Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-10-17
Iowa Newspapers
BuRRELL ON MARRIAGE.
washington Ga.) Press.l

washington (ld.y Eiso"'J
TO have wife and family IN youtn
is merely higher and wiser form
of putting money in the bank. NO other
investment yields as much IN later
years-Chauncey M. Depew.
Is that true? Or is 1T just gush'
along Rooseveltian lines?
Sometimes it happens so, especlaily
IL the income be adequate, SO that the
man need not be a slave TO the means
for gaining a livelihood, or the wire
he a drudge, her work never done.
Lord Bacon said wife and children are
hostages that the husband ana 1ather
gives to fortune. But observation ac-
auaints ever one with the fact that
they are too often handicap. partlc-
ularly in poverty. Who has not seen
lively. likely young felfow marry
and go gaily and hopefully to his dalls
| work, but as a family grew Iast
around him expenses multiplied 1aster
than wages and income, and poverty
began to pinch, and he lost heart ana
hone. grew moody and irritable ana
perhaps took to drink, ana mace
moral slump of 1t, and his VIE pc
came thin. pale. sallow. old before her
time, dragged down with lncessaht
work day and night, and with the con-
slant care and nervous drain made by
child bearing and caring for palfns'
with "a scant supply of means Wnere-
with to clothe and school them, her-
self never able to get away on an Out
ing.-iust one eternal demnition grind
until her nerves collapsed and she,
maybe. went insane? That is no fancy
picture. no isolated case. Hundreds,
thousands of marriages are prema-
turely made; made before there IS
wise provision made for the support
Of a family. A young man should
think, not twice, but many times, be-
| fore he marries. AS a rule he should
have home paid for, and perhaps
farm. or he should have trade or
other business that is bound to make
living for him and his, before he
ventures to involve himself and others
in q condition that is sure to be ex-
pensive and cumulatively costly.
Ben Franklin advised early mar
riages, and it. may have been wise
| counsel in his age, when simplicity
prevailed. But a couple that wed now
adays among out complex conditions,
| before a safe, sure anchor has been
cast to windward, before an income IL
assured, is taking very hazardous
course. He'd better wait, work. eaten
on, get foothold, be sure that he can
support well and educate any children
that may come to them, and not
plunge in recklessly and get involved
In conditions that shall prove to be
stout withes to bind him and his fast
| and strangle them as vines smother
plants in their fatal coils.
This thing of multiplying on the
face of the earth, whether or no, ds
great humbug, and teachers who urge
| it are rash The idea that married
pair are bound to put two years, like
| stairs, between births, that it is holy
duty to do that, and a disgrace and sin
! IL they do not--what kind Of rot IL
that? On the other hand, 1t Is q sin to
/ bring children into the world to whom
| the parents cannot give half chance.
The world is no better off for waits.
for slum children. How to suppress
population, if it could be humanely and
innocently done, is a policy not half
4 bad. A couple that can't give offspring
sound constitutions, free from strains
of consumption, insanity and the like
and born them into favorable condi-
tons, insuring them a good education
and fair start in life on terms OF
equality With other children, have no
business to bring them in at all. 1t is
a blunder, and Napoleon said there are
some blunders that are worse than
crimes. A lot of Hawkeyes have made
a great fuss because the last census in
Iowa showed falling off in population
Suppose it has fallen off-the state
very likely is to be congratulated II
that is true Mere spawning Is no,
what counts. Not how many, but what
kind, how circumstance, what show
have they, what sort Of physiques and
health have they got? those are the
questions that are vital. Any couple
. almost can put out editions Of them-
selves, but the main point is, Does tho
world want them to do it? The Ole
Testament idea that it is disgracefu
and calamitous not to have children Ii
not wholesome doctrine, necessarily
for today. Many conscientious coupls
are doing Gods service in not having
children. The weakest thing Teddy
Roosevelt ever harped upon is-spawn.
ing whether or no. Often, and often
race suicide is Virtue and Righteous
ness.