To strangle the growing principles of liberty and to establish a system founded on force under which the individual was to become only an instrument to do the bidding of his lord and master was doubtless the original object of those who instigated the present war.
During the ages since the establishment of the authority of the few over the many, the latter until a comparatively recent time have offered little resistance to the tyranny exercised over them. Mentally dwarfed the proletariat have not yet reached the degree of intelligence necessary for a combination of interests. They have therefore remained like dumb driven cattle subject only to the will of their masters.
About sixty years ago through the efforts of a few leaders who had begun to realize the situation, a certain degree of unrest began to manifest itself among them, and forty years later the proletariat succeeded in establishing an international organization ostensibly for their own benefit as opposed to the interests of the ruling class. They, however, lacked solidarity. The natural tendency of their sex toward separateness or disintegration was not easily overcome. This is shown in the case of the present European conflict. When the war broke out instead of standing together they at once hastened to obey the mandates of their respective rulers, and with no higher idea than patriotism or nationality they at once began their brutal assault upon one another. It was evident from the beginning that the German socialists, they who had been the most conspicuous in the international movement, were first, last, and all the time Germans and that after all they were actuated only by one desire, namely, national aggrandizement. So lacking are men in the principle of solidarity, and so deeply rooted within them is the idea of separateness, that it is to be doubted if, without the aid of woman, they will ever be able to free themselves from the tyranny of the past.
In very recent times a foe has arisen which threatens to be a greater menace to the liberties of the masses of the people than were the foes by which they were originally enslaved. I refer to the money power, or plutocracy.
During the last few years, through the application of scientific methods to industry, and through mechanical inventions by means of which the power and efficiency of labour have been greatly increased, the accumulation of wealth has reached a point never before witnessed in the history of the world, yet strange to relate, along with this enormous increase in wealth there has been a corresponding increase in poverty and crime. This immense wealth has not been shared by those who produced it but has gone into the pockets of those who exploit labour for profits. Along with this enormous increase in wealth is observed a general lowering of standards both in private and public life. There are in this country alone ten millions of people who are deprived of the necessary food, clothing, and shelter to insure a healthful existence. In the public schools of New York City it is reported that six hundred thousand children are victims of malnutrition. In winter thousands of hungry men and women go up and down the streets of our large cities begging for an opportunity to earn a living. Our jails and prisons are filled to overflowing. Our almshouses and insane asylums are insufficient to meet the demands. Imbecility and other forms of mental degeneracy are increasing at an alarming rate. Epilepsy and other congenital diseases prevail among all classes and conditions of the people. Five-sixths of the children born are diseased at birth.
The basic principle underlying our present economic system is profits. To secure large profits labour must be cheap and plentiful, and that labour may be cheap and plentiful an enormous population must be produced. In order to produce this enormous population women must be enslaved. Although existing conditions are such as to make life a curse instead of a blessing, the cry for “babies, more babies” is heard on every hand, and this notwithstanding the fact that a large proportion of the children born die before the age of five because this environment is unfavourable to life.
The clamour for an ever increasing birth-rate never ceases. It is believed that Providence alone is responsible for human ills. Poverty and disease are accepted as natural and unavoidable evils.
The fears expressed lest the human race fail to perpetuate itself would be pathetic were the reason for these fears less obvious. When we reflect that the labour market must be constantly supplied with cheap labour, and that millions of soldiers must be produced to protect the commercial and territorial interests of the ruling class the true inwardness of this insatiate cry for constantly increasing numbers is revealed.
Ecclesiasticism, the faithful ally of Plutocracy, mindful of the fact that its strength lies in an excess of numbers, has ever jealously guarded the injunction to increase and multiply. No doctrine of the so-called Christian church has been so fondly cherished and so faithfully preserved as has that of the subjection of women. Woman’s glorification under the Christian system has been exactly commensurate with her obedience to man. No offering from her to the Almighty is so acceptable as unrestrained reproductive energy.
