Review of Revieips, 119/06. 



Leading Articles. 



269 



would pay were allowed to pay, there should be no doubt 

 r of the capacity of voluntary effort to meet every need. 

 For we should never lorget in dealing with this suhjeot 

 that Uie circumstances which ca.ll for grratuitous provision 

 of meals are not universal. Not merely are they not uni- 

 versal: it may almost be true to say that they are limited 

 to large towns and to certain quarters of large towns. 



A BY-WAY TO ELBEEFELD! 



Sir William is evidt^ntly sanguine. He anticipates 



that this composite arrangement may even result in 



introducing an English counterpart to the Elberfeld 



system. He says : — 



A voluntary society which formed itself into relief com- 

 mittees or guilds of help, covering the trround of all neces- 

 aitoiia areas, and conducting the necessary inquiries for 

 ascertaining the proper recipients of meals, miglit effect 

 useful results wliich would extend far beyond the mere 

 process of inquiry. The knowledge which might thus be 

 acquired by kindly, helpful people of tlie conditions under 

 which the poor live would create a continuous interest in 

 tlie welfare of individual families; friendly relations would 

 spring up which would justify counsel and advice in mat- 

 ters of domestic economy. Thus, insensibly, the standard 

 of home life might be raiaeii, and the ill-fed. ill-nurtured 

 rhild would become a less common feature in our poorer 

 soliools. Timely help, direct or indirect, might be given 

 in starting boys and girls in life, and we might get some 

 approach to the Elberfeld system which prevails in some 

 'if the great towns of Germany. 



On the method of working he says: — 



A local authority might be empowered to give their as- 

 sistance to a voluntary society if the latter furnished satis- 

 factory evidence of solvency and permanency, if its con- 

 stitution and general regulations were such as might re- 

 ceive the formal approval of the authority, and especially 

 if its executive committee were necessarily representative, 

 not merely of the subscribers, but of the local authority, 

 of school managers, and of the guardians. Working 

 through a committee thus constituted, a society might act 

 upon information derived from the best sources, the 

 teachers, the school attendance officers, and the relieving 

 officer. 



WOMAN'S REAL RIGHTS. 



The BntleHn'i 



Digging His Own Gi-av*. 



I. — A Hint from German Women. 

 Mr. Havelock Ellis contributes to the Fortnightly 

 Rcvieiu an important article upon "The Awakening 

 of Women in Germany." 



THE RIGHTS OP MOTHERHOOD. 



He tells us that the woman's movement in Ger- 

 many 



is not, flrBt and last, a cry for political i-ighte, but for 

 natural and emotional rit^lits, and for the reasonable regu- 

 lation of all those social functions which are founded on 

 the emotions- If we attempt to define in a single sentence 

 the specific object of this agitation, we may best describe 

 it as based on the demands of woman the mother, and aa 

 directed to the end of securing for her the right to control 

 and regulate the personal and social relations which spring 

 from her nature as mother or possible mother. 



ITS LEADER AND ITS ORGAN. 



Of this movement Ellen Key, of Sweden, is the 

 recognised leader : — 



The basis of the movement is significantly indicated by 

 the title Mutterschutz — the protection of the mother — borne 

 by ** a journal for the reform of sexual morals," edited by 

 Dr. Helene Stocker, of Berlin. All the questions that 

 radiate outwards from the maternal function are here 

 discussed; the ethica of love, prostit.ution ancient a<nd 

 modern, the position of illegitimate mothers and illegiti- 

 mate children, sexual hygiene, the sexual instruction of the 

 young, etc. MiLtter^chuiz is the organ of the association 

 foi* the protection of mothers, more especially unmarried 

 mothers, called the Bund fitr Muttcrschutz. 



Ten per cent, of children born in Germany are 



illegitimate : — 



It is the aim of the Bund fiir Mutterschutz to rehabilitate 

 the unmarried mother, to secure for her the conditions of 

 economic independence — whatever social class she may be- 

 long to — ajid ultimately to eflect a change in the legal 

 status of illegitimate mother and children alike. 



THEIR IDEAL OP BEAUTY. 



Mr. Ellis says: — 



Ellen Key's views are mainly contained in a book " On 

 Love and Marriage," and in a later pamphlet on " Love and 

 Ethics," both of them translated into German. Ellen Key 

 would probably accept the definition of purity given by 

 Agnes Harder, another leader in this movement, as " the 

 psychic impossibility of living in false relationshiiis." 



The aim of love, as understood by Ellen Key, is always 

 ma.rriage and the child, and as soon as the child comes into 

 question society and the State are concerned. Before mar- 

 riage love is a matter for the lovers alone, and the espion- 

 age, ceremony, and routine now permitted or enjoined are 

 both ridiculous and offensive. " The flower of love belongs 

 to the lovers and should remain their secret; it is the fruit 

 of love which brings them into relation to society." The 

 dominating importance of the child, the parent of tlie r.ace 

 to be, alone tnakes the immense social importance of 

 sexual union. It is not ma.rriage which sanctifies genera- 

 tion. l)ut generation which sanctifies marriage. 



Tn their view, according to Mr. Havelock Ellis, 

 " in love the demand for each sex alike must not 

 1)6 primarilv for a mere anatomical purity, but for 

 passion and for sincerity." The phrase "mere 

 anatomical purity " is striking, but so long as it is 

 regarded as equally important or equally unimpor- 

 tant by man and woman alike even this phrase will 

 not do much harm. 



THE CENTRAL POINT OP LIFE. 



With Helene Stocker, Elien Key would say that the high- 

 est human unit is triune; father, mother, and child. Mar- 

 riage, therefore, instead of being, as it is to-day, the Ia«t 

 thing to bo thought of in education, becomes the central 

 point of life. 



Mr. Ellis points out that the German women: — 



are following an emotiotnil itifiuence which — strangely 

 enough, it may seem to some — finds more support from the 



