MARRIAGE IN AMERICA.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 15162, 4 October 1913, Page 3

MARRIAGE IN AMERICA.

INFLUENCE OF FEMINISM." The publication of statistics showing that 3,000,000 men and 9,000,000 w£ men ln-Anienca are unmarried, started a brisk summer correspondence, in which the writers analyse the reasons why matrimony is less popular than heretofore. There., was a tendency at firsfe to place the entire responsibility upon • the men, but the testimony given by various competent social authorities proves conclusively, that women are equally to blame for leading solitary lives. In the view of the majority of the writers reluctance to marry is one of the many outward and visible signs of the feminist movement. It arises from a variety of causes, economic, social, and psychologieal. Mrs Anna Dowling, a leading editress in New York, says that her observation forces her to the conclusion that women will not marry because they do not want the bother of having a man around all the time; Take the; case of a young stenographer who is earning from £2 10s to £3 a week. She has a-greeab'o companionship in her office, is always nicely dressed, keeps her lianas manicured, and goes to Coney Island every' Sunday. Suppose she was married. She would have to take a man who is not earning more than £3 10s a week —that is the only kind she meets. Marriage would mean giving up her dainty existenoe for a dingy flat, with "a great, hulking, cranky man to wait on all the time."

"It's only the . shiftless women," .says Mrs Dowling, "who get married. The girl who wants to loaf about in a kimono all day gets married because she is too lazy to support herself. Life in New York'is easy for that kind of woman., AH she has. to do is to make a cup of coffee and, serve it with baker's rolls in the, morning to her hushand, make a bed or two, and visit a ham .and beef shop just before he come* home at„ night.. The rest of the day she can hang out of the window gossiping with her neighbours." There"is a type of American woman. Mrs Dcwling admits, .who marries srmply for the sake of having children. She knows that "love never lasts mora than five vears." but 'she expects to endure her" husband after that, for the sake of her children. _ One regrets to add that Mrs Dow-l;no-'s views find verv general support. Those gir's who refrain frr-ni marrying, because thev are comfortable in business life are quoted in New York as 30 p=>r cent, of 1 the city's unmarried won en and another 20 per cent, will not marrv the average man because they think there is a chance of trapping an American millionaire.