The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1913-06-03

danger more pressing.
Why should the child of self
sacrificing love begin life dis
owned, dishonored, an unwel-
come burden to the state or to
organized charity, while his lib
ertine progenitor goes gaily on
his way of irresponsible dalliance
with other women?
The conditions of the mater
nifty hospitals of our cities are
but obscurely known, their rec
ords are elusive-and yet enough
has been reported by their heads
to warrant the statement that
the birth of illegitimate children
Is on the Increase and that farm
ing them out is common and
their actual murder not unknown.
1t needs no special investiga-
ton to understand that the tend
ency of these outlawed boys is to
become criminals and the tend
ency of these fatherless girls is to
become prostitutes. How can we
confidently expect the illegiti-
mate child to grow to pure wom-
anhood, to valiant manhood?
The acts which we call immoral
or criminal are, for the most part,
survivals of primitive conditions
of the race, and retrogression in
the best of us is terribly easy. 1t
is natural, even for the sons and
daughters of refined and cult
Unfnd hnnnac IN vyin11 ~ ha o1l
ing mystery of sex, for it is the
most fundamental need of the
race, inexorable as hunger. 1t
has kept the earth teeming with
the midgets we call men for a
million years and must continue
to do SO. The wonder is not that
so many girls fall" but that so
many rise above temptations.
How can we expect the founding,
the branded child to walk the
straight and narrow way alone?
One of the judges of Chicago
was quoted in a recent issue of
the Chicago Tribune to have said
that of the many cases of "delin-
quency" brought against girls in
his court, more than rs per cent
began with the birth of child.
They were mothers by reason of a
certain innocency, certain naive
surrender to the power of love.
The child of such a mother should
not be denied the fundamental
rights of a son and heir.
There is no excuse for seduc-
tion and no reason for illegiti-
macy except that all laws, past
and present, have been written
by men and for the protection OF
men-women and children have
been considered only so far as the
male sense of justice and mercy
was aroused. Mans property
rights, 1t would seem, are more
sacred than the souls and bodies
of his natural" children.
There are those who say that
nothing can be done; that this
evil has always existed and that
| 1t always must. This, we deny
Because a wrong has existed fol
a million years is no reason fol-
its continued existence.
/ Walt Whitman has said, "Al
that the past was not, the future
will be-" Conditions stable
throughout the centuries sudden,
/ ly break up, melt and disappear
like ice from a frozen stream
Illegitimacy, old as it is, need not
persist for a moment longer thar
we of today decree. Our age
heir to all the ages, is also the
progenitor of the future, we are
responsible to our sons, and
should acknowledge and use oul
powers for the good and not fol
the suffering and sorrow of the
race. Our duty is not to con
serve this evil because it is old
but to destroy it, because it Il
unjust.
1t is wrong because 1t brands
the innocent, burdens and cor
rupts the woman and let's thu
guilty man go free. To fore
marriage after the wrong ha
bene done, after the woman ha
discovered the perfidy of tn
man, is too late. The legally