The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1905-06-30
MEN MOULD WOMEN.
Dorothy Dix Thinks Women Self
DeIuded as to influence
CBy Dorothy Dix

DeAUu6Q as 10 influence
CBy Dorothy Dix
For some reason that nobody has
ever tried to explain women are pop
uIarIy supposed TO have a monopoly
on influence
We hear a great deal about wom-
ans sacred influence, but never about
a mans
We are never weary Of prating
about q Wife's influence over hus-
band, but nobody ever says a word
about the husbands influence over a
wife.
We sentimentalize by the yard over
a mothers influence, but We are sill
ent as the grave about a fathers in
huence.
Thousands Of columns are printed
in the newspapers every year about
wOman's influence in the home, but
not a paragraph about a mans in
flUence there.
One would think that influence was
a distinctive feminine attribute, such
as long hair or an eighteen-inch
waist, and the ability to influence
people an occult feminine talent, like
the knack Of being able to pass a
woman on the street and tell, without
looking at her, everything she had on
and what il cost
Women DeIuded-
Is It really true that woman influ-
ences men more than he does her?
Is it a fact that wOman's influence
molds the home and sOciety2
Women believe that their influence
is paramount in the world, and the
cleverest thing and the most selfish
thing that men have ever done is to
foster this delusiOn, for thereby they
have given women the shadow while
they took the substance, and have
washed their hands Of all responsible
lily when affairs went wrong.
You must not vote, for if you do
you will lose your sweet womanly in
fuence," men have said to her, and
woman has been content not to vote,
forgetting that the influence that is
backed up by the ability to do things
gains, and does not lose, in power.
Thousands of women have wrecked
their lives by marrying drunkards, be-
cause they believed that a wife's in
huence was a sort Of Kelley cure that
would keep a man from ever thirsting
for a high ball again.
Men Mold Women.
Thousands Of broken-hearted wom-
en- are waiting and watching for a
AA1OLAAEA 4A0Ag 4lA4AAEAA-E ~ cOAAACAAON
get in its work and bring back to
them the prOdigaI sons and daught-
ers who have disgraced them and de-
serted them
Millions Of devOut and credulous
women have been bringing woman's
sacred influence to bear for, 10, these
many years upon the drink question
and the social purity question, and yet
intemperanCe and vice never Haunted
themselves as openly and shameless
~ as they do today.
In the meantime man has kept sus-
piciOusly silent He never talks about
his influence in the home, or his in
huence as a refOrmeT-
But he does things, and the humOr
Of the situation lies in the fact that
while women talk about their influ
encing men, men mold women as If
they were clay in the hands OF the
potter.
Men Make Morals.
A man does not marry a drunken
and disreputable woman thinking
that a husbands influence will reform
her. He refuses to marry any wOm-
an who has not a blameless character,
and that one thing has kept women,
as a sex, free from vice
There are Just as many women Of
immoral tendencies, just as many
women with a craving for intoxicants,
just as many with the gambling ma
MIA, as there are men-for women are
the daughters Of their fathers and
inherit their weaknesses-but the in
huence Of man over woman has been
strong enough to make her control
herself and go straight
WOmen's influence over men has
never yet been strong enough to do
this, and until IL does women are not
entitled TO brag about their particular
brand OF moral suasiOn-
1t is also mans influence, and not
wOman's that keeps the home on a
high plane No matter what he may
do himself, he has drawn up an ideal
code Of morals for the regulation Of
his home, and he sees that his wife
follows them, or else he hauls her in
to the divorce court
Woman's influence has never been
strong enough over men to even keep
them at home OF an evening
Man Prevails.
As far as the children are concern
ed the most casual observation will
show anybody that the father has ten
times as much influence as the moth
er The children defer to his opin-
lDAA AAADA = LAAcLAA LAAEE w ~ LAAE4L 4AAOLAA-
er's because they know that he has a
wider knowledge Of the world.
They obey him better, because he
has the voice and habit Of authority
They have more respect for him, be-
cause he is not as easily worked as
their mother.
It is unfortunately too true that the
majority Of fathers do not exercise
their influence over their children to
control them and to raise them up in
to being decent, law-abiding men and
women-which is the reason that so
many poor, pathetic mothers have to
depend on the weak, intangible pow
er Of a mothers influence to save
their Maynard children.
There is no room for discussion Of
which sex has the greater influence in
moral questions Men have already
shown that they have the ability to
institute any kind Of reform they de-
sire.
When they get ready to abolish
| drunkenness and gambling, and vice
generally, they viii do in one minute
what all the sacred influence Of WON
an has never begun to do and couldn't
/ do, in all eternity Of time
| Indeed, the influence Of woman
| taking it by and large, upon the mas
Il c11Ifue sex is 50 little when cOmnarec