The times., 1901-05-06
Marriage on Twenty Dollars Week

! Periodically discussion begins in
some paper or other concerning the
possibility Of getting married on fif-
! teen or twenty dollars a week, and it
is carried on with a naive and calm cb-
! liviousness of the fact that there are
/ perhaps thirty-fve millions Of people in
/ this country who belong to households
! in which the family income does not
amount to twenty dollars a week for
! tive or even three people. The earnest
| debaters also ignore The circumstance
! that marriage has been going on quite
/ steadily for a good many hundred
/ years among the masses of the people.
and that these masses subsist, and al
ways have subsisted, on incomes which
are not anywhere near the twenty dol
lars a week standard
The real question at issue is not
whether a married nan with twenty
dollars a week salary can support
family. but whether he and his family
. are willing to be supported on that in
come That he can do ii there is no
doubt whatever. If he should marry on
that salary. and his income should then
be suddenly cut down TO ten dollars a
week, he would have to get along on
that until times changed, and the
chances are that neither he nor any of
his household would starve, though they
might not be very comfortable. The ac-
tual cost of subsistence is very little.
The money which we all spend is spent
on the things which are not necessary
to support life.
But some one will say there can be no
civilization without the possibility of
something more than mere bread and
meat and shelter and clothing. After
these are paid for. there must still be
margin for the things which help to
develop the higher nature. or we might
as well all he poems in Mexico. That is
quite true. The problem is to secure
the things which really conduce TO the
higher life, and eliminate if necessary.
those which are merely self-indulgence
which does no real good.
one trouble with this discussion is the
habit which people have Of confning 1t
to one plane of thought. one class Of
society. One hears a man or woman
say, with an assured air, that every
body" does such and such a thing. when
what is really meant is that the persons
in the speakers circle Of acquaintance
do that thing When one considers how
small the average persons circle of ac-
quaintance is, il will be seen that it is |
rather unsafe to generalize in this way. |
But such hasty CONGRATULATIONS do this |
harm: they create In the minds Of peo- |
pie who cannot have certain privileges |
the impression that they are somehow |
abused and unfortunate because they |
cannot. For example, when an mex |
perienced young girl reads or hears the |
assertion that it is impossible TO keep |
house "decently' without a servant, |
even il there are but two or three in |
the family. and the housekeeper has |
nothing else to DO that girl may take |
it into her head, when she marries, that |
she is rot living "decently'' unless she |
is relieved Of all household work. AS a |
matter OF fact. there are a good many |
of decent-IiSing people in this
who do not hire household ser
vice unless in case Of Illness or emer-
gency, and they are in the majority of
cases very comfortable. OF course, the |
work has 10 be done, somehow, and it is
done, but it is a question whether the
women who do il are any more tired or
nervous or inclined TO invalidism than
they would be if they kept two or three
maids. and they are frequently intelli-
gent. well-read, and more or less tai
ented women.
The question Of service, work, and ex-
penditurc may be better understood
when it is remembered that personal
in a thing. determination to
discover the very best way to do it, and
ability 10 make ones self contented are
worth everything in any business. If
people desire TO save their money for
some special purpose, whether it is
buying home. accommodating a library,
their children, or making a