The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-04-19
IDEALS OF MARRIAGE

Magazine, on THE Older and Newer
Ideals of Marriage" that ought to in
terest your readers. The following
quotations are offered to call attention
to the article:
There are two errors CONCERNING
marriage deeply rooted in the populsr
mind and feeling-that monogamy is
itself something which if consistently
practised will settle all the troubles
attaching to the state of matrimonv,
and that the participation of woman
in the activities or interests outside
the home will lead to the destruction
of the family"
"The admirable point about monog.
amy is that it assures the offspring
unremitting attention from both
parents until the period of puberty.
when the new generation is prepared
to take up life on its own account. But
it is only an admirable form within
which - the NEST serious abuses
may exist"
Originally he had the power of life
and death over his wife and children.
and until the past century woman was
not person in the eyes of the law.
If the family is to continue,
woman must be recognized fully as a
personality, and the home must be-
come a part of society,"
"To handle the child wisely the
mother should be as wise as society
can make her. knowledge is
now a highly specified process; 3
and if the racial knowledge and ideals
begin to be fixed at an early age in
the child, the mind of the mother must
not be neglected.
Business interests keep the father
away from his home most of the time,
and even set very narrow limits to
his intelligence; and it is therefore pc
culiarly important that the mothers
should be fit to represent the interests
of life during that prolonged period
before the child makes his connections
with the outer world"
Morality is with reference to the
welfare of society, not the appetites of
the Individual, and a theory or prac-
tise which restricts the interests of
the mother, and thereby stunts the
life of the child, is, in the profoundest
sense of the word, immoral
up to the present time man has
shown a very lively interest and in
genuity in improving his breeds Of
stock and dogs, but has shown no sys-
tematic interest in the improvement of
his own offspring But there
has been recently founded in England
a society and a science of eugenics, or
of conscious race-culture, whose object
is the study of those social agencies
that influence, mentally or physically,
the racial qualities of future genera
tions.''
''In this connection, Professor Karl
Pearson said, I have often heard
false pride of ancestry condemned, but
I have not seen the true pride of an
cestry explained and commended:
Surely the man who is conscious that
he comes of a stock sound in body,
able in mind, tested in achievement,
and who knows that, mating with like
stock and maintaining himself in
health, he will hand down that herit
age to his children, surely such a man
may have legitimate pride in ances-
try"
"A science for the production of hui
man thoroughbreds seems at first a
startling proposition; but the idea is
so important that its late appearance
is to be accounted for only by the
action of the church and society in
placing the taboo on questions of mar
riage and sex. Certainly the
idea of children well born and well
nurtured, and marriages as a means
of adding health and sanity and
beauty and meaning and perpetuity to
the racial life, is one capable of carry
ing the maximum amount of senti-
ment.'
In the last paragraph of his article
(not quoted), Mr.. Thomas says that
woman s present share in social activi-
ty is not satisfactory to her; but that
if she will interest herself in this new
science, eugenics, which man has out
lined for her, she will find full scope
for all her powers; and that woman
may, "Efor the first time in history,
have the distinction of meditating a
great social change
Those interested in race Improvement
will give Mr.. Thomas credit for pre-
senting the matter simply. However,
in one particular, Mr.. Thomas makes
mistake-he assumes that women,
though interested in improving the
race, have not worked to bring about
such Improvement.
Women, through their work and in
fuence in several distinct lines, are re-
sponsible for the present sensitive CON
dition Of public interest in these mat
ters. For example, it was through
women S work and influence that legis-
lation known as pure food laws was
enacted. There was no self-interest to
urge them on They were not manufae-
turers of pure food, undersold by man
ufacturers of adulterated foods. They
simply fought for pure food for all,
but especially for children, that they
might be better nourished. 1t was
through women's work and influence
that we have what legislation there is
against child labor and for better sani-
tary conditions in factories. 1t was
women s work and influence that reused
public sentiment against the sweat
shop system; that raised the Age
Consent" that has brought about re-
forms in charitable institutions; that
is now rousing the better people of the
South against the amalgamation of the
whites and the negroes. And, if you
want concrete, homemade example,
it was women = work and Influence