these it is but a step to
the mutual desertion of a man and a woman, who from incompatibility of
temper find it advisable to separate and go their own selfish ways, to
wait until the law allows a final severance of the marriage bond.

It is indisputable that this breaking up of the home is reacting
seriously upon the moral character of the present generation; there is
a carelessness in assuming the responsibility of marriage, and too
much shirking of responsibility when the burden weighs heavily. There
is a weakening of real affection and a consequent lack of mutual
forbearance; there is an increasing feeling that marriage is a lottery
and not worth while unless it promises increased satisfaction of
sexual, economic, or social desires and ambitions.

76. =Feminism.=--There can be no question that the growing
independence of woman has complicated the family situation. In
reaction against the long subjection that has fallen to her lot, the
modern woman in many cases rebels against the control of custom and
the expectations of society, refuses to regard herself as strictly a
home-keeper, and in some cases is unwilling to become a mother. She
seeks wider associations and a larger range of activities outside of
the home, she demands the same rights and privileges that belong to
man, and she dreams of the day when her power as well as her influence
will help to mould social institutions. The feminist movement is in
the large a wholesome reaction against an undeserved subserviency to
the masculine will. Undoubtedly it contains great social potencies. It
deserves kindly reception in the struggle to reform and reconstruct
society where society is weak.

The present situation deserves not abuse, but the most careful
consideration from every man. In countless cases woman has not only
been repressed from activities outside of the family group, but has
been oppressed in her own home also. America prides itself on its
consideration for woman in comparison with the general European
attitude toward her, but too often chivalry is not exercised in the
home. Often the wife has been a slave in the household where she
should have been queen. She has been subject to the passion of an hour
and the whim of a moment. She has been servant rather than helpmeet.
Upon her have fallen the reproaches of the unbridled temper of other
members of the family; upon her have rested the burdens that others
have shirked. Husband and children have been fr