Burrows as Feminist, Justice, 15 May 1909, p.13. (letter)
Transcribed by Ted Crawford.
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
Dear Comrade, – Surely it is deplorable that a man like, Herbert Burrows should not only talk, but print the delirious nonsense you quote from his Woman pamphlet in your last number, as to the status of the wife under “the actual law of England,” since it can only suggest doubts in the impartial reader either of his sanity or his bona fides – unless indeed we are to assume a total ignorance of the subject – such as in these days of newspapers even (I say nothing of law books) seems impossible.
Those who know them may indeed be “horrified and disgusted” with our present infamous marriage laws, which, while depriving the husband of every vestige of real power over his wife, places him in a position of complete subjection to that wife, legally and economically. Burrows takes precious good care to avoid laying before his audience any details It is prudent to take refuge in generalities when what one says is not indeed a perversion of the truth – that would be very mild – but a flat and irreconcilable contradiction of the truth. I agree with you the pamphlet you criticise does indeed give one “furiously to think” – on the psychology and ethics of feminist controversialists – yours,
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E. Belfort Bax |
Last updated on 8.8.2004