Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1895-07-31
WOMAN'S INHUMANITY
Men Defend While Women At
tack Each Other.
SHE DOES NOT FIGHT FOR HER SEX
In the Lack of Union in the Fair Sex
Lies Its Weakness and Mans
Strength.

Strength.
Although the universal brotherhood
of man lies avowedly in the background
of the socialistic dream, no Jealous
Utopian has ever yet ventured to apply
the same idea to the opposite sex. The
bond of fellowship which exists be-
tween man and man simply by virtue
of common sex is entirely absent be-
tween woman and woman. 1t is, in
fact, replaced by fundamental antag-
onism, vague enmity which renders
the general attitude of feminine crea-
ture toward her kind essen TALLY differ
ent from that of the male creature in
identical relations. In individual
cases this feeling is counteracted by
affection or by sympathy, but apart
from personal sentiments it remains.
severing every living woman from the
rest of her sex. To great extent this
arises from woman's incapacity for
personal feeling or abstract emotion.
In life's fray she fights either for her
own hand or, more often for, some one
man or woman whom she loves, but
rarely for the welfare of her sex at
large. Were it not for this strange
lack of humanity in her nature, the
emancipation of woman would not
have been so previously retarded. If
the few women who suffered aforetime
under the restrictions which hedged in
their liberty had been able to count on
the sympathy and cooperation OF all
women, the time of their subjugation
would have been enormously abbre-
waited. AS it was. the first seekers
after freedom met with more opposi-
ton from their own sex than they did
from the other; nor, indeed, do they
fare better today. 1t was not the great
mass of womanhood who worked to OBJ
tain the Married Women's Property aot
nor the restitution of their municipal
rights. nor the vindication of their
personal rights by the jackson case
verdict. These enormous changes in
their social status were effected by an
inconsiderable minority of women
brave enough and logical enough to
impress the male powers that be with
the justice of their demands. But for
their courage they received no sympa-
thy, and for their success not one word
of Misunderstanding. in fact, but exc.
Grafton from the huge inert feminine
mass in whose service their strength
was spent.
Sc, 20 f fhic accanfia1 licu,,inr,
this lack of cohesive power, which
makes the economic position of woman
what it is. The work which she is
now doing with her might she owes
more to the self-interest of the en-
ployer than to her own energy. In
many fields of labor women are GUST
ing men from employment, because
their work is as well done as men can
do it, and done at about half the price
The emancipation of the woman-w worker
simply means that the capitalist has
found the road to the cheapest labor,
and makes the best bargain he can.
When it is struck, the woman walls
that she is underpaid, apparently un-
conscious that the remedy lies in her
own hands. If each woman who works
were to adapt the tactics of man and
combine for the common benefit instead
of standing alone and making her own
terms, the value of her labor would
soon be equal to his. But this is just
what she cannot do. She cannot form
an alliance with her own sex, either
offensive or defensive, and respect its
covenant. That is why trade unionism
among women is still almost farce,
and its operation Intellectual, and why
the associations formed by women for
their betterment and governed by them
are so apt to become disabled through
internal strife. Whatever strength
there is in woman, it is not the
strength of unity; far less are fratern-
ity and equality sequels to the liberty
she claims. At the moment her most
pretentious claim is for parliamentary
REIMBURSEMENT. / am not here con.
cerned with the justice-or injustice
of the claim, but the contention that
its success or failure depends almost
entirely upon herself. If all woman
uOOu WClC w dChdhu tbO NOtc db w I'LL
one voice, the days of her exclusion of
political activity would be numbered.
For the present obstacle to her obtain
ing it comes not so much from mans
Discrimination to grant it as from the
passive antagonism of those women
who do not want it.
Yet there never was time when
women were so interested in their own
sex as they are now, though whether
this interest is due to an impulse of
morbid curiosity or to genuine human
sympathy is open to question. 1t is
certain that an increasing number of
women who are morally stainless give
evidence of an extraordinary ABSORB
tion in the character and condition of
nh. Ixvn1