El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-07-16
Ella Wheeler Wilcox Urges One S Standard Of Mo- Mo,
Copyright Publishing

philosophy. Correct science is teach
ing the effect of excuses on mems
brain, blood and nerves.
Men who openly maintain the right
to excuses of all kinds used to argue
that women need only look to the ami
NAL kingdom to be convinced of mans
greater needs and privileges.
Influence of the Past.
1t is occurring to some of the better
class of men today that man should re-
gard himself as something higher than
a beast or a bird. Since he has more
brain, greater reasoning powers and a
larger outlook in the universe, he
ought to realize that he is expected to
take a higher stand morally, and set a
lofteier standard for himself. He re-
spects the animal he is, but knows the
angel in him should control.
In time he will come to a full know
ledge of the wonderful place he can
occupy in the universe II he holds to
his ideals. But we must not expect all
once, and we must not condemn him
for not living up TO the standards set
by the enlightened few.
The influence of the past is still upon
him.
The license he has so long termed
masculine privileges" he cannot all at
once abandon.
When a woman urges one standard
of conduct for both sexes the man
points with a laugh at the anaemfc or
feminine type of masculinity that alone
lives up to her ideal and asks: DO you
want me to be like him. And the
. woman is silenced.
But 1t is not the man who has moth
ing within himself to control who is
the woman's ideal. 1t is the man who
feels himself the universe and knows
himself TO be the divine spirit capable
OF controlling It. That is the man the
future will give the earth.
Today we have the weakly, man only,
perhaps. living the absolutely orderly
life But we have the strong man
! struggling toward 1t.
The Woman Leads Him.
If he trips and errs. and is sorry, and
makes a new effort, we should not be
? too bitter in our denunciation. He is
like the babe who is taking his first
lettering steps. and woman-who for
centuries has been taught the neces-
sity and the possibility of self control
is his nurse and mother
There is q certain foundation for the
idea that the woman who is unfaithful
is more desperate than the unfaithful
man. She violates more laws Of So
ciety and dehes more conventions of
the world than man does by the same
I act.
Therefore It indicates a more reck-
less condition of mind, or a more ex-
plosive and anarchistic nature. The
sin is no greater, but the offense
against established rules is greater.
There is no sex in sin
Yet no one of US, however liberal and
however universal our standard. could
| truthfully say we would not feel
greater anguish and despair over the
misstep Of a daughter of 30 than over
the misstep of a son of the same age
We feel that a man who takes back
an erring wife is a nobler being than
! the wife who takes back an erring
| husband Not because God makes a
| distinction between the two, but be-
cause one has def1ed more customs than
the other.
It really indicates a higher devel-
! opment of liberality and broad mind
| edness in a man to take such a stand
| than 1t requires in a woman.
| She has centuries of inherited ideas
| and an understanding of the worlds
complacent attitude toward erring man
| to sustain her, while the man is going
against all established customs and
! cutting a pathway through tangled
| forest of prejudice.
We are all cropping in the dark. but
| We are all coming slowly out into the
/ light.
| Let us help one another by tolerance,
charity and patience.