The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1901-06-14
The DIVORCE QUESTION.
EDITOR HERALD

EDITOR HERALD
1t has often been said that the pro.
gress of civilization can be divided
into three periods, each of which may
be determined by the estimation in
which man holds woman. In the first
he condsidered her as his slave, in
tue second as his idol and in the
third as his equal. 1t is true that in
the heroic days of Greece there were
types OF women, such as Andromache
and Penelope, that neither smacked
Of the idol nor the slave but whether
they were real women or only the crea-
tions of Homers very vivid magma
tien remains question that will pro-
badly enver be solved However that
may be, the truth remains that in
Greece as well as in Rome the wife
was the slave of her lord, and her life
and death lay in his hands
While the relations between hus-
band and wife continued to be those
of master and servant there was
evidently no need of legal proceedings
for separation, for they were bound
by a connection in which the slave was
unable to renounce her tyrant and
| the tyrant was unwilling TO re-
linquish his slave. The fact that for
five hundred years only one divorce
was granted by the courts of Rome
has been quoted to prove that the
Romans were paragons of virtue and
fidelity, while in fact they were
monsters of intolerance and oppression.
| After the Punic wars, the Roman
matrOns aspired to the benefits of a
free and opulent republic, and began
to assert their claim to a place beside
and not beneath their lord When
they thus became the equal and volun
tary companions of their lords, a new
jurisprudence was introduced that
marriage like other partnerships,
might be dissolved by the action of
either one of the parties. Liberty,
| however, was later converted into
license, and license ran riot until that
period of Romes existence is even
now taken as synonym of conjugal
infdelity, and it required all the
power of Justinian, the great jurist
emperor, to curb the practice within
the proper bounds. $3.50 -
Thus divorce had its origin in the
freedom of woman from species of
exercised his WILL but now the aid
of the law vouchsafed to woman the
same privilege of dissolving an un
happy union. AS she has continued
through the centuries to assert with
more and more success her rights and
her equality to man, so she has been
more ard more favored by the law,
until now she is its favored miniOn.
She has secured recognition as being
a perfect equal and with it degree
of independence never before dreamed
of. The fact that it is in our own
country that this gowth has been most
pronounced, makes it question of
all the more Importance to us.
The result of it all is that we are
brought face to face with a very stub
born social problem. TO determine, in
the present social condition, whether
it is better to grant divorce in those
cases where the incompatibility is not
only great but permanent, or to compel
the parties to live in state of per
petual unhappiness.
The peculiar characteristics and
habits of the American people make
the problem more difficult here thar
in any other country. As there are nc
social barriers to marriage, SO there
} are practically no legal ones to prevent
hasty and indiscreet unions. In many
, of the European countries, a man is no.
permitted to marry without the con
sent of the parents until he is twenty
one, and in two of the states OF the
German Empire the limit of twenty
five is fixed.
With us. marriages are contracted by
parties who yield to the momentary
. infatuation without any thought O.
the responsibilities or duties of thu
contract, and our natures are sucf
that the same would be true if there
were no laws granting divorce on an,
ground. The question presents itself
: whether it is better to force them tt
live together in home without low,
: and without happiness, and to rea.
, children in such home, or to dissolve
the contract and thereby save thu
country the danger of having many o
: its citizens reared in lOveless homes
From such homes come both the foo
) and the knave and it is the duty of thu
state to protect society against suci
burdens by other mealls, if possible
but if not, by suitable divorce laws.
InCOmpatibility does not necessarily
! mean that either party is absolutel.
bad. Socrates, the best of all tn
: Greeks, got along very badly with hi
t wife Xantippe, and had there beer
9 such an institution as divorce i'll hi
day, they would probably have boil
applied for one; he, on account 0
incompatibility, and she for failure t.
support. If that had been done, the.
, would both have lived more happil.
and would have been Of more servic
to their own and succeeding ages.
Happiness is the goal of all our am
billions and the object of all our en-
deavors. They are the happy mel
6 and women from happy homes tina
| carry sunshine with them into thei
i business and their social life or where
ever they may go. They are tn
happy men and women, too, VIII
: make the best and most useful citizen
in our country. 1t is the plain duty
. then, of the state to make provision
tor the dissolution of those contract
of marriage that are and will Continu
! to be the source of unhappiness.
(Continued on Seventh Page
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