POLYGAMY WILL REDEEM THE WORLD.

Taihape Daily Times, 15 January 1918, Page 3

POLYGAMY WILL REDEEM THE WORLD.

A WOMAN'S BELIEF.

Polygamy, legal or illegal, is bound to exist quite generally in the civilised world at the close of the great war, according to Mrs ttusa Young Gates, one of the daughters of Brigham Young (says a New York paper). Mrs. Gates says that polygamy may be openly countenanced by some countries, or may be merely winked at but it will be present just the same. "Polygamy, practised illegally, has existed all the time, even in countries when it has been forbidden. But now the great dearth of men in many countries will bring the problem of legal polygamy sharply before us once again," she declared.

Mrs. Gates, whose mother was one of the nineteen wives of the Morman

leader, is a firm believer in poly

gamy. '' The great men of history ever have been great polygamists —legally or illegally," she said. "Polygamy is pro-

ductive of far more real romance than one man-one woman affairs could possibly be, for the essence of romance is novelty. Courtship never quite ceases in the polygamous state. A tremendous moral effect of polygamous marriages, if entered into through religious motives, would be the instant solution of the social evil and the elimination of the double standard of virtue that, prevails today.' MAKES MEN MOEE HUMAN. Love, however, and not mere economic necessity, must form the basis for the plural marriage, according to Mrs Gates' view. She believes that it is possible for one man to love several women devotedly at the same time. "I believe no man or woman can successfully enter into plural marriage for economic reasons only," she said, "That alone cannot furnish justification or a change from monogamy." Mrs. Gates has a word to check any joyous anticipation of the prospect some men might entertain. "If a man in the possible future asks several women to become his wives he will have to face life with every financial problem multiplied by the number of his present and future dependents unless the government is willing to assume a part of the burden," she asserted. But this sitaution would have its advantages to the man, she believes It would stimulate his activities in the world of business, but at the same time add to his humanity because of j his keener sense of justice and deeper j conception of human problems. i OFFSPRING IS SUPERIOR.

The charge that polygamy would re

sr.lt ill a physical and mental deterioration of the race is thus answered by Mrs. Gates:

"The children of righteous polygamous unions appear to be decidedly above the average and arc often physically superior to their parents." To lend emphasis to her statement she cited a numbed of children of polygamous marriages among the Mormons. Without the social sanction of polygamy, Mrs. Gates fears for the future. "Marirage will lose its hold rather than gain a firmer one," she said. "There will be too great an opportunity for the over-stepping of social restrictions; shoulders that are restless under the yoke will refuse to bear it any longer. Standards are liable to disintegrate rapidly. The rapid re-popula-tion of the earth will certainly take place whether governments dignify the process by making.it legal or not." Mrs. Gates, now sixty-five years old is the mother of thirteen children. Though a believer in polygamy, she is the wife of a monogamous husband, to whom she was married while polygamy was still practised by the Mormons in Utah.