Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1885 — Men, Women, and Money. [ARTICLE]

Men, Women, and Money.

In “Men, Women, and Money,” Mrs. Allison confines herself to one point touched on by her sister. The mothers and housekeepers usually have only the sums of money their husbands choose to give them, and it is considered a gift rather than a rightful allowance. Many a woman is made rich by her husband’s death, who has no money of her own during his lifetime. Mrs. Allison would have every married woman receive what is indisputably her own, that she can spend it as she likes without her husband’s permission. The author’s proposition is this 1 : “Beside the sentimental and affectionate partnership in marriage there should be a money partnership, which should plainly state her individual financial condition, and both busband and wife should regard with favor the accumulation of her individual and separate property, side by side with his, though perhaps, and necessarily, much smaller. True, there would be more accounts kept, but there would be more solid happiness.” The foregoing statement of the proposed plan is far too vague. How much shall a man allow his wife a month to be invested for her private benefit ? Should he not invest a similar amount for himself? Should he pay his wife’s bills in addition to her stipend ? After deducting his wife’s private monthly investment and his own private monthly investment, and paying his wife’s bills, should he pay all the family bills T Should not a girl, under this system, before accepting an offer of marriage, state exactly the percentage of income she is to have, and whether she 'will take her husband’s note if he should be sick or out of employment? Should a wife receive stated pay and also dowry as a widow ? Should a rich wife pay her husband a salary ? A hundred other questions might be asked. In the meantime a sensible married couple will spend their income together for the common good of the family, according to circumstances, neither of them wasting a cent, nor hoarding from each other. Young men's incomes are not usually burdensome, and if the plan of these ladies is to be regarded seriously, they should state exactly what percentage a wife should have for her individual bank account The question of marriage—Of love and financial percentage »-could then be duly weighed, and the young man could assume the obligation, or keep out of it, as becomes one dealing with business matters; or, rather with a proposition to pay a cash annuity, in addition* to the ordinary expenses of raising a family, which, perhaps, is not Business, but decidedly something else. A horn player in an prchestra was once urged again and again to play londer. At last, exhausted, he laid down his instrument, and remarked to the leader: “It.is all very veil to say ‘louder,’ but vere is de vind ?” The payment of conjugal an-

unities could be more easily arranged than performed. Commercial Gazette.