The Dominion. SATURDAY, MAY 23, 1908. MODERN VIEWS OF MARRIAGE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 205, 23 May 1908, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, MAY 23, 1908. MODERN VIEWS OF MARRIAGE.

Pkesident Boosevelt's ; appeals to the ■women of America to do their lull duty as wives and mothers have set many people thinking, and have, incidentally, called forth retorts from irreverent critics who ask why the President does riot give the men similaV , lectures on the sacredness of' paternity. In the United States there is to he seen at work in an exaggerated form a tendency everywhere manifest. Marriage, especiaJly among the more intelligent arid better educated classes of the population, is being deferred to a later age than was formerly the case, and the average family is almost as steadily decreasing in size. These things are ascribed to many causes, chief among which may be placed an increasing appetite for, luxury and comfort, and the changing status of woman. Modern industrial conditions are driving woman from her old position and opening new fields for her activity. She cannot now return to the position of her grandmother, nor has she as yet fully adjusted herself to the new situation. In America, for instance, the increasing independence of women and the ease with which divorce may be obtained have been accompanied by a remarkable growth in the number of marriage catastrophes. In a recent article on the subject in one of the American magazines a woman writer laid the chief blame at her sex's door. Woman, she Baid, had made no vital discovery in science; no important system of philosophy or code of laws had ever been formulated by her; and it was only as, wife and mother that she stood prc-ominent and alone. " The average woman," the writer continued, "who managea to live aitor a marriage

of love lip to tho average husband's ideal of her before marriage, will, it is safe to say, reach her highest spiritual development. . . In fact, to preserve his ideal of her —just the average busy man —is really her life work. . . And her salary of love will sometimes be only partly paid, sometimes begriidgingly, sometimes not at all—very rarely overpaid— by either her husband or her children." The writer concluded a striking article by summing up woman's duty in Ariel's words:—"Never tp tire, never grow cold; to be patient, sympathetic, tender; to look for the budding flower and tho opening heart; to hope always; like God to love always—this is duty."

This may be taken as President Roosevelt's ideal typo of womanhood—as the avorage man's ideal. But is woman herself altogether content to accept it? The answer is uncertain. Miss Constance Smedley, in tho Fortnightly Review, some time ago put one woman's view-point rather forcibly. "No one," she said, " thinks of marriago and ; paternity as the natural end and complete fulfilment of man. . Tho marriage, state is tacitly held to confer mental and moral distinction on women. Every woman who has to do with women knows the absurdity of this convention. Every - woman knows to her cost the painful sm'allsightedness, the lack of stability, the stunted minds,, and negatory ' morals ' that abound in the class of women that conform most closely to the popular ideal of wifehood. In nine cases out of ten marriago tends to compress and nullify a woman's individuality, making her an efficient help or ' pillow' for her husband, but. an astonishingly uninteresting, dwarfed, narrow-minded specimen of humanity, taken out of her home, and viewed as a mere human person. I fail to see how the children of such mothers can draw mental and moral strength from them. As a' matter of fact the children do not attempt to; they. strike out on their own to blunder and suffer by themselves. . . The truth' is we are holding on. to the conventions of a long past period." Thus speaks the educated and militant type, of woman, and there is always the possibility that what she says to-day the bulk of womenkind will be saying to-morrow. -Woman is rising up in her might,' and is beginning to demand a position 'in' the battle of life on equal terms with her partner man, and to ask that she shall suffer no handicap other than those unavoidable ones imposed by nature. •

This, lifter, a!!, is no more than it should bo, for if, as some one has asserted, the history of the human race.is " merely a discreditable episode in the history of one of the meanest of planets," there can be' no doubt that man's treatment of -women in tho past' has been one of the most discreditable aspects of that episode. The appearancc of woman as a fellow-worker with man in so many new fields must insensibly affect - the relationship between the sexes, and has already led to many fantastic predictions as to what will happen in the future. The vast deal of nonsense 1 which has been talked on the subject has had, however, the one good effect of brushing away some of • .the cant ; and hypocrisy that have too.long be-clouded the issues. After all has been said and done, and tho question regarded from every point of view, tho * one patent fact remains, that the thing of paramount importance in this matter is that the young shall be brought up under the best. possible influences, and there' are no influences thatcan compare with the highest typo of family life as weiknow it. ; \ From a'social, view-point it is equally obvious that the tendency to defer marriage unduly is to. be deprecated. We are told that the conditions of .modern lifo do not permit of early marriages,, and that .tho younger generation is showing much'greater forethought and prudence than was the case formerly, and will no longer rush pre-cipitately,-into matrimony without a substantial balanco at the bank. All this sounds very wiso and very plausible, but, after all, may it not be just another way of saying tbat wo are becoming more luxurious in our habits, less robust in character, and with a 1 growing and effeminate fear of poverty 1 Wealth and wealthgetting as an ideal has -entered into the, bone and marrow of our generation, says one of our philosophers; and tho prevalent fear of poverty is one of the worst moral diseases froni which civilisation .suffers to-day. Perhaps the philosopher with his very ancient truth ha 3 placed his hand on the root of the evils against which Me. EooSEVEi/r'is preaching. ■ ,