that emblem of power has had no glamor about it to
weaken its force as an argument.... Then as to the number of wives
that a man should be permitted to have, I am in distinct disagreement
with the majority of my neighbors, who maintain that it is entirely a
matter of individual choice as to whether a man should have five, ten
or a thousand. I should not advocate the limitation to an arbitrary
number, but I believe that the question of one's actual needs should
rule. If a man's possessions enable him to maintain a large
establishment requiring the services of a cook, a laundress, two
waitresses and four upstairs girls, eight wives would be sufficient;
but on the other hand, for a young man beginning his career who needs
only a general house-worker, one is enough. Individual cases should
regulate the law as applied to the individual, and those who claim
that they may marry any number of women, whether they need them or
not, entirely regardless of whether or not they can keep them
occupied, should be told that no man is entitled to more of the good
things of this life than he can avail himself of in his daily
procedure. Any other course than this will sooner or later result in a
great scarcity of nuptial raw material, and it is not impossible to
conceive of a day when all the women in the land will become the
property of a select, privileged few. A monopoly of this sort would
enable a few men to control posterity and build up a Trust in the
Matrimonial Industry that would engender not only a great deal of
bitter feeling between the masses and the classes, but enforce a
system of compulsory bachelorhood which ... Nevertheless, if woman
wants to vote let her do so. In spite of all that I have just said
about the subtle quality of her intellect, I still say let her vote.
What harm can come from permitting her to go to the polls and drop a
ballot in the box for this or that man, or for this or that measure?
It will please her to be allowed to do this, and by granting her
petition for the suffrage we shall put an end to an otherwise endless
disputation. I am quite sure that as long as her votes are kept
separate from the men's votes, and are _not_ counted, no possible harm
can come from a little complacency in the face of ... Personally I
have no objection to divorce. If a man marries a woman under the
impression that she is a good cook, and after the waning of the
honeymoon finds that she does not know the difference between
s