“Yes,” said the men, “the women bear the children, but the men determine their legal control.”
“Can the marriage contract ever be broken?” asked the bravest one of the women.
“No,” said the men, “it can’t be broken except upon facts that can’t be proved.”
“Do the men keep the marriage vows?” softly asked a woman ’way at the rear.
“Hush,” said a portly landlord who owned a “restricted district;” “no respectable woman would ask such a question.” Then a thoughtful woman earnestly asked:
“Will there not be more murders, and more suicides and more insanity if the women have not part in settling the terms of marriage?”
But the Lombrosos and the Allen McLane Hamiltons and all the other criminologists and insanity experts paid no heed to this question. Finally the women said:
“But suppose we don’t enter into these contracts that you make?”
“Oh, but you will,” said the men.