The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-03-29

may be worthy or man and woman liv-
Ing in true comradeship. surpasses, de-
spite the slurs and contempt OF the
feminists, In importance all the discov-
cries and creations of men. Humanity
could better afford to lose any or most
Of mans achievements than the family
life tn which all that IL best and nohlcst
In our nature il consecrated and 10y
which II Is conserved What would
have been Abraham Lincoln's chances
IL his mother and his stepmother had
not encouraged him to study? What
would Howe have accomplished without
the help OF his cousin? The greatest
men, living or dead, have reverted with
reverence to their mothers influence.
with few exceptions women really
attained noteworthy achievements only
in feminine lines. Florence Nightingale
became a ministering angel to the
wounded in the Crlmca when the doc
tors gave up in despair. While the
letter of the War Secretary asking her
tn go 10 the Crimea was on the way to
her she had already begun her bencf-
icent journey. driven by the germ pasm
within her brain. Her systematizing of
the nurses work resulted in the splen-
did trained nursing that not 'soothes
the fevered brow OF millions, but is in
valuable to the physician and life saw
ing To the patient. This is the nearest
approach to creative work that I know
III In woman.
III female suffrage becomes es:ab-
lished in the world it will he. though
begun 10y man. the first epoch making
creation OF woman in history. Eliza
bath naL
susan b. Anthony. Anna Shaw. Carrie
Chapman Gait and Mrs. Frederick
Nathan will then deserve to be ranked
with the great statesmen OF the world.
Like many great men they will have
| accomplished the task without 'oppor-
tunity' and handicapped until recent
years by opposition and ridlcule.'
Would you object. doctor, to stating
your own position with regard To this
feminist movement. which one Of the
Johns Hopkins professors has char
! acterized as not worth getting excited
oVer'?"
Il do not quite agree with profs.
Bergson. Sedgwick and others that IT
| opens up as radical change in the So
| cial fabric as did the French Revolution.
The marvellous moral development and
human mind that are the products Of
progress during the last hundred and
twenty-five years endow this revolu-
tionary movement with features that
| would exclude the violent and insane
| oruelties Of that momentous historical
event. and the much ridiculed chivalry
| of men. which has borne its fullest fruit
age during the latter years. insurcs inn
mIlnlfk from the SnnplinlrN nrnepcI-
ings Of that revolution.
When the ant.-feminists cry with
hated breath and anxious mien that the
| tragedies OF the French Revolution may
be enacted in a modified form 10y their
opponents | tell them that if the griev-
ances Of the fem!nis,s are even approx
imately as serious as We're those in
VOWED In this revolution the bencfiCent
results TO the world would be as grand (;
hence the price would not be TOO dear
Then the anti-fcminists rctort that the
same anarChlstlc tendencies are CoNertly
or openly betrayed 10y the fcminlsts.
claiming hat the published accounts Of
the sayings and doings of the fcminists
hetray their socialistic, IL not anarChistic.
trend. They Insist that since every So
| ciaI~t is a feminist and every feminist
| is suffraglst, most suffragists are en-
hry" feminists, hence they are uncon
sC.ously putative socialists.
They cite the public utteranCe Of a
| statesmanllke suffragist leader at Car
! ncgie Hall, i do not believe in war. but
| 4 election after election goes against Us
| ] want You To know We Will not endure
| IT, SC, and they point To the suffrage
| authors meeting al Cooper Union which
| Checrcd the most anarchistic MEETINGS
| To law breaking uttered 10y well known
anarchists. They also point out that So
| conservative n man as Prof. Taylor
| president Of Nassar College for "A quar-
ter of century, dwelt upon the afiila-
| ton If suffrage with socialism among
| the students in a serious speech made
| by him before his departure.
| THE intelligent reader must decide
upon the fairness Of these propositions
| You must excuse mo from committing
| myself"
What is your definition, doctor, OF
| feminism?"
| II prefer giving you the definition OF
its leaders" said DIR. Baruch, they
certainly comprehend its aims better
than an outsider like myself one Of the
most eminent suffrage leaders. who il
| justly regarded as statcsmanlike in hei
ideas. defines femnism in an article pub
! lished under her own name as "a world
| wide revolt, born Of the instinct within
every woman's soul, that God designed
| her not to be the slave or servant o'
dependent or plaything of the men ol
her family.
| "This view is confirmed by IA rcccEt
| suffragist writer in The Truth About
| Woman who says. We have now
| reached n new stag. in the az" lune
conflict of the seXes-th" rebellion oi
woman. She adds. The free power oi
| selection in love--yes. that is the tru,
| female franchisc-it must he rcgainrd
| by woman. to he used 10y her to ennuhl,
| the sex relation and cleanse society OF
| the unfit. This means tn he given civic
| rights. that she may make laws thai
| shall render her economically ind"
pendent
The editor of the CcHiUrU NdDd,jGr
| November. 1918, charactcrIHes fcminisn
as the most thrilling engagement in
| the war for freedom which began in th'
caves and viii end with mankind, il
the Introduction to an article in whici
| we read: 1T is sex war, who doubts II
.l...l II.