Page:The rights of women and the sexual relations.djvu/278

262 as much as there is of it — but, dearest creature, leave me my money! And thus they enter into the business of "loving" each other. Think of Abelard and Heloise with a lawyer or notary between them guarding their separate accounts. To be sure, Abelard and Heloise did not live in America. In this country of calculators and money-makers, where the number of dollars constitutes the "worth" of a person, one can sacrifice the person and keep the worth, if one keeps the money. I do not venture a conjecture as to how many true marriages there are here; but they are surely not to be found where man and wife keep separate accounts.

If, however, in objection to the proposed resolution, and in consideration of present conditions, the anxiety is expressed that the female sex will be piaced at a disadvantage should the resolution be put into practice, I am of an entirely different opinion. If we consider that the majority of women are still economically dependent upon men and will remain so for some time to come, and that, as a rule, the men provide the means of existence, it follows that an arrangement which in marriage makes the property of both common, and in case of divorce divides it into equal parts, must in general result to the advantage of woman. The resolution, therefore, offers a security to the weaker party. This security may go even further, for since the husbands, having complete control of everything, are generally the ones who furnish the occasion for a divorce, the