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The Comm o m er
MAY, 1922
3
Single Standard of
Morality
nn another page will be found a news Item
MMi appeared in the Chicago Tribune of April
lifii The Commoner does- not, as a rule,
nt items of this kind and only reproduces this ,
t i because it indicates the beginning of the next
Spat moral reform. The opponents of prohibi-
f i on are fond of speculating aS to What is to be
Sin next moral 'reform, but they are careful to
avoid the one which is now beginning to force
Self upon public attention, namely, the single
standard of morals. The time is opportune for
it because the legalized saloon, the propogator
and defender of every vice, is gone, and woman,
the champion of virtue, is now in politics.
Mr. Bryan, more than two years ago, brought
the matter to the attention of the Constitutional
Conventions of Nebraska and IllinoiSt Later he
prepared an article for Colliers' "Weekly at the
invitation of that great paper. Increasing at
tention has been given the subject during the
last year, especially by woman's clubs;
An international meeting of women in Switz
erland passed a resolution on this subject and
the Presbyterian General Assembly has acted
along the same line.
Some of the eastern editors ridiculed the sug
gestion as they do every other suggestion look
ing to public morals, but the cause grows. The
incident related in the newspaper item repro
duced in this issue is exactly in. point. The
logic is irresistible and the sentiment will
spread until everywhere, in state and nation, the
eamo law will be applied to the sins of male and
female. Man-made law has punished the woman
and let the man go free. The time is not far
distant when immoral men will come under the
same condemnation that is visited upon im
moral women a change that will .manifest it
self in a higher standard of virtue'.
The father of the boy in the case cited was
willing to pay any sort of a fine to secure his
release, but the father of the girl was right in
insisting that no partiality .should be shown.
The parents of girls will feel safer when this
rule is universally applied and. the parents of
boys will be more careful to instruct their sons
when they know that disgrace will be added to
the penalties that now attach to sin." The single
standard of morality is coming.
ffffiVis'r11 whatever sp,rit
W. J. BRYAN.
THE TALE OF A TOOTH
Professor Osborne, of Columbia University, is
nappy. Somebody has found a tooth, just one
tooth. The professor has examined it and an
nounced, according to the papers, that it is the
tooth of an animal nearer to man than any of
tne ape-men or men-apes which scientific im
agination has clothed with semi-human ex-.
pression. He seems to think that he has at
ast found the missing link that convicts Moses
of falsehood.
The professor has been in search of evidence
wra long time; he has had his suspicions about
Moses and the Bible, but the testimony hereto
2 UasLbeen so fragmentary as to leave some
S ut ho thinks that this tooth the whole
EVnd nothing but the tooth establishes
royona a doubt man's blood connection with all
the brutes of the jungle.
anvveit00th is interesting, not because it has
IJ lue or because it discredits the Bible, but
"CUUlSe It ShOWS tllflt 'nnvitrln'o hTrnntliactc. nnt.
shows that Darwin's hypothesis can
iU Drain nf nn nflinvwlco InfaTllcranf
Whenever a man -loses his grip on the
Bihlftniii , a mun loses "1H gP on tne
thfl n,ES i0S0pUy o life and d,0PS down among
lata nt T , lu"siies the only evidence that ex
to tho t !'nQ ancostry, namely, approximation
stead of ? u thQ loB of reasoning power. In
channtL. ng tlle ordinary common sense that
e 3S??f ove,n ,the dullest of human beings,
chattPrV mintl t0 everything rational and
His lifj I ay as i he were a monkey in a cage,
ing S ?H?l!ri)c!Be ahifts" from searching for liv
of remVin Thuntig for fossils and remnants
thincq i tw Iustead of being interested in the,
in drm i aro noble and uplifting, he digs about
nope tw I Sand and mounds of gravel in the
'esponsibint ?ay gGt away rom that aense of
escanQ cn in Gd from which-one cannot
i! God'R ing as he Relievos that he was made
carry o,ff " and created by special act to
out a divine decree.
as muche0r 0sborne had 'a thousandth part
Sod as hn R op?8t in'1 Unking man's soul with
" uas in tying man's' body to tho brute
, DARWINISM IlUX MAD
Dr. Charles R. Stockard, of Cornell University
seems to aspire to tho leadership of lm u Itm
that it kills off tho degenerates. He uses guinea
fw e, baSlS his 0XHments, assuming
fhS nhing tUat affect3 a wil1 ttoo u
SSf Jflwaiy a man who-ses alcohol. He re
ports that alcohol, administered to parent nics
causes havoc among the offspring for the first
second and third generations, but that, when the
fourth generation is reached, the offspring aro
found to be above tho average in strength, the
argument being: "The normal litter of guinea
pigs consists of more and less rugged animals,
ihe less rugged are so weakened by their al
coholic inheritance that they cannot live. Only
the guinea pigs of the stronger class can live.
After all but the best or strongest have died
early for three generations, the survivors aro
naturally those of tho most robust strain." A
recent article in the New York Times quotes
Dr. Stockard as saying that this is "harsh in
dividual selection" but that he, with some other
scientists, believes that it represents a bene
ficial effect which alcohol has in the long run
on the human race."
He would encourage tho drunkard to believe
that, while his appetite for liquor may kill off
his children, grand-children and great-grandchildren,
it may result in strengthening the
great-great-grand-children who would come
from descendents strong enough to survive even
alcohol.
This was Darwin's idea. He said that the
savages eliminated the weak and that, therefore,
the survivors are strong. This he speaks of as if
it were a .thing to be commended, while he
charges civilized man with building hospitals
and prolonging life of the weak. He adds that
our sympathies will not permit us to adopt the
"harsh reason" (eliminating tho weak) but that,
because o,f pur sympathies the race must suffer.
