Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-08-16
A TRUE WOMAN'S RIGHTS
MOVEMENT.

There is an organization for WOman's
Rights IN Germany, which indicates
the superiority of the native Teutonic
common sense over that of the second, OF
AnglO-American, edition of Germanic
wOmanhoOd as exhibited in our OWL
wOman's conventions. ~Itincludes many
ladies of the higher classes; and its de-
signs, besides the ameliOTation of old
legal disabilities of the sex, are the re-
form of extravaganza in female dress, in
household expense, and the other nu-
merous conventional impOsitiOns of mod
ern life.
The French fashions, especially, can
now be more readily repealed in Ger
many than at any former period of this
century. The German people have
come to feel their superiority to French
conventionalism. They may be egotisti-
cal in their newly-awakened conscious
ness of European supremacy, but the
vanity (if such it be- will be something
like a virtue, if it re-enforces the old and
admirable simplicity of German life and
manners.
America is a new Germany; for we
are Teutonic, not only by Our Anglo
Saxon descent, but by the e~ver-increas-
ing reinfusion of Teutonic blood into the
national veins by u great German i'm
migration. For many years the Ger
man accessiOns to our population have
preponderated over those from all other
nations, and the prospect is that it will
be greater hereafter than ever.
Extravaganza, expensiveness in mat
tiers of domestic and sOciallife, are really
the greatest evils under which American
women now suffer, and should, there
fore, be the first aims oftheir ~reformatOry
measures. They suffer by them because
u men suffer by them. The well-being
of the former is dependent upon that of
the latter; and no "radicalismH can ever
reverse this fixed order of life, for it is
the order of nature. Our young men,
gallant and devoted to the sex as they
may be land no men are more so than
American), cannot contract early mar
riages at the present rate of the mere
conventional expense of living. EX-
travagance reigns in all things, except
in the earnings ofhOnest industry. Hence
the ever-increasing host Of unmarried
young men, and, by consequence, the
proportionate number of unmarried, self
dependent, toil-worn young women.
The statistics of the case are startling.
1t is a monstrous anomaly in American
life. Our fathers and mothers were
above such folly. To alive within your
means" was once, not only the Frank
linian maxim, but the characteristic fact
of American life. 1t is now impossible
for our clerks, our young businessmen,
young literary men, young artists,
etc.-in fine, the very best classes of u
young manhoOd-tO do so, unless they
forego marriage, and leave the young
women to take care of themselves. Inn
mense decentralization and suffering, to
both parties, are the result.
Rightly OF wrongly, women are held
chiefly responsible for this state of So
ciety-so fraught with misery to their
sex throughout our denser communities.
Whether they be so or not, the chief
power to reform it is undeniably in their
hands. They make and can unmake
the domestic and sOcial conventiOnalisms
of the country. They are necessarily
holding conventions about other and
doubtful matters; many ofthem, having
admirable powers of public address,
traverse the country lecturing. They
edit periodicals; they write books; there
is no limitation on their power of public
utterance among us. Why do they not
q lay the ak at the root" Of the matter,
by attacking the tyranny of the social
and domestic extravaganza which is de-
the old simplicity and virtue of
American life, and cOndemning our best
young men to d~emoralizing celibacy,
and crushing the hearts and lives of our
young women? This is the highest, the
most urgent wOman's rights question of
the day. The highest, dearest right of a
woman is to have a home of her own,
and the love and shelter of man. But
under woman's own influence,
has become such that wen here in
America our young men cannot have
real homes for themselves, because they
cannot provide them for our women in
accordance with the conventional stand
ard of household expense. Let the
women of the land study this problem,
and resOlutely take it in hand. Aehiev-
Rg this most-needed reform, public opin-
will hold them competent for any of
he less needed ones upon which they
IRE now expanding so much energy