The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-11-26
TRANSLATED By E. H.

II AM back on my job after a four
months leave at last, and both
baby and l are doing well. Now in
Iresuming our long interrupted dis
cussion on motherhood andfcareers, I
shall at first attempt to answer the
personal questions. You were sur
prised and wanted to know if our
| little arrival was only one of the
myriad of accidents that befall our
blind humanity in the daily exist
ance, or if he was invited, what pro-
visions we have made for his well
being. Well, decidedly, he was in
vited, in fact had long been contem-
plated-for to use your own phrase
the tree can never be so beautiful
and complete unless its fruit grows
forth to adorn and perpetuate it.
The Question of Moral Right.
You question our moral right to
bring another little being into these
hard, unsettled and impoverished
days of our present Russian exist
ance, particularly our own narrow
economic straits, since N. could be
of very little assistance to me, and
in that you are partially right. The
peculiar position in which he found
himself because of his political diff
| ferences, and his failure to adjust
himself to new conditions have rend-
cred him economically almost help
less. He has never been able to sup
port me, least of all with child, and
you know what a proud individual N.
is. Yet, even though our love and
companionship meant great deal to
US, I did not wish to be denied my
right to motherhood because of his
inability to provide for us. Mother
hood has always been my highest
ambition, a function with which ma
tyre has endowed me and not to be
rejected if I were to find complete
realization in life as a useful member
of this human family. And so have
undertaken with joy the responsibility
for his child and mine.
Women. Motherhood and Law
But right here you must realize
that were it not for the Soviet laws
governing women in Russia today,
neither I, nor thousands of my kind
conscious of the greater responsibility,
would have been able to attain the
cherished dream of motherhood. But
in our country today woman need
not sacrifice a career or her economic
independence for motherhood, and in
this we here have the advantage over
our sisters in the world outside where
the decaying belief of "woman's
place in the home" is still the battle
] cry of the majority, which now brings
us back to our discussion.
Brilliant But Superficial.
| was indeed deeply interested in
the articles on the modern woman,
motherhood and careers which you
sent me. But I confess, to US their
pros and cons, seemed somewhat
amusing. Brilliant as some Of them
are, they don't seem to touch the I'M
derlying causes Of the invisible war
of antagonism existing between the
sexes. The battles which those sue
cesses IF successes they be) fought,
were largely due to force of circum-
stances ard YorticUiar environments.
Very few of those women married,
fewer still became mothers, and as
such their function in life was rather
incomplete. The outstanding few,
who were able to combine motherhood
with their careers, by virtue of their
remuuerative work, were able to en-
gage competent persons for the care
of their young, or send them to the
we'll appointed but exclusive kinder
gartens, and therefore, offer no solu-
ton to the problems for the average
working mother in her struggle to
maintain herself on a self-respecting
basis of economic independence.
More Categories.
To us, then, your Moderns only
seem to add one more to the existing
different categories of womanhood in
relation to home and continuation of
the race as we see it.
You have the woman in the rich
station of life, intelligent or other
wise, whose home and children are
cared for by hired help, whose own
time is given largely to social and
philanthropic interests, to the fine
arts, ETC., whose position is often just
ornamental and for most part useless.
Motherhood there presents no prob
lem.
The woman, intelligent or other
wise, who voluntarily or not, legally
or otherwise, justifies her existence
in the world merely by gratifying
mans sex desires; the woman in mod
crate or modest circumstances. soci-
ally and intellectually still backward,
taking for granted her inferior status
in the marriage partnership, and