The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1909-12-03

. IIlS law. 0OhAO N00NS AANs
in the vacillating course of past legis-
lation. the variant opinions Of the
present but more is due TO the fact
that plain and much-needed discussion
of these relations is not had.
IF we turn from the law as given
through Moses it is that we may find
the law written in our members. For
the law of God is at last the express
sion of the law of our highest being
and our racial welfare. We will deal
mostly, then, not with scripture, which
is clear in denouncing all the sins OF
this class, but with considerations OF
mans nature, his history and the well
fare of the race.
Physically and mentally the man
is for protection and support, woman
for Collaborating, nurture and culture.
Woman needs man to protect and pro-
vide for her and her offspring. Man,
or the race, must have woman or the
race dies.
God has shown us the law OF
monogamy-on man for one woman
and one woman for one man. History
shows that all other forms have failed,
this only survives with cultured man.
And where peoples have allowed this
law to be wantonly violated they have
paid for it with their ruin. Moreover
the approximately equal numbers OF
males and females in the race today
speaks for the same thing, while that
law is the only one, we believe, con-
ducive to the integrity, nobility and
purity of mans individual life. Here
we are on solid ground-one for one.
TT follows that when man reaches
the place where he can protect and
provide, and woman where she can
rear and train the offspring, they
should enter the institution II monog-
amy, the family as we know it, and
fulfil for the race the ends Of their
being. This Is a duty to be set aside
only for higher or unavoidable reasons
never for lower reasons.
eff this is the law for the relations
of man and woman-one for one
written by the hand of God in their
nature what is violation of 1t?
violation is anything that defeats
the purpose and wisdom of nature,
or that destroys the institution OF
monogamy. Such forms we find In
polygamy, polyandy and this progress
sive polygamy our divorce laws are
giving us. And, too, adultery by which
one invades the home of another,
tears down an institution that seeks
the protection and support Of the mate
and the offspring.
let us not forget the fundamental
to all morals is the law that relations
entail obligations. No man may as
sumo the relationships of life unless
as moral being he is ready to bear
the duties and responsibilities that
grow out of them. No man may
have the privileges without meeting
the obligations,
Therefore violation of the law OF
one to one occurs not only in the case
of married persons but of the unmar-
ried also. The burden is not borne
equally, for one must bear 1t alone,
one must suffer.
I'VE speak of "illicit relations"
They are such not only before our
common law but by the law of God, the
law of the race What Thoughtful man
can see how the relations Of man and
woman are hedged about by physical
consequences so difficult to avoid
how disease and suffering follow at
tempts at avoidance, without realiz-
ing that behind these barriers is God
protecting the race he has made and
setting His limits in divine judgments
and laws?
MEN are to blame for prostitution;
and they excuse themselves with
much show Of face But how can a
man with any sense of moral right
become an equal party to the debase-
ment of feminine character? How
can he encourage her In life OF
shame with all its horrors, to last for
a few FIVE years or more, then to go
out into eternal night-how can he do
this and then look a respectable peo-