The Washington herald., 1921-11-07
DREAD OF HUNGER
KEEPS WIVES TIED,
SAYSDOROTHYD DIX
Woman Able to Support
Herself Has Price of
Freedom.
By DOROTHY DIX.

By DOROTHY DIX.
A Judge who presides over . Do
nestle Relations Court says that the
economic Independence Of women Is
responsible for the increase In the
number Of divorces.
OF course It is. The only thlns
IN the world that makes anybody
male or female. stand abuse and III
treatment Is not being able to help
themseves. The minute you make
it possfble for them to better their
condition, they are going to do II
The only reason that women nave
suffered in silence the insults ana
a1ronts put upon them by unfalth-
,,,I husbands; the only reason they
have endured the grinding tyrannies
Of the despotic husbands and the par ,
sImony of tight-wad husbands. ana
suffered the kicks and blows OF brutal
husbands was because they were
financially dependent on them.
Bound by HeIPlessness-
There Is one code for slaves. An
other for free people. the KNOW
edge that she knew no way 10 eaLh
a dollar, the fear Of starvation tne
horror Of having no safe place 70
Iay her head when the night came
~. heen the hangman's whip that
vent many a trembling wife In order.
Eyerv fiber In her rebelled against
the way in which her husband treat
"a her With her whole soul sne
hated him, yet her helplessness oouno
her to a marriage that was a heh
on earth. . =,
II has always been matter OF
comment that men exacted so mucn
higher an ideal Of conduct from men
wives than women do from their
husbands. No matter what he may
do himself, a man expects MS VIZ
10 be as spotless as Mrs. Caesei Cae:
He will not tolerate looseness hor
side-stepping in her. .,,, In
No woman who came rolllng III
With the milkman in the morning
Ivith a lag on would be met by her
husband with forgiveness and colo
connress for her aching brow. NO
1vornan aver expects her husband 10
forgive her past II II has been a lurio
one, or to shut his eyes 10 lttie a.
fairs that she is carrying on with
Younger and handsomer men,
Have Endured InndeIities-
But millions of wives have put
drunken husbands to bed and MIN
Istered to them, and millions OF
other wives have gone on enduring
the infidelities of husbands VINO
haunted their hirtations IN theH
very faces.
Men have attributed this to wom-
ans superhuman power Of forgive
ness, and never doubted that thelr
I.,ives still loved them, no matter how
thew treated them, and regaroeo
marriage as a blessed elysium- Tne
truth was that their wives were SIM
NV sticking to their meal tickets.
They were enduring them as lesser
evil than hunger and homelessness'
4 woman is just as much ais
rusted with a drunken husband as
a man Is with a drunken wife. A
woman's heart is just as much hurI
nv her husbands disloyalty, and her
honor and pride is trailed In the
dust Just as much as mans Is oy
a faithless wife, but the woman VINO
has no money of her own ana no
means Of earning a living has 10
endure her lot the best she can' lest
a worse fate befall her.
Pays I'm MartyrdOm.
For one must have food and shell
ter and clothes. no matter how ONE
heart aches or ones dreams are
broken through Many a woman has
paid for these by suffering a mar
tyrdom greater than being burned at
1.-THE stake
Such has been the woman OF the
past. Those who had the i'll luck to
get bad husbands had not only to
kendure the big offenses against
bem. but the little. mean, petty Of
lenses that made their lives terror
10 them. for il is easier to forgive
one big sin against one than thou
sand hourly little pin pricks.
The worst husbands are not the
Tounders, but the naggers. the penu-
rious, the tyrants, the bullies who
Lvreak their cowardly prosecutions
bn a woman because she is married
ho them and so in their power
Modern Woman Is Free.
The women of the past have had
No stand all this because their lack
of money or their lack of knowl-
edge OF how to make money laid
them bound in a mans hands. The
woman of today who has been
trained to a gainful occupation, who
has supported herself before mar
rage, and can go back to her old
lob any day she wants to, will not
stand i'll treatment from a man be-
cause she doesn't have to stand it
She is free and independent She
has broken the shackles of the slave.
She is in no mans power. She is
forever out Of the class OF women
who belong to any man. soul and
body, and can be kicked around like
a hound dog.
II there were no other reason on
earth for parents to have their
daughters trained to some definite
trade by which they can support
themselves they would find II In this,
that 1t saves their girls from being
III treated by their husbands. For
II they are unfortunate enough to
marry brutes they can get up and
leave. They don't have to stand do
mestic persecution.
Independence FavOrs Divorce.
Undoubtedly 1t is true that the
financial independence of women
will cause more divorces in this
generation. but it will make fewer
in the next generation, for men will
have learned their lesson.
Women as q rule behave them
selves after they get married. be-
.1ause they know their husbands
will divorce them II they don't Men
will also behave themselves when
they find out that they have got to
do 40 in order to keep their wives.
THE seIf-supportinR woman does