Kansas City daily journal., 1897-01-17
.ADEFENSEOF DIVORCE
VIGOROUS REPLY TO JUDGE HEN
RVS RECENT ADDRESS.
FACTS, LOGIC AND SARCASM.
BANKER WILSON, of LEXINGTON
STANDS UP FOR WIVES.
Demands to Know if They Have No
RIEhts-Divorces by CoIIusion Up
held as Quite the Proper
Thing-The Decay of
Manhood.


| Lexington. Mo-, Jan. 16.-(Special.) Mr.
| George Wilson, president of the Lafayette
| County bank. and a leading citizen o
| Western Missouri, has some clear Gu
| views on divorce. As divorce is some
thing of burning issue just at this tim'
and the legislature is being called upon t'
make and amend laws on the subject, th'
statement becomes of more than usual i'm
portance. He says:
Judge Henry, fine specimen, and wei
| preserved one of the old tyrant Bourbon
| Democracy, in his speech in the First Con
| gregational church of Kansas City, salc
| that the ease with which married people
| get divorces under the laws of this state
| is infamous For my part 1 cannot thinf
| of many things that are more infamou:
| than for n man to compel a woman to have
| the relation of wife to him against her will
It is a curious case of the power of super
| stition over man that If there has been nc
| marriage ceremony mob will hang the
| man for so doing, but if there has been' the
same act on his part is approved
He delivered a panegyric on South Car
| olina, saying that she is the one state II
| the Union where no divorce has ever beer
| granted. Why did he not add what he
could learn out of the Encyclopedia Brit
annica, if he does not know it-that she is
the only state in the world whose laws
provide how much of a mans estate his
mistress shall get. Every state that has
| law forbiddng divorce needs an annex law
\ of that kind, whether 1t has it or not.
THE Judge says that the divorce laws OF
this state conflict with the Divine law and
are nurseries of infidelity and crime. Looh
at France in the long time that no divorce
| was allowed; and at England. where 1t Is
very hard to get a divorce. Is there any
more infidelity here than there? If the lit
erature of those countries and popular be-
| lief are any guide, it is the rule for every
married man to keep mistress
1.-The rule of the Mosaic law, repeated IN
the New Testament, and which is impreg-
a man could put away his wife for adul-
| terry. But what about the woman, II her
| husband were similarly. guilty and she
which Judge Henry thinks divine, the
woman had nothing to say and her hus-
| band did as he pleased with her and with
| other women. Judge Henry is Immensely
enamored of that jug-handle arrangement.
| Ho-hoI But then we men are SO weak.
Divorces by CoIIusion.
"He is especially aggrieved that married
people get divorces by eollusion. Now, II
neither one wants to live with the other. |
can see no more natural and proper thing
for them to do than separate. And can
not see, for the world, how I have any
right to force them to live together if they
don't want to, nor how Judge Henry has,
nor where all the rest of the people in the
state have a right to force these two to
live together. And the experience of France
and England shows that 1t does not sue
ceed. If they want a divorce by collusion
they will commit adultery by collusion If re-
fused a divorce. And the latter sortof agree
ment is. 1 am credibly informed, very
common proceeding in Europe. where di-
vorces cannot be had. How much improve
"One of the brightest women in the med
ical profession in America said to. me: i
did not think | was doing right to bring a
drunkard's children into the world. so
port myself and our one child l know
many another weaker woman who has
holds and brought lot of children of an
habitually drunken father into the world.
who can scarcely be anything but a mis-
fortune to themselves and to Others
II know a case of a young couple that,
after they had a child, got a divorce by
collusion, on account of the husband S
drunkenness, and each married again. She
took the child and another man married
and loved her. and there is nothing that his
large means can get for her and the child
that he does not get II they want 1t. Both
are as happy as people can be-, The drunk
en- father reformed and married another
woman and has been sober and happy
man ever since. Instead of three miserable
people, there are now five happy ones.
The Increase of Divorce.
Does it never occur to Judge Henry why
there are more divorces now than former
ly? One cause is the changed economic
conditions. A Chicago judge says that
most of them grow out of the bread and
butter question: Another is that Ameri-
can women are learning TO make their own
living and so will not stand from their hus-
bands what they formerly had to, because
4 completely dependent. 1t is not right, 1t is
not salutary for the race that when people
have made mistake they be not allowed
ra OH tn n NO hssE| rio
I TO compel a man and woman to live in un-
7 happiness when they can find happiness.
Judge Henry's logic would require child
that has wandered into a jail to spend the
rest of its life in it. Does the judge know
that before Helen Gardener asked the leg
: islature of South Carolina TO raise the age
& of consent in that state ii was years?
Is that a sample of the respect for the
rights of the other sex that no divorce
law produces?
Judge Henry is n sample of the Bour.
bon Democrats, the ruling spirit in the pol
itics of this state, calling themselves JEFF
lersonian, yet as lar tar from the spirit of
Jefferson was the embodiment of the spirit
of liberty. He said. give truth and error n
win. These Bourbans continually forget
that the makers of the state are greater
than the state. The Judge represents him.
self and somebody else who would fix n
|-sphere' for women and one for man, and
keep each one in his and her own sphere.
fWouldnt IL smack little of appropriate
ness IN OlSClpleS OIL JeueTSOn ana freedom
4 10 consult the women about fixing their
sphere? Where does man get right to fix
her sphere and she have no right to fix his?
Manhood of Men Is Decaying.
'In my opinion. this alarm over the fact
that woman is becoming too self-assertive
hoo new too masculine means only one
thing: 1t means that the manhood of the
men is decaying. l believe that vice-drugs
land vices are retarding the growth of the
intellect of men, and that the women are
actually gaining the advantage progress
ling mentally out of proportion TO the men.
Igon the women. Let the men abandon their
Eyice-drugs and vices.
"Who has not seen a woman trying
Through years to get her husband TO be
lman enough to keep sober? Who has not
tseen women taking their husbands out of
saloons-the weaker vessel taking care of
the stronger?
Judge Henry is better informed on what
God wants done in this matter than / am.
bella, Katherine of Russia, Elizabeth and
Victoria as some of the weaker vessels
who lodged Almighty fiat and did great
works for the world.
"Amcng our fathers in Northern Europe
as described by TaCituS the state of
morals was vastly better than among u.s.
Yet 1t was only necessary for n woman TO
get witnesses and declare in three specific
places that she was divorced and il was
complete. 1t is not the divorcing that is
the social ulcer: Ii is the conditions that
make people unhappy in married life Seek
these out; remove their causes. While they.
exist, refusal OF divorce is only like put
ting piece OF court plaster over boil on
a mans body: il may drive in what might