on means of
subsistence, is increasing. On the other hand, as regards the things
that most closely concern the individual person, the sphere of freedom
is being perpetually enlarged. Instead of every man digging a well for
his own use and at his own free pleasure, perhaps in a graveyard or a
cesspool, we consent to the distribution of water by a central
executive. We have carried social methods so far that, instead of
producing our own bread and butter, we prefer to go to a common bakery
and dairy. The same centralizing methods are extending to all those
things of which all have equal need. On the other hand, we exercise a
very considerable freedom of individual thought. We claim a larger and
larger freedom of individual speech and criticism. We worship any god we
choose, after any fashion we choose. The same individual freedom is
beginning to invade the sexual relationships. It is extending to all
those things in regard to which civilized men have become so variously
differentiated that they have no equal common needs. These two
tendencies, so far from being antagonistic, cannot even be carried out
under modern conditions of life except together. It is only by social
co-operation in regard to what is commonly called the physical side of
life that it becomes possible for the individual to develop his own
peculiar nature. The society of the future is a reasonable anarchy
founded on a broad basis of Collectivism.

It is not our object here to point out how widely these tendencies
affect men, but it is worth while to indicate some of their bearings on
the condition of women. While genuine productive industries have been
taken out of the hands of women who work under the old conditions, an
increasingly burdensome weight of unnecessary duties has been laid upon
them. Under the old communistic system, when a large number of families
lived together in one great house, the women combined to perform their
household duties, the cooking being done at a common fire. They had
grown up together from childhood, and combination could be effected
without friction. It is the result of the later system that the woman
has to perform all the necessary household duties in the most wasteful
manner, with least division of labour; while she has, in addition, to
perform a great amount of unnecessary work, in obedience to traditional
or conventional habits, which make it impossible even to perform the
simple act of dusting the rooms of a small ho