El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-02-07

TT Is a curious fact that the topics
which are of the most vital import
- to the happiness, health and peace
of the race are usually the topics on
which the least is said and Of which
the least is understood.
Much is written and said about the
tariff, and it is an important subject,
no doubt But the tariff is only one
idea for the protection of a country,
and the country is only a HOME FOR i,
PEOPLE.
Therefore what directly affects the
health, the morals or the happiness of
PEOPLE is far more important than
the tariff.
In Baltimore lives VIII J. Erwood.
1t might here be suggested that Mr..
Erwood could strengthen his name by
leaving out the middle letter. A mans
name is always stronger without the
middle letter. Think how George
Washington, Benjamin Franklin,
Thomas Edison, Theodore Roosevelt.
Abraham Lincoln, would be weakened
by the intrusion of a, middle name Mr..
Erwood has ideas; he has convictions,
and he has the courage of his convic-
tions.
He has delivered many lectures, and
he has recently published his own
. book called The Rational Life and
it would be Of inestimable value If this
book were placed in the hands of every
parent and teacher in the world, and
if the clergynien Of every pulpit could
make a sermon from it's pages.
The book speaks of love and mar
riage It says: There is no institution
so fully misunderstood as marriage and
its relationship. Singularly. the most
important Of human institutions is
! thoroughly disregarded so far as ade-
quate instruction and information are
concerned
There is no other phase of life into
which people are permitted to rush SO
blindly"
Mr. Erwood proceeds to state (what
has so often been stated in this and
other columns) that parents expend
| thousands of dollars for fitting" the
young OF both sexes to be preachers,
lawyers, doctors, teachers, artists, mu-
| sicians and statesmen, but that not
| one dollar, and not one hour, IS ex-
! pended by the average parent towards
making their sons or daughters IN
DERSTAND THE MEANING OF REAL
MARRIAGE AND ALL 1T IMPLIES
] FOR THE RACE.
| He says: LAS result too often mar
riage today means one part despicable
roue, one part ignorant womanhood,
and the outcome of 1t is one long life
|
! and an unwelcomed and unloved pro-
! geny, diseased mentally and physically
! from birth"
Because the children of the educated
class are left in ignorance Of the great
! SUBLIME LAWS underlying the sex
question and are left to learn the most
important facts of being in any hap
hazard manner, the subject of marriage
! is to them a matter of impulse or one
/
! long after it is too late they discover
| the wrong which has been done them
in the silence of their parents on these
topics.
The evil goes farther back ofttimes
than marriage.
In one chapter Mr. Erwood speaks
| of the revelations made by the juve-
nile courts regarding the immortality
| of children under 16 years of age i'm
morality resulting from ignorance. In
| judge Mack's Juvenile court, Chicago,
groups Of boys and girls from to 16
have been brought before the law,
| charged with and proved of appalling
immortality. These children came from
public schools, grammar schools, high
schools and parochial schools. And
| some of the children belonged to
prominent club women and to families
! claiming to be 1.-The better classes
dren were interested in reforming po-
liticaI abuses and the mothers were
| anxious to help the poor and to give
| women the ballot, but they had not the
sense and courage which made them
tell their children how sacred was the
sex impulse, and how sacred the human
body.
''They did not like to destroy the in
nocence of childhood" they say, by
| talking to little children on this topic.
But why do they not stop and think
| of the continual effort on the part of
visible nature everywhere to awaken
| the curiosity Of growing children on
this subject? Why not use the ex-
| panding seed, and the bursting bud,
and the beautiful flower as a base of
| explanation to the unfolding mind of
| the child, and impress upon it the d.
! vine law underlying the whole great
theme?
The first crime against God is when
the parent considers the sex subject
unclean. Mr.. Erwood says:
Almost daily, hourly, in the public
press. we read of some CHASTITY outrage
upon women mad girls; we read of the
increase of insanity and crime. We
are Mortified at the recital-we scarce
spirit we cry out; When is it all going
to cease?
I'm asking, however, many shut their
eyes to one very glaring fact 1 e., back
of all this nightmare of horror lies the
perverted idea of sex and it's functions
Lies the ignorance and the misconcep-
ton of the vital forces of the human.
Terrible, is it not? Yet a physician
Of most widely known eastern hos
| pital tells me I have not even limited
at the half of the terror of 1t all; tells
| me that a study Of some of the cases
which have come to that hospital would
doubly prove all that has been said
| here.