The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1908-12-19
Prof. F. W. Blackmar Of the un,ver-

Prof. f. W. Blackmar Of the Unlyer-
slty OF Kansas is quoted as advising no
young man to get married and assume
the responsibilities Of raising a family
on $50 per week or less Ex-Congress-
man j. ID. BOwersOck of Lawrence. a
man Of wealth and wide experience and
observation in practical affairs, de;iv-
cred chapel address at the university
little later, taking issue with PROF..
Blackmar and declaring that large
Income is not indispensable to happiness
or success. Prof. Blackmar has evil
IDENTITY been misunderstood, if not actu-
ally misquOted. He is too wise not to
know that the vast majority of the
homes of this country have been built
up on $50 a week or less. He is too
good a political and social economist
not to know that the vast majority of
the future American homes will have to
be built up on $25 a week or less, am
he Is too patriotic a citizen to shut the
door of hope and opportunity and good
Citizenship in the faces of all who do
not earn above that sum. Regardless of
Prof. Blackmar's views. Mr.. Bower
SOCKS position will commend itself to
most people as being the nearer in ac-
cord with the facts as they are and
should be. There is a great deal to be
SAID In the matter Of constantly rising
standard and cost of living The young
householder Of to-day spends as much,
necessarily and legitimately, on his lit
tie family Of three or four members as
old his own father on family twice as
large. The necessaries of to-day were
the luxuries Of the past generation, and
the luxuries of to-day bid fair to be the
necessaries Of the next. Bat when all
Is said and done, it is not the wisest
course, from any point of view, to seek
to d1ssuade any ambitious young man,
actuated by the highest Of the home
building ideals, from realizing this
basic ideal Of all nations which are to
last. Even in this dollar-frenzied Amer
lea Of ours it is only the frothy minor
ity which gives the tinge and faint Of
financial mania to our society. In the
background, unseen and often unsus-
pected, uncounted millions Of people
are rearing the superstructure of splen-
did American homes on a foundation Of
thrift, industry and patriotic sacrifice
for their children, which is only an
other form Of blessing the nation as a
whole. In these homes the husband is
not plunger or spendthrift or fren-
zied financier, the wife Is not be-pow-
dered and be-gowned fashion plate. The
din Of the mart never browns the sound
Of contentment and the song of hope.
Money means only the medium for pro-
curing food and raiment and the advan-
tages Of decent scale Of living. The
money that does this magnificent work
is, in the great majority of cases, much
less than $25 week. To urge prudence
in the financial phases Of matrimonial
prospects is excellent advice. But to
place the dead line at $25 a week is an
Industrial Malthusianism for which we
are not yet ready, even in America. The
dead line may not be set, in fact, by
any political economist. The right sort
Of character will work out it's problems
on any given sum, while the wrong sort
of character will fail on any multiple
Of $25 a week