The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-12-09

WY ten to one less chance of being married,
 and, if married, of being mother, than if she were Digger Indian.
 As if this statement were not strong enough, Dr. Hendricks then let himself
 go as follows:
 More than ever before does the young bride so to the altar with the distinct purpose never to become a mother, but, on the contrary, to devote herself to life of lust and pleasure even more inconsistent with the per- petuation of society than the life of her
 less charming and less guilty sister of | the pavement.
 The storm of wrath which this incau-
 tious utterance has called upon the rev
 erend gentlemans head has been furi-
 ous and party deserved. His language
 was foolish, not to say indellcate. But
 there is more than a shade Of truth in
 it.
 MT. Hendricks did not allege, let us
 observe, that college bred women, more
 than others, go to the altar with dis
 tinct purpose of never becoming
 mothers, and it was not college-bred
 women as class that he compared un-
 favorably with the woman of the street.
 On the contrary, his contention was
 that the college bred women have few
 chances of going to the altar at all, and
 the implication, therefore, was that wo-
 men not college-bred are the ones who
 marry with an intention of leading life of disqualification MT. Hendricks
 might fairly have observed that if wo-
 men Ph. DIS fail to become wives and
 mothers 1t is not because of their edu cation, but because, having first chosen to be teachers and not wives, they sought an education.
 It is not the education, but their pre- arranged plan of life, that stands in the way. It is true, as general thing, of course, that women Ph. D.'s are not of the marrying class, as college profess sors are not of the food-raising class; and it is also sadly true that very many women who are of the marrying class enter into matrimony with definite ex- pectation of avoiding motherhood. There is not a statistician of repute in American, England, France, Germany or Italy who has not for years been calling attention to the rapid decrease of birth rates in the cultivated classes in every modern nation. There is not a reputable physician in the United States or in Europe who in private con- versation will not gladly tell certain un- pleasant facts which are not talked about openly or discussed in newspaper columns In short, MT. Hendricks crit ics may satisfy themselves by very little inquiry that every well informed person on either side of the ocean who is competent to hold an opinion on these subjects not only believes. but positive ly knows, that he has been telling the substantial truth, and that his real in- discretions lay, first, in telling such truth at all, and, secondly, in phras ng it in unnecessarily offensive words.
 Not only the statisticians and the doc tors have proclaimed these facts about the breakdown of family life, but so also have some of the most influential leaders of public opinion. Dr. Stanley Hall president of Clark university, has recently been calling attention to what he pronounces the failure of women's to provide strength for wife hood and motherhood; to the physical of thousands of American women after the birth of one child, and to the small families that have become the rule among well-todo Americans. The editor of Harper's Magazine, dis from his Easy Chair" upon these topics, concludes that the large family in America is doomed, and that we might as well make the best of 1t. Severer things even than these have been said, and are being said, by the highest dignitaries of the Protestant Church in connection with the recent fight over the relation of the church to divorce. Even the most ob- iectionable words employed by MT. Hendricks become colorless by compar- son with the word-pictures of fash onable society in America which well tnown bishops have been painting l within the last twelve months.
 And even this is not all. The revolt | against family life has reached not only | he mansions and the apartments, but , llso the tenement houses. Everywhere ,harity workers to-day are obliged to contend with persistent determination if the poor to place their children in in- titutions, thereby themselves escaping | he responsibilities of home mainten- lnce.
 The Charity Organization society of his city has been compelled to take &C., i've measures to diminish the number if commitments of children by magis- rates to institutions, and it has recent y sent out to charity workers through ut the city a most admirable circular, lrging them to put forth their utmost forts to prevent the needless breaking ID of homes through the commitment process
 It is then certain that civilization Is ace to face with danger of the gray st kind, the more serious because in- idious and because those who do not ike to look at it are fond of describing nen who tell the truth about it as "eyl- ow."
 Educated women must face this dan CT, frankly and bravely. The educa- ion of women, as of men, is a necessary hase of civilization, Nothing can seri- usly imperil it but the foolishness or he cowardice of woman herself. There ould be no surer proof that as yet the ducation of woman is crude and in- omplete than the talk of certain wo- 1en who write to the newspapers or reclaim from public platforms that ioman must begin to regard herself as better than mother of chill ren. She is a dull creature indeed