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SEPTEMBER-29, 1005
The Commoner.
3
WHERE CHOICE IS IMPOSSIBLE
Several years ago the supreme court of the
state of New York, disposing of divorce pro
ceedings between the parents of two children
a boy and a girl awarded one child to the father
and the other to the mother, providing: "That
the mother and plaintiff in this action is hereby
awarded the choice as to the child she may de
termine to have in her custody."
We are told that the mother was never able
to express a choice. Doubtless tho court was
actuated by the best of motives, yet is there in
all the world a good mother who will say that
the privilege of choosing the child would bo
greatly preferable to a judgment that would de
prive tho mother not only of all choice but of
both children? What a heavy task that New York
court placed upon that New York mother! If
any other than a mother could appreciate the
enormity of that task it is the father who in
spite of the fact that in popular discussion
"father love" is forgotten in the tribute paid to
"mother love" has at least some acquaintance
with the devotion of parent to child.
Is it any wonder that this woman, admittedly
a good mother one without fault and yet be
tween whom and her husband dissension arose
such as to make divorce proceedings seem neces
sary was unable to avail herself of the privilege
conferred upon her by the New York supreme
court? What a great task it was! What an
uninviting assignment! Parents generally will
have an idea of the conflicting emotions that
raged in the breast of this New York mother,
and there are also throughout the world thou
sands ofarents whose experience particularly
qualifies them to deeply sympathize with this
good woman's unhappy situation.
Parents whose family circle has been in
vaded by death; parents whose happiness has
been blighted by the dissipation of a loved one;
parents who are not yet able to remove their
minds from the vacant chairs at their hearth
stones, even though the vacancy was made years
ago; parents who love and struggle, by day
and by night, all in the effort to build a worthy
future for their children; parents who always
and best remember their offspring as infants,
even though the girls are in long dresses and
tho boys are wearing beards these will know
something of the struggle that raged within
the breast of tho New York woman concerning
whom the supreme court of that state said: "The
mother and plaintiff in this action is hereby
awarded the choice as to the child she may de
termine to have in her custody." It was an im
possible choice. No grave wns over so small but
that its digging loft a scar upon tho parent's
heart.
There is something wonderfully elastic about
parental love. However often tho stork may
visit a home, thero is "always room for ono
more;" room for one more at tho fireside; room
for ono more at tho table; room for ono mora
participant in tho many little things and In tho
many loving things that go to make up tho sum
of happiness in domestic circles; room for one
more in the parents' affections; and those fathers
and mothers who have been denied tho privilege
of choice, but who have been required to sur
render ono of their loved ones in response to
death's summons they know how difficult it
would be to undcrtako tho task of "choosing
the child!" However poignant tho paronts grief
might be, however wont they might bo to dwell
upon the striking and admirable traits of tho
loved and tho lost, they could not turn from tho
dead to the living and in their heart of hearts
say: "This one, and not tho other."
One of tho best mothers whom God ever
gave to man, being asked which of her children
she loved tho most, promptly replied: "Tho ono
that is sick." There is a volume in that brief
sentence. Every parent will understand it at a,
glance. Wo love them ono and all, and tho
measureless affection which wo bestow upon all
of them is given to everyone of them. Tho
rhetorician may not understand this statement;
the parent will havo no difficulty in interpreting
it.
In "Tho Reign of Law" James Lane Allen,
tho novelist, leads his hero through a maze of
doubt and unbelief, and finally lands him safely
on faith's foundation stones, winning him to that
point through tho hero's love for a woman. So
divine was his affection for tho girl of his choice
that ho concluded that, after all, there must bo
a God, else thero could not be such love. Per
haps tho novelist knew what ho was doing; and
yet there are many who read that magnificent
story who felt that ho missed an opportunity
when ho failed to use the parents' love for tho
child as the highest and best representative of
God's love for man and as undeniable evidence
of the existence of "our father which art In
heaven."
Thero are, in this grand old world of ours,
many perplexities, and among these none is more
striking than that so many of the children of
today beneficiaries of the watchful concern, tho
keen anxiety and the boundless affection of de
voted parents are unable to appreciate the price
less treasures that In some instance neern to
bo wanted.
Tho one burden suggotod by Holy Writ
which the children mum bear to tho float that
"tho xing of tho pitrents shall bo vlsltod upon tho
children even unto tho third and rourth genera
tloiu," hits boon Interpreted by an observing
man as "sins of tho parents may bo vlsltod upon
their children, but it Is that the sting may strlko
back Into the parent' hearts,"
Long before tho world was presented with
the incidont of "Nuchal wooplng for her children,
and would not be comforted bt-causo thoy woro
not," the lovo of tho parent for the child has
boon tho greatest and most endiirhiK mnnlfosta
Hon of tho dlvlno passion.
Whether In number tho children bo two or
twenty, parental lovo Is sufficiently elastic to
embrace all that God has -ppnt. Every pne Is
loved tho same; and yet tho love of oaoh is
different. Hero, again, tho rhotorlcian may bo
perplexed-but tho parent will understand.
Tho mothor who said I hat she host loved
"tho one who Is sick," sp6ko tho truth. Wo
lovo best the boy with tho club foot because of
his physiclal Infirmity; wo lovo host his brother
with the hot temper, becauso .or his mental mis
fortune; we lovo best tho steady going lad, be
causo of his virtues; wo lovo best tho boy who
Is profligato and dissipated, because he has
yielded to temptation, and In his fall draws Just
as heavily upon our affections as does tho ono
who by reason of his righteous conduct has
secured our commendation.