The report of a declining birth-rate in any country of the globe is a signal for instant alarm, but although publicists and politicians have attempted to control the birth-rate not only by threats and promises but by legal enactments regulating marriage, still it is observed that in all countries of Europe, with the exception of Ireland, Bulgaria, and Roumania, the birth-rate during the last twenty-five years has steadily declined. Although numberless causes have been suggested to account for this phenomenon, and although various remedies have been proposed to lessen this “evil,” the actual cause underlying the declining birth-rate of our time remains unrecognized. Politicians, publicists, and ecclesiastics all refuse to acknowledge the obvious fact that the increasing economic independence of women is alone responsible for this phenomenon.
Notwithstanding the fact that during the last twenty-five years marked progress is observed in the social and economic conditions of women, still the sexual position of the great mass of women has steadily declined. The fact that so far as her sex relations are concerned civilized woman occupies a lower position than that occupied by the female animal has already been noted in these pages. The traffic in women is carried on in every country on the earth.
The existing sexual conditions are the direct result of the overstimulation of the disruptive characters inherited by man from his male progenitors among the lower orders of life, characters which among animals have been checked by the constructive forces developed in the female. Our sexual conditions and our present economic and industrial situation loudly proclaim the degeneracy of our time.
When the principles of equality and liberty, which were established by early organized society, gave place to a system founded on force and the control of the many by the few, and when through the subjection of women the natural checks to the disruptive tendencies developed in the male were withdrawn, the conditions now existing in so-called civilized society were foreshadowed.
A crisis has been reached in human affairs. The old regime has run its course and is about to disappear. A new era is about to dawn on the human race. The war which is now devastating Europe, and which will doubtless spread over the entire earth, is the beginning of the end. The effects of the causes which were set up in prehistoric times have reached their full measure of development and can no more be postponed or averted than can the thunderbolt which follows an electrical explosion. A thoroughly material civilization founded on selfishness and sensuality must be destroyed root and branch before the higher planes of activity for which humanity is destined may be reached. The present conflict therefore should not be regarded simply as a horrible calamity but as a necessary preliminary to these higher conditions. If the birth of the new regime can come only through blood and tears, if only through the throes of war is deliverance possible, then it is not only unwise but useless to bewail the present crisis.
Through the cleansing process involved in the present revolution, humanity will doubtless return to the legitimate path of evolutionary development. Either liberty and justice, the cardinal principles underlying early organized society will be re-established or the processes of disruption will complete the work of degeneration now so well under way. In the transformation which is to take place it is not likely that a vestige of the institutions which have produced the present regime will remain. The conflict now going on between the higher and lower forces developed in human life represents the struggle of Omnipotent Life for higher expression in matter.
It has been shown in this work that during the development of life on the earth two forces have been steadily at work, the one a conserving, cohesive element, the other a disruptive, disintegrating energy. The one tends toward combination or solidarity, the other toward separateness or individual sufficiency. The one is constructive, the other destructive. Had the constructive processes in human society been allowed their legitimate expression the scenes now being enacted in Europe would have been impossible.
The principal force which has been employed in the development of our present civilization has been male energy. In the past this enormous force has been necessary to subdue the earth and make of it a suitable habitation for civilized humanity. In later times, however, the discovery of hitherto unknown forces in nature, the application of scientific methods to industry, and the invention of mechanical devices for the lessening of human toil have done away with the necessity for an excess of human brawn. In other words the excessive male energy which has in the past been required for the development of our present civilization has become not only useless but an actual hindrance to further progress. As this enormous power is no longer needed for useful purposes it has been turned into channels of wantonness and destruction. It has become disruptive and dangerous to a degree which may be appreciated when we reflect on the present conditions not only in Europe, but over the entire earth. Among the cleansing processes involved in the present crisis is the elimination of a considerable number of the useless elements described above—elements which being no longer necessary for the maintenance of the common good have become a menace to society.
