Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-11-06
Leading Masculine Pro-
tagonist of Feminism
Champions Holy Bond
After Many Attacks
BY M'LISS

BY MLlSS
VIZ L. GEORGE has written "A Defense
, w. Of Marriage" thus proving that
once in a great while the impossible does
happen.
The leading masculine protagonist OF
feminism; the young English champion Of
the strong-arm, radical Iadies; the man
who has perhaps written more vividly and
more lucidy about the new woman than
any other writer-whose heroines without
a single exception that comes to mind have
been preternaturally fond Of the divorce
court or the alliance without benefit Of
clergy"-appears, incredible though II must
seem, the defender of the institution Of
matrmony in an article in November's
Harpers Monthly.
with all the brillance that George has
used on former occasions to satirize the
holy bond. he now turns to it's defense and
to the defense of the femnists who, he de-
clares, have been too quickly accused of
wanting to do away with all existing insti-
tutions.
"As regards marriage" he writes, 1--WE
have been exasperated-but we do not want
to do away with it, one reason being that
we cannot and another that marriage is
about the best system that we know OF for
carrying on the common life. 1t is true
that we want marriage with all the latest
improvements, but I believe that the es-
sence of the institution will remain until
human nature ceases to be human
MORE vIRULENT THAN SHAW
In his attacks on the institution of mar
rage in the past George has been even
more virulent than George Bernard Shaw
the virus Of whose attacks we always sus-
pect to be diluted with an appreciable
quantity of frivolity and sheer pose. More
over we always have n feeling after the
Shaw marriages, even in that topsy-turvy
play "Misaliance," that the pairs are going
to live II not happily forever afterward, at
least as well as II is possible for two mar
ried persons to live. But with the younger
writer It is different; when he marries two
persons you just know that trouble has
| bobbed up on the horizon simultaneous with
| the slipping on of the wedding ring
You remember THE Strangers Wedding"
| the story of the MARI Ige of a young lord
with the beautiful daughter of a washer
woman. with an analysis that was merci-
| less the author took you along with them
| down the sordid tragic steps that led to
their divorce. You remember, too. THE
| Second Blooming" the heroine Of which, a
| lovely, erotic woman typifying SO many
| women OF the cultured class today. is tied
| to a shaggy, Newfoundlandish sort of a
| man. His every word and act becomes
| maddeningly irksome to her. despite the
| bond OF children. She gropes for happiness
| in an affair"
The same George who with a pitilessly
analytical pen wrote those books and many
| other treatises Of similar trend now takes
up the case Of marriage, with a pen no less
! pltllessly analytical because 1t Is defensive
Earl Barnes, the Philadelphia lecturer
| and feminist, once said to me that he con-
sidered all "middle-aged unmarried mer
and women so much biological waste"
CELIBACY sHRIvELING
| i,yt1 L., =
azine article he paints the shriveling effect
| on body and soul that loneliness and cell.
bacy and unions outside the pale have or
| men and women With his characteristic
| thoroughness he gives you cases of bach.
elors and spinsters whom he has observed