The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-07-12
Bishop Standings Address.


in Detroit June ], Right Rev. j. l.
Spalding discussed physical and moral
evils His talk aroused considerable
controversy from all sides. In his
speech the bishop said:
institutions, it has been said, are in
the control of men, public opinion in
that of women. Women decide how we
shall build our houses, what we shall
eat and wear what we shall find beau
tiful and entertaining, where we shall
live. what we shall read, whom we
shall consider friend or foe, what be-
liefs OF. prejudices we shall hold, what
religion we shall have. From them we
learn our mother tongue; from them
our notions of right and wrong, OF pro-
prietv and Justice If they were more
large minded. more intelligent, more
unselfish more serious, more loving,
three-fourths of the depravity and sin
which make life curse would dlsap-
pear. The funtain head of social good
or evil. of vice and crime or of honor
and virtue is in the home; and If the
wife and the mother make or unmake
the home. Whatever view we may
take as to whether man or woman
was the more guilty primal offender,
woman bears the greater responsibility
for the wrongs and miser1es which az
f1ict and Cypress the modern world
since tie force of public opinion, which
is in her keeping, is mightier than
riches and arms and laws.
The bishop has found an unexpected
champion in the person of Ella Wheeler
Wilcox. The following is her view of
the subject:
Il am afraid that instead of reprov-
ing the bishop, / shall agree with him
to a great extent.
Much of the crime in the world can
be traced to prenatal conditions of the
criminals.
Mothers who hate their unborn
children and dwell night and day on
thoughts of destruction bring children
into the world who are destructive and
whose minds are filled with hatred.
Mothers who allow themselves to
be swayed by violent tempers mark
their children with such passions and
a violent temper is frequently the first
step toward crime.
Again. after the child comes into
the world. unhappy home conditions,
discord. quarrels, contentious, lack OF
sympathy, or a too great indulgence
Of selfish desires, are all steps toward
producing that soul orphanage which
sends children into the streets. or any
where to get away from home.
The father may be equally guilty in
vet a mothers disposition is the one
which gives the home its atmosphere.
have seen a sunny, cheerful, patient
and loving woman turn house into
Neritable Eden, in which all her own
children and the children of neighbors
and riends found sympathy and pleas
ure despite the presence of the SER
pent in that Eden-a cross and cranky
man.
Again 1 have known the dispositions
of two generations of people to be
ruined by the disagreebale and quar-
relsome nature of one woman. The IN
mates of that home-and many such
homes-found any other place more de-
sirable If the sons took to drink and
wild ways. could it be wondered at?
IAN uncomfortable temper, and a ten
dency to be nagging, are home destroy
ing vices which ought to be preached
against from the pulpit
Mothers who allow their children to
be disorderly, eXtravagant and selfish
are helping them TO tread the path to-
ward crime.
"Disorderly personal habits make dis
orderly minds. Selfshness and extrav-
agance are the root of many of the
crimes of the day.
The daughter who is brought up to
believe it her right to have whatever
she wants. no matter who suffers 20
crafty her, is the woman who drives
her husband into forgery or defalca-
ton, if he is not wealthy enough to
meet her demands or strong enough
to DENY her Often when he does deny
her she figures in the divorce courts,
and the correspondent is a man of for
tune.
II is not infrequently the fathers
fault that a daughter is selfish and
extravagant and idle. Yet the mother
who possesses love, sympathy, tact and
patience can counterbalapce such a
maternal influence in the long run.
My faith in the influence of the right
kind of a mother is unlimited. There
is nothing she cannot do (and undo)
with her child, if she begins TO mould
its character before and continues
after its birth.
There ought to be chair Of
motherhood" in every womans col
lege teaching young women this in
contestible truth.
Start with a child rightly born and
well reared in a sensible, happy, low
ing. orderly, economical home, and we
have -fourths Of the causes of
crime headed off. Idleness, eXtrava-
gance, selfshness. i'll temper, greed,
ulSEGuGflN AdDllS-WIen THESE vices are
prevented by right generation and
right education, there remains but the
sexual passions to lead to crime.
1t is woman again here who figures
as angel or demon, to save men from
wrecking their own lives and hers.
Woman should be taught that she
is the stronger rather than the weaker
sex; for she has been forced by the
laws of God and society to develop
and exercise her self-control. where
man has been allowed to follow his
desires. until she has ten-fold the moral
strength he possesses.
Where her vanity, her love of power
or her mercenary impulses do not lead
her TO be weak. she can guide and con-
troll men as she chooses in these mat
ters.
She can bring out the divine or the
animal nature as she will She can
lead them to the heights or the depths
She can send a man temporarily be-
side himself with a wild infatuation
back to the bosom of his family
ashamed and repentant, or she can
drag him through the mires of scandal:
she can change an unhappy passion
into healthful ambition to be useful
and TO achieve, or she can feed it with
lis own fuel until it destroys and de-
Nastates, She can by vile and art