GERMAN MORALITY.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 January 1918, Page 7

GERMAN MORALITY.

i ENCOURAGING POLYGAMY. MILLIONS OF PAMPHLETS During the war there have- been frequent reports of German schemes for increasing future man-power by the promotion of 'bigamy or polygamy. There recently reached London trustworthy evidence in the shape of a pamphlet, in its aecond edition, which has been publish' ed by the firm of Oscar Muller, of Cologne. It is called "The Secondary irwriage as Only Means for the Rapid Creation of a New and Powerful Army and the Purification of Morality." The author, whose name is Carl Hermann Torges, says that he has "travelled almost every sea 7 and worked through life with open eyes." The pamphlet is based upon the future needs of the German army, because "the military strength of a people depends in part upon the number of men able to bear arms." Germany's heavy losses in the war must be made good, and at the | same time every effort must be "made to meet the decline in the birth-rate which was lamented before the war. ine writer leads up to his main proposal with a chapter which declares that "the conception of immorality is relative," and that "good morals are only what the upper ■ classes of society approve." The "facts" j are said to give Germany "the justified.i tion, in case of necessity, to put the stamp of morality upon what to-day | seems immoral." "In any case, if the ! falling oil' in births is to be counteracted i bachelordom must the reduced to the I minimum which the circumstances re--1 quire." i The main proposals are stated as follows: —"Women in all classes of society who have reached a certain age are, in the interests of the Fatherland, not only authorised 'but called upon' to enter I into a secondary marriage, which is ,up- ! ported by personal inclination. Only a ; married man may be the object of this inclination, and he must have the consent of his married wife. This condition la necessary in order to prevent the mischief which otherwise might surely be expected. The offspring of these lawful secondary marriages hear the name of their mother, and are handed over to tho caro of the State, unless the mother assumes responsibility for tfiem. They ara to be regarded in every respect as fully equal members of society. The mothers wear a narrow wedding ring as a sign of their patriotism. The secondary marriage can be dissolved as soou as'its object has been attained." Elsewhere Hcrr 'forges says he thinks that the objects of his new institution can bo fulfilled in 20 years, and that secondary marriages might then be abolished. The Arrganer Volksblatt, a Swiss Catholic organ, declares that several millions of copies of the pamphlet have been distributed gratis to the German soldiers in the trenches, and to all classes of German women at home, and that the pamphlet has been in circulation for more than sis months without a sinGerman newspaper making any protest. I The pamphlet is therefore described as a ! piece of official propaganda "against which the whole civilised world must rise up in indignation.' '.' I