Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1890-03-27
THE PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION.

The Barrier OF Sex GRADUALLY Giving way
to the Pressure of Reason and Justice.
VIM. T. Stead, who was chiefly instru-
mental in securing the raising Of the age
Of legal protection for English girls,
through his paper, the Pail Mall Ga
zette, has written an Address to Amer
lean Women" 1t was meant to be read
at the annual convention of the National
w. c. 7. u, but was delayed In the mails,
and has just been published in the Union
Signal. Some passages are we'll worth
reproducing Mr.. Stead says:
''To me the most important. and by
far the most hopeful, movement Of our
time is that which is at last securing for
women the right to rank as human be-
ings, with equal right and equal justice,
equal privileges and equal opportuni-
ties with the hitherto dominant section
of humanity. The great word Of the
French revolution, which closed the old
regime, was the rights Of man. The
great word Of the new era, on the thresh-
hold Of which we are standing, is the
rights Of women. The assertion of the
longer be two measures and two stand
ards of right and Of wrong, Of justice or
Of injustice, was made in 1889 against
the system of caste. The same princi-
pie has now to be asserted in the region
of sex. 1t has as its natural compile
nent the application of the law, "A ca
reer open to all who have the capacity
to both halves of the human race. We
have not reached the point when 1t will
seem as preposterous to exclude capa-
BILE person from the highest Office in
Church and State merely because that
rs it now would seem absurd to ostracise
all persons who are not of aristocratic
descent but we are getting on, and there
is no better gauge Of the progress of our
civilization than the extent to which
our laws defining the rights and privil-
eyes of citizenship are becoming color
blind as to sex.
Another great source OF encourage
mont is the immense reinforcement
which science, in its demonstration Of
the working of the law Of heredity, has
brought to all those who are contending
for justice for woman. Strange though
1t appears, it is nevertheless indisputa-
BILE that to this day, the elementary
truth that every child is more or less
Of an equation between the mental, NOR
al and physical qualities of both his
parents, is ignored by the immense ma
jority of the human race. The fact that
the woman, when degraded into the
mere plaything or the drudge Of man,
avenges herself unconsciously by trans
uniting full measure of her degrade
ton to his sons, is obvious. But, in
stead of regarding every prospective
parent as the transmitter to posterity Of
the sum Of all its inherited and acquired
capacities, virtues and vices, 1t is too
often supposed to be sufficient to allot
different virtues to different sexes. We
have taught men to be brave, and wom-
en- to be chaste. But the child OF the
cowardly woman and the immoral man
starts afresh at the bottom Of the lad
der, with its full share of the inherited
cowardice Of the one and the vicious pro-
pensities Of the other. And then mar
vel at the slowness Of the progress Of
the race! How Is it possible for progress
to be more rapid when each sex is taught
that 1t Is matter of no CONSCIENCE
whether or mott it neutralizes in posterity
the virtues Of the other? 1t Is time we
were done with this one-legged system,
this eternal goose step to which we have
been so long condemned. Science
teaches US that even II we care nothing
for our girls, We must educate the moth
ers of our boys, not merely in book
learning, but in all the manly virtues
which we wish to be reproduced in these
sons. We must no longer have differ
ent decalogue for the two sexes The
moral law is one that applies equally te
both men and women. We have now te
teach our women to add to their chas
tity bravery, and our men to add to theil
bravery chastity. Otherwise we can nc
more expect a higher standard in oul
children than We can expet to pour purs
water from a pitcher which we hal
filled from a cesspool.
The success of our movement de
ponds upon the extent to which 1t cut
itself absolutely clear from the old ide;
that the only safety for the morality o
man was to keep him as far as possibl,
out of the society of women We pro
coed upon an exactly opposite tack. w,
proclaim that there is no security TO
the morality Of man equal to that o
close and intimate association with goo,
women, and that morality, as a matte
Of fact, perishes in every realm frou
which the influence Of woman is shu
out So far frcm seeking TO secure pur
ity By practicing seclusion. we believ'
that the more roiuts of contact and n