Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1851-08-16

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mander of their lives. Neither women MOI
men need any law to exclude them from an
occupation, il they have undertaken another
which is incompatible with it, No one pro-
poses to exclude the male sex from Parlia.
ment because man may be soldier oi
sailor in active service, or n merchant whose
business requires all his time aud energies
! Nine-tcnths of the occupations of men cx-
clude them de. fdcio irom public life, MS eflec-
tnaly as IL they were excluded by law; buI
that is no reason for making laws TO exclude
even the nine-tenths, much less the remain
ing tenth. The reason of the case is the
same for women as for men. There is no
need TO make provision 10y law that n woman
shall not carry on the active details ofa house
/ hold or of the education of children, and at
the same time practice profession or be
| elected to Parliament. Where incompatl-
bility is real it will take care of itself: but
there is gross injustice in making the inconl-
! patibility n pretcnse for the exclusion OF
those in whose case il does not exist. Aud
these, if they were free to choose, would be
a very large proportion. The maternity ar
gument deserts its supporters in the case OF
single women, n large aud increasing class
of the population fact which, it is not ir-
relevent to remark, 10y tending to diminish
the excessive competition of numbers, is cal
culated to assist greatly the prosperity of all.
There is no inherent reason or necessity that
all women should voluntarily choose TO de-
vote their lives 10 one animal function and
IFS consequences. Numbers of women are
wives and mothers only because there is no
other career open to them, no other occupa-
ton for their feelings or their activities
Every improvement in their education, aud
enlargement of their iaculiics--evcrythn
which renders them more qualified for any
other mode of life, increases the number of
those to whom il is an injury and an oppres-
sion to be denied the choice. To say that
women must be excluded from active life be-
cause maternity disqualifcs them for it, is in
fact to say. that every other career should bc
forbidden them in order that maternity may
be their only resource.
COMPETITION.
But secondly, il is urged, that TO give the
same freedom of occupation to women ms TO
men, would be an injurious addition TO the
crowd of competitors, 10y whom the avenues
TO almost all kinds Of employment are cho-
ked up, and its remuneration depressed
This argument, it is to be Observed does
not reach the political question. 1t gives no
excuse for Withholding from women the
rights of citizenship. The suffrage, the Jury
box, admission TO the Legislature and to Of
flee, it does not touch. II bears only on the
industrial branch of the subject. Allowing
il, then, in an economical point of view, its
full force assuming that to lay open to wo-
men the cmploylnents now monopoliZed by
men, would tend, like the breaking down of
other monopolics, TO lower the rate OF re-
muneration in those cmploymcnts; let us
,I, ,f, ,l,
sequence, aud what the compensation for il. |
The worst ever asserted, much worse than
is at all likely TO be realized, is that il wo-
men competed with men, man and wo-
man could not together earn more than is
now earned by the man alone. Let us make
this supposition, the most uniavorable sup |
position possible; the joint income of the |
two would be the same us before, while the !
women would he raised from the position of
Il servant TO that of II partner. Even if every
woman, MS matters now stand, had claim
on some man for support, now infinitely pre-
lerabc is it that par, of the income should
be of the woman's earnings, even it the ag-
grcgate sum were but little increased by it,
rather than that she should be compelled TO
stand aside in order that men may he the
sole earncrs, and the sole dispensers ofwhat
is earned. Even under the present laws
respecting the property Of women Il woman
who contributes materially TO the support of
the family, cannot be treated in the same
contemptuously tyrannical manner as one
who, however she may toll as u domestic
drudge, is dependent OH the man for sub
sistcnce. As for the depression of wages by
increase of competition, remedies will be
found for it in time. Palatives might be
applied Immediately; for instance, a more
rigid exclusion of children from industrial
employment, during the years in which they
ought TO be working only 10 strengthen their
bodies and minds for after life. Children
are necessarily dependent, aud under the
power of others; aud their labor, being not
for themselves but for the gain of their par
ents is proper subject for legislative rcgu-
lailon. With respect to the future, we Meth
or believe that inprovident multiplication,
and the consequent excessive difficulty of
gaining subsistence, will always continue,
nor that the division of mankind into CAPITA.
lists or hired laborers, and the regulation of
the reward of lnborers mainly by demand
and supply, will he, forever, or even much
longer, the rule OF the world. But so long
as competition is lie general law Of human
life, Il Is tyranny 10 shut out onc-haf of the
competitors. All who have attained the aye
oi seli-governmcnt, have an equal claim TO
be permitted to sell whatever kind of useful
labor they are capable OF, for the price which
it will bring.
The truly horrible effects of tho present
state OF the law among the lowest of the work
ing population, is exhibited in those cases of
hideous maltreatment Of their wives by work.
ing men, with which every newspaper, every
police report, teens. Wretchcs unit TO have
the smallest authority over any living thing,
have helpless woman for their household
slave. These eXcessos could not exist il wo-
men both earned, and had the right to possess
a part ofthe income OF the family.
PATHETTc.-Somo poot who evidently
thinks sour wrongs is intollerabo"-
bly, himself the unfortunate husband of n
IllnnnIn e., IL. ID