, 1903-10-01
Roosevelt and Divorces.

WHILE the u DelleNeS III IreSl-
dent Roosevelt as a man, and in his
administration of the affairs of the
nation, it does not follow that he is
infalible i'll all he says and does.
For example, we think his express
sious, concerning what he is pleased
to call race suicide are not at all in
keeping with his position as Presi
dent. That subject is one that should
be left entirely 10 the heads of fami-
lies. Certainly nothing that he could
say, or do, would in the least effect
the number of children that are to
be born into the world.
There can be no doubt but what.
if his words had any weight at all,
they would only affect those who are
already inclined to populate the earth
with an inferior class of human be.
ings.
There is no danger of race suicide,
for the reason that such things are
controlled by a power far higher than
the President of the United States.
But our strenuous President has
again come before the public with an
intimation that we have by far too
many divorces. just how he is go
lug to control the divorce courts is
not stated and We hope it never
will be-but we suppose that he has
been stirred up TO this declaration
by some over Jealous parson, who is
not in favor Of ever untying the mar
riage knot, no matter what may the
cause set up in favor of such relief
1t is true that marriages should
be made in heaven and it is also
true, that, once united, a couple
should never be separated except for
the gravest reasons.
But so long az marriage are con
tracted as they now are. with lust
on one side and innocence on the
other; so long as womcn's lives are
made miserable and positively uu-
bearable by an ill-tempered and bru-
tai husband; SO long AS men will en-
ter the marriage state afflicted with
loathsome and disgusting diseases,
which they communicate to their
wives, not only ~wIecking their lives,
but sending diseased children out into
the world to suffer; so long AS men
become insane through drink and
beat their better halves into insensi-
bility, just so long should there be
relief in the divorce courts.
When one looks abroad over the
land and sees the many dropping and
detected faces of wives and mothers,
the lines of whose faces are drawn
and pinched from private griefs and
private ~suiIerings; when one notes
the number of Informed and crippled
children, many OF them diseased from
birth, and realizes that such a condi-
tion is the result of brutal and ignor-
ant man, he is inclined to believe
that there are not half enough di
yorces even now, abundant as they
may be.
There are hundreds of thousands
OF women who are suffering the tor
lures of the damned, in silence and
despair, because they fear to make
their woes known to an unsympathis
ing world. When divorce proceed
ings are begun by a woman, no mat
ter how meriIorious her cause may
be, the majority Of mankind at once
turn their mud batteries on her. and
proceed to drag her name in the
mire, traduce her motives aud defame
her character, while the husband. the
who is, i'll nine cases out of ten
the guilty cause of her troubles, is
held up as a model man and father,
and sympathy showered upon him
like rain. Knowing this, is it any
wonder that women bear their bur
dens just as long as they can and
live, before they seek the divorce
court, or that many Of them sink into
the grave without ever giving tongue
TO their misery and its cause, glad
10 escape, ever through the doors of
death, from a life that is in every way
II shame and IA disgrace,
TnE Leaders Special edition was a