The Topeka state journal., 1897-07-17

ing. Murderers should be punished by
Incarceration for lifetime and daily
fogged.
s. Marriage to be entered on common
sense EHounds; that is, men and women
should marry their opposites. Love is
but the result of certain circumstances,
and is brought about artificially as well
as accidentally.
THE RULES.
Every member of the association must
be a physically perfect man or woman
OF at least 21 years of age.
None shall be admitted who has not
attended college or who has not been
student of the classics.
1t shall be the duty of every member
to discourage as much as possible the
wearing of ridiculous clothing and un-
necessary ornaments. The discour-
agement to be directed particularly
against tight shoes, the lacing of cor
sets, long dresses the wearing of trous-
ers by man and woman, high collars
and high hats, while every member
pledges himself or herself to do all in
his or her power to bring about gradu-
ally the use of the classic costumes of
Athens and of Rome, with such modi-
hcations as the state of the weather
may demand.
Asked if she subscribed to this plat
form in its entirety, Mrs. Montgomery
McGOVern said:
DO I really believe in all the laws
contained in the constitution of the So
ciety for the BetterTnent of the Human
Species? Yes most emphatically.
do not believe in all of the clauses, but
intend to do all in my power to carry
them out practically in my own life.
IF my child were to be hopelessly de-
formed or perfectly idiotic, 1 should
in the event of the bill ernbodying our
constitution having been passed by
1egislature-send for the three phySi-
state and abide by their decision in
gard to the child. If it were pro-
nounced idiotic or incurably deformed,
I should be not only willing, but anx-
ious that its life be ended as speedily
and painleSsly as possible.
"As for the clause referring to chill
dren being allowed to choose any re-
Iigion after their fifteenth year, 1 con-
slider that one of the most important
planks in the platform, for have seen
too much of the bigotry, narrow-raind-
edness and phar1seeism resulting from
coercion and overpersuasion of a child
toward any one form of religious be-
lief.
What, after all, is sect or creed, so
moral and upright lives? What mat
ters it about the private opinion of each
regarding heaven, hell or Individual
modes of worship?
Ter of Laura Bridgeman been my child,
although maternal instinct would have
inclined toward the education of either,
yet, from an altruistic standpoint, I
would have been willing for her execu-
ton. The amount of money expended
on the education of such an unfortun-
ate COuld In6I1 nave DeSn put 10 the
support and education of at least a
dozen normal human beings.
Most murderers 1 consider insane,
at least with some abnormal brain
development; therefore should be cleo
trocuted, as in my opinion should be all
other hopelessly insane persons.
BY the word love in the eighth
clause we refer to that feeling more
usually termed affection 1 think love
between a man and a woman should
have an intellectual ra ather than purely
emotional basis; otherwise safety is the
only result. Mental congeniality should
be the true basis of every marriage
provided, of course, that there are no
physical or hereditary causes making
such a marriage inimical to the future
generations. A husband and wife
should be physically, as far as possible,
the compliments of each other Two
persons with the same hereditary taint
of either mental or physical weakness
should under no circumstances be al
lowed to marry.
-'Old people who have reached their
second childhood should, think, come
under the head of insane or idiotic per-
sons, and as such should be peacefully
electrocuted or put to death by some
other painless method-their life being
only a burden to themselves as well as
to those around them"