The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1914-04-10

will? This is the dream Of a scatter
led few, especially in Germany, Wnct'
a small group is experimenting III
public. But it is not feminism.
It is the suggestion of certain reck-
| less ones to abolish the home anu
have the state bring up our cniioreI
in order that women may De Tree u
experiment variously with life unnaL1l-.
! pered by the schemes OF mere nature {
This has been seriously set torth oy
several daring writer's, and IS occa"
sionally advocated by irresponsible
orators at gatherings Of the ultra-ad-
vanced, But it is not fenlnlsm.
Nor can feminism be defined by any
of the numerous other suggestions OF
impractical imaginations spurred TO
abnormal activity by sudden release
from the thought conventions OF the
past.
Granted that most of the ~so-called
feminist writing and speaking SO Tar
have dealt with the schemes or Vlsloi-
aries. But Missionaries and fanatics
are always the first and the loudest IN
any public cause. The social reor-
ganization now in slow, orderly prog
ress throughout the civilized world
was heralded two decades ago by an
archists and nihilists.
Granted hat the opponents OF fem
inism seem to have, in he silence or
all others, authority for their assump-
ton that the theories Of these hasty
irresponsibles are the theories of the
movement itself. But the hastily ter
riied are as ~fatuouS as the hastily
enthused. Neither deserves credence
of the seer.
tical doctrines of the hasty. Let us
fish for our definition in the still wat
ers beneath the troubled surface. Let
us study the Revolt of the Women not
in the souls of the volatile few, but
of the earnest millions of wives and
mothers and workers who are think
ing silently in their homes. Here
alone we shall find the attitude upon
which to base our substantial defini-
ton, for these r the ONE who
eventually will determine the fact.
And here, first Of all, We find that
femininism does not mean the usurp-
alton of women of the place and the
power of men. Psychological sex diff
~ferences absolutely must have their
way in the end despite prophets and
propaganda. and non but dreamers
will deny it. When women have all
the rights they demand, together with
the Obligations that go with them,
still they will be women. They will
no more compete then in departments
of life unsuited to their strength and
genius than they do today. None but
a few enthusiastic theorists believe
they will. ''''
There is this difference, though, and
here somewhere lies our definition,
that then women's spirits will be
freed. For the first time in history,
whether in competition with men or
not, they will labor without the bond
and the stigma of inferiority.
To meet life u~ndaunted; to labor, to
succeed or to fall, as human individu-
ais only; to feel handicapped by nature
success IN se~lf-chosen appropriate
paths unhampered by laws or conven-
lions from which men are exempt
these, we take it, constitute the uIti-
mate object of the revolt Of the WON
en-.
And h a sumo up feminism, consid-
cred as a great, instructive human
great step toward the realization OF
human freedom. Freeing the women
follows naturally, and in civilizations
own good time, upon freeing slaves.
Feminism, then, is in essence ant
fact a spiritual attitude. But it fol.
effective, there is involved the power
as well as the principle of freedom
Women must become the civil and thu
social equals Of men. It makes littlt
difference whether or not they shall
use this power; the fact that they
possess it., rather that they should MOI
be forbtddfn its possession. is thu
T he. object of feminism is to make
\ women equal stockholders with men II
the business of life.
Like every demand for human free,