The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-09-02
WOMEN AND MARRIAGE
WHAT WOMAN LACKS TO MAKE
HER SOCIALLY INDEPENDENT.

1 CicaA Equahty Win men IN Wes'
Earning, by Brain or Otherwise. viii
the Subject Find Solution.
| A subtle recognition of the fact that wo
man is what man might be if spiritu
| ally refined, has doubtless been the inspira
/ ton of the noble praise of her which be has
| sung throughout the ages known as htsra
ture. But. despite these pretty generalities
the rasping specialties of her life have
wrought in the woman of this century /
great discomfort, which has sought expires
sion in many wild schemes for her better
ment. Conservative men stand a9hast 81
some Of the plans proposed, and Christen
dom trembles at the bold promulg ion oi
the thought that marriage may not be in
harmony with advanced and advancing
civilization. believe in the Bible as s
book of divine revelation; believe in p
rage; believe in woman's everlasti de
sire ito cleave to one man." but do not
consider these orthodox beliefs out of har
mony with an intense hope for the evolu-
tion of new and better woman Wher
women shall have become earnest and in.
telligent, then will the millennium be here;
likewise, when men are earnest and intel
hgent; but that men will ever become sc
until they are born Of earnest and inteli.
gent mothers, there is no reason to expect.
woMAN's REAL MISSION.
Let rs have women fit TO be mothers;
then we shall have noble men and women;
by this means, and by no other, viii
humanity grow nobler. The dignity OF
womanhood has been in all ages misunder-
stood. While men have been lavish in the
bestowal of praise, criticism and hattery
and have constan y exalted the function
of motherhood, hey have thereby done
but little to make women better.
The real mission of woman today Is the
education of her own sex, to fit them foI
motherhood. When woman is fit to be a
mother, she will know who is fit TO be the
father of her children; and it will not be
the man of low tastes, of prodigate life, of
dishonest heart.
Marriage and motherhood have the most
intimate relation, and yet what training Is
given girl that is calculated to enlighten
her as TO her responsibilities Our customs,
thoughts, traditions are such that if she
speak seriously OF that phase of the ques-
ton before marriage she is ridiculed by
her friends, and very good people think her
immodest, perhaps indecent.
Are there terms strong enough in which
to characterize state of common opinion
that relegates to low impulses the creation
of life-the evolution of mortal souli
Earnest men and women ask these ques
tions again and again, and yet but little Is
done intelligently TO advance more en-
ightened and sensible methods
EQUALITY OF WOMEN WITH MEN.
lam convinced that only when women
have achieved practical equality with
men in wage earning, by brain or other
wise, will this subject find a solution
Disguise it as we may, and as we do sys-
tematically in polite society, child bearing
has ever been the price woman has been
willing to pay for the comfort Of home,
for the protection and support given her
by man. The paternal instinct is always
stronger than the maternal. Men make
sacrifices and assume burdens for the sake
of posterity, vastly greater than do
women.
Whatever may be the real history of the
origin of man, the real purpose in his crea-
ton, nature and revelation alike point to
the evolution of an increasingly higher
type in which the spiritual dominates the
lower nature. Enthusiastic reforners are
fond of saying that this or that great
question will be settled when women are
allowed TO vote. Doubtless all good meas
ures will be promoted in time, but it viii
not be because women vote, but because
educated women will address their
thoughts to vital themes, and having
traced effects to causes, will seek practical
means to eliminate sin and sorrow from
the controlling place they now fill in our
human economy.
Suffrage is very considerable force in
this process. Grant women the right to
acquire an education, the right to accu-
mulate property, it follows logically that
she must be granted the right to use that
education to protect that property. Can
she use her education il she cannot par
ticipate in the making of laws which may
annul her intel rent efforts by taking
from her the rol of the child she is
trainipg7
WHEN WOMEN ARE INDEPENDENT.
She loses control of her child when she
cannot participate in the making of laws
that sanction institutions calculated to help
or hinder what she would make of that
child's character. Is her property her own
if she cannot participate in making laws
which tax it for the support of criminal
courts and prisons rather than for libraries
and gymnasiums?
If any woman, from her own point OF
view, does not see conditions congenial to
the soul culture of her child then let her be
free to renounce marriage-renunciation is
the noblest of virtues; but she cannot re-
nounce marriage unless she can earn her
own living. When she can earn an equal
price for equal work, when she can take
her abilities into any field and find compe
tition free, then she is free and independ-
ent being; then she does not have to marry
for financial support; then she finds life so
full of grand interests that she does not
need to marry in order to find work for her
hands and love for her bsart-
When women are financially and socially
independent, then will love be hottest, then
will it always be the bond of happy mar
risge. Will any one In sane moment &C
cept the nonsense that is talked and writ
ten about the sanctity Of motherhood and
dignity of wifehood while the reality Of
unloved wives and doomed children Is
heartbreakings The grand and fun destiny
of the wife and mother can be fulfilled only
when woman becomes the very flower OF
civilization as she is Of creation, when she
shall have attained the ability TO under
stand and claim her rights and privileges
her right to the best, the purest thai
manhood can cffer. her privilege Of elect
ing, no. blindly but inteligently, 20 DO
come a wife and mothe-.-Virginis G.
Meredith in Kate Fields Washington
Fortanss in PhosphsteG