WHAT'S IN A NAME?
Ladies and gentlemen, we have
with us today the Lucy Stone
League.
Don't know what that is? Neither
did we until yesterday. It's an organization, apparently with money
back of it for it is sending out
press agent stuff, and it has the cutest little object you can imagine.
Seems like some women up in New
York are convinced that the female
of the species has not been sufficiently emancipated and they have
started this organization to help
women retain their own names after
marriage. Wonderful, isn't it?
Such a beautiful thought! Such a
lovely way to devote ones energies
and ones money! It must indeed be
a blessed relief to turn from tea and
toodle to something so worth-while
as the work of the Lucy Stone
League.
Lucy Stone, it appears, was a
pioneer suffragost (sic.).. who married one
H. B. Blackwell back in 1855 and
in marrying said: "My name is the
symbol of my own identity and must
not be lost" and thereafter she had
some difficulty in signing legal
papers et cetera but finally won because nothing in law could be found
to prevent her continued use of her
maiden name.
Ruth Hale is the president of the
Lucy Stone League. Miss Hale is
the wife of Heywood Broun. It appears that Miss Hale applied for a
passport as Ruth Hale and the state
department insisted she apply as
Mrs. Heywood Brown. She would
not and she did not get the passport
but we are gravely informed that
under the pressure of the woman attorney of the Lucy Stone League,
Secretary Hughes will be forced to
hand down his opinion on this subject.
Now it occurs to us that it is
mighty hot weather to be fussing
about such triffles. If Ruth Hale
refuses to be called Mrs. Broun,
What the heck do we care, but why
try to set a lot of other women by
the ears about this matter?
Suppose all women should elect to
be called by their original names
after marriage, wouldn't a few complications creep in? Have a heart,
ladies, it's difficult enough to remember one name when introduced
to a strange and unheard-of couple
and if husband and wife should be
introduced separately under differ-
ent names, don't you see how immensely social burdens would be increased?
And what of the children, if any
and why so? Mr. Jones and Miss
Smith, being legal husband and wife,
have offspring. "What name does
said offspring take, for certainly
Miss Smith, having such pride in
her name, never would consent to
having the little darling called Jones
and Mr. Jones, if he be any kind of
a father at all, will seriously object to anything but Jones. Maybe,
they could call him or her Jones-
Smith. But, suppose a Jones-Smith,
grown to maturity, should marry a
Brown-White, would the child of that
union be forced to bear four names?
The League says no, that the child
should bear the name of either the
mother or the father, the parents
agreeing at its birth.
After all, it make small difference,
in our opinion, what the Lucy Stone
League believes. But it does rather
strike at the foundation of civilization, the family, and the family,
heaven knows, has had many blows
delivered at it in recent years, yet
The Journal and Tribune has rather
abiding faith in the common- sense
of the great mass of the people and
such frills as that advocated by this
League are merely ripples on the
ocean of life, a cause for merriment
_____ of too much sadness.
