Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1896-06-05
false? No. We have but to observe
those about us for few years for am
pie proof that these statements are

II
only too true.
Though not all tobacco users are
| ldrunkards or criminals, yet there are
few drunkards who are not tobacco
users. Likewise, not all profane men
or drunkards are criminals, yet by far
the greatest number of criminals come
from their ranks.
But if these things are right for men
they must be right for their sisters,
mothers and wives, for in Gods law
there is mo sex in morality" It's ulti-
mate rule must be applied to the deeds
of all alike. The physical effects of
vice are the same on both, and it would
be strange if the moral effects were
not similar.
The criminal statistics of the state
of New York show that of those con-
victed of crime last year there were
more than ten men to one woman.
Think of it! How shallwe account for
this great difference in the moral char
acter of the sexes? Must we admit
that woman is by nature our moral su-
perior? Or, is the difference in favor
of the woman due to the superior
moral teaching she receives? 1t cer-
tainly is due more to her higher moral
standard than to any other one thing,
and. if she is morally superior, it is, no
doubt, due to virtuous habits thus
formed. The testimony of criminals
themselves is ample proof of this.
Those who have made careful in
quiry into the causes of crimes state
that in the jails and penitentiaries
fully eighty-five per cent of the con-
victs admit that their criminal acts
were the direct result of the use of in
toNicating drink.
Men are by no means solely respon-
sible for the double code state of So
ciety. There are many, very many
men, and women too, who are not using
their influence in the way that they
conscienciously believe to be for the
best interests of society. They are
conscious of a higher moral standard
hanthey are themselves practicing.
Woman should expect as high a de-
gree of morals in man as man demands
of her, and certainly if she uses her in
fiuence as it is in her power to use it,
she may do much to correct the pres
ent conditions of society.
In every reform woman is assigned a
place side by side with man, equal in
every privilege and right, equal in
duty and service, and equal in moral
responsibility. Her standard of moral
action is as broad as mans and her re-
sponsibility is proportionate with his.
This false and ruinous notion of a
two-fold responsibility, one for the
man and another for the woman, has
been the curse of all past ages. It in
flicts great disability, injustice, mis-
chief and misery upon the woman.
For thesame faults, for the same errors.
for the same crimes, she is accused, he
is excused; she is censured, he is for
given; she is punished, he is pardoned:
she is socially banished, he is socially
promoted.
There is but one moral standard as
there is but one moral law. and there
is but one moral Responsibility as there
is but one moral mission and destiny.
There are three great institutions of
human progress; the family, the church
and the state. All three are of divine
appointment. In none of them has
moral distinction of sex ever found
place by divine recognition. Man and
woman are there under the same moral
service, effected by the same moral in
terests and promised the same moral
blessings.