El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-02-19
Dorothy Dix Says Parents Seldom
Justified In Interfering With Love
Only When Character of Boy Girl Weak Bad Should Father
Mother Try Prevent Marage-Persona Attraction Must Prevail

~ HE question Of how far parents
are justified in interfering in
Il their children's matrimonial al
fairs is one upon which youth and age
viii never agree.
All mothers and fathers think that
their years their wisdom and expert
cnce of life make them the best judges
of what sort OF women and men their
sons and daugh Lers should marry. And
in proof Of their contention they point
out that in the countries where fathers
and mothers do arrange their children S
marriages there is much less divorce
than there is in America, where young
folks manage the matter for them
selves
An Experiment in Happiness.
The view of the matter is one in
which independent young America viii
never acquiesce. In this country mar
riage is not entered into primarily as
an Establishment for the perpetuatiOn
of the family. It is an experiment in
individual happiness. We want to pick
out our own husbands and wives. and
at least have the pleasure and excite
ment Of making our own mistakes.
To my mind there are three cases,
and three only, in which parents are
justified in interfering in their chill
dren's love affairs ana breaking off a
match If they can. II parents know
that man is immoral, or Il drunkard
or lazy and shiftless, they are right
to move Heaven and earth to prevent
their daughter from marrying him, and
bringing certain misery upon her own
head
Or If a parent know a girl to be
careless in morals, of shreWish temper,
and e-travagGnt and slovenly. they do
no more than their duty in trying to
save their son from wrecking his life
by marrying her.
In each case it is a matter of the
character Of the individual TO which the
parent has right to object Nothing
else counts and the father and mother
far exceed their privileges when they
object to their son or daughter chOOs-
ing q wife or husband because she or
he happens not to be Of the same re-
ligiOus faith. or shade of politics or
have the peculiar colored hair that they
admire
No Place For Religious Bigotry.
Religious bigOtry should have no
come because it guarantees them free
dom to worship God according to the
dictates of conscience. vet Just now
know of heart-brOken young woman
who has been parted from the man she
loved because her mother does not be-
lieve in mixed marriages" The young
man is all that one could desire in
son-in-laW except his faith. which
doesn't Eplease The girls mother-and
which is none of the old lady's business.
in such a case a young couple are
foolish 90 let the prejudices OF a mar
row minded parent wreck their hap
piness. She belongs to the days of
religious intolerance and persecution,
the rack and thumb screw. when people
thought il piOuS and pleasing TO God to
torture other people into their way Of
thinking. The young people belong
to a broader and saner and more toIer-
ant era of human thought, and if each
is willing that the other should seek
Heaven in his or her own way they
should refuse to be parted b yam old
woman's fanaticism. If there's nothing
to object in a man except the church he
goes to he is certainly a matrimonial
prize that any girl should grab with
out stopping to argue it out with her
mother
Another Stumbling Block.
Another stumbling block in the path