The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1907-06-24
CONTROVERSY
STILL RACES
Whole Pacific Coast Now Agitated
Over Question of Infrequent
Marriages

The discontinued, unhappy We
natchee girl who bitterly poured out
her troubles through the columns of
the Daily World has started dis
cussion that has swept the whole Pa
cific Coast.
Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, Salem,
Walla Walla and host of other cit
les, far and near, have quoted and
discussed her unhappy letter, and
hundreds of 'open letters have fol-
lowed on the subject.
Her plight has caught the publ:
sympathy.
Maledictions on bachelors have
followed in many places, and these
latter lonely unfortunates in many
places have arisen in their defense.
The Tacoma News, discussing one
of these recent retorts from a local
bachelor, says:
"Why bachelors do not marry,
which is only another way of asking
why bachelors are bachelors, has
suddenly become a live question
The manageable girl of Wenat
chez, who, in her perplexity over
her own failure to procure a hus-
band. publicly scored the bachelors
of Wenatchee, has originated COM
motion larger, doubtless, than she
expected The replies from the
Sound indicate not a bachelor I'M
willingness to marry, but bachelor
financial inability.
Among these replies the News
commends the letter from 'bache-
lor" published yesterday. The iden-
tity of the author is not disclosed
here, and hence his spelling is to
constitute no bar to any marriage
able girl who may fancy him as her
affinity" Briefly put, this batch
elor" conceives marriage luxury
he cannot afford. He goes into de-
tails. While one will not question
his figures, yet his statement that
the average young man under 80
years of age cannot hope to earn
over $40 a month. seems just a
bit out Of joint Common labor,
finding employment in the mills, the
logging camps, even on the railroad
construction gang, earns at mini
mum Of $3.50 day, which. based
on a working month Of 26 days, pro-
duces Sos a month, without adding
overtime The healthy boy of 10
years can earn that much if he is
willing to work. Skilled labor has
reached the highest wage point in
the history of this nation, if not OF
the world, Of course, the cost Of liv-
ing has greatly increased likewise.
While allowing something for
the higher cost of living, the News
is pretty frank to confess that it has
little. sympathy with the plea Of
cost as bar to marriage. In cases
where the bachelor has no one de-
pendent in his efforts, save himself
alone, failure to marry is a manifest
exhibition of selfshness. Nothing
else The letter from the 'batche
lor' is a complete and ready COM
pendulum of selfishness.
Ills a sad thing, this shattering
of dreams. There was day in the
golden past, when cost entered lit
tie into the majority of marriages.
Two loving hearts wendell their
shy way to the county clerks Office,
procured the necessary license. HE'D
them to a sympathetic preacher and
the holy bonds of matrimony' were
promptly tied. Did the cost of liv-
ing enter into this transaction? Ro-
nance forbid. Was the young man
married a young man marred? Who
dared to say so, If all the traditions
handed down to this generation are
true, marriage was a different thing
half century ago than it is today.
But the Already of that period has
vanished before the ''cost of living.
'Tis sad, We repeat, and yet the cost
must be counted, for the modern
youth has discovered the fallacy of
the adage that two can live as cheap
~ as one.
It really seems as if T. Roosevelt
must be called upon to give his per-
sonal inspection to the marriage
problem of Wenatchee, the "batche-
lor" of Tacoma and the ''cost of liv-
ing" in Seattle.