WOMEN'S POSITION IN THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.

Evening Star, Issue 7655, 4 July 1888, Page 4

WOMEN'S POSITION IN THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.

The folldwing is the coaolusion of Dr Stenhouse's paper on the above, read at the recent session oi the Otago Educational Institute: — JUVENILE LABOR. Then, as to the children, what do we find ? It is admitted by all who are competent to judge that a steady ani alarming decline is taking plaje in the rising generation. Of course I am referring only to the young in manufacturing cities. In London, Glasgow, and Manchester the numbers of the deformed are so great as to be almost incredible, and their condition pitiful beyond conception. How could women in the physical condition of our factory girls produce strong and healthy progeny ? And if, instead of adding to the bone and sinew of the nation, they are propagating a weak and stunted race, which only add to the burdens of the State, is it not clear there is something grossly amiss, which ones aloud for instant redress. But not only is the race degenerating in the cities, but we shall find that children are perishing there at a rate that put* the infanticide of India and China completely into the shade. One-half of all the deaths in Great Britain die before they are five yearn old, and one-half of these before they have completed their first year. Killed in what way? Many, no douDt, through deficient vital energy, but most from want of care on the part of mothers,. who drug them with sleeping draughts— Steedman's powders (more deadly than dynamite), Winslow's syrup and black drop, and some others-all of which should be named and soli as infant exterminators. Mothers, I say, drug their children with these pernieious stuffs In order that they (the mothers) may continue to *arn mpney us, miHe, shops, or work rooms. Ani these women, have hußbaads, • fathers, brothers who ewnin at this iniquity, and who, perchance, proit by their labors. Where is thei/ manhood gone? And j» shjs veondi-

