The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1907-07-20
Teddy Bears a National Peril.

Teddy Bears a National Peril.
A special to the Chicago Record
Herald says: Roosevelt hoist with
his own petard: Teddy bear respon-
sible for race suicide" wrote a st.
Joseph reporter when he went to the
newspaper Office today after listen
ing to Rev. Michael G. Esper's ser
mon in st. Joseph's Roman Catholic
church. For Father Esper declared
that the Teddy Bear" was a ma
tional peril, threatening to result
in race suicide to an unprecedented
degree, in spite of all that the bears
distinguished namesake could do to
make big families popular.
Father Esper didn't call the pres
ident by name, or wen hint re-
p%roachfully at him. But he did say
that the Teddy Bear" was destroy
ing all the instincts of motherhood
in countless little girls, and in the
future would be recognized as one
of the most powerful factors in the
race suicide danger.
Dolls, the priest said, were a
good thing and helped to implant in
little girls the instincts which would
some day make them long for chill
dren of their own.
But the Teddy Bear!
Discard it forever" the priest
urged his congregation at the close
of fifteen minutes earnest talk.
Father Esper spoke seriously and
stroye TO impress upon his hearers
that he meant what he said, and saw
a real danger in the toys
There is something natural"
said Father Esper, Gin the are of a
doll by a little girl. 1t is the first
manifestation of the feeling Of moth
erhood. In the Development of
those motherly instincts is the hope
of all nations.
ut is a mDnsterous crime to do
anything that will destroy these in
%stincts. That is what the Teddy
bear is doing, and that is why it is
going to be a factor in the race sui
eide problem if the custom is not
suppressed. 1t is terrible enough
that the present generation of par
ents in this country is leading us in
TO grave danger by the practice If
race suicide. If we cannot awaken
the present generation let us at least
save the future ones" .
Perusal of that flood of comment
on things American with which the
newspapers have been filled for the
past month suggests that they re-
ceive their inspiration from William
Randolph Hearst, from Eugene V.
Debs, or from one or the other of
those agitators who insist that the
twentieth centdry has Witnessed
a breakdown of democratic institu-
lions in this republic. Nothing that
MIR. Hearst says of the ruthless ex-
ploitation OF the poor by the rich
in the United States is more vehem-
ent than various ~utterances to the
same effect in organs of British opin-
ion as weighty as the London News
and the London Outlook. Nor is
current comment in the press of
continental Europe a less piquent
commentary OF McCaulay's famous
prediction that by the end of the
nineteenth century a hungry Ameri-
can proletariat would be devouring
the wealth of millionaires. What
Europe thinks it sees is the exact
opposite of this. Even the conser-
yative Kruez Zeitung of Berlin has
been citing the wrongs of the poor
in u country as proof positive that
Republican institutions are a fail
ure. In the antipodes we have the
Melbourne Argus, a serious and COM
paratively moderate Australian
daily, affirming that the United States
is a stumbling block to the friends
of liberty" a writer in the London
Mail gives utterance to what, with
out exaggeration, may be termed the
unanimous view of educated Europe,
when he states that" the machinery
does not exist in the United States
for making a man of influence and
wealth conform to the laws Of the
land" To what extent this consen
sus of foreign press opinion CORES
ponds with reality is irrevelant tc
the present purpose. The defnitel,
established fact is that to the res
of the civilized world the United
States is a land in which, to emplo,
a fayorite phrase of our native agi
tators, :" the poor man has no chanc,
against the rich" The continental
Eurbpean conviction that wealthy
American women are unchaste ii
not firmer than the general Europea1
belief that the republic administers,
from Washington is a sham.
Robert L. Owen. who has bee,
Overwhelmingly endorsed at the dem
!, ocratic primaries I'm Oklahoma, TO
J United States senator, Is one-eight
ICherokee. Mr.. Owen was born i
Virginia and educated at Washing
ton and Lee university. AS teacher
editor, banker, lawyer and states
man. his career has been brilliar
land successful. He is immensel
popular with all classes in Oklan,
7 ma and Indian territory.
Mr.. Owen advocated suffrage Il
women in the constitutional col
! vention of Oklahoma in a most +,
] markable address. One Of the stron,