The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-02-21
VARYING LAWS THAT
MAKE POLYGAMY LEGAL


Washington.-"Th There Is no legal OBJ
stacle 10 a mans having a lawful wife
in nearly every state in the Union and
living with each one a week at a time
in turn" That is the way Represent
alive Tayler Of Ohio sums up the
powers on the subject of marriage and
divorce. possessed by the proud Amer
lean sovereign. Mr. Tayler wishes the
constitution so amended that congress
Will have authority TO make laws on the
subject of marriage and divorce that
shall produce uniformity.
Mr.. Tayler some time ago offered a
resolution submitting an amendment
to the constitution to the legislatures
of the states. In discussing tine subject
today he said:
The exclusion Of Brigham H. Rob
erts from q seat in the house of repre-
sentatives has aroused puDlic sentiment
, on the question of a constitutional
amendment prohibiting pOlygamy, and
has again brought to the front the ne
cessity for uniform legislation on the
subject of marriage and divorce.
The National Divorce Reform league
has been, for many years, systematic
ally working along the line of educat
ing public sentiment with tne purpose
of procuring action by the several state
legislatures. The great s'alue of the
work which the league is doing is
p y
the reform of our divorce laws must
welcome and approve the work of edu-
cation and practical accomplishment
which is being done, whether through
uniformity in the legislation of the
( several states or by a constitutional
/ amendment giving to congress power to
enact uniform laws on the subject.
I have recently introduced in the
house of representatives a joint resO-
luton for such an amendment and
shall press it to passage in the present
\ congress, and in the next congress if
it shall fail in this. Progress in such
cases is necessarily slow
The necessity for uniformity, espe-
cialy in respect to divorce laws, De
comes more apparent the more one
studies the subject. Under the laws as
they now exist, it is not an infFequent
occurrence. for d man to die leaving
more than one lawful wife with two or
more sets of lawful children. But these
lawful wives may not be wives at all
if they move into some other state, and
these lawful children may become ille-
Ultimate by simply removing from the
state of their residence into another
state.
I'm q case which has actually oc-
CURED, a man, having divorced his tive
former wives, died in the state of Indi-
ana, leaving d wife ana children IL
New York, wife in Indiana, a wife
and children in California, and leaving
real estate in each of these states. Eacf
wife took dover in the state Of her resi-
dence 1t would be an Interesting work
to discover the law that would have
prevented that husband from main
tanning pOlygamOus relations with al
l Of these wives provided he visited then
only in the states Of their dOmicile
And what would have been the lega
status of the children born of the Cali
fornia wife il he had moved to New
York and there made his homer
Let me present one or two illustra
tions Of the frightful possibilities o.
our present system marriage oc
Cured in New York. The wife some
time later went to Ohio and procured
! a divorce. The husband, remaining il
New York. supposed that the divOrc'
dissolved the marriage relations as t,
him and married gain. His new con
nubial bliss was disturbed by a prose
cution for bigamy He was convicted
and his conviction sustained by th'
higher courts. It is apparent from tn
law of that case that the wife cOuR
marry in Ohio and alternately live witt
her husband there and with her hus
band in New York, without violating
any law.
'sOf course. the forms and extent o
polygamy which can thus be practicei
are almost as numerous as there ar
states in the Union. There is absolutel.
! no legal obstacle preventing a man
| having a lawful wife and a Lawful
brood of children in every state wher
the doctrine of the New York eour
prevails.
Instances might be indefinitely mul
tiplied of the frightful and demoraliz
ing results of want of uniformity in on
divorce laws. And it is this want o
uniformity which is more to be deplorei
than the allowance OF divorces for in