Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1897-12-17
BACHELORS MUST GO
TO THE HYMENIAL ALTAR OR
TO JAIL.
What Charlotte Smith Proposes TO
Do by Legtsiatf0n - state, Na.
tiOnal and In Bureaus
Of MatrimOny Suggested.

Do by Legislation - state, Ma
tiOnal and international Bureaus
Of MatrimOny Suggested.
A New York dispatch OF the 9th
ult., indicates that the project of Mrs.
Charlotte Smith for compulsory mar
riage, has not been dropped, but is
rapidly assuming shape and form
under the energetic advocacy of that
lady, and it vertifies the statement
that no suggestion of reform can be
made, however absurd, will not find
earnest and determined supporters.
The dispatch says that the project
is the result of much thought on the
part of Mrs. Smith, and it is a noted
fact that much thought often develops
a lop-sided brain which advocates with
undoubted sincerity the most radical
and surprising plans for mitigating
real or fancied evils in the trend of
social life.
Mrs. Smith has begun her crusade
in behalf of spinsters. She proposes
to organize system of marriage
bureaus, the basis of which shall be
municipal branches, controlled by a
State organization, which later shall
be under the rule of a national in
stitution, which in turn shall be
affiliated with an international bureau,
Mrs. Smith thinks herself specially
endowed to control the organisation
in the United States, and therefore
she will ask Congress to create her the
first Commissioner of Matrimony.
The following are Mrs. Smiths de-
mands:
l. That every man and woman of
marriagable age be compelled to marry
by law;
2. That National Matrimonial
Bureau be established to aid in en-
forcing the law;
3. That the Office of United States
Commissioner of Matrimony be created
and that Mrs. Smith be appointed to
that office;
4. That a National Matrimonial
fund be appropriated for dowries of
from $500 to $500 for poor girls, to
provide wedding trousseau and furnish
q modest home;
5. That rich bachelors who refuse
to marry shall annually pay a fine
which will be equivalent to the sup.
port of family.
6. That poor men who refuse to
obey the matrimonial law shall be
punished, as for any other infraction
OF the law, by imprisonment.
Z. That women who refuse to marry
shall be punished in the same way as
men.
And the following is the memorial
to be presented to Congress:
To the President and Congress of
the United States, Greeting: We,
you humble petitioners. beg for i'm.
mediate relief from your honorable
body for the following good and
sufficient reasons:
As industrial women and wealth.
producers, we are entitled to the bene-
fits of the products Of our labor. We
were promised protection by the
present Protection Administration
which, up to the present time, has
been an empty promise-nothing more.
There has been but little done by
manufacturers and corporations to
better the conditions of wage-women,
who create 81 per cent. of the wealth
produced in all the light manufac-
turing industries in these United
States.
This deplOrable state of affairs makes
it an utter impossibility for 100000
women to obtain husbands, or re-
munerative employment, so that they
may be provided for in their declining
years.
What are we to do with this stand.
ing army of manageable and unem-
ployed woman who can never marry
nor 60 to service!
Statistics prove that GO per cent. of
the marriageable men in New York
and Massaohusettsdo not marry. We
want this vexed question settled at
once by legislation making marriage
compulsory. The problem of what we
shall do with on surplus female popula-
tion must be solved, either by such
compulsory law or by the establishing
of State and National matrimonial
bureaus, and by the appointing of
Committees of Investigation by Con-
gress.
CHARLOTTE SMITH.
President Woman's Rescue League,
Boston, Washington and New York.
Mrs. Smith is sure that her scheme
will be a success.
Blanche LamOnt'S Family,