HARVEST OF THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 November 1917, Page 2

HARVEST OF THE WAR.

WOMEN OUTNUMBER MEN. SHALL WE HAVE POLYGAMY? Counting all the belligerents it is safe to any that, within the year (he world will have lost between 4,0(10,000 and 5,000,000 men who have not known marriage or fatherhood. In those countries where the male always has lioen numerically stronger than 'the female (writes (ieolfrey Singleton in Springfield Kepublican) the effect will not be felt immediately. In countries like England, where the percentage usually has run !j, r > of women to 45 of men, the effect will he overwhelming.

This k now realised by thinking people, and the Bishop of Peterborough only expressed what, many feel when he said in a sermon, "One grave question of.the future, perhaps of tho near future, is the ideas of marriage which will prevail. It is possible that the holy estate will be attacked in a way we never have known; we may be confronted by the efforts oi many people, in view of the present unprecedented situation."

What are "the efforts of many people," to whieJi the bishop refers? In general they fall into two divisions, indicated by these two questions: Will the world go in for polygamy after the war? Or "hall we have a world where there is neither marriage nor giving in marriage?

BOTH SIDES OF THE QUESTION. It is not u question ou which anyone} would willingly be frivolous, for whether polygamy is authorised by a cynical government, or is practised and winked at by cynical people, n woeful lot of unhappiness is bound to come in (lie lives of the two generations 'h will carry on the, reconstruction after the war. Condemn it as an increase of immorality r.r approve of it as an expression of "the growing freedom of men and women in their most previous relationship, you cannot avoid the complications and the unliappiness which such a change must bring. "Millions of Tnen and r ; i.ien who have brr» brought up to cherish fidelity and candor in their relations with each other may see the whole fabric of their lives rent and despoiled.

What,-is tlieve oti the other side? Take the cr-se of England where women always hate been in the majoritv. Consider what will' happen after the war when tens of thousands of men will refuse to return to the office and the factory and the dirty smelling streets, pre. ferring to go out with their new-found chums from Australia and' New Zealand arid Canadn. Already many an Arizac invalided out of the army lias returned to his sheep run all the better for a wife from ''home." The percentage of surplus women will be higher than over. If you prefer to think of this lightly you may say 'that.' there will be some wonderful battles between designing young women and that, the men certainly will not lack for choice of their wives. But there is a serious side.

OUR OWN EXPERIENCE AFTER 'no. After our civil war, when Uuve who were spared trekked to the west and the old homesteads in New Erahtnd were left lo fall into ruin, an mihnppv time came to the EasJt. Spinstcrhood, the stale subject, fo staler joke.-., was not so funny there as it seemed. Oirls who faded slowly out of (lie picture, women wlio took to mothevin<r oilier people's children or, for lack of somclhimj better, turned fiercely to each passing fad or momentary hysteria, were the marks of the war.

And our civil war was trifling in its cost when compared wit.li this war, Immigration helped us make up our deficit, After this war immigration can help one country only by robbing another. The United States probably will remain the happiest country after the var. What of Germany and France and England? WHERE WOMEN HAVE GATNE&. But women's growing freedom from economic slavery certainly will relieve tliepi of the bitterest anguish of lonely lives after the war. For 011 c thin", if ttiev have to be alone and loveless, they will not have the added burden of being both stricken by poverty and haunted by the sense of utter uselessness. The very war which has cut down so many men awl deprived, so many women of their legitimate purpose in life, has brought new purposes into being and li.li given new opportunities to women. The woman who marries and bears [l'ildren will have manv new problems to face after the war. But these will be simplified bv her own capacity for supporting the family in case of need. Already si"lis nvc to be seen of co-operation to relieve mother of some of her duties; communal kitchens are established all over England and if they work well, many a mother will demand thai, they continue after the war. Perhaps the creek- where babies are "cheeked" for the day and well cared for will relieve (ho real "head of the house." of another worry. But, however it works out, the position of the married mother cannot liel|> being better than it was. The others, the unmarried mothers, and those who neither, are married nor i! others, will be the grave problem of the next exoneration, and nossibly of the general ie' after that. The one le?fion of the war which no country will forget,is the lesson of human waste. And in snmsterhood the nations will come to see the most sorrowful, the most cvtruvagant waste of all. For it is more, than the waste <>i the living. It is the waste of the unborn.