Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-10-12

~ what believe to be morality founded
on certain facts fully known to me-
When my book was published this Autumn It was
declared in some quarters to be an immortality
impossible TO human experience. As con
sequence the subject | set out to deal with has
been obscured and have wasted the better
part of two months in contending with a mum
Der OF people who have raised side Issue
the group of book distributors in London who
censored my work and thereby restricted the
circulation OF It In the libraries OF Great Britain
by means Of trade combine which believe
to be Illegal. and know TO be immoral; the
group of little critics who. being mRnifestly I'M
able to write an English sentence. have been
telling the public what the faults OF my style
are; the group Of big critics who, having strug-
gled in vain to succeed, have been showing
what a literary sin success is. the group of
malicious critics who have rejoiced in an OPP
portunity OF saying that have prostituted my
talents in the writing of an indecate story for
the sake OF large sales and great profits; and
above all the group Of good. honest, well-mean-
ing folks who. seeing that have been dealing
with subject OF immortality, have concluded
that | have written an immoral book which
they must not talk about must not touch. must
not on any account permit to lie about openly
in their houses-a book which they are quite
sincerely sorry that man whom they wished
to think we'll Of should have allowed himself
to publish.
must not say this is all have had for my
book have had a number OF most sympa-
thetic and searching criticisms from the public
press both in Great Britain and in America as
we'll as in various foreign countries, and
81 cd DanDlA
of both sexes holding positions OF high respon-
sibility to the public, telling me that there can
be no question of the sincerity OF my aim, and
that the ordinary. healthy, average man and
woman cannot mistake my message, or doubt
that Il is moral one. Perhaps / might leave
matters at this trusting to my work TO justify
itself in the long run. and feeling that II 1t
does not do so 1t must be defective. deficient
at fault somewhere. But have confess, be-
come impatient OF the prolonged misrepre
sensations OF foolish people with heads like
bell and tongues Ike its clapper, so | am now
trying to abridge II by an attempt to say what
my book is really about, what subject 1t is in
tended to deal with. what gospel It is trying
TO preach.
The best short account OF the motive OF my
work came to me few days ago from the most
unexpected quarter-out OF Franciscan mon
astery. ITO my mind" wrote the friary you
preach a glorious gospel-the gospel OF free
dom in the choice of a life over which nobody
should act the part OF despot not even
parent God gave us all liberty. He forces
none. Let conscience be our only guide
Otherwise life ends in disaster"
II my unknown correspondent, the Francis
can friar. had said that was trying to preach
the gospel Of freedom for woman in particular
he would have described my story exactly as
would myself describe II. | feel that In spite
Of all that law has done throughout the world
during the past hundred years particularly TO
improve and protect the material position OF
woman, She is not now and never has been
free-spirtually free. economically free, free to
guide her life by the light of her conscience
alone. her physical nature and her affections.
The world has in all the ages, carried on the
farce that woman IS not only free but a kind
of sovereign. 1t has always taken off its hat
to her in one form or other; 1t has made her
the subject of poems, of drama, OF pictures
and even the object of wars. But in all essen
tials of free choice in the government OF her
life, the bestowal OF her love, the possession Of
her children, and even the control of her own
person the world has from the first denied
freedom TO woman, and down to this day It
denies II.
Yet what does the law OF Nature sAy7 II
says that on the freedom OF womRn-her right
of guiding her life for herself, OF choosing her
partner, OF nurturing. training and educating
her children, OF controlling her own person, or
being mistress OF herself and sovereign of her
soul-the real welfare OF the race and the
world depends Because she is woman because
she is wife. because she is mother. because she
is the medium through whom the generations
are carried on, Nature gives her this premier
place. And Natures law has been struggling
all through the history of humanity to assert
her right TO it-by the passion OF the lover. by
the love OF the child, by the genius Of the poet
and~the painter, and even the chivalry Of the
warrior. But force. sheer brute force. as
think. has been resisting Natures law, all along
the centuries. with the result that Woman-not-
withstanding everything religion and civiliza-
ton has done for hers in all essentials as
much a subject creature she in the
earliest ages.
The readers of my books will not ask me to
accept the story in the second chapter OF
Genesis as a literal account of how woman
came into the world. and what uses God as.
signed TO her. But l do most cheerfully accept
il as a symbolical rendering of mans concep
ton of womans origin and moral functions.
She came out Of man, and therefore belonged
10 him, being a part OF him, bone OF his bone
and flesh of his flesh. As a consequence she
was a creature who might exPect 10 be cared
for by him, to be controlled by him, and TO
possess no separate rights eXcept such as he
conferred upon her. God had, in mans view,
confirmed this relation; and hence the title
of my story The Woman Thou Gavest Me.
whhh, though not literally quoted FROM the