264 Force and the Social Structure 



low infant mortality, absence of tuberculosis and 

 alcoholism, general well-being and high standards 

 of art, literature, music, and science, we reach the 

 most perfect forms of social organization and the 

 highest types of modern civilization. 



In countries which, like Germany, are in a 

 transition state from autocratic government to 

 democracy, the forces of reaction — the militarists, 

 imperialists, Pan-Germans, and conservatives of 

 all kinds — are found bitterly opposing the enfran- 

 chisement of woman, while all the liberal political 

 forces — Social Democrats, Progressive Peoples' 

 Party, etc. — include woman suffrage as an essential 

 part of their democratic programs. 



The same division is found in England where 

 women are allowed to vote in municipal affairs 

 and county affairs, but are debarred from partici- 

 pation in national and imperial policies because, as 

 the imperialists claim, women cannot understand 

 imperial affairs. In reality this means that the 

 imperialists fear that the social intmtions of 

 women would revolt at the applications of the 

 philosophy of force to imperial ambitions, and 

 this fear is probably justified. In this connection 

 it is instructive to note the general sense of moral 

 shock with which the distortion of the woman's 

 movement by the philosophy of force, as revealed 

 in the relatively harmless and unimportant out- 

 break of militancy upon the part of the English 

 suffragettes, was received all over the civilized 

 world. When rightly understood, this sense of 



