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Show Kathleen Norris Says: Nation Threatened by Internal Corruption I BeU .Syndicate. WNXJ Features. i ' "Help your husband through the hard days of transition from wartime to peacetime, from the strange world that is the camp and battlefield to your sheltered world of garden, telephone, bridge games and washing dishes." 1 By KATHLEEN NORRIS A FEW months ago there was enacted in the San Francisco law courts a tragedy as simple and as terrible ter-rible as any ever written by the classic Greek dramatists. There were four figures in it. One was that of a young strong man who lay dead, shot through the heart. Another An-other was that of an innocent small boy of less than two years. A third was a returned serviceman, scarred by lonely, lone-ly, homesick years of war. And the completing figure was that of a young wife, her face a mask of humiliation, resentment, shame and despair. de-spair. All four lives as completely com-pletely ruined as was that of the man who lay dead. The story is a common one today, to-day, a fearfully common one. That it is common will remain an enduring en-during scar on the reputation of American women for all time to come. The husband was away fighting for his life, and all our lives. The woman was lonely; the other man was willing to solace her in her loneliness. They became lovers. When the husband came home, longing for the peace and affection and security of his own fireside, the news that greeted him was that his wife was living with another an-other man and wanted a divorce. She Broke Her Promise. He tried to be reasonable; he talked to them both. It was arranged ar-ranged that for a year the wife should belong to neither man, and that at the end of that time she would choose. It seems to me that the defeated and defrauded husband showed rare . restraint when he forced himself to this much consideration con-sideration of the pair. But the wife and her lover were i no respecters of bargains or prom-: prom-: ises. Very shortly the husband discovered dis-covered them together again, unable un-able to exercise even under these circumstances, either decency or self-control. He shot the lover through the heart and faced a court trial that ended by his complete com-plete acquittal. What price those stolen kisses now to this woman, still young, who has ruined four lives, and cut herself away from the society of self-respecting womanhood forever? for-ever? In the natural order of events her baby will go to its father, and therefore she loses at one blow husband, lover and child. This story would not be so impressive im-pressive if it were not true of so many wartime homes. Other women wom-en have run the fearful risk that this woman ran. Other men are coming home to that smug, selfish ! announcement, "you see, dear, I i was lonely and bored, and Bob ' managed to avoid the draft, and he was right here, with lots of money and I'd like it so much if you'd just be agreeable about it and give me a divorce." Nation in Peril from Within. A man who sabotages in wartime, war-time, and deserts his job, is shot. But there is no recognized punish-' punish-' ment for women who break their J marriage vows, break up their homes, break their husbands' i Mm j She ruined four lives. . . . WEAK AND SELFISH Lonely, foolish war ivives have been responsible for a lot of heartaches and broken homes. In some cases the consequences con-sequences are even worse. A San Francisco murder trial brought out these facts: A soldier returned to discover that his wife had been carrying carry-ing on an affair with a man who had plenty of spending money because of his war plant job. She developed such affection for him that she was unwilling to give him up when her husband came back. She asked for a divorce. The husband, hus-band, with rare forbearance, asked her to give the other man up for a year. She would also live apart from her husband, hus-band, taking her two-year-old son with her. Then, at the end of the year, she would choose the man she wanted. . She agreed to this remarkable remark-able arrangement, but it ivas not long before she was seeing the "other man" again. When her husband heard about this second breach of faith, he could stand it no longer. He killed the other man in the "love nest." A jury quickly acquitted the outraged Iius-band, Iius-band, but his life is ruined. So is his erring wife's. Their little boy, too, will have to suffer suf-fer for his mother's selfishness. hearts, and expect to step charmingly charm-ingly into a fresh marriage and contract new obligations to betray. These women ought to get it through their heads once and for all that separation is a hard thing, that loneliness is one of the inevitable inevita-ble trials of war, that men returning return-ing are tired, disillusioned, hurt in soul and body, and in no condition con-dition to listen to pathetic tales of newly - discovered affinities with other men. The homes of the nation are going go-ing to pay a very high price for these casual love-affairs. No enemy from without could ever injure us as deeply as will the slow, steady, penetrating destruction of our homes. It may not show on the surface, sur-face, but it corrodes from within the homeless, unwanted man pays for it, the demoralized and scattered children pay for it, and in the end the woman pays pays all through the rest of her life. If you happen to be a woman meditating upon just ' how you'll break the bad news to John, reconsider recon-sider it. Believe me, within a very few years the new infatuation will lose its glamour, too, and then it will be too late to go back. Give your husband a chance! Help him through the hard days of transition from wartime to peacetime, from the strange world that is the camp and the battlefield, to your sheltered shel-tered world of gardens and telephone tele-phone and bridge games and wiping wip-ing the dishes. Unless hundreds thousands millions of American woman are ready to take up this all-important work of preserving the home, and keeping the children there with mother and dad, we have indeed lost the war. |
