Much has been heard of late respecting criminal immorality—i.e., the abuse of the sexual powers, which human law recognises as crime. The boundary of criminal immorality has of late been extended in the hope of protecting young girls. When fathers and mothers begin to realize what the destruction of their children by lust really means, natural horror is felt at the corruption or torture of young children of either sex, and a storm of righteous indignation compels an attempt to provide a remedy. But at the same time the very causes which directly lead to and produce the monstrous crimes, are not clearly seen. Horror at effects, diverts attention from vicious customs which lie at the root of evil, and which inevitably produce crime. Many of those who are most actively engaged in devising safeguards for the very young, draw at the same time a radical distinction between so-called ordinary immorality and what, at that particular epoch, has been labelled criminal by process of law.
It is a fatal imperfection of human laws that, being only an endeavour to enforce fragments of Divine Law, they carry the evil of such disruption with them, and whilst checking wrong in one direction strengthen it in another.
This evil is shown in the broad distinction now drawn between different kinds of sexual immorality, and the results which follow such distinction.
Some persons who would shrink from the guilt of being the authors of a first seduction, or of running the risks of legal prosecution, will not hesitate to engage in ‘ordinary immorality’—that is, they will without scruple purchase the temporary use of a consenting woman for a little money; they will justify the transaction by the plea that what women will sell men may buy; they may even consider that they show a little contemptuous kindness to women in such buying, as industrial conditions press most heavily on women. Women also accept false theories of human nature that blaspheme their Creator, and degrade their exalted rank of motherhood by welcoming profligates and sacrificing their daughters in mercenary marriages.
Until the higher law of human relations is more clearly understood, great confusion of thought will necessarily exist as the result of ignorance and selfishness. But as old errors are gradually proved, an inevitable and growing discussion will arise in the present age as to the natural relations of the sexes. The most contradictory theories are even now brought forward and actively spread abroad, and in the course of this unavoidable growth of the mental faculties, the necessity or expediency, the wisdom or the guilt, of what is called ordinary immorality must finally be brought before the highest court of public opinion—i.e., the enlightened conscience of men and women.
Although, however, the widest diversity of opinion may still exist on abstract questions, there is one practical point on which all persons are compelled to agree. It is this—viz., if temporary bargains are made, either expressly or tacitly, by which one party gives money to another for a certain return, such a bargain is trade. If few such bargains are made it is a limited trade, if many it is an extensive trade, but in each case the transactions are equally trade, and are necessarily subject to the laws which govern trade. If, therefore, women are made the subjects of temporary purchase they become the subjects of trade. Now, trade is always directed by the rules and customs prevailing at the time, and the economic aspect requires to be studied; for the laws which govern trade are not fanciful theories, but very real practical facts, which lie at the foundation of our social institutions and silently mould our every-day life.
This is seen clearly by the effects which trade in land produces, for the methods by which land is held and treated will alter the character of a people as well as change the face of a country. The thrifty farms of New England help to create a sturdy, self-respecting people, whilst the Bonanza machine-managed land monopolies of the West create luxurious absentees and permanent paupers or tramps. Extensive enclosure of hills and commons will destroy the country tastes and habits of generations, whose walks are confined to dusty high roads, and the destruction of a hamlet fills the slums of a city. So the Custom-houses and protective tariffs which municipalities create within their limits, hamper productive industry and help to produce paupers. Even such a modern practice as bicycling has created an extensive trade, with dress and habits and various arrangements, all acting and reacting on the life of the younger generation. Whatever becomes an article of trade, will become at once subject to the methods and regulations of trade, with the ever-widening circle of effects which belong to all industrial action.
Every civilized nation is compelled to cope with the most difficult of all social problems—viz., sexual evil—and the great modern development of benevolence and reform has created a new force endeavouring to solve the same problem. The most varied methods of action have been called forth. Religion and morality, physiology and expediency, pity and severity, have all been invoked in turn to rescue the fallen and to restrain the vicious.
But the subject of ordinary immorality as a trade necessity, governed by the economic laws which regulate trade, has not been seriously examined in the light of political economy, nor has the inevitable effect which trade in women must exercise on the character of a nation, been clearly shown.
There is widespread mental evasion or unconscious hypocrisy on this subject. So many wrongs in our social state require to be dealt with, that reformers willingly avoid the painful consideration of sexual evil. Hope is felt that some of the great reforms of the day, in which all thoughtful individuals take a special interest, will prove fundamental in their curative effects, and heal this gravest of our diseases. Thus free access to land, co-operation and abolition of interest, total abstinence, universal suffrage, emigration, arbitration, State-socialism, etc., are all amongst the popular panaceas of the present day, each important reform or theory being chiefly relied on by its special advocates, to change all social relations and eradicate any serious social disorder.