Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1916-09-10
To Play ImportantPart in
the Affairs Of State, in
industry and in
Commerce.
by MAX NoltDAU.
CHAPTER II.

admirable. They are tho real inStru-
ments of the national solidarity which
they transform from theory into a
warm. blessed helpful practice. They
represent civilization amidst unfettcred
bar harism. They incarnatc not only
humanity in the sense of charity, but
human kind itself in the fact OF the
necessarily degrades man.
1t must he admitted woman does
no, yet directly participate in the di-
rcction of state affairs. But this will
come. Political majority will drop in
her lap like ripe fruit without neccs-
stating new cXertion OH her part.
In France some writer's, the most rigid
~ conservative. too. propose to grant
the fallen soldiers the continued enjoy
mcnt Of their voting capacity beyond
death. Their nearest female relative.
inherit it as a sacred legacy. AMI excr
else il during her whole lifetime. II
the proposition is carried. woman In
France would enter the political list
by this mystic door. but surely it would
not last long ere her sisters, who have
no cherished war victim to mourn for,
would follow her through the wide
open gate OF a generic law.
But how will it all be after the war?
Cynics pretend: Woman Will have other
business to mind than to throw her
self into politics. The war works
frightful havoc upon the male youth.
Healthy men with all their limbs pre-
served and of manageable age will be
scanty and therefore eagerly sought
for The luckicst woman only will
succeed in procuring a husband. The
struggle for man will become the one
great occupation of the tender sex. It
will assume new. surprising, bew!lder-
ing forms. Crazy reformers already
see polygamy legally introduced. the
home of the respectable citizen turned
into a legitimate haren,, female wooers
clubbing together to acquire. and to
entertain in common, n man."
How foolish. What n grotesque in
comprehension of the feminine pSy-
chology, Woman has the rich and
supple capacity for adaptation which
belongs TO primitive nature when 1t
has not yet become rigid in too far
carried differentiation. when its powers
of evolution are not spent. If man
is scarce and unattainahlc, she will
learn to do without him. She will lind
for herself n new content of life which
Will I'LL her out. satisfy her. open TO
her possibilities of happiness For she
is an irrepresshle aiiirmer OF life, and.
with her almost ineXhaustible organic
I
tile destinies toward self-satisfact!on
She never will put up with the condI-
tons OF harem She will have TO her.
self exclusively the man she desires as
the permanent companion OF her life
WILL OCCUPY MANY
PLACES OF IMPORTANCE
All conquests achieved by woman
during the war will he maintained and
enlarged after il. Where she stands
she will remain; In the administrations
in industry. In commerce.: and where
she has noe yet set her foot. there she
will arrive. IN the polling premises. in
parliament in Offices. in universities. in
academies, III cabinets. a guide post
in that direction is the recent appoint
ment of a woman as an adjoint to the
new food dictator in ultra -conscrva-
tive Prussia. During the absence OF
man, woman had to learn how to min
lister To all the requirements Of state
and society,". and how to keep the in
tricate machinery of the COLLECTIVELY
going by her own effort She will con-
time to apply the acquired knowledge
Till now, woman was the finer sex
She is about to become the stronger
sex and the determining principle i'm
public well as in domestic life
After one generation. or perhaps
somewhat later. through the working
OF that self-adjusting capacity Of the
species. which, in the case Of indi-
vdual organism. is called entclehy in
modern biology. the breaches wrought
by the war will gradually MI up and
the disturbed equilibrium between the
sexes be re-established anew. Our
grandchildren possibly will witness n
parody OF tho present womans rights
movement with reversed roles a league
for mans rights. struggle for pre-
pondcrancc of man in state and so
cicty, frantic efforts towards the eX-
preparation of woman. Stump orators
appropriately will change the word
Seyes applied to the Tiers Etat and
eXclain,. What is man? Nothing
What ought he TO DC? Everything"
But man will find it difficult. and per-
haps impossible. to Dust woman. IL is
easier to defend a place than to con-
quer It. Her new functions will equip
woman with all the power man hther-
to has enjoyed and made use Of to
keep her out OF them. And she will
moreover. possess a particularly eff
Gent trump the recognition by the
COLLECTIVELY that In government in the
framing and administering of the law.
in administration, in education, she
does her work we'll She probably will
do Il better than man. She will GER
tainly not do 1t worse.
This lowering OF the status OF man
Will be his Just punishment. He has
misused his preponderance in the state
for bringing about the most terrible
historical cataclysms, or. at any rate.
he has showed himself incapable Of
preventing them.