The Washington herald., 1919-03-12
The Daughters-in-LaW
By DOROTHY DIX
THE WORLDS HIGHEST PAID WOMAN WRITER

The great war is not the one
which has just been fought on the
fields of Flanders and Belgium. 1t
is the war that is fought in the
family circle between mothers-in-
law and daughters-in-law.
Great as was the cost IN tears
and sorrow of the war that Is just
ended, it's sufferings were as moth
ing to the heart-break and agonies
of this war that women wage upon
/ each other. Nor did the Huns, in
their demOniacal fury. wreck so
many homes and orphan so many
helpless children as good women
do in their senseless domestic
strife.
For this struggle over the man
they both love, and for authority
in the home, never ends. 1t is a
war that goes on perpetually. gem
Grafton after generation, and IL is
a fight in which no quarter is given
and no truce asked, and that ends
only in the death of one or other
OF the combatsnts.
There are those who say that hu-
man nature viii have to be made
over before any league of nations
can put a stop to political war.
Certainly feminine psychology will
have to be remodeled, and regen-
Grated and generally altered before
this domestic war ceases. because
there seems to be something in tho
mere relationship between mother
ir-law and daughter-in-law that
rouses every drop of fighting blood
il, their veins. and sets them at
each others throats.
Generally speaking, it is the place
of the mother-in-law to fly the
white flag of peace, and to initiate
the armistice. This is because the
mother-in-law, being older should
have more wisdom, more self-con-
troll and a broader point of view.
Also a mother generally loves her
son more unselfishly than any wife
loves her husband, and she should.
therefore, be more prepared to sac
rifice herself for him than his wife
is.
No mature woman can have learn
ed so little from life as not to
know that the one thing that an
other woman won't brook is to
have a mother-in-law continually
interfering with her household
management. and criticising the
way she does things. No mother
can be so blind as not to see that
her sons happiness depends upon
his staying in love with his wife,
and that she jeopardizes this when
she runs continually to him with
tales that reflect on his wife.
, Hence. just because il will make
her son miserable If she and his
, wife do not get along together, and
Just because it will tuin his home
| into a place of strife and bicker-
| ing if she and his wife are always
quarreling, and just because she
has seen such family feuds end SC
/ disastrously so many times. it be-
| hooves the mother-in-law to make
more sacrifices of her personal in
clinations to get along with her
! dsughter-in-law than any egotis-
, tical, cock sure, selfish young wom-
an will ever make to get along
with her.
1t isn't fair or just. of course
| hut life is never fair or Just to
motherhood. 1t is> always mothers
! who must give without even hope
of receiving.
| daUghter-ir-law from doing he,
! in the world than that the. grea,
I mass of women find their antagon-
| ism to their mothers-in-law Sc
; great that they shirk one of the
I most sacred obligations that life
! lays upon them.
If a woman loves her husband on,
would think that gratitude to thai
other woman who bore him, who
\ watched over him and sscriAced fo,
| him. would make her feel that she
owed his mother a debt that she
could never pay.
One would think that when .
woman looked at her own son, anC
, realized that in the course of a few
years he too would marry and sci
! UP home of his own, that she
would be afraid not to treat hel
mother-in-law as she would wish
her sons wife to treat her.