The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1900-12-07
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
Proposed Bill to Deny License to
Criminals and Chronic
lnvaIids.
"TOUGHNEss" IN THE COUNTRY
Is 1t Worse Than City Degeneracy?-
Wicked Killing of Small Game
Cheating Farmers on Notes.

| UOo PREACHER LudIIIdSe reform OIL
was a success-it became law and is
now approved. News now comes from
Milwaukee that DR.. f. M. Schulz, COM
missioner of health, will ask that steps
/ be taken to secure medical legislation
for the purpose of regulating or pro-
! hibfting the marriage of habitual Grim
inalS, persons afflicted with incurable
diseases, drunkards and victims of
| harmful drugs. Dr. Schulz's idea is
| that physical and mental examination
| by board of three physicians be
compulsory; that the license to wed be
not granted until certificate of sound
! health be issued The subject has been
| broacheG before in this state, but moth
| ing has ever come of it, although
many other states have passed such
bills.
All this talk of regulation Of mar
rage sounds we'll; men are in the hab-
it Of saying offhand that it should be
done. But practically there is another
side. There is no question that from
the marriages of degenerates come
much Of the disease and crime of the
state. The imbeciles at the Chippewa
Falls institution and the hayward
and detectives in other institutions
come largely from homes whose par
ents themselves were pot sound. But
is it feasible to forbid legal union to
which one or both parties is defective?
Would prohibition prohibit? And
should 1t? Does not nature make eff
forts to correct evils by mating the
strong with the weak? Is it wise to
thwart the law of natural attraction?
Sidney Lanier, the poet was a poor,
weak creature physically. This pro-
posed Wisconsin law would have shut
him out from matrim0ny He died on
the threshold of life Yet he en.icLe1
the whole world with some Of the
choicest of children, now mature ard
busy men and women. Many home
of but few years existence, shat
tered by the expected death OF one of
the partners, has sweetened one or
more lives with memories, the most
precious heritage of life. The bearing
of children, While an important, is not
the only office of matrimony; and the
soul communion awarded by matri
n1ony TO kindred spirits who have pain
and disease for their portion should
be interfered with cautiously, if at all.
l
the law would hit the ignorant and
poor; while no board of medical exam
iners would find it cOngehial to inter-
fere with the advertised nuptials of
the representatives Of families or So
cial standing and influence in the COM
munity Yet it is in such social strata
rather than among husky yeomanry
or the so-called working classes, that
sickly parents are largely found.
He would be a daring refOrmer to as
sert that the sickly children of par
ents of culture are, as whole, bur-
den to the world.
I throw out these thoughts, not 7tc
oppose a judicious bill aiming to stop
the production of degenerates. Go to
the. feeble-minded institution and the
superintendent will make it clear that
heredity is to blame. Stop this If you
can.
intercept Criminals and Drug Victims.
But if marriage by criminals and
prospective criminals could be checked
by law, the world could take its
chances with the children of other par
ents whose heart action is not right,
or even those whose lungs may be at
fected Nature is kind, and her laws,
though grim and inexOrable, make for
the building up of the waste places.
Degeneracy of the Towns.
The recent murder of young wOm-
an in Patterson. n j., Ga factory town
and the revelations Of iniquity accom-
panying the exposure have opened up
the query as to which is the worst
the city or the country. Compared with
greater New York, Patterson, which
is suburb, is really the country.
1t may surprise some to know that
close thinkers believe that the deprav-
ity of the small communities is worse
than that of the city Slum; that the
life and thought of degenerates in the
little railroad towns and secluded
communities in Wisconsin, for in
stance, are ON a lower plane than
among the criminals of Milwaukee.
This is a hard teaching. but even cas-
ual visitors who note the dead level
Of filthy conversation about the rail
road station saloons, and even the liv
cry stable and hotel of dead town of
the interior will be given some very
sober thoughts.
Julian Hawthorne, writing Of the
Patterson incident, which has shocked
the east. SAYS what is true-that in a
large community the youth cannot es
cape being brought into contact with
some uplifting influences. In many "a
Wisconsin community, however, apart
from an occasional church service,
there may be nothing from one years
end to another to force home on great
numbers of careless young men the
ideals of clean, strong living. Haw-
fhO1.na n1JfS it Tins.
1.-The; worst and basest. miscreants
are apt to5be denizens of towns such
as Patterson. rather than of great cit
les like New York and Chicago. The
diversity of life and interests are less
in the former and consequently the
vicious activity of the subject is con-
| fined within narrower limits. is more
or less known to every one else, evil
| intimacies and plottings are prevail
ent, and no fresh currents from the
| outer world break through the tester
| ing pools of vice, to discOncert and
| cleanse them. In great cities. on the
| other hand, the vastness of the popu-
| iation and the endless multiplicity of
| the phases of life operate like the tides
and streams of ocean to diSSipate un-