The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-06-28
Reckless and senseless Marriages.

Reckless ana SSuSelSSS Nn"AA A''SN w.
one of the notable features at the
union meeting of the national confer
ence of charities which was in session
in Detroit last week, and was the ad-
dress of Ri. Rev. John Lancaster
Snaldinr. Bishop of Peoria, Ills, at
+lre Light Guard armory. He spoke
before an immense audience. His SEN
tifnants were loudly and intelligentlS
apnlauded and he received many con-
a1.atu1ations after the meeting for his
strong temperate and eminently time
ly utterance.
The fountain of social good or evil.
of vSce or crime or of honor of virtue,
is In the home, and the wife and the
mother can make or unmake the
home
1--WE have already learned that
mans chief value does not lie in his
ability TO conquer with sword and shell
and we are coming TO understand that
1t lies Just as little in his ability to
manipulate machinery or to get mon
ey."
The above sentences contain the gist
pf the bishops remarks, and are the
principal ideas which those who heard
him carried home with them.
Referring to improvement and ac-
tufaly criminal marriages. the speaker
said:
Reckless and senseless marriages
are an ineXhaustible source OF eVll.
Many of our people enter into Yedlock
Rs thoughtlessly as they take stroll or
fall asleep. and the result is quarrels,
contentious. divorces, and children
reared in an atmosphere which blights
tender lives. Hence crime among the
young is increasing far more rapidly
Than the population grows. So long as
This poison fountain remains open, so
long will vice and pauperism continue
10 breed degradation and Wretchedness.
Homes which are hells thwart the
wisest efforts to reform abuse They
hinder the schools, weaken the church
and undermine the social fabric.
"Our chaotic and lax marriage laws
encourage and facilitate imprudent
marriages. but the origin of the evil
lies deSper. Institutions, it has been
said. are in the control of men; public
bpinion in that of women. Women de-
ride how we shall build and furnish
pur houses what we shall eat and
wear, what we shall find beautiful and
entertaining, where we shall live, what
we shall read, whom we shall consider
friend or foe what beliefs or preJu-
1ices we shall hold, what religion we
shall have. From them we learn our
mother tongue, from them our notions
of right and wrong, of propriety and
justice. If they were more 1arge-mind-
ed. more intelligent, more unselfish,
more serious. more loving, three
fourths of the depravity and sin, which
makes life a curse would disappear.
The fountain head of social good or
evil. of vice and crime or of honor and
virtue is in the home, and the wife and
the mother make or unmake the home.
Whatever view we may take as to
whether man or woman was the most
guilty primal offender; women bears
the greater responsibility for the
wrongs and miseries which aff1ict and
Cypress the modern world, since the
force of public opinion. which is in her
keeping. is mightier than riches and
armies and laws. More than any age
since the beginning of time we have
given opportunity to woman, have
PLACED her in the seat of influence and
poewr, and shall she prove false, or
frail or ungrateful, traitorous to the
vast confidence which all that is no
blest and most chivalrous in man has
led him to repose in her?
Doubtless her increasing dominion
has helped to arouse in our public life
greater sympathy and tenderness,
more complete revulsion from cruelty,
whether 10 man or DeaSI. But more
than pity We need justice, which is the
first and greatest charity"
The Union and Times wonders what
can be done for Catholic boys and
young men to lift them up, morally,
mentally and socially, to a higher
plane Our contemporary sees cause
for alarm in the obvious superiority of
Catholic girls and young women.
That more of our girls are highly
educated than of our boys" says
Father Cronin, sis patent from the
fact that we have 200 academies for
the former to 100 colleges for the latter,
and that the proportion is even worse
than seven to one, for every year in
the graduating classes there are three
young women for every one young
man.
THAT the young women are more
devout is proved by the membership
OF the sodalities and the large num-
Der Of monthly communicates
No solution of the difficulty is sug-
gested. 1t remains a question for
theorists and practical men of the
world Is the church to be satisfied
with the educated and unambitious
men?