The Labor enquirer., 1886-03-06
.woMAN."


In THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE-Au-
cloth ha' Is eSe Cents s. New YORK, Bordolio, 7o5
Broadway, or LABOR ENQUIRER office.
This work is from the pen of August
Bebel. member of the German Reich
stag and the leader of the Social Demo-
cratic party in Germany. At the outset
we may consider it scientific exposi-
ton of woman's position in the commu-
nifty from the creation to the nineteenth
century inclusive it is at the same time
powerful plea for woman suffrage from
the most advanced standpoint.
The first part of the work is devoted
almost entirely to statistics and sum-
marles from different writers upon the
question. In this line the author seems
to be unexcelled, and his familiarity
with the authorities on the subject is not
to be questioned. The second part of
the work deals essentially with the con-
dition and position of woman at the
present day, presenting at the same time
many ideas original with the author. A
| few extracts are appended:
"As general rule the development of
the heart and fancy has hitherto been
cultivated in woman to an altogether
ldisproportionate extent; the develop
ment of her reasoning faculties on the
other hand has been checked or grossly
neglected. She consequently suffers
from an hypertrophy of feeling and is
therefore generally accessible to every
kind of superstition and fraud. y &"
"Aman is generally of the opinion that
his wife cannot comprehend his affairs
and need not concern herself with them.
You can't understand is the stereotype
reply n and this want of
comprehension on the part of the
women is only aggravated by the folly
of most men. ~
Speaking of woman's late entrance
into the labor field, he says.
This modern middle-class society
everywhere contains the germ which a
future society only needs to generaliza
and develop on large scale to accom-
plish vast and radical reform; making
it clear that the whole tendency of our
social life is not to restrict women again
to house and hearth as the fanatice of
domesticity prescribe. On the contrary
the tendency is for them to advance out
of the narrow household circle to take
their full share in the public life of the
people. n = And women
themselves are pressing forward, though
in small numbers, and without being
perfectly clear as to the object in view"
Speaking of the possibilities of future
mental development in woman:
ut is just as mistaken to say that a
woman can never become genius, be-
cause people can discover no spark of
genius among the tolerably large num-
ber of intellectual women that exist, as
it is to affirm that no more geniuses have
been possible among men, than the few
who have been recognized as such,
thanks to the opportunities which have
been afforded them"
Philosophizing later in the work he
remarks
"a woman inherits from nature the
same rights as man; the chance of
birth cannot alter this fact.
The only dissimilarity which
has right to permanence, is, that es-
tablished by nature for the fulillment
of a natural purpose, which is extern
ally unlike, but in substance the same"
In his closing chapters the. author
wanders from his subject to certain ex-
tent to enlarge upon Socialism as q rem
edy for all existing social inequalities
that prescribed by sex included. Here
we find him essentially "at home:"
From whatever standpoint we at
tempt the criticism of the present state
of things, we find that the only posi-
bility of reform is radical transforma-
ton of social conditions, and through it.
of sexual relationship. \
After society has entered into
exclusive possession of the means of
production, the equal duty of all to labor
without distinction of sex will become
the first fundamental law Of the Social
istic community
The work can be heartily recon-
mended to the perusal of all, whether
personally in sympathy with the opin-
ions of the writer or vice versa.
HERBERT EATON.
A Claim for Overtime.