Los Angeles herald., 1907-11-30
CRIME AND DIVORCE

lWHOMAS SPEED MOSBY, pardon
attorney of Missouri, after having
exhaustively studied the problem
of divorce in it's relation to crime, con-
cludes that every person intending mar
! riage should be required to file "dec-
laration of intention" to that effect
some months before marriage. "All
criminologists know the intimate rela-
tionship of divorce and criminality,"
says Mr.. Mosby Fifty per cent of the
children in reform schools are the chill
dren of divorced parents or chill
Gren of uncertain parentage. Fully 70
per cent of juvenile criminals have had
bad home environment, and very large
proportion of adult criminals may trace
their downfall to the ruined home"
| Mr.. Mosby does not believe, however,
that this problem will be definitely
solved by providing more stringent
divorce DAVIS. He is convinced that the
state must necognize divorce so long as
infallibility in matrimonial selection
cannot be guaranteed. 1t may minimize
but it cannot prohibit. The root of the
evil he declares, Lies not in separation,
but in the causes which induce separa-
ton. The remedy, therefore. should be
prophylactic rather than curative. 1t
is better to prevent matrimonial mis-
fits where possible, than to seek to
escape the inevitable distinction of mis-
mated couples. Publicity of matrimo-
NAL engagement, with lapse of time
between engagement and marriage, not
only facilitates the discovery of legal
impediments to marriage but tends
measurably to increase the prospect of
infallibility In matrimonial selection.
The greater the length of time given
to discover mistakes, the greater the
probability of avoiding them. Pope
Innocent III doubtless recognized this
when, in the year 12i5, ne established
the publication of the marriage bans.
The Catholic church bans was after
ward recognized by the laws of Eng
land, in the statutes of George II and
George III. But the three weeks pub
lication prescribed by the church Is
insufficient in point of time, is not OF
universal application and is too limited
in point of publicity. If the state laws
provided that no marriage license
should issue excepting to those persons
filing with the clerk or registrar at
least three, four or even six months
previously a declaration of intention to
marry, there would be fewer marital
mistakes. but little of the divorce prob
Iar1a ty NJ two hal
necessarily diminished
There is more than a modicun of
truth in what this hitherto unheard-of
investigator says. and much logic in the
argument he advances 1t is deplorable
that marriage is made so easy and that
divorce likewise is surrounded by so
few obstacles Nobody will question
the wisdom of preventing matrimonial
misfits," SO far as possible, as q means
to the end sought.
The Catholic church the world over
has pointed the way to the partial
solution of the divorce problem. If
young couples, inexperienced, unsophis-
ticated. thinking themselves "in love-
after a moonlight rhapsody, found that
instead of appealing at once to a par
son or a justice of the peace for relief
from their intolerable state Of single
blessedness they We're compelled to
await the repeated publication of the
bans in some church or of the announce
ment of their intended marriage in the
public print. there would be far fewer
weddings in haste and the inevitable
repentance at leisure. And with quick
marriages after 'love at first sight
reduced in number the divorce problem
would he very much less serious than
now The divorce laws do not stand
half so much in need of reform as do
the laws regulating marriage.