Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/243

 faith. No heed is given to the wishes of the mother in this particular. Even if the husband dies, having expressed no particular wish in the matter, or even if there has been an ante-nuptial arrangement by which the children, or some of them, were to be brought up in the faith of the mother, and which the husband seeks to set aside, the father's faith is the one selected, and the agreement can be made ineffective.

It is placing women in a very low position indeed to treat pledges, secured before marriage and as a condition of marriage, as so much waste paper. It is a grievous wrong to command, in the absence of any expression of his wishes, that the father's faith must be taught the children against the expressed desire to the contrary of the living parent. It is to be feared that these and kindred facts, when known, will have the effect of promoting irregular unions amongst the more thoughtful girls who are able by their own work to maintain themselves. Why should it be so difficult, for instance, for a mother who does not approve of vaccination to get an exemption order to prevent the vaccination of her baby? Why should she have to prove with such exactness that she is acting for her husband, as though he alone were the parent of the child? Why should some magistrates decline altogether to give the