According to our narrow human conceptions by which passing events are regarded only in relation to their present effects, the eliminating processes now going on are cruel and inhuman. Nature, however, pays little heed to human suffering, but although she ignores human misery she will nevertheless demand an exact accounting for the deeds of selfishness and ignorance which are responsible for the present disorder. She will inaugurate no scheme of salvation; no “Vicarious Atonement” will be provided to save mankind from the consequences of their own folly.
The struggle now going on in nearly every quarter of the globe marks the beginning of the eliminating process. The useless elements in human society are wearing themselves out, destroying themselves by their own rashness and folly. Impelled by a desire which they do not understand and which they are unable to resist, these victims of a decaying civilization rush madly on to destruction. Those men who voluntarily seek war represent a dissatisfied or discontented class. True to the primitive instincts of the race they crave the peculiar excitement which war brings. It is not unlikely that many of them understand instinctively that something is wrong with the present regime, but they seem not to be able to analyse the situation.
Doubtless very many of those engaged in the present European struggle are actuated by patriotism. They want to maintain the existing territorial boundaries presided over by their respective rulers. They desire also to retain the institutions, social, political, economic, and religious which have grown up under a system where the few control the many. Evidently the idea of human liberty has not yet dawned upon them. If universal freedom awaits the birth of the new regime, which is being heralded by the present upheaval, then it is plain that the men in the trenches are quite unmindful of the significance of the conflict in which they are engaged. The belligerent countries of Europe may consent to a truce and there may be a lull in the universal unrest, but there will be no genuine peace until the principle of human liberty has been established on a firm and lasting basis.
That the removal of these superfluous men from their usual vocations will not materially interfere with the useful industries of Europe is shown in the fact that although 25,000,000 of them have been called to the war their withdrawal from the industrial field has not greatly disturbed the industrial situation, and this too notwithstanding the fact that many new occupations have been created by the war. The work formerly done by these men has been largely taken up by women.
It should be borne in mind that under the new conditions which are approaching, the constructive element developed in human society is again to assume command over the destructive forces which have been in control since the beginning of the historic period. As this element has been confided to women and as it is by them transmitted to offspring, it is not difficult to forecast the position which the women of the future will occupy.
The institution of marriage as it now exists will disappear. Only the most robust among women will propagate the race. These women, as did the women under early organized society, will choose their mates. They will exercise absolute control over the sex-functions. Thus will be avoided the terrible consequences which have resulted from the present form of marriage.
The numerical preponderance of women over men under the new regime is probable. Nor will the devastating processes of war be wholly responsible for this condition. Science informs us that not only among the lower orders of life but among human beings as well, certain conditions of nutrition produce more females than males. The more nutritious and wholesome the food the greater the excess of females over males. Under higher conditions, when the laws of health and life are better understood and especially when the subject of proper nutrition has received the attention which its importance deserves, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the excess of female births over those of males will be considerable.
Although there have doubtless been long lapses of time during which the human race has seemed to go backward, it is believed that the trend of humanity is now and ever has been upward. If, as is believed, human events move in cycles, if the civilizations which have risen in the past represent a spiral, each of these civilizations reaching a higher stage of development than its predecessor, then it may be inferred that the era which is now dawning will surpass in grandeur anything which the world has ever witnessed. If, as many persons believe, a stage of development has been reached in which human beings are to be endowed with a sixth sense, if the intuitive faculties which are closely allied to the constructive element and which mark a still greater distinction between man and the animal are to come into play it may be assumed that the mental and spiritual faculties will reach a stage of development scarcely dreamed of in our own time. Humanity will have come into its own, the animal in man will have been left behind.
The co-ordination of science and history not only illumines the past and explains the present, but the inevitable results of the natural sequence of events point unerringly to the conditions which must prevail in the future.
The philosophy of history proves to the earnest seeker after truth that the door of the future is not wholly closed.