The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1915-09-23
The Stupid Slavery
Of Custom.

unnns Of the Lakeland Telegram that
isn't worthy Of that place.
Mr.. Dixon publishes the following
comment and clipping IN q recent is
sue Of the Telegram:
.Sonetines one Of these editor men
ehits it on with such extraor binary
force and accuracy and cornprehen-
sive treatment when writing IF tie
vital issues of the day that that par
ticuIar piece Of work stands apart
and alone, clear-cut and glittering,
challenging criticism and as Obvious
" true as a settled maxim, and yet
as unknown and unthought of to
the masses Flooding along in the
stupid slavery Of custom and con-
vention as wireless teiegraphy be-
fore Marconi made it real.
The man who writes the editorial
page of the Saturday Evening Post
is one Of the bxoadest, clearest, keen
est thinkers in this country and the
following from his pen in the last
Issue of that periodical deserves to
survive in the vital literature IF this
age as the best expressed right
thinking on a present issue, almost
in the paramount class, that has APP
peared in any publication in recent
times. It is the full, clear, biting
statement of great truth, and it
should be received with enthu siastic
acclaim by the whole body of women
in the country as the kind of
stuff needed to rid the world VI the
cheap ssntimentaiity that holds a
woman as an angel while. working
her as q drudge:
"Whenever we hear anybody talk
ing about women like a Mary J.
HolneC novel, we wonder whether he
has been committing murder, OF in
what other crime his undev.loped
brain has involved him. Intelleetu-
ally your sloppy sentimentalist is in
the twelfth century. If he does not
believe In witchcraft and ast1.ology
| it is simply because other supersti-
tons come handler to him. Reason
ing Is for him impossible, because
the stuff in the top Of his head has
no penetration. It simply spatters,
like warm mush, on the surfsce of
any phenomenon that confronts him.
Naturally he is a great aomirer
Of all cowardly aEsassinations under
the ''unwritten law" and O. the
most brutal lynchings in which there
is any trace Of sex interest. Regard
ling a good many Iynchings the in
evitable sentimentalist hobs up with
the apology that they were, after all,
an effect Of the peculiar sancity in
which women were held by the
Ilynchers.
"If you should inquire q little you
would find that this sentimental
sanctity does not in the least involve
an effort to make life in any way
brighter for women. 1t does not
involve trying to get shorter hours
or higher wages for her If she is q
breadwinner, or greater security for
her rights If she is a wife, or the
protection Of the ballot. A conlmun-
ity of true sentimentalists would
never let women vote.
'sThis sentimental sanctity means
holding women fast as masculine
possession. The man who assassi-
mates or lynches is never protecting
or avenging women. He is always
protecting and avenging his owl
masculine pride Of possession. be
. cause, with his poor mushy head, HI
is utterly unable to understand woman
: except as an object of that nasculn.
pride Of possession.
'The sentimentalist is not at al
: interested in tightening woman
work, improving her political status
? Tor doing anything else that tends t
: make her freer. He wants her t
: he dependent on him. In that con
{ dition he viii make her some slob
9 berry phrases and cheerfully murde
: whoever shocks his sentimental in
! stincts-provided he feels quite sur
. he can do it with perfect safety t
himself"
B