The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-10-24
MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE.

The mention In the local columns OF
yesterdays Journal of the simultaneous
marriage of two sisters, their abandon
ment simultaneously three days later,
and the simultaneous filing of petitions
for divorces, gives more than a
usual occasion to refer to the ques-
ton of marriage and divorce.
The Journal is not optimistic enough to
suppose that any civil OF e~cclesiastic
legislation can make every household
such a perpetual paradise that divorces
will never be needed, unless such legis-
lation can entirely recast the material
which constitutes the domestic circle.
Marriage alone will not t. transform a
shrew into an agreeable companion, nor
a brute into an affectionate husband, and
yet no h0usehold.c can properly exist with
out The bond which is to be found only In
cOmpanionship and love.
The popular cry, in view Of the num-
erOus divorces which startle the world,
is in favor of more stringent divorce
laws. This is the wrong place to begin.
1t is an open question whether, instead
Of making it more difficult to procure a
divorce, it were not better, under a class
of circumstances often possible, to make
it easier. In spite of the traditional
sentiment that the Christian religion
fOrbids divorces, except for adultery-a
tradition against which the consensus of
universal Christianity protests in prac-
tice, and against which unanswerable
arguments may be presented-all Chris
tan nations have authorized divorces
for other causes. Whether these causes
are too few or toomany does not concern
the present discussion, nor whether the
| present process of obtaining divorces be
the wisest or not. We are dealing only
with the fact that divorces are alarm
ingly frequent, and the terrible fact
which these divorces prOclaim: the fact
of unbearable domestic discOrd. This is
much more marked in the divorces
which occur after many years of married
life, sometimes after a large family of
children have been reared, than in the
case referred to. Who can estimate the
burdens that one or both of the parties
to this life of enforced companiCnship
have endured? And who shall say that
the aggregate of purity and happiness
would not have been promoted by a
much earlier separation if compatibility
and sympathy were impossible? What
is such domestic life but one continued
life of legalized and enforced adulteryq
1t is certainly devoid CT every element
of real domestic comfort. 3
But how may this frequency of divorce
be prevented? In short, the answer is:
make the necessity for divorces less.
This co~mprehends many things and
much patient education. Statutory law
may help. but it is only secondary at
best. 1t might make marriage more
difficult, but not necessarily more ex-
p~ensive, as some have suggested. So
far as statistics have been gathered
these indicate that more than half of
the divorces of the country are from
hasty marriages. The State may not
prescribe the moral fitness of the parties,
but it should rigidly supervise the phys
ical fitness, and it should pres cribe such
a process as to make hasty marriages
impossible. A very simple, but a very
effective, step might be the publication
of the bans thirty or sixty days, more or
less. This has become fashionable in
high life; why may it not be enforced as
to all? There is no good reason why a
proposed marriage may be not De known
a month before it is to occur, as we'll
as the actual marriage be known
after it has occurred. And probably
this is the most that the civil authorities
can do to prevent hasty and improper
marriages, and thus to diminish the
causes for divorce.
But to be effective in the right direc-
ton our marriage and divorce laws
should be uniform through the whole
country. At present no two States have
the same laws relating to marriage and
divorce. This affects not the moral and
social relation only, but civil interests as
well. The title to property is often af-
fected by the question. Several cases
of great Importance have occurred in
courts in which the validity of marriage
and divorce have figured largely, and
several States have denied the validity
of both marriage and divorce in other
States, when the conditions obtaining in
their own jurisdiction have not been
substantially observed. We impose con-
ditions in Indiana that are not imposed
in Ohio, hence persons not eligible to
marriage here often 60 to Ohio single
and return in a few hours married. This
is wrong from every point of view. But
this implies national legislation and
possibly an amendment to the national
Constitution. But this neednot be diff
cult. The public is ready for it, and
such a proposed amendment would be
readily adopted.
But the prevention of improper mar
riages, and Of such domestic wretched-
ness as makes divorce the less of two
evils, lies far back Of civil legislation,
it is in the home. Of course in that
stratum of society in which the mere
animal instincts predominant, no whole
some education on this subject can be
expected, and society must be content
with such restraints as law can enforce;
but why should cultured men and