In marriage the state obtains the promise of the contracting parties to love, honor and cherish; to love, honor and obey, through sickness, through health, until death. However, the state is able to enforce but one portion of the promise, "to cherish," which, being interpreted, means that the husband must contribute a certain portion of his income to the woman, provided she has not broken the letter of the law in one respect, and has not deserted nor flagrantly quarreled with her husband. If she has been acquiescent, she is still to be "cherished." This alimony, as such tax is sometimes termed, is required whether the wife is mother or not, or is engaged in educating citizens or not. It may be exacted--the letter of the law--although the intent of the marriage may not have been fulfilled. Tacitly, the state recognizes the desirability of love in marriage, although it has no jurisdiction over it, and can not enforce the keeping of this promise by husband or wife. Loving or not loving is not within the control of mortals. It is admitted now by men and women that the laws of all countries of the world were made by men for men. They do not discriminate against women so seriously and so unjustly as did Moses, but the civil laws give wife and mother no chance for independence. Until recently, the promise to obey has been enforced; also, the wife's promise to be true to one man and none other. So we have had the prayer which is international: "Make our women virtuous and our men brave," the meaning of brave being, able to fight man and beast. "Virtue" has been interpreted as being a negation, an indifference to all but husband. Nothing that can transpire in wedlock is considered not virtuous. "Oh, Liberty! Liberty! What crimes are committed in thy name!" Woman has found submission easier than to assert and obtain the human right of independence in the control of her own mind and body. "It is a hard world for girls," said Martin Luther, five hundred years ago. It is still a hard world for girls and women. Nature is said to love the female more than the male, for she serves Her more devotedly, and Nature has taken care that she shall. PRIMITIVE BONDAGE _Woman pays the first cost on human life.--Schreiner._ When a woman feels the first grip of her child's dependence upon her, she has forever lost her freedom. If the child dies, a grave shackles her soul through life. If the child lives, the welfare of that child keeps perpetually between her and the sun. Before her babe is born, Nature has absorbed the mother's strength and charm that Her one purpose may be accomplished. Man finds it easy to neglect woman then. In fact, his honor, pride, fear and loyalty to a principle, one or all, are his safeguard and the mentor that holds him to duty when his wife is absorbed by motherhood.