The Washington herald., 1921-09-07
DorothX.Dixs ADJ

yond speech. We know that no
slave. however pampered. Is happy
and that when we rob those abous
us of their personal liberty tina,
there is no adequate atonement that
We can make to them for their
loss, but our desire to boss is SO
great that we go on devasting the
lives OF even our best beloved. We
will give them anything but free
dom. We will make any sacrffice
for them except the sacrifice of let
ting them do their own way. instead
| of making them do ours.
This is the real fly in the ointment
| of matrimony. This is the secret OF
the increase IN divorce. This is
what's the matter with domesticity
generally: this is the answer to the
conundrum of why children leave
home. and why brothers and sisters
so often ny to the uttermest ends
OF the earth to get as far from each
other as possible.
when the average man and wo-
man get married they are in love
with each other, and they go into
matrimony in good faith, intending
to try to make go" of 1t, and
establish a happy home. One out
OF twelve of these marriages ends
in the divorce court and most Of
the remainder degenerate into an
endurance contest. Very few are
successful from the point of view
OF bringing any wellbeing and con-
tentment to either husband or wife.
Yet the man and the woman are
fine. upright. honorable, intelligent
people. Nobody can explain why
they couldn't get along together,
nor why their love perished 20
soon.
1t is because neither one was will
ing to accord the other any personal
liberty, and Cupid simply turns up
his toes and dies in the air of
jail. And the prison atmosphere is
particularly fatal in these days
when the breath of liberty is the
very breath of life to us all, and
when without it we had rather be
dead than alive.
man has been accustomed to be-
ing his own master. to going and
coming as he pleased. to eating
what he liked. to having his hair
cut the way he fancied. and to
wearing the clothes he preferred.
He gets married and the very first
thing his wife does is to take his
latchkey away from him and to
put him through third degree
about where he has been, and what
he has done, and whom he has seen
every time he comes home. Il
She sits in judgment on his food
and tells him how bad everything
he likes is for his stomach. She
turns his old friends out of the house
and installs new ones. She buys
his neckties and makes him wear
his hair the way she thinks Is be-
coming, and he finds that he has
just as much liberty as Fido has
when his mistress takes him out on
the end of a leash. .E...-.-..
A girl gets married. She, also.
has been free to follow her own in
clinations. Perhaps she, has been a
business girl. She has had her own
pocketbook. She has gone to the
places Of amusement she fancied.
She has been esteemed of sufficient
intelligence to join such clubs as
appealed 10 her. and to generally
order her own life along the lines
she desired:
But she finds that husband thinks
that home is a combination harein
and workhouse. She must beg his
permission to 90 to places. She
must ask for what money she needs.
She can't have any innocent friend
ships with other men. She can't
even go to the movies II he august
~ disapproves.
Is it any wonder that these two
manila rehal axainat the irtniara hIa