56
this demand will not be realized, as many others we have made will not be, under the present state. Nevertheless we have declared ourselves on this question which touches so deeply the whole civilized world, and we will show that as a party we support every earnest effort to remove the dangers of war, without, however, falling into the weak industrial peace Utopia.
We demand further the abolition of all laws which subordinate woman to man, whether in a private or public capacity. Before admitting this demand we asked ourselves whether it were not superfluous to make this a separate point after we had already declared the absolute equality of the sexes. But it must be borne in mind that a resolution to this effect was accepted in Brussels and the desire was expressed that it might be adopted in the social democratic platforms of the different countries, and we have acted accordingly.
The two following paragraphs of the platform have given us much trouble in their formulation. To meet the difficulty it was moved to accept the democratic demands as found in the Eisenacher platform: Separation of the church from the school and from the state. That was quite right in its time, but at present it does not comprehend all that we would and must say. In the earlier formulation the church is regarded as an institution equal in rank with the state. This is not our idea. We go much further; according to our view in the free community for which we strike the church is simply a private association, which is controlled by its own laws, as all other private associations are. That is the meaning of the absolute equality to which we have here given expression. Therefore we say: "The ecclesiastical and religious bodies are to be regarded as private associations." And in order that the catholics may not be able to say
