Ask the Professor Wife beating a century ago March 28, 2018

I have a newspaper article from the 1939 Wisconsin State Journal with the title "Foreigners call American Women 'Spoiled'". It references a book by Madame Odette Kuen and agrees that American women are treated very well by their husbands. I will grant you that that is only 80 years ago, but I think it is close enough to be reasonably accurate. It does not say anything about not being beaten.
Instead it says:
" That the wives of all other countries openly cry their amazement that we have so much freedom. That our husbands are as faithful, as adoring, as generous, as unselfish as everybody has always known American husbands to be... dividing up their earnings or handing over their pay envelopes intact, blindly trusting that the contents will spent wisely, letting their wives decisions stand in all family matters. If there is a characteristic American motto, it's "Mother knows best"."
Hardly seems like there was a lot of wife beating going on there does it?