The Irish standard., 1903-04-18
What This Doctrine Proposes to Do fol
Woman Briefly But Very
Plainly Stated.
Would Abolish the Right of Inheritance
and Make Children Wards
of The State.

wedlock, is almost at an end even
now"
"The present marriage system is
based on the general supposition of
economic dependence Of the woman OH
the man, and this basis would disap.
pear with the advent of social econom-
ic freedom. No binding contract
would be necessary for marriage and
property in children would cease to
exist. Marriages would rest on the
mutual inclination and affection, and
be terminable at will of either party.'' -
morris and Bax).
From Bebel's ''Frau," or sWoman.
Past, Present and Future it is i'm
possible to make quotations suited to
this article. AS Mrs Corbin says,
while nothing is said in praise Of the
purity Of womanhood, or it's elevating
influence upon society, or the physical
dangers Of license, whole pages are
given to the exposition of the physical
evils Of confluence, and the crying in
justice and cruelty of imposing upon
woman any law more authoritative
than her own impulses.
This question is not new, although
the present day agitators present it so.
Fifty years ago Europe was torn to
pieces about it, and several attempts
have been made to graft Socialism on
the soil of the United states.
In the year 1926 Robert Owen
crossed the Atlantic to settle Social
istic colony in the then wild wilder
ness of Indiana. Women were to en-
gage in all industrial pursuits at
equal wages and were to enjoy equal
rights to suffrage and political emolu-
ments.
1t was impossible for Owen, even in
the sparsely settled country of Indiana,
to carry out the communistic theory Of
unauthorized relations between men
and women, and state care of children.
Civilization simply would not permit
it; the next best thing to do was to
break down the laws of the state by a
system of easy divorce, and that
Owen proceeded to do. Within the
lifetime Of Robert Owen and his son,
Robert Dale Owen, it was so far ac-
complished that Indiana became by
word for easy divorce, and set the ex-
ample which other states have some
times followed. It should be remem-
bered that the lax divorce laws which
have brought so little credit to Amer
lean legislation, were primarily due to
the direct influence of Socialism in the
person Of the two Owens.
In the same year Baron Rapp found
ed his colony at Economy, Pa. His
people were mostly peasants, and their
protest against marriage took the form
of enforced celibacy, depending for re-
cruits upon the outside world. This
experiment was a failure.
In the year 184s, while ali Europe
was at white heat concerning Social
ism, John Humphrey Noyes founded
the Oneida Community in western
New York. This was an attempt to
carry out the full intent and purpose
of Socialism concerning relations be-
tween men and women. Noyes writes
in his volume entitled, "a History of
American Socialism," as follows:
1--WE affirm that there is no intrinsic
difference between property in persons
and property in things, and that the
same spirit which abolishes exclusive
ness in regard to money would abolish,
If circumstances would allow full
scope to 1t, exclusiveness in women
and children
1t was to carry out these ideas that
the Oneida Community was founded;
but was finally, in the old age Of John
Humphrey, suppressed as a commun.
ity by It's indignant neighbors.
New Zealand is a present-day ex-
ample of what Socialism does for mar
riage and women. The birth rate has
fallen from 1892 per thousand in 1882
to less than Is per thousand in 1901,
under Socialism, and it is decreasing