The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-12-22
COMMON SENSE VS.. PRUDBRY


A correspondent of the Farmer, a
mythical mother, perhaps, (or perhaps a
bona .fde old hachelor) hailing from
Rock Hill, Linn county, heard, or
seemed to hear, a conversation between
two lady friends, both mothers, in ref
erence to another mother who had pro-
hibited her daughters from reading the
NEW NORTHWEST. This correspondent
was the victim of surprise, because she
had heretofore considered these ladies
as possessed of intelligence and good
hear one of them condemn the action
of the mother above referred to as an
infringement upon her daught ter's
rights"
Moralizing quite in the strain of the
good little girls in the old-time Sunday
School books, all of whom died young,
she winds up her appeal by "trusting
that her remarks will direct an ableI
pen to the subject" hope in which We
cordially join her. 1t is scarcely neces-
sary for the New NORTHWEST to de-
feud itself from al insldious aud subtle
charge or innuendo of this kind. Those
who have read it, as hundreds anu
thousands have regularly done for a
term of years, know full well that
through it we proudly and unfiinchingly
advocate the right, as God gives US to
see the right, and that high above all
man accorded rights We recognize the
divine right of mothers. That during
the infancy, childhood aud youth OF
children, il is not only the mother
right but her bOunden duty to exercise
vigilance, not only over the bodies ol
her children, but their minds as WELL
being, indeed, not more careful as to
what they shall eat aud what they shall
drink and wherewithal they shall be
clothed than with the mental food fur,
nished for their development. This, We
believe, should obtain through the child.
hood and early youth, not only of girls
as this mythical mother intimates, bu
with boys also. There comes a time
however, when children, ''tO man ant
womanhood grown" have, or should
have, minds of their own ready to grasE
truth, to cast aside error, to think anC
act and speak for themselves; and al
conscientious and prudent mothers diff
fer, so will children differ from them
Mothers ruled by prejudice, by prudery
and by custom, may frOwn down ant
keep from their daughters the knowl
edge of the great world into which the.
have brought them, until face to fac
with its bitterest experiences, they de
plore with lifelong agony the ignoranc
but for which they might have misse
the shoals upon which their life bari
lies hopelessly stranded.
To steer clear of the great reef-help
lessness-which is yearly piled higI
and yet higher with hapless victim
lost to virtue because unskilled in way
of helpful independence, is the chief OF
ject aud aim of the New NORTHWEST
Even prudish matrons of the mock MOD
est school bring daughters into th
world, daughters to whom the constant
recurring demand for food and raimer
comes quite as persistently as to thos
born of more sensible, practical mOti
ers. We urge upon all of these the nj
cessity, if they would preserve the
dignity, their self-respect, their hont
in the great battle for bread which ma
be forced upon them whether they wi
or no, of being self-dependent and eff
cient women, instead of clinging, he'll
less parasites. 81 sold myself for brei
and lived upon my fall" would not
often be the wall of lost despairing won
en-, did all mothers inculcate in Il
minds of their daughters the doetrin
of pecuniary independence, and ju
appreciation of their rights as humf
beings, which this journal from week
week teaches.
Mothers have an undoubted right
exact from their young daughters al
Sous, as well, implicit obedience to {
reasonable demands. But those w
would prohibit either from reading
paper which teaches equal rights al
self-helpfulness, as the cornerstone
morality, in contradiction to a cont
tion of helplessness that leaves the We
prey to the strong, either have nev
read the journal or are lacking in go
common sense, the basis of all Writ
In the first case, bigotry will dOuI
less continue to keep them in ignorar
of the true sentiments of the paper tn
condemn; in the second, they will
simpletons to the end of the chapt
and that without remedy. Their ch
dren, however, when out of leadi
strings will think and act and read
themselves, if, indeed, their early ira
ing does not write their names in
outcasts' catalogue.