _L'Amour Libre_, 1899, p. 191, &c.
[934] See Nordhoff, _Communistic Societies_, 1875, p. 275; Noyes,
_History of American Socialism_, 1870, p. 623; Hinds, _American
Communities_, 1902, p. 196.
[935] _Looking Backward_, ch. xxiv.
[936] _Erfurter Programm_, 1892, p. 145.
[937] Leatham, _Socialism and Character_, p. 32
[938] Menger, _L'Etat Socialists_, 1904, p. 187.
[939] _Ibid._ p. 188.
[940] Davidson, _The Old Order and the New_, pp. 164, 166.
[941] Benson, _Woman the Communist_, p. 15.
[942] Ethel Snowden, _The Woman Socialist_, pp. 48, 49.
[943] Russell Williams, _The Difficulties of Socialism_, p. 9.
[944] Russell Williams, _The Difficulties of Socialism_, p. 10.
[945] _New Age_, Letter to Editor, November 14, 1907.
[946] Blatchford, _What is this Socialism?_ p. 7.
[947] A. Menger, _Volkspolitik_, p. 51.
[948] Karl Pearson, _Socialism and Sex_, pp. 12, 108.
[949] Ethel Snowden, _The Woman Socialist_, p. 49.
[950] Victor Fisher, _The Babies' Tribute_, p. 14.
[951] Victor Fisher, _The Babies' Tribute_, p. 15.
[952] Macdonald, _Socialism_, p. 98.
[953] Keir Hardie, _From Serfdom to Socialism_, p. 64.
[954] Ethel Snowden, _The Woman Socialist_, p. 13.
[955] _Ibid._ p. 42.
[956] _Independent Labour Party Leaflet_, No. 5.
[957] Ethel Snowden, _The Woman Socialist_, p. 37.
[958] Gronlund, _Co-operative Commonwealth_, p. 148.
[959] Ethel Snowden, _The Woman Socialist_, p. 57.
[960] Bebel, _Woman_, p. 229.
[961] Ethel Snowden, _The Woman Socialist_, p. 86.
[962] _What Socialism means for Women_, p. 1.
[963] Keir Hardie, _Citizenship of Women_, p. 6.
[964] Davidson, _The Old Order and the New_, p. 113.
[965] Menger, _L'Etat Socialiste_, p. 191.
[966] Bax, _Ethics of Socialism_, p. 66.
[967] Bax, _Religion of Socialism_, p. 116.
[968] _Ibid._ p. 117.
[969] _After Bread, Education_, p. 10.
[970] Bebel, _Woman_, p. 227.
[971] Ethel Snowden, _The Woman Socialist_, p. 70.
[972] Blatchford, _Merrie England_, p. 49.
[973] Jowett, _The Socialist and the City_, p. 60.
[974] Vandal, _L'Avenement de Bonaparte_.
[975] _Rapports de police publies par Schmidt_, iii. p. 389.
[976] Roussel, _Un Eveque assermente_, p. 298.