No wonder Darwin complained in his latter years
.that he hatt lost his love for mu3ic and poetry
and that his work had benumbed his feelings.
There is .up poetry or music or feeling in tho
brute doctrine to which Darwin gave his name.
W. J. BRYAN.
WOMAN'S WISDOM
At the recent Baltimore meeting of the League
of Women Voters, Mrs. Maud Wood Park, presi
dent of the league, submitted "six points" for
the guidance of women voters.. They are as fol
lows: "First. To inform myself about public ques
tions,,, the principles and policies of political par
ties, and the qualifications of candidates for
public offices.
"Second. To vote according to my conscience
in every election, primary or final, at which I
am entitled to vote.
"Third. To obey the law even when I am not
in sympathy with all its provisions.
"Fourth. To support by all fair means the
policies that I approve of.
"Fifth. To respect the right of others to up
hold convictions that may differ from my own.
"Sixth. To regard my citizenship as a public
trust."
If this can be considered an expression of
women's wisdom, what man will crowd more po
litical wisdom into the same number of words?
LAWLESSNESS BEGETS LAWLESSNESS
On another page will be found an editorial
from the Chicago Tribune denouncing the action
of a coroner's jury in discharging a murderer
on the ground that he was drunk. The Trib
une is justly indignant, but that is a logical out
growth of the Tribune's fight on prohibition.
If wot newspapers encourage lawlessness and
rirUniilo enforcement, they must not be. sur
priiSd the? riders manifest THEIR wetness
by exonerating criminals who prepetrate crime
under the influence of liquor. Lawlessness be
gets lawlessness.
Over in Iowa thoy have a law that permits a
tow? to levy taxes for the support of a local
town to tievy i d fc nQ vniage has
bailed SSStM S$to. P-ta.wlltor tUo
self-cohti-ol o tlio rowans.
Educated Criminals"
Dr. John II. Williamson, Law Enforcement'
Commissioner of Chicago, has just returned from '
a visit to the Illinois Penitentiary and reports '
that five out of six convicts havo had a college ' '
training. .Is it not worth while to Inquire w,hy '.
college men become criminals? Is there an- '
thing Jn intelligence that necess'arjly dimlntaliejf .
virtue and honesty? Or is thorj something mixed ,
with education that lowers the moral' tempera- '
ture? ,
May it not bo tho direct and logical effect of a i
brute theory that.tracos man's ancestry to the,
jungle? Tho sense of responsibility to God Is.
the most potent influence that acts upon n Iiu-
man being. When man believes himself tho
special creation of the Almighty and plaood on .
earth as a part of tho divine plan' ho fools that
it 13 his first duty, as it should bo his greatest
pleasure to learn God's will concerning himsolt
and to do it. There can bo but little restraining
force in a sense of responsibility that has to .
be strained through tho blood of all tho lower
forms of life before it roaches man. The evo
lutionists aro hiding God behind tho mist of
ages, they are robbing tho Uiblo Of Its author
ity as an inspired book and thoy aro taking
Christ out of the word Christian. Thoy aro
making Him a mere man with an ape for his
ancestor on his mother's side and, as most of
them believe, on his father's side also. Thoy
are taking the moral rudder from tho intellec-.
tual ship and starting the voyager out on a
perilous journey without chart or compass no
wonder so many of them land in the penitentiary.
It would not be fair to say that evolutionists
intend to turn our colleges into schools for
crime, but they ought to be intelllg'ent enough
to see that they increase the tendency to crimes
when they lessen tho restraints that in tho
hours of temptation, hold men to virtue. Just
as physical weakness invites all kinds of disease '
so the lowering of the religious pulse makes tho
individual an easier prey to vice and crime.
W, J. BRYAN.
j.
MRS. OLESKX'S CANDIDACY
Mrs. Olesen has been selected by the Demo- ,"
crats of Minnesota as their candidate for tho
United States Senate. It is a most fortunate se-' '
lection for tho party and fpr the state. She has
every qualification necessary for the place and
will, as a representative in the Senate, give voice
to the highest aspirations, the noblest purposes,
and the largest interests of the people of Minne-
sota.
. Her ability as a public speaker is a valuable
asset to any cause that she espouses. She has
excellent judgment in the weighing of arguments
and rare power in the presentation of them.
Her speeches will be a credit to Democracy and
to womanhood.
But what is more,prized Is her thorough grasp
of the fundamental principles of Democracy, tho
breadth of her sympathies and her moral cour
age. Tho test of a public servant is fidelity to -the
masses and that fidelity rests upon an in- -telligent
understanding of what is best for all
and a conscientious devotion to their welfare
at all times. She has both the understanding
and the conscience, and to these is added an ex
ceptional power of expression.
We have great problems before us and on
every one of these her attitude is unassailable.
No matter what issue may be paramount in the '
campaign, whether equity in taxation, protection
from predatory wealth, enforcement of the law,
or world peace, site is a champion of tho plain
people and they should rally to her support. Sue- '
cess to Mrs. Olesen her victory will be a trl-''
umph for the producers of wcaltji. '
W. J. BRYAN."
The government of Queensland has abolished
the Senate, for the reason, as explained ' by '
Premier Theodore, that it was the home of reac- "
tionary interests, had for years thwarted the will '
of the people and had become a brake on de-T-
mocracy. As a perfect picture of what the Ne
braska Senate was when the liquor interests
were alive commend us to that description.
Things that look alike are usually quite alike.
.. '
As we view it about the only difference of"7i
opinion between the warring factions of Re-;
publicans in congress is whether the treasuijy,
deficit should be, so small that nobody will see M
in it arty administration mismanagement pi 6f '
large that everybody will'throw up their' baudS
and declare nothing can be done about it.
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