tion of things the true and genuine outcome of Christian civilisation ? And yet we cry out about the infanticide of the heathen and their low moral condition, and impertinently send amongst them (in forgetfulness of the beam and the mote) missionaries to teach them—what? How to kill their women and children, not only without incurring the guilt of murder, but with the protection and encouragement of the law. Human life is cheap, to be sure; and do not these women who neglect their puling offspring contribute to the commercial greatness of Britain ! WHAT ARK TIIK RESULTS. But after all it may be said the people are happy, contented, and loyal. As to that, during an absence of eleven years, nothing struck me bo much on my return as the rapid progress that had been made in the diffusion of Socialism and Republicanism. And this, too, in a marked degreo in Scotland also, and alike m town and country. There is no mistake about it, there prevails an unreckonable amount of sullen discontent, ready to burst out into active mischief on the smallest provocation. This is the true secret of Gladstonism prevailing in Scotland, Wales, and the larger centres of England. The thought is: Let us pacify Ireland by any means ; and then comes our turn, too. How could it be otherwise? Is it possible to educate a whole nation as the school boards are now doing, and then continue to treat them, feed them, lodge them, work them worse than—dogs or heathen ? I tell you they will never stand it; and, I ask, is there any true friend of humanity who wishes them to bo natient under their present conditions ? As for me, I should rejoice to see reformation proceeding gradually and peacefully, and as a contribution to that end I offer the present paper; but I am ready—and I shall train my sons to be as ready—to go through oceans of blood, if necessary, to emancipate humanity everywhere from the bondage to which it has been reduced in the nation's put suit of commercial greatness, TUB CONSEQUENCES. Lastly, and very briefly, I must glance at the consequences of female labor, and 1 ask the working classes to consider keenly and gravely this aspect of the question. Female labor reduces the wages not only of women but of men. Workers are so numerous that work cannot be found for them; and in obedience to that great axiom in political economy that you buy in the cheapest and Bell in the dearest market human labor like all other goods and chattels—wages come down, and employers of labor reap the advantage. But worse than this, because onr women work our men must go idle, and idleness as we all know in most cases means vice and crime. And what is the consequence of lowered wages and crowds of idle men ? Why, that more women are forced into the labor market, and wages fall still lower. In what way is this effected, do you ask ? Is it not clear if men are underpaid that they cannot marry as they otherwise would do, and women are left husbandless ? Now, there are hundreds of thousands of men in Britain in that position. They have no prospect of ever being able to marry decently, and they prefer not marrying at all; and find, therefore, that the marriage rate is declining year by year in all European countries. And what is the further consequence ? Immorality. I spoke to no _ intelligent person during my recent visit who did not admit that the tone of all grades of society on the question of sexual morality had become lower ; and this decline you may be sure will go on in an ever increasing ratio as long as marriage is forbidden to great numbers of men and women owing to the abundance of labor and the lowness of wages. Now what is the remedy for the present state of the labor question ? You know that for several years there has been a deep depression all over the world, pressing with terrible severity uf on the working classes, upon all, indeed, who depend for the supply of their material wants on their own exertions. Can it be doubted that if public opinion were brought round to see the evils produced by the employment of women, and their employment gradually abandoned, two effects would be at once produced ; a greater demand for male labor would set in, and there would be secondly a proportionate advance in wages. Constant work and high wages would enable fathers to support their daughters at home, and brothers their sisters, and above all would enable young men to choose partners in life, and begin housekeeping on their own account. Not only so, but if women were confined to their natural sphere, the physical condition of the race would improve; with this there would be moral advancement as well, our workhouses, gaols, hospitals, and charities of every description would be relieved in a generation or two to an incalculable extent, and happiness would be so widely and generally diffused that man, feeling content with his condition, would cease from that eager, greedy, Belfish pursuit of riches, for their own sake, which is the opprobrium of our age, and which has done so much to degrade the type of human character. Nor can I see any insuperable obstacle to the reformation taking place. Let it be but once recognised that female labor is an evil, and jthc remedy will bo found in the hands of the working classes themselves. I have shown that the genteel and moneyed classes take a pride in their women, and keep them for the adornment of their homes. Why should not a working man feel the same pride in, and respect for his women as his social superiors do for theirs ? Let a father but say: While I live and am able to work my daughters shall never have to leave their homes to labor for a living. Let his sons be imbued with the same sentiment towards his sisters. Let our trade organisations, instead of agitating for increase of wages or shorter hours, declare that they shall be willing to work ten or tivelve hours a day if they are enabled thereby to keep their women at homo and prevent the fratricidal competition which tends only to the advantage of the employer of labor. I fear my task is not half done. I know that my argument could be sensibly strengthened were I to go into details, and show in how many ways the female character is deteriorated by mixing in business, and so obtaining a quasi independence which seta her too early beyond paternal control. I am aware of all the arguments that can be urged against my views, and especially of the foroe of the query : What is to become of our destitute women, who have no brothers or fathers, or, worse off, have only bad ones. Againßt domestic service I have nothing to urge; nursing will always justly afford a suitable occupation for the best of our women; and hundreds of thousands of good, pious, educated women ought to be employed in evangelical and philanthropic work, and supported in it by a national fund. All the worK done at present by our churches and privately is quite insignificant when compared with the vast field of want, vice, and crime that exists in every large city, and which ia quite as noticeable in these new lands as in the Old World. But into these matters I cannot enter at present, and I shall conclude by a recapitulation of what I have attempted to prove. HOME INFLUENCES OF WOMEN. I have pndeavored to show that man violates the laws of Nature when he compels woman to do the work of the world and not the work of the home. Woman's lot—and surely it is a sufficiently noble and soulsatisfying one—lb to be the companion and comforter of man, to fit him for the work which she herself could never do, by anticipating his wants and relieving him from the pressure of domestic care ; and finally, to ' o the mother of good and strong and bravo men and fair and affectionate women. It is in the home, and by the influence of their mothers, that men are truly humanised and civilised j and the moral condition of the world will never be improved until it is made pOßßible for every man ana woman to have a good, pure, healthful home of their own in which to carry out the true objects of their being—viz , the improvement of the human raoe. In proportion as the atmosphere of home is pervaded by the spirit of oomfort, intelligence, cleanliness, and affection, the character of the inmate* will be noble, truthful, and generous; and every such home will make its influence felt in the moral and phyaioal advancement and improvement of the national condition. To make homes happy and comfortable is file work of women, and it can only be aohievea ttirongh their instrumentality. Her education,' therefore, shonld be con-

ducted throughout with a view to tho future position as wives and mothers. To become a wife and mother is the inalienable right of every woman, and when this right is seriously interfered with to any extent, as it is in modern times by the large employment of women, to that extent the health and vitality of the. nation is undermined, and premature decay will be the result, if a remedy be not promptly applied.