Reassurance *

Can you imagine nothing better, brother, Than that which you have always had before? Have you been so content with “wife and mother,” You dare hope nothing more?

Have you forever prized her, praised her, sung her, The happy queen of a most happy reign? Never dishonored her, despised her, flung her Derision and disdain?

Go ask the literature of all the ages! Books that were written before women read! Pagan and Christian, satirists and sages-- Read what the world has said.

There was no power on earth to bid you slacken The generous hand that painted her disgrace! There was no shame on earth too black to blacken That much-praised woman-face.

Eve and Pandora!--always you begin it-- The ancients called her Sin and Shame and Death. “There is no evil without woman in it,” The modern proverb saith.

She has been yours in uttermost possession-- Your slave, your mother, your well-chosen bride-- And you have owned in million-fold confession, You were not satisfied.

Peace then! Fear not the coming woman, brother. Owning herself, she giveth all the more. She shall be better woman, wife and mother Than man hath known before.

THE SOCIALIST AND THE SUFFRAGIST f

Said the Socialist to the Suffragist: “My cause is greater than yours! You only work for a Special Class, We for the gain of the General Mass, Which every good ensures!”

Said the Suffragist to the Socialist: “You underrate my Cause! While women remain a Subject Class, You never can move the General Mass, With your Economic Laws!”

Said the Socialist to the Suffragist: “You misinterpret facts! There is no room for doubt or schism In Economic Determinism-- It governs all our acts!”

Said the Suffragist to the Socialist: “You men will always find That this old world will never move More swiftly in its ancient groove While women stay behind!”

“A lifted world lifts women up,” The Socialist explained. “You cannot lift the world at all While half of it is kept so small,” The Suffragist maintained.

The world awoke, and tartly spoke: “Your work is all the same: Work together or work apart, Work, each of you, with all your heart-- Just get into the game!”

THE MALINGERER f

Exempt! She “does not have to work!” So might one talk Defending long, bedridden ease, Weak yielding ankles, flaccid knees, With, “I don’t have to walk!”

Not have to work. Why not? Who gave Free pass to you? You’re housed and fed and taught and dressed By age-long labor of the rest-- Work other people do!

What do you give in honest pay For clothes and food?-- Then as a shield, defence, excuse, She offers her exclusive use-- Her function--Motherhood!

Is motherhood a trade you make A living by? And does the wealth you so may use, Squander, accumulate, abuse, Show motherhood as high?

Or does the motherhood of those Whose toil endures, The farmers’ and mechanics’ wives, Hard working servants all their lives-- Deserve less price than yours?

We’re not exempt! Man’s world runs on, Motherless, wild; Our servitude and long duress, Our shameless, harem idleness, Both fail to serve the child.