r dreams are not
of moonlight and kisses, of laughter and tears; she dreams of shopping
tours and bargain counters. This soul poverty and sordidness are the
elements inherent in the marriage institution. The State and the Church
approve of no other ideal, simply because it is the one that
necessitates the State and Church control of men and women.

Doubtless there are people who continue to consider love above dollars
and cents. Particularly is this true of that class whom economic
necessity has forced to become self-supporting. The tremendous change in
woman's position, wrought by that mighty factor, is indeed phenomenal
when we reflect that it is but a short time since she has entered the
industrial arena. Six million women wage workers; six million women, who
have the equal right with men to be exploited, to be robbed, to go on
strike; aye, to starve even. Anything more, my lord? Yes, six million
wage workers in every walk of life, from the highest brain work to the
mines and railroad tracks; yes, even detectives and policemen. Surely
the emancipation is complete.

Yet with all that, but a very small number of the vast army of women
wage workers look upon work as a permanent issue, in the same light as
does man. No matter how decrepit the latter, he has been taught to be
independent, self-supporting. Oh, I know that no one is really
independent in our economic treadmill; still, the poorest specimen of a
man hates to be a parasite; to be known as such, at any rate.

The woman considers her position as worker transitory, to be thrown
aside for the first bidder. That is why it is infinitely harder to
organize women than men. "Why should I join a union? I am going to get
married, to have a home." Has she not been taught from infancy to look
upon that as her ultimate calling? She learns soon enough that the home,
though not so large a prison as the factory, has more solid doors and
bars. It has a keeper so faithful that naught can escape him. The most
tragic part, however, is that the home no longer frees her from wage
slavery; it only increases her task.

According to the latest statistics submitted before a Committee "on
labor and wages, and congestion of population," ten per cent. of the
wage workers in New York City alone are married, yet they must continue
to work at the most poorly paid labor in the world. Add to this horrible
aspect the drudgery of housework, and what remains of the protection and
glory of the