The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1918-01-13
DROP MORALITY
| TO BREED ARMY
German Plan of Secondary
Marriages Raises Indig.
nation of the Women.
TO RECOVER LOSSES
Hun Scheme Would Legiti-
matize Children Born Out
of Usual WedlOck.
TO RECOVER LOSSES

The German scheme of secondary
marriages. or polygamy in restricted
| sense. in order to restore her depleted
neutrality-suspicious. the male-and
thus maintain the strength OF the
Fatherland's future armies has raised
storm of protest from every quar-
ter of the empire.
The plan had been widely promul-
gated In n pamphlet written by Carl
hermann Torges under the heading,
A." The Secondary Marriage as the Only
Means for the Rapid Creation of n
New and Powerful Army and the
Publication of Morality The author
emphasizes the point that the future
| position of Germany demands some
SUCH scheme. as the military strength
| OF people depends in part upon the
| number OF men able to bear arms" He
declares that the heavy losses sus-
tanned as Q; result of the war must be
made good, and at the same time every
effort must he made to meet the de-
cline in the birth rate. which was la
| mented before the war.
Moral Conception Relative.
The conception of morality. Herr
Torges maintains, is but relative and
| that good morals are only what the
upper classes Of society approve.
! Women in all classes who have reached
a certain age are called upon to enter
into secondary marriage. supported
by personal inclination and he must
have the consent Of his married wife.
The offspring of these secondary mar
! rtages will bear the name of their
| mother and are handed over to the
state for care. They are to be re-
garded as full members OF society.
After the child is born, the mother is
| again to become free.
1T rests. THEREFORE" the pamphlet
concludes. with the women and the
| clergy. assisted by the state, to de-
termine whether Germany shall be able
not only to maintain herself on her
present pinnacle of morality. but by
her own strength to stand up in the
future as in the present to the pres
| sure Of enemies who are increasing nu-
merically."
Catholic Papers Comment.
The Aargauer volksblatt. a Swiss
Catholic publication, incidentally
| speaks of this scheme for breeding
soldiers" as peculiar insult to Ca
| tholicism and asserts that the prls-
sian militarists have done all they
can during the war to economics Prot
cstant troops and to expose Roman
Catholic troops to tho greatest casual
| ties. ~-E
The Swiss paper criticlses the Ger
man pamphlet from every point Of
| VieW-as' immoral, anti Christian, and
as "a brutal insult to the dignity of
women" 1t continues:
1--WE assert that if the German ma =
ton, and all German women in partic-
nlar. do not repudiate with furious in =
dignation this filthy propaganda on
the part of a state which is utterly
materialized and has fallen away al
! together from every kind of Christian
civilization. they are assuming dis
| grace that can never be wiped out. We
| note with satisfaction that the circu
lation of the pamphlet was Immediately
| forbidden in Austria, although Austria
is hardly n garden of lilies. and has
! lost far more men in this war than
Germany has lost.
Dedicated to Future Massacre"
ut is deeply regrettable that a ma
ton should think of having recourse
| to such methods in order to force It's
| domination on Europe--dedicating
children yet unborn to n future mas
sacre of the peoples. This theory
proves better than anything else that
those peoples are right who say tina:
the German people must be freed from
Prussian hegemony by decisive de-
feat, and must be cut off from the EOS
sibility of bringing again such a terri
bic blood bath on mankind. Painful
though 1t may be, such grave aherra
tons of an utterly goddess doctrine OF
power, parading under a mask of pie.y,
compel one to draw hard and unflinch-
ing conclusions: for above the welfare
of nation stands. after all, the we;-
fare of human society above all, the
moral order"
Sense of Shame Awakening.
The discussion of the idea of sane
tioning birth out of wedlock in order
to strengthen Germany is no. confined
to this pamphlet by Herr 1orges. 1t
appears. however, that German censor
ship has become sensitive to the effect
such propaganda may have on pecom-
ing known outside Of Germany APP
parcntly efforts have been made to
prevent circulation of articles outside