The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-06-15
DOROTHY DIX TALKS

By DOROTHY DIX
worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer.

How Much Liberty Should Husbands
and Wives Allow Each Other?-2.
And women are just as loath to
grant their husbands any liberty as
men are to give their wives any free
dom. Look at the way wives make
their husbands punch the time clock
Observe how women freeze out all OF
their husbands old friends Notice
how suspicious wives are of every ac~
quaintance their husband has whom
they have not previously o. K.'d.
If q man wants to take his Oldest
clothes and go off somewhere fishing.
instead of going to a fashionable sum
mer resort does his wife bid him 80
to it and have a good time and come
back rested and refreshed? She does
not. And he goes with her. cursing
and disappearing, to fashionable
summer resort. If q man likes UNI
conventional. Bohemian sort of peo-
pie while his wife prefers the prayer
meeting crowd, is he free to spend 2
his cronies? Well. I trow not. When
he does he has to make a sneak OF 1t.
and tell his beloved Maria enough fibo
to send his soul to perdition.
For wives do not believe in this per-
sonal liberty stuff. At least where
to 1t that hubby has none at home.
Why, the average woman won't even
let her husband eat what he wants to.
or smoke in peace, and as for his in
dulging in any little fad such as anna
| teur photography. or collecting butter
flies, or first editions, she puts an end
to that before the honeymoon IL over.
OF course she says that highly sea-
| soned food disagrees with his stom-
ach, and cigars are bad for his nerves.
and that it's a waste of money to take
pictures and buy first editions when
you can buy perfectly stunning sport
suits with the same money. But the
point is that the married man Is no
longer a free agent. He sold himself
into bondage at the altar.
The queer part of the whole affair
is that in exercising this tyranny
| over each other, married people for
(, get that beyond the love of man for
woman is the passion for personal lib
| erty. 1t Is the one thing the whole
human race has been struggling and
fighting for since the very dawn OF
i civilization. 1t Is the thing that men
have died for and frail women have
been burned at the stake for. It Is
the principle for whose sake the whole
world il being drenched in blood right
now.
Take this away from an individual
and you leave nothing else worth liv-
| ing for Without freedom a palace
becomes penitentiary. money power
less to purchase pleasure, the whole
world cinders, ashes and dust. Every
man and woman knows that this is
true in their own case. and vet each
man and woman thinks that he or
4 she can deprive the unfortunate Great
ure who is married to him or her, of
his or her liberty. and atone for 1t by
claiming that the crime was commit
ted thru love.
/ Undoubtedly there Is no other sin
gle thing that is provocative of SO
much domestic misery as the refusal
of husbands and wives to give each
fother a reasonable amount of per-
! sonaI liberty. 1t is the cause Of end
I less friction Tin the family circle. of
fierce rebellion, and deceit. Also II
keeps young people out of the holy
estate. and makes ones latch key look
better than q wedding ring to them.
furthermore. in refusing each other
any liberty married couples overlook
the fact that stolen waters are sweet,
and that there is nothing that we
want to do so much as the things we
are not permitted to do. Lock the
door and the poorest spirited man and
woman will break their necks to climb
over the transom to get out. Leave
the door open and they will not trou-
BILE to walk out of it.
And it Is also worth bearing In
mind that there is no record of pris-
oners loving their jailers.