The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1885-02-06
MANKATo FREE PRESS
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY o, 1895.
THE ITALIAN DIVORCE BILL
May Marry on Trial.

The Divorce bill brought before Par
lament by the Italian Ministry seems
little short of proposal TO revolution
lie marriage. 1t provides that when a
man and wife have separated for a per.
iod of three years-provided they have
no children, or for five years, provided
they have children-the aggrieved par
ty can obtain divorce. This is simp-
ly an abolition of permanent marriage,
and gives to either husband or wife
only temporary interest in the mar
riage relation.
OF course this bill Is ostensibly de-
signed to afford relief to wife or hus-
band, as the case may be, who has been
deserted. In practice, however, the
law would permit the voluntary sepa-
ration and subsequent divorce of all
married people. III q man and wife
should grow tired of one another with
in month after marriage they would
only have to agree to live apart from
one another for specified time, and,
in case the marriage should prove un-
fruitful, they would have only three
years to wait in order to dissolve the
marriage bond and to seek more con-
genial partners. The party bringing
the suit for divorce could easily claim
to have been deserted, and the defend
ant certainly would not deny this
claim. There will, therefore, be no
certainty in case the Divorce bill be-
comes a law that any Italian marriage
will last over seven years at the fur
thest. Certainly the Italian Ministry
has left very far behind the Catholic
theory of the indissolubility of mar
riage.
1t is not creditable to the boldness or
the honesty of the originators of the
Divorce bill that they have failed to
word it frankly and to call it bill for
the substitution of temporary marriage
in place of permanent marriage. 1t
should have provided that every Italian
marriage shall hold good only for q
term of years, say seven years in cases
where children are born and five years
in cases where there are no children.
They would have then had the merit
of saying exactly what they mean. No
Italian man or woman would, in case
such a law were passed, be put to the
trouble and expense of seeking a di-
vorce. At the end of five or seven years
every husband who was satisfied with
his wife would renew his lease of her,
and every wife who was dissatisfied
with her husband would refuse to be
remarked to him and would seek a
more satisfactory husband. In case
the husband declined to give up his
wife at the expiration of his lease she
could proceed to dispossess him by aid
of an order of the court, and could
probably obtain damages from him
sufficient to enable her to buy new
wedding outfit. In exceptional cases
husband who had secured very de-
sirable wife might make it part of
the first marriage contract that he
should have the right to renew his
lease of her for second period of five
or seven years, and of course the lease
would contain provisions requiring the
husband to keep the wife in good re-
pair and to pay the annual insurance
premium on her life.
The divorce question, which has so
long plagued France, is evidently to
plague the other Latin nations. In
stead of drawing ingenious divorce bills
designed to conciliate those who are
opposed to divorce in any circum.
stances and those who are in favor of
unlimited divorce facilities, legislators
would do well to take the bull by the
horns. as the Italian Ministry has done,
and to make marriage a leasehold priv
ilege. Temporary marriages are the
easiest solution of the divorce problem,
and if they do not commend them
selves to narrow-minded persons who
still believe in Christianity, they will
certainly meet the warm approval of
the Communists and atheists. -Nea0
York Times.