The copper era., 1910-12-02
TAKING THE SCALP
 OF COLONEL ROOSEVELT "NerVe-wrecking," Anxious Penny scrapine," Hurled in Behalf
 of IiaraSSed Parents.

Joseph Fitzpatrick, who evidently knows whereof he speaks, contributes the following interesting article to the New York American, reviewing in unmistakable language one of Coi- onel Roosevelt's fayorite themes, and this is the way he does it:
 "A short time ago the busy and vers- atile tongue of Boss Roosevelt at public fair, on a favorite theme, wagged thus: The faithful mother is the one who raises family of chil- dren to bless her in old age, but the meanest woman under Gods canopy is the one who shirks her duty to the state and nation in choosing to be childless, or words to that effect. :'No doubt we all know of many mothers in the common walks of life who would liketo answer MT. RoOse- welt in emphatic tones on this subject could they lift their noses long enough from the domestic grind stone from which our hero is safely and comfortably removed.
 "lf our hero Teddy through blind, una ppropriative fate, had been cast in history as plain T. Roosevelt, plumber, bricklayer, waiter, cook or porter, where he would have to match plebian brains against the cost of liv- ing in tenement rooms where a work mans salary dwindles in mid-week to widows mite, We might not have been blessed with so many of his own progeny to which his immortal and lnfallible policies could be hand ed down.
 "Of course, our hero will tell us that no matter in what environment his lot was cast, his powerful indi- viduality and strenuous initiative would have in time built its own pc destal from which he could lecture the 'spineless, incompetent human iellyfish' how to govern and behave themselves. Granting that he may be right in his egotism, it is fact that the perpetuation of the hero worship (which is HIS breath of life) requires the prolific birth of subjects who cannot become as clever as him. self, and who will ever need preach ing to.
 "Political gamesters of the cahbre of Roosevelt and Emperor William of Germany, whose pawns must of necessity be pliant and adoring men and women, are always deeply pained at birth prevention, especially among the working classes, on whose backs are planted the pillars of their thrones.
 "Mr. Roosevelt never touches on the subject of Race Suicide without displaying his dense ignorance of the social conditions in the cities which are driving a vast army of mothers to childless loneliness in fear of the spectre of want which now stalks in all but the most well-to do families.
 1t cannot be possible that an eX. president is ignorant of the vast num- Der of families in this great free re- public who just manage to live by the skin of their teeth,' or by means  ny scraping of harassed parents who seldom secure days relaxation from grinding care, much less the maud lin applause of emotional conven- tions or a much-needed vacation in palace cars.
 "One can select at random in any tenement or even middle-class living section families whose every member employed, except the baby (and if the law were not watchful of that mite some enterprising mill owner might devise a machine to use it's energy) And it is common eXpe- rience for heads of families to have their salaries graded downward ac- cording to the number of children they Cpossess who are available for employ If our hero had been a boyish unit in such a family, unat- tended by servants, tutors, riding masters, bronco busters, college pro fessors, etc, would he have grown so optimistic and strenuous and have had a perfectly corking time?
 "No doubt MT. Roosevelt would be shocked if he heard children, con- demned to heavy toll prematurely, rebuke their parents for bringing them into life; or mothers warning marriageable daughters against child birth under present living con- ditions. Yet clergymeu, from cardi nals downward, who feel the national pulse at its most vital artery, can bear witness to the awful spread of birth hpreventiOns in our country.
 Hike the German Emperor and his kind, MT. Roosevelt knows that the hand that rocks the cradle has even a more substle influence than the right of voting. The mothers pro- duce the voters and also the hands that may carry the rifle and the bay onet. It will therefore pay men who crave uninterrupted rulerShip to search deeply tor the cause of dis content and despair among mothers in whose hands and minds are the is- z.