1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



189 



THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WOULD. 



There have been some jokes at my ex- 



Fense, and quite a little bantering, because 

 am so anxious to see men and women get 

 mari'ied and start a home as soon as they 

 are of suitable age; and I have felt sad, al- 

 so, to see so many childless homes, or homes 

 where one child was brought up alone. 

 Well, I have recently received some most 

 emphatic indorsement of my "peculiar" 

 ideas, and from a source, too, that comes 

 pretty near being as good authority as we 

 have. The following is clipped from the In- 

 dependent of Feb. 2: 



At the Inter-church Conference on Marriage and Di- 

 vorce, in Washington last week, the resolution of the 

 American Bar Association concerning the unification of 

 State laws for the regulation of divorce was approved, 

 with the exception that the paragraph relating to the 

 marriage of divorced persons was so amended as to per- 

 mit, after one year, the remarriage of only the innocent 

 party. A large committee or delegation led by Bishop 

 William C. Doane, of the Episcopal diocese of Albany, 

 called upon the President at the White House to confer 

 with him as to the results of their deliberations. In a 

 brief address Mr. Roosevelt said: 



WHAT THE PRESIDENT THINKS OF THE DIVORCE BUSI- 

 NESS. 



"There is a certain tendency to exalt the unessential 

 in dealing with our public questions, and public men 

 especially are apt to get their attention concentrated on 

 questions that have an importance, but a wholly ephem- 

 eral importance, compared with the questions that go 

 straight to the root of things. Questions like the tariff 

 •and the currency are of literally no consequence what- 

 soever compared with the vital question of having the 

 unit of our social life, the home, preserved. 



" It is impossible to overstate the importance of the 

 cause you represent. If the average husband and wife 

 fulfill their duties toward one another and toward their 

 children as Christianity teaches them, then we may rest 

 absolutely assured that the other problems will solve 

 themselves. But if we have solved every other prob- 

 lem in the wisest possible way, it shall profit us nothing 

 f we have lost our national soul; and we will have lost 

 it if we do not have the question of the relations of the 

 family put on the proper basis. 



"While I do not know exactly what it is that you wish 

 me to do. I can say in advance that so far as in me lies 

 all will be done to co-operate with you toward the end 

 you have in view. One of the most unpleasant and dan- 

 gerous features of our American life is the diminishing 

 birth rate and the loosening of the marital tie among 

 the old native American families. It goes without say- 

 ing, that, for the race as for the individual, no materi- 

 al prosperity, no business growth, no artistic or scien- 

 tific development will count if the race coinmits suicide. 

 Therefore I count myself fortunate in having the chance 

 to work with you in this matter of vital importance to 

 the national welfare." 



I wish to repeat one or two sentences in 

 the above. First: 



"Questions like the tariff and the curren- 

 cy are of literally no consequence whatso- 

 ever compared with the vital question of 

 having the unit of our social life, the home, 

 preserved." 



Again: 



"If the average husband and wife fulfill 

 their duties toward one another and toward 

 their children as Christianity teaches them, 

 then we may rest absolutely assured that 

 the other problems will solve themselves." 



What an indorsement of the Christian re- 

 ligion! And are we as a people up to that 

 point in faith where we can believe that the 

 other problems will solve themselves? 



Once more: 



"It goes without saying, that, for the 

 race as for the individual, nomaterial pros- 

 perity, no business growth, no artistic or 



scientific development, will count if the 

 race commits suicide." 



There you have it, friends. "It shall 

 profit us nothing if we have lost our nation- 

 al soul." I feel sure that God's Spirit 

 prompted our beloved President to utter 

 these words. My heart warms toward him 

 in a way it has never done before. 



And now may I be permitted to say to the 

 unmarried men who read Gleanings that a 

 solemn and sacred responsibility rests upon 

 them? You are not fulfilling the duty you 

 owe to God and humanity if you remain 

 single. But before you get married, remem- 

 ber it is the most solemn and sacred rela- 

 tion ever assumed by any human being; and 

 when you do marry, let it be for life. Take 

 the dear companion God gives you for better 

 or for worse; and if your faith is in the 

 Lord Jesus Christ it will surely be for bet- 

 ter. Especially is it important that all good 

 men shall be married men, and bring up 

 children in the fear of the Lord— children 

 that will surely help to rescue our nation 

 from the many evils that threaten it. 



does radium still radiate? 

 One of our friends asks the above ques- 

 tion, to which I answer, "Yes, sir." The 

 blazing shooting stars are scintillating forth 

 exactly as they did when I first got it. In 

 order to test it again, last night I placed it 

 by my bedside, and about 3 o'clock this 

 morning I took a look at it. The scintilla- 

 tions flash out of the eye-piece so plainly 

 they can be seen across the room ; and 

 on putting the eye down close to the in- 

 strument it seems like a veritable bom- 

 bardment of fiery meteors. The effect is 

 very much more satisfactory at night. In 

 winter, when the ground is covered with 

 snow, in consequence of the bright light the 

 pupil of the human eye contracts to such an 

 extent that it is very difficult to get a satis- 

 factory view of the radium emanations by 

 daylight, even if you stay several minutes 

 in a darkened closet. In the evening it is 

 very much better, but still more satisfac- 

 tory when you wake up at night. So far as 

 I can learn from our scientific periodicals, 

 there has as yet been no satisfactory expla- 

 nation offered for this wonderful phenome- 

 non. Let me explain a little. This bromide 

 of radium is, I conjecture, dissolved in a 

 very little water, or mixed so as to be some- 

 thing like whitewash. Then a very little 

 bit of this whitewash— about what you could 

 pick up on the point of a needle, is dropped 

 on a little piece of metal just about like the 

 hour-hand of a watch. It takes a magnify- 

 ing-glass, in fact, to get just a glimpse of this 

 little white speck where the radium solution 

 has been dropped and allowed to dry on; but 

 from this little microscopic speck of radium 

 this wonderful radio-activity pours forth 

 day and night, winter and summer, in an 

 unceasing stream of fiery meteors, and yet 

 the little speck is never consumed, and the 

 supply never gives out. It continues un- 



