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34. 15 August 1896: ECS to Charles P. Somerby
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^ 89 ••••••••• 34 • ECS to Charles P. Somerby1 New York, Aug. 15, 1896. Dear Mr. Somerby: Please send me a few copies of Commonwealth containing that valuable article by John Swinton2 —the issue of July 25th. That should be printed in leaflet form and scattered all over this country. The apathy of our people in the present disturbed condition of our country is truly surprising.The movements of the populists,socialists and bimetalists are but the faint notes of the impending revolution. We are on the eve of a greater battle than the one we fought against slavery. While one man can boast an income of $20,000 a day, while multitudes of homeless wanderers —men, women and children—have neither shelter, food nor clothes, there is something wrong in our social, political and religious theories. We must arouse the religious conscience of the nation to the duty of equalizing human conditions, securing equal rights to all. Commonwealth is doing good service in this direction. Aside from the ethics you teach, your magazine is valuable for its clear, good print, white paper and black ink. The glossy paper and pale ink of so many of our magazines make them a sealed book to us octogenarians, and the fine print of the daily journals cuts us off from that literature. But Commonwealth all can read and enjoy. Cordially yours, U Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Y Commonwealth 3 (22 August 1896): 5. 1. Charles Pomeroy Somerby (1843–1915) edited and published Commonwealth : A Weekly Magazine and Library of Sociology from 1893 to 1902. A printer by trade, Somerby ran a freethought publishing house in New York in the 1870s and, starting in 1883, worked as business manager of the Truth Seeker Company for a decade. Commonwealth reflected his interest in socialism. After Somerby published this letter, ECS sent him numerous short articles over the next five years. (Joseph Mazzini Wheeler, A Biographical Dictionary of Freethinkers of All Ages and Nations [London, 1889], 302; George E. Macdonald, Fifty Years of Freethought; Being the Story of the Truth Seeker, with the Natural History of Its Third Editor [New York, 1931], 2:68; Marshall G. Brown and Gordon Stein, 15 august 1896 90 & 15 august 1896 Freethought in the United States: A Descriptive Bibliography [Westport, Conn., 1978], 57–58.) 2. “John Swinton’s Voice: The Terrors of the Times,”Commonwealth 3 (25 July 1896): 21–25, an excerpt from his book Striking for Life. Labor’s Side of the Labor Question: The Right of Workingmen to a Fair Living (1894). The article examined the extreme concentration of wealth in the United States that occurred since the Civil War. Swinton (1829–1901), journalist and labor activist, worked at the New York Sun from 1875 to 1883, at a time when Henry Stanton worked there, and he returned to the paper in 1887. In that interval, he published John Swinton’s Paper, a journal of labor politics, social criticism, and economic justice. (ANB.) ••••••••• 35 • ECS to Clara Bewick Colby Peterboro N.Y. August 20 [1896] Strictly private Dear Mrs Colby, I send hereby the 1st chapter in Judges. Add a few remarks by Mrs Neyman , she speaks of one authority I forget the name.1 If you can read her writing you will see what is worth preserving I could not make one half out. What she says about the incapacity of warriors looking after money matters might be added to Ashcah If you see a good point to add, or criticism to be made, do so. The comments on the women to follow will be more interesting. One point I keep ever in view is to depreciate the Bible view of the Lord, on such familiar terms with Israel. What could “iron chariots” be in the way of one who engineers hurricans & earth-quakes & the pyrotechnics in a thunder storm2 My chapter on Joshua had so many gross mistakes that I sent an “Errata” for publication which does not appear I send this in abundent time for me to get the proof.3 You are right The Womans Journal does not take the place of The Tribune which is far more liberal more hospitable to new ideas. I do wish you could afford to give all your time to it. If the Woman’s Bible is a block in your way, I can send it to the Boston Investigator or The Free Thought Magazine4 though so many of our women would not then see it I had hoped it might be...