The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1908-05-29


equate doctrine of marriage. One
trouble with modern marriage is that
the masculine element predominates
in the ceremonial. Neither the hus-
band should obey the wife nor the
wife the husband. They are equals.
l do not deny that they are different
in mind and temperament, but they
contribute equally an indispensable
influence on civilization, though in
different ways"
This statement, issuing from DR..
Felix Adler, leader of the Society for
Ethical Culture and author of many
books, that we need a doctrine OF
marriage is certain to excite contro-
versy, and coming in the wake OF
the divorce report of the Census Blu
reau of Washington, is sure to Gre
ate widespread interest and attention
These are the figures: From 1887
to 1906, period of twenty years,
there have been 100000 divorce
suits brought in the United States
In the twenty preceding years, from
1867 to 1885, there were 10000,
or 100000 lower. This is an av-
erage increase of $4,000 divorces a
year in the United States. Of these
100000 suits for divorce nearly
100000 have been granted, and a
whole army of clerks and investiga-
tors has been employed by the Cen
sus Bureau getting in order the COM
plete official report. One hundred
and forty clerks are still employed
by the department, and at times the
Census Bureau has had three thou
sand and more investigators and
clerks working on this report.
The divorce question is being agi-
tated on all hands, and political econ
omists consider it to be one of the
most vital of all sociological prob
lens. .
"a short time ago l saw an &C
count in the papers" Professor Adler
continued, lin which young woman
in Chicago received her fifth divorce.
She was only sixteen when she mar
ried, and she soon was divorced, but
she remarked her husband. The
second marriage did not last very
much longer than the first. She then
took a second husband, but she soon
became divorced from him to remarry
her first husband. No sooner had
she returned to him than she d.
vorced him again, and although she
married a third husband the courts
have just declared her free.
1.-THE popular way of explaining
the difference between men and wom-
en- is often misleading. We say wom-
en- have great intuition, but we deny
them great reasoning power. We
say that men have the gift of sus-
tanned and strenuous reasoning, but
We deny them swift intuition.
1--WE say that women observe the
details of things better than men can
but that they cannot apprehend uni
versal truths of science and philos-
ophy as men can. We say women
particularize; men generalize. We
say women are all feeling, that they
depend on their emotions and i'm
pulses, whereas men act on cold, hard
scientific principle.
ut is not exact to make such dis
tinctions, nor are they very satsfac-
tory. Women are intellectual as well
as emotional. Some women in the
past have shown themselves equal to
the most difficult intellectual feats,
and if there have not been greater fig
ures among women in art and science
and philosophy it is perhaps only be-
cause they have not had the oppor-
tunities that men have had, and not
because they are naturally incompe-
tent to rise as high as men.
men also are capable of the finest
and most delicate emotions. If they
were not, how shall we explain that
the greatest Interpreters of the emo
tional life, the great poets, the great
musicians, have been men?
''This is what 1 consider to be the
right relation between the man and
woman. This Is what they should
do for each other. The woman should
AOuoC OH Tic QOi intCiitCtudl ell
ergies, all of the inmost capabilities
of the man, so that he can appreciate
the needs of humanity and work for
it.
''The woman by her spiritual in
fiuence over the man shall tend to
develop in him that love of obedience
which submits through love of what
is right and not through fear.
''She shall become his bride in mat
tiers of intellect and of morals, not by
any formulated code, but by the
things that she approves or disap-
proves. On the other hand, man
should by his intellectual influence
on woman widen and deepen and
cause her to raise continually the
standard by which she judges him.
People should not marry without
a thorough understanding of each
others disposition and character. In
fact, marriage should not be entered
into without thorough understand
ing on the part of both the man and
woman as to what the institution sig
nifies. There are spiritual meanings
to marriage. The feelings need to
be instructed by the far seeing mind.
1.-THE old idea of marriage was in
culcated and secured through two
fundamental principles absolute
submission to parents and the under
standing that marrigae was to be per-
manent. Under present conditions
these are no longer tenable in the old
xuou fow @h1 q rot WAS F.,-l1l =