The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-04-04
DOROTMY DIX TALKS
By DOROTHY DIX
Worid's uiEhest Paid Woman Writer.
To Husbands and Fathers.

To Husbands and Fathers.
Attention, Mr.. Husband and Fa-
Their. These few lines are written es-
pecially for you. Please read them.
Have you made your will? And if
you have made, it have you tied up
whatever money you are leaving your
fool-proof trust, SO that they can
neither spend il, nor give it away, nor
I be cheated out of it?
If you have not done this you have
committed a crime against those who
are dependent upon you and who look
| to you, and have a right to look to
you, to defend them against a world
| that is hard and cruel to penniless
women.
| If you have not done this. go this
| very day to your lawyer and make
your WILL and leave Your property in
| trust to your wife and daughters.
! Many men put off making their
wills because they hate to face the
| thought of death. This is puerile cow
ardice- The one certain thing in an
| uncertain world is death. 1t is bound
to come to each one of us. and the
| most comforting thought that any
man can have when he comes to lay
his head on the pillow for the last
time is that he is leaving those he
loves safeguarded against want.
Ii there is a hell it can lave no
worse torment than the remorse a
man must suffer If, after death, his
spirit can visit the earth and see his
poor, helpless old wife eating the Bit
ter bread of dependence, and his ten
derby reared daughters battling hope
| lessly against poverty because he was
too stupid and careless to make a
Will settling the money he left them
on them in such a way that they
could not lose it.
l repeat again with all the empha-
Sis and earnestness of which 1 am
| capable, Mr.. Husband and Father,
| make a will and leave your wife's and
| daughters property in trust SO that
| they cannot touch the principal.
Fifty years hence, when women
| have gone into business, and every
girl is brought up to follow some
| ga1nful occupation, women as a class
may know how to handle money and
1t may be safe to leave them their
property outright, but at the present
| time they lack this knowledge, and it
| is not safe to leave it to them unse-
cured.
Every man knows this. He knows
,hat ne wouldn't trust his wife to
handle his business or decide. on his
| Investments. Then why does he think
| that his death will work some sort of
a miracle in her that will inspire her
with sufhcient financial acumen to
handle his estate when ne is gone?
VI course no such miracle occurs,
ana the familiar tragedy that you have
seen happen to dozen of your
| friends families will happen to YOUR
Town, Mr.. Husband and Father. un-
less you are wiser than your friends
! were.
Think of how often little scene
like this happens: You are seated at
your desk and your office boy comes
In and says that Mrs. A wants to see
you She comes in. a pathetic shabby
little creature in black, with hair
that is suddenly gone gray, a figure
that seems to have shriveled up all
at once, and a face that has lost all of
its jolly middle age prettiness- You
look once into the haggard, desperate
eyes and swallow hard, and haven't
the courage to meet them again
/ For. Mrs. A is the widow of your old
friend. Many is the good dinner you've
eaten in her beautiful home. Many is
the jolly ride you've taken in her
automobile. for A was a rich man.
and when he died his family came into
a comfortable pot of money
But they haven't a cent now Some
how, the whole fortune slipped thru
Mrs. AS fingers. Bad investments,
reckless extravaganza, people who
cheated her, relatives who borrowed
and couldn't pay back. Same old story,
and Mrs. A has come to you to ask you
if you won't help her to get some
work, something whereby she can sup
port herself.
What can you say to her? What
can you do for her? What, in all this
busy world that demands good and
competent work, can middle aged
woman who has never been trained to
any occupation-do?
i She's too old to learn new tricks.
She lacks the strength and stamina to
do manual labor She's Handicapped
by the habits of luxury and ease of
half a century of rich living. She
lacks alertness and high spirits, the
brightness and charm that makes peo-
pie want to have young girls about
them.
! You would be only too glad to make
a place for her in your office IL you
could, but there's absolutely nothing
that she is capable of doing and so
you tell her some polite lie, and hold
out a few vague promises that you'll
try to get something for her. and get
her off. because you are thinking.
what if you were dead, and that was
your poor old wife going like a beg
gar from door to door. and you can
not bear the thought of it.
Or perhaps it is AS young daughter
that you run across in a store, sagged
hack utterly exhausted against the
shelves She looks SO thin. worn and
tired-and she's just the age of your
blooming Betty. who is dancing thru
the picnic time of life.
And then you curse A for his
stupidity in not having LETT Ills prop
gar themselves. Yet very likely you
are doing the same thing that A did.
and your family may come to the same
end.
4 do not need to tell you. Mr. Hus-
band and Father. that there are men
who are human ghouis. who amass
fortunes by. preying on widows and
orphans. You know that these men