I have always detested the belief that sex is the chief bond between man and woman.
AGNES SMEDLEYI have always detested the belief that sex is the chief bond between man and woman.
AGNES SMEDLEYBut settled things were enemies to me and soon lost their newness and color. The unknown called.
AGNES SMEDLEYFor the first week of the Sian events I was a first aid worker in the streets of Sian.
AGNES SMEDLEYProfessors could silence me then; they had figures, diagrams, maps, books.
AGNES SMEDLEYEverybody calls everybody a spy, secretly, in Russia, and everybody is under surveillance. You never feel safe.
AGNES SMEDLEYThere are many men – such as those often to be found among the Indians – who are refined until they have qualities often attributed to the female sex. Yet they are men, and strong ones.
AGNES SMEDLEYIn the little hall leading to it was a rack holding various Socialist or radical newspapers, tracts, and pamphlets in very small print and on very bad paper.
AGNES SMEDLEYAlways before I had felt like a person, an individual, hopeful that I could mold my life according to some desire of my own.
AGNES SMEDLEYTo die would have been beautiful. But I belong to those who do not die for the sake of beauty.
AGNES SMEDLEYSubjection of any kind and in any place is beneath the dignity of man.
AGNES SMEDLEYMore and more do I see that only a successful revolution in India can break England’s back forever and free Europe itself.
AGNES SMEDLEYBut here in New York I was ignorant, insignificant, unimportant–one in millions whose destiny concerned no one. New York did not even know of my existence. Nor did it care.
AGNES SMEDLEYIt was a technical Marxist subject and I did not understand it nor did I know what questions to ask.
AGNES SMEDLEYWhen I was a girl, the West was still young, and the law of force, of physical force, was dominant.
AGNES SMEDLEYBut I see no reason why a woman should not grow and develop in all those outlets which are suited to her nature, it matters not at all what they may be.
AGNES SMEDLEYThousands of women are crushed and made inarticulate by that system and never develop as their natures would force them to develop were they in a decent environment.
AGNES SMEDLEY