The San Francisco call., 1897-11-07

In a recent lecture which attracted con-
siderable attention DR.. Jordan of Stanford
University pointed out to his audience the
expediency of a reform N the law OF mar
rage so as TO prevent lmprovdent unions
eutaiing upon society unnecessary bur-
dens in the shape of vice, crime, pauper-
ism and disease. He took the ground
than society has a right to protect sell
a-a.nst thoughtless and reckless mar
riages, and that it ought to do so even
when the attempt involved an abridg-
ment OF natural liberty.
TEe same idea is being expressed else
where. DR.. Toulouse OF Paris has started
an agitation for a reform II the French
4aT OF marriage. He proposes TO forbid
marriages between persons OF tainted
.+,ood. who may engenaer offspring likely
/. become criminals. or caronic invalid,
I taupers. or imperfect morally or physl-
e. r. dis views are c9mmanding ap-
;-ovat among advanced thinkers; they
will probably take shape in q proiet de
Ioi, which VIII be submitted 10 the Cham
Der a an early day.
simultaneously a society has been
formed il Brooklyn, y. Y, for the con-
s.deration OF The subject. IL has at its head
a mum Der CT ladies' who have been active
as s0claI reformers. They have laid be-
tore the public reports and papers in
which they argue mat a large proportion
Of the crime and disease which now
afflict the community is pr-yenrable and
mieht be prevented if II was attacked at
lis source. The true time to reform a
man, say these ladies', IS before ne is
born, or as Heine wittilv expressed II, "a
man cannot re too careiu! in the choice
OF his parents
1.-THE seed scattered by DR.. Jordan is to
germinats, the governing principles must
be clearly understood For thousands OF
years the world has been governed upon
the principle hat men we're free 10 act as
they pleased so long as their acts did not
involve direct and visible injury to Others
But the march OF science has taught US
that acts may involve injuries which are
none the less real because they are in
direct and 10 the ignorant eve in
visible; that being tie case 1t
would seem that the old defini-
ton OF liberty must be recast,
and new restrictions set upon natural
ireedom. No right has seemed clearer
\ 'lan the right OF two young people to
Nary when they loved each other, the
psrents approved and their circumstances
were suitable; ye. Il it can he shown that
such a marriage would result n the birth
OF a vicious, diseased, criminal or imper-
feet progeny, entailing upon society ex-
Iense and distress, enIighte ned legislation
will aoridge the right, on the broad ground
that no man can be suffered to wrong So
ciety even unintenuonally or uncon-
sciously. The idea that society has rights
which individuals are bound to respect
never occurs to the young. Boys ard girls
meet by accident, are attracted by the
elective atfini'ies, and marry as a matter
of course. Ii the course of true love is
impeded by scientific objections, the in
terruptlon is pronounced cruel and brutal.
Yet il may be necessary.
We are so tender hearted in this age
that parents shrink from interfering even
when one of rhe parties TO d proposed
marriage has tubercular tendencies and
consumption is in the family. Yet moth
ing IS better understood than that phthisis
IS hereditary and that il will appear ana
reappeaI from generation to generation
till the family 8 extinguIshed. Attemp s
TO hold II III check may succeed for time,
but it re urns in one shape o. another.
Where the true bacillus of consum ptlon
has effected a Judgment in The organs. or
in The blood, science has thus far proved
poweriess 10 extirpate it and The utmost
that doctors can. do is to remove the
Iatlert TO a vicinity where the disease
germ shall for time be com paratively in
active.
Parents are the more reluctant to inter
tere IL love affairs in which one OF the
Ga'teI is consumptive because such I'M
Flrates experience the ras~ion OF love
peculiar intensity. Young persons
wNA the taint OF tu uperculosis in their sys-
TEN are, strange to say, more attractive TO
the other sex than the healthy. Their
countGnaace exhibits a delicacy of COM
plexlon which IS allurlng. Their malady
lmparts Ianguor which in the girl Graves
affection and IN the boy inspires tender
ness and loving sym pathy. They are
drawn TO marria.e by the very reason
which should induce them TO eschew ii.
Nor are they at loss to find arguments
to-repgI the dictates OF science. They will