Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-11-02
SOCIAL STANDARDS.

standard which, we fear, is cast so far in
the future that speculation concerning it
is almost waste of time and mental en-
ergy. Mr.. Flower holds that it is the
hight of folly to ignore injustice, immor-
atty and vice, and to turn deaf ear to
serious wrongs felt by the many, before
they are voiced by the few; that it is the
highest wisdom to unmask hypocrisy and
denounce wrong-doing and injustice.
He, therefore, espouses an idea, heretical
in the present thought of society, which
has escaped from the prison-house of re-
spectacle conservatism-to wit, that men
should be held to the same accountability
for moral uncleanliness as women; that to
them should be applied the same standard
of judgment in matters of morality as are
applied to women; that men who are
moral lepers should not be permitted to
pose as models, or pass current in society
as true gold, because they are the Lords
of creation" class.
But Mr. Flower and few other brave
souls will sound such trumpet blasts in
vain, until courage inspires the Headers OF
society" here and there to set up and APP
ply the standard. Certainly such preach
ing will in some degree tend to hasten the
time when the new judgment will be pro-
claimed as social law. But at the best,
under the operation of mere protests by
few brave souls, generation after genera
ton will pass away before there will be
any material approach to realization of
the reformation indicated.
Now it is probable that there is not in
the land to-day pure woman who does
not entertain precisely the sentiment
voiced by Mr.. Flower, but there Is not
within the uttermost bounds of society one
such woman in a thousand who has the
courage or can afford to close her door, or
regulate her association with the opposite
sex strictly and unvaryingly according to
the standard for which Mr.. Flower pleads.
Is it true, then, that women are under
bondage to men in this repression Or is
it truth that women are really attracted
by and hutter about masculine moral
lepers, as some make bold to assert. The
women who undertake to withdraw them
selves and their families from all associa-
ton with men who are as guilty as are the
rejected women, must take severe punish
ment; they must be prepared to withdraw
to great extent from social life; stand
apart and separate themselves from great
deal that to woman is attractive, desirable,
helpful and strengthening.
This is saving, of course, that the social
standard for men is too firmly set to be
overthrow in a single crusade, and that
if the issue were openly put upon trial,
women would find only few men stand
ing by their colors. Yet, how easy it
would seem to be for the leaders and
dictators in society to set up the standard
and apply the judgment to men that men
prescribe for women. Let us suppose for
moment that even half dozen OF the
foremost women of any considerable COM
munity resolutely resolve that neither they
nor their daughters will sit in company
with known libertines; that they will not
promenade in the ballroom, sit at the
banquet or receive or recognize at any
time men known to be wreckers of female
virtue, or whose habits are on level with
those of the rejected woman. Does it not
appear that such stand could be taken
without extraordinary sacrifice. and that
it would rally about such women a host of
supporters, and inaugurate reform that
would never go backward?
Yet, as matter of fact, every one re-
allies that however seemingly easy such
an Inauguration would be, in fact it would
be so difficult, so beset by deep-rooted
prejudices grounded in the social constitu-
ton, that in any near future such re-
form would be impossible. 1t will become
possible only when the whole moral plane
of society is lifted to the levels of higher
standards; when the public conscience is
quick under acute sensitiveness; when
women shall be accorded in the promulga-
ton of social edicts a larger part, and
when moral leprosy in men will be more
repugnant to men.
Until such levels are attained the re-
formers for whom Mr.. Flower sounds the
Key note must be content with the fact, as
he rather systematically phrases it, that
such ideas are not to be imprisoned; that
they are great truths passing from lip to
lip, and though received by staid, easy
going conservatism with unfeigned in
dignation, it is too late to crush or kill
them. ''They are not men that they may
be burned; they are truths, born of an age
of progressive unrest. On the wings OF
freedom they float from mind to mind,
kindling flame which will not be ex-
tinguished until the wrongs are righted