The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1906-11-22
The Divorce Congress.

There is an immense amount OF
divorce reform sentiment III this
country, as is SHOWN by the TACT
that there Is now In session III
Philadelphia a divOrce-reform
congress composed OF representa-
tives from twenty-seven states,
convened especially for the pur-
pose of securing uniform divorce
legislation. National laws are
recognized as unconstitutional
and the plan is to draft wise di-
vorce code and then urge its
adoption by all the states and
territories.
Nothing could be more discour-
aging to those who hope for di-
vorce reform than the recent pro-
,ceedings of this congress. 1t was
generally hoped and expected
that the first object of the con-
gress would be to make divorces
more difficult, but everything IL
has done up to the present time
seems calculated to make divor-
ces easier and more numerous
and by regulations which to most
people will appear irrational, i'm
moral and inhuman. :,
One of the propositions favor
ably debated for hours lin this
body was that divorces should
be granted where one of the par
ties was insane at the time OF
marriage unknown to the other.
Not satisfied with giving the sane
party the privilege of a divorce if
he demanded it, this congress
proceeded to debate whether
there should not be commission
appointed to divorce him -wheth-
er he wished it or not. Then to
make the debate still more ridic-
ulous this divorce by commission
was demanded on the ground that
the state was interested in pre-
venting the birth of insane child
rem, just as if the state would
not be interested in that matter
whether one of the parties knew
the other was insane at the time
of marriage or found it out later.
OF all the inhuman things tina.
a man could be guilty of the most
diabolical would be the divorcing
of his wife and the withdrawal
of his support from her on ac-
count of insanity. AS to his know
ing of her. insanity, who knows
that any person is insane, and,
worst of all, who can tell in the
retrospect whether a person was
insane on some previous day, it
may be years ago?
Anyone can see the the only
possible effect of such a law
would be to provide one more
way in which unprincipled hus-
bands may trump up a case
against their innocent wives, d.
vorce them and make them OBJ
jects of charity. The congress
did not even consider the case il,
which the poor woman had re-
covered from her insanity since
the marriage.
Another law laboriously debat-
ed by this reform body provided
that if a man married under 81
years of age or woman under Is
years of age either of them should
be entitled to a divorce il it was
sued for. Here again the con-
gress displayed a most discourag-
ing lack of ordinary common
sense and determination ito
make divorces easier and more
frequent instead of more difficult
and less frequent.
The idea that young people al
ways make a mistake in their
marriage choice is absurd, for
some of these young couples are
the happiest in the world. On the
other hand, if they were encour-
aged to repudiate their marriage
vows it..would simply food soci-
ETY. with marital infdelity.
This divorce-reform congress
fought to adjourn sine die and the
delegates denv that they ever had
anything to do with it.-Chicagr
Chronicle.