The herald., 1895-08-04
MEN DEFEND
EACH OTHER, BUT WOMEN ATTACK
EACH OTHER

Although the universal Brotherhood of
man lies avowedly in the background of
the sociaIstic dream, no jealous Utopian
has ever yet ventured 70 apply the same
idea to the opposite sex. The bond of
fellowship which exists between man and
man simply by virtue of common sex is
entirely absent between woman and wo-
man. 1t is. IN fact replaced by iunda-
mental antagonism, vague enmty which
renders the general attitude of a feminine
creature toward her kind essen TALLY
different from that of the male creature
in i lentical relations. In individual
.s.s this feeling is counteracted by
affection or by pathy. but apart frcm
personal sentiments it remains. severins
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. of some one man or woman
whom she loves, but rarely for the well
fare of her sex at large. We're it not for
this strange lack of humanity in her
nature. the emancipation. OF woman
would not have been so grievousl.,. re-
tarded. 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 subiuga-
tion would have been enormously abbre-
waited. AS it was, the first seekers after
freedom met with more opposition from
their own sex than they did from The
other: nor. indeed. do they fare better
today. 1t Twas not the great mass OF
womanhood who worked to obtain the
married women's property act 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 MINOR
ity OF women brave enough and logical
enough to impress the male powers that
But for their courage they received no
sympathy, and for their success not one
word OF thanks-nothing, in fact but ex"
ecraton from the huge inert feminine
mass in whose service their strength was
spent.
1t is, in fact this essential dsunion.
this lack of cohesive power, which makes
the economic position OF woman what it
is. The work which she is now doing
" ith her might she owes more to the self
interest of the employer than to her own
energy. In many fields of labor women
are ousting men from employment, be-
cause their work is as well done az men
can do it, and done at about half the
price. The emancipation Of the woman
worker simply means that the capitalist
has found the road to the cheapest laDof
and makes the best bargain he can.
When it is struck. the woman walls that
she is underpad. apparently unconscious
that the remedy lies in her own hands.
If each woman who works were to adopt
the tactics of man aud 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 the covenant. That is why
| trade -unionism among women is still al
| most farce, and its operation ineffec-
tual, and why the associations formed
by women for their betterment and gov
erned by them are SO apt to become dis
abled through internal strife. Whatever
strength there is in woman it is not the
strength of unity; far less are fraternity
and equality, sequels to the liberty she
claims. At the moment her most pre-
tentious claim is for parliamentary en-
| franchisemment. l am not here con-
cerned with the justice or Injustice of
the claim, but the contention that its sue
cess or failure depends almost entirely
upon herself. If all womanhood were to