Paronts loan to the afflicted child, to tho
ono with weakness, physical or mental; jind yot
It Is a peculiar leaning, because It is of tho kind
that while leaning toward one child, It does not
lean away from another child.
Until ono year ago thero lived in a wostern
city a little girl suffering under the greatest
affliction that could bo visited upon a human
being. She was deaf, dumb, blind and an
imbecile. Yot for years she was tho object of
tho most solicitous care and devotion. When
finally tho summons came, the paronts of that
most unfortunate child consigned earth to earth
and dust to dust with the heavy heart and acuto
pain every parent feels when his offspring Is laid
to rest tho heavy heart and tho acute pain that
are indispensable parts of parental love tho
love of the father and tho mother for tho weakest
and tho strongest, tho won and tho best, child
an affection which, like God's lovo for man,
"passeth all understanding."
RICHARD L. METCALFE.
AVENUES OF USEFU LNESS THE LAW
So many young men turn their attention to
the law that it may seem unnecessary to add
a word of encouragement. Whenever a boy shows
aptitude in public speaking or fondness for de
bate he is generally advised to study law, as
if felicity of expression were the only require
ment at the bar and useful nowhere else.
Speaking is an important part of the lawyer's
work in most cases, but only a part, and in a
country like ours every citizen should be able
to bear an honorable part in public discussion.
No one should enter the law with the idea that
it affords a means of making money easily. Suc
cess at the bar is impossible without great and
long continued labor.
Neither should one enter the profession be
lieving that a reputation for cunning and trickery
will prove permanently profitable. God has linked
indissolubly together virtue and reward. The
lawyer who spends a lifetime trying to obscure
the line between right and wrong not only grows
weaker in character day by day, but he at last
finds that he has lost the power to discriminate
between right and wrong. The lawyer, on the
other hand, who spends a lifetime in the search
for truth, determined to follow where it leads,
grows stronger in character year by year and
his advice grows constantly more valuable be
cause the power to discern the truth increases
with the honest search for it.
Just now there is a crying need for lawyers
who, spurning the bribes of corporate power, will
protect the public from the schemes of exploit
ers. Nearly all the prominent lawyers in the
great cities are selling their brains to predatory
wealth and prostituting their talents to the ser-.
vice of Mammon. There is "room at the top" for
lawyers with high ideals, mental strength and
civic virtue.
Besides furnishing a broad field for tho grati
fying of a legitimate ambition within the profes
sion the law is a training school for statesmen
most of those eminent in statecraft having
been students of Blackstone. The law is a broad
ening profession, for its members must not only
deal with every subject which affects human
rights and human welfare, but fighting their bat
tles in the open they learn that truth alone is
omnipotent.
It is not strange that such a profession
proves attractive to young men of spirit, energy,
and purpose.
JJJ
CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE
Referring to tho testimony of Vice President
Perkins of the New York Life Insurance com
pany in tho investigation now in progress, the
St. -Louis Globe-Democrat says:
The testimony of George W. Perkins, first
vice president of the New York Life Insurance
company, thafc that company contributed $48,
000 to the republican campaign fund in 1904,
and that it also made contributions in 1896
and 1900, shows in a striking way the dis
credit into which the democratic party has
fallen among the business interests of the
country.
Then, with charming disregard for the ex
posures of chicanery and corruption in the man
agement of the big life insurance companies tho
Globe-Democrat says:
McCall knew that the triumph of Bryan
and debased silver would mean a cut in half
in the value of tho funds of the policy holders
of his corporation. Every dollar of assets in
the company would be reduced to 50 cents or
less if the democrats had carried the country.
The Globe-Democrat is ono of thoso newspa
pers that asked the people to believe that free
silver coinage would make the mine owner's silver
worth $1.29 an ounce, but would make the silver
dollar worth only 50 cents. Naturally enough
such a paper will insist that the men who havo
been guilty of riotous squandering of trust funds
In gambling speculations and worse were im
pelled by motives of honesty and wonderful re
, gard for tho property Interests of their clients
when they wrongfully contributed money that
did not belong to them to the republican cam
paign fund In 189G.
Then tho Globn-Domorrat makes this very
remarkable statement:
No reputable democrat charges that this
or any other campaign contributions was put
to corrupt use by the republicans.
Not only have reputable democrats made that
charge, but reputable republicans as well. And
republicans who have not charged it have admit
ted it. And that theso and other contributions
were put to corrupt use by tho republican man
agers in 189G is so apparent that only a hide
bound organ like the St. Louis Globe-Democrat
would have the hardihood to deny it. If Thomas
W. Lawson's story of the "$5,000,000 hurry up call"
the closing week of the republican campaign in
1896 Is untrue, why has not Mr. Lawson been
proceeded against for criminal libel by the men
whom ho openly charged with this gigantic
scheme of political corruption?
The admissions of Perkins and McCall mere
ly give corroborative evidence to prove what not
only reputable democrats but reputable republi
cans have charged that money was used cor
ruptly by the republican committee in 1896, and
that the money was contributed by just such self
constituted defenders of "national honor" and
"honest money" as Perkins and McCall.
Mr. NIedringhaus says that Missouri will go
republican again next year. When Mr. NIedring
haus visited those St. Louis brewers the last
time he evidently carried away something be
sides campaign contributions to the republican
state committee.
4
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