Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/257

 in sex-relations for which the collective sense of women yearns must be yielded to them as an act of delicacy, consideration, and high chivalry.

There is nothing in the feminist programme about which the feminist feels so keenly as about the double standard of morality which governs the lives of men and women. The inevitable effect of it is the sad procession of women who nightly prowl about the public streets of every large city in the world. It is variously estimated that there are fifty to eighty thousand of such women in London alone. Probably twenty-five per cent. of these poor creatures can find no other way of earning a living. In times of great trade depression, when competition for work becomes keener, the number of unfortunates increases, thus proving the point, that bad social and industrial conditions drive many to this life. Thousands of others have sunk into the underworld because in a moment of passion or thoughtlessness they did that which society declined to pardon. A large proportion of girls are drawn from a most respectable class-domestic servants, many of whom have been betrayed by their young masters.

The significant fact for the woman who thinks is that the men responsible appear to be able to escape public censure altogether, whilst their victims are permitted to fall