Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1901-05-21
IOWA PRESS COMMENT
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES

8IOWA PRESS COMMENT 6
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Why Times Are Good? This ques-
ton asked and answered by the New
York Mail and Express is not an idle
one, considering the attitude of the
party of calamity and opposition,
which attributes the unprecedented ma
tional prosperity to altogether natural
causes and sneers at the claims that
any human agency, as represented in
a republican administration for in
stance may have contributed to it.
There is profounder but simpler
reason for the prosperity which the
people of the United States enjoy
than any that is commonly presented.
Those who find an explanation for it
in long series Of good crops, or in
the progressive development of all our
natural resources, or in the elabora-
ton of the means of production, or in
the cumulative energies of the people,
or. in the conditions of the foreign
market, do not go back far enough;
they halt among secondary causes. We
have had all these things in our favor
before, only in less degree, and with
them we have sometimes had distress
full rather than good times.
The New York paper mentioned
above finds the real reason why times
are good. 1t says that the force that
has set the factors in motion which
contribute to the general prosperity,
mendous. direction lis simply public
confidence. Confidence is the life OF
business. !, It is not engendered out Of
opportunity or of resources. 1t comes
! from elsewhere; 1t enters into and vi
talizes these factors rather than flows
from them. The American people are
moving forward all along the line, be-
cause the greatest Of generals is at
their head-General Confidence. When
the service of the two administrations,
the one just closed, the other just op-
ened, shall have received its perma-
history, perhaps the highest claim
that they restored confidence which
they maintained and fostered it until
they multiplied it until it pervaded ev-
culation.
Without regard to party leanings,
and, indeed, despite of them, every
citizen Of this country intelligent
enough to include tomorrow in the pur-
poses Of today, feels that he may SOW
with full confidence that there will lie
harvest, and that he will reap it.
He knows that his welfare is in his
\, nd tho& "a Ra1I sc olo
ly clear for embracing and profiting
from an opportunity. He can follow
his objects without anxious scanning
Of the sky Of government for any
clouds that may interrupt his effort
or destroy its product. From the
men in control Of national affairs, he
has assured himself, there will come
neither indirection nor indiscretion.
Peace and honor abroad and at home,
immunity from external war and do
nestle disturbance, security from in
reference in the standard of value
and industry-these are things that
nave been assured to every American
since 1895 and that light the path of
the future till 1904. OF such things
is confidence bred and of confidence,
sperity.-Burlington Hawkeye.
49,
The Wife's Rights.-The supreme
court of New York state has handed
down decision declaring that hus-
bands are entitled to the earnings Of
their wives. Women who profess to
see in this further circumscribing of
their rights are indignant and the
court is receiving their censure.
The law in most states gives the
wife a share in the husbands wages,
and to reverse the order would be
seemingly Just. But the court goes
farther than this and does not limit
the husbands right to the wife's wages
with a share in the same, but gives
him all. The husband is the head of
the household, and the law makes him
master of his own house. He is EMIT
led to the earnings of his minor sons
and daughters and In turn must pro-
vide shelter, food and clothing for
them. The law assumes that paternal
love will cause the father to do right
toward his offspring. A purely literal
Interpretation of the law forces the
conclusion that the husband is entitled
to the wife's wages, In the marriage
VOW he swears, to provide and care for
his wife, and il the latter chooses to
work for wages it is no more than right
that she should put her earnings in
the common household fund which may
be in the husbands charge and out of
which the living expenses are paid.
The average husband loves his wife
and can be trusted to administer the
finances honestly. Cases In the con-
trary are exceptional and the wife's
tact can be relied on to protect her In
such emergencies. The husband is
the lawful ruler, but il statistics were
possible on the subject, they would