HUSBAND AND WIFE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20518, 20 March 1930, Page 14

HUSBAND AND WIFE.

Sir, —John Guiniven has bravely voiced the emotional reaction of many conservative thinkers to any suggestion for raising the status of the married woman. After receiving .so much rational support for a perfectly logical scheme for reinforcing marriage (admittedly on a shaky foundation) it is truly refreshing to unearth one of the real enemies of progressive humanitarian legislation. Having got him in the open; let us analyse his opinions, assuming them to be serious, and not thrown in as a mere stimulus to the argument. First, let me say that in studying this question, "John G." must, come out of his fool's paradise and face conditions as they are now, not as they .were in the benighted ages when women were legally classified with infants and imbeciles. John G." says that the division of income would "eliminate the existing idea of domestic happiness." Yes. in many instances it is only an " idea," not a reality, and we seek to provide a new idea which would produce a genuine happiness in the marria.ge relation. It must be admitted that in spite of natural and inherent disabilities, woman has shown in all departments of life her intellectual and mental quality; outside the marriage market she has attained _ the status of an intelligent, independent individual. Does happy marriage rest on a basis that involves the surrender of these attributes, and demands the servitude of the wife? No wonder the whole subject of the marriage law is on every tongue at present. John Guiniven may take exception to the word " servitude," but what else is the state of the person wholly without spending power except by the grace and goodwill of her husband? The fact that under this system countless happy marriages have occurred does not testify to the pure justice of the arrangement, but rather to the adaptability of woman, whose feelings and _ emotions have in the past guided her actions, more than her reason. She did not get outside her own particular sphere and view the thing personally, but first under the spell of her love for her man, and later in the economic bondage wherein that placed her, she wore her shackles with resignation, which man in his blindness interpreted as pure content. Modern education has placed woman in an independent position until she marries; nevertheless the normal woman is inevitably attracted to her natural sphere of wife and mother. Must she then be compelled to relinquish that individuality and power which her mentality and effort have earned her, in order to occupy her rightful place in the racial scheme of things ? No amount of sentimental ineanderings will alter the fact that in any partnership the one who controls the spending power also_ the tyrant's "power, whether he wield it or not. In stating his opinion that "modern women are marching to the devil," John Guiniven is true to type, for all reform movements have been denounced in this manner by the orthodox die-hards. A. M. Hutchinson.