The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 1928. WOMAN’S LOT IN RUSSIA.

Hokitika Guardian, 2 June 1928, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 1928. WOMAN’S LOT IN RUSSIA.

There have been many stories told ot woman’s lot in Soviet Ilussia, all trending in the .same direction—tho hardship and disability under which the gentler sex exist. What applies to the womanfolk also* a fleets the children—and their lot is also an unhappy one. The communistic feeling that all tollc are equal even to the sexes, exists in Russia since the Soviet regime took power. But circumstances are testing that belief and the falsity of it is being found out by the growing conditions as they prevail in Russia. Soviet principles regarding the equality of the sexes is not working out according to plan, and like other aspects of the new born administration the methods of the revolutionary regime arc not standing the test of time. Another decade of Soviet rule will doubtless have a marked effect on the destiny of Russia, but that is another story. Returning to the subject of woman’s lot in Soviet Russia, it is reported in the responsible press that a plea for a return to a knighttier attitude towards women has been mado by Mr Soltz, a member of the Presidium of the Central Control Commission of the Soviet. Coming from such a source, this plea Is an official admission of the failure of the Soviet attempt to bring about by law the complete equality of men and women. Mr Soltz says the position of women and children to-day is worse than before tho revolution, and that hundreds of thousands of women are clamouring in the Soviet Courts for maintenance allowances. Russian maritial laws give no right to the man which is not granted to the woman.. The change of residence of one of tho parties to a marriage does not impose any obligation I upon the other party to follow the foamier. Divorce is easy. There are thousands of homeless children, who constitute a. serious problem for the Soviet State. Tho hoys move in migratory waves across different sections of the country, and live by bogging, stealing, and occasional turning to work for immediate food. The Communists are said to be making efforts to deal with these children from a fear that when they are matured into men a.nld women they will turn into counter revolutionists. The Soviet Government aims at destroying all that side of life which is founded on religion and culture. It lias aimed at constructing society upon a new plane. It has failed. Complete equality l)e----tween men and women is impossible. Nature has decreed otherwise. “When the Young Turks believed that they could accomplish anything by legislation, and that if they passed a decree tfhey would, obliterate all religious differences, Miss Durham i-eplied to one of their leaders, who was expounding this doctrine, by saying that they might pass a law that all cats should he dogs and all dogs cats, hut they would remain eats and dogs all the same. The Soviet Government cannot do away with the essential dependence of man upon woman and of woman upon man. It is the function of the woman to look after the home, and of the man to make and provide for the home. In Russia the new idea of absolute equality between the sexes has not improved the position of women ; it has made it very much worse, so that women are now oppressed by professional hooliganism, and even some of the most prominent of the Soviet lealers are “impossible” in their attitude towards their womenfolk. Having laid aside all claim to protection and consideration, and having asserted their absolute equality with men, both in the factory, and the women are now discovering that they have lost that knightly chivalryrtvhicli men used to extend them liefore. It is significant that Air Soltz should look upon this knightly attitude as something that is still there, and to which he can successfully appeal. It is an instinct planted in the heart of man. It is the instinct of the strong to defend and protect the weak, and it is equally‘the instinct of woman to care for and look after her husband, her home, and her children. The Soviets would probably look upon Horace- as essentially bourgeois, but they might read with advantage his remarks about the impossibility of uprooting nature with a pitchfork.