Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1910-08-26
FnENcn MARRIAGE LAWS.
Now Fewer Red Tape Restrictions
and az Result More Weddings.

Every one who writes on France
shows deep concern at the falling
birth rate and at the fact that the
population is actually decreasing. In
twenty-five years, we are told, Ger
many will have double the population
of France. and in fifty years the ma
ton will have Disappeared unless IN
the meantime it is gobbled up by the
powerful and rapidly increasing neigh
Dor. France grows richer every year
since there is less and less TO divide,
while Germany must grow relatively
poorer, as natural expansion is
checked by her geographical bound
aries and Europes firm adherence to
the balance of power.
Above all things, this people is log
ical. Having become aware of the
danger, it has set to work to find the
cause. One of these causes is the
cOmplexity of marriage in France,
writes the Paris correspondent Of the
Pail Mall Gazette. Persons are de-
barred from entering wedlock. espec-
tally persons of the poorer sort, be-
cause of its difficulty. Until year
ago the law demanded a formidable
array of papers before the young man
and woman could be Joined together
in matrimony. The consent of the
parents had to be obtained in writing;
there were birth certificates and certi-
ficates OF residence. and in the case OF
the man evidence that he had COM
pleted his military service.
If the parents were dead the affair
was even more complicated. Papers
had to prove their death and the death
of the grandparents. The total docu-
meuts required were nineteen. In
country parishes such documents are
fairly easy to procure, as the French
peasantry has a way of remaining
rooted to the soil from generation to
generation, but in the towns it is
much more difficult.
Papers had 10 be sent for from dis
tant parts; there was delay and there
was expense. In the case of foreigners
there was the added formality of
translation. sometimes representing
an expenditure of a hundred or more
francs. This was a grave impedimert
in the way Of very poor persons, an
almost impossible obstacle. Some
mayors of communes recognized now
impossible it was to comply with al
the requirements of the law and con-
nived at irregular attestatiOns.
Moved by this state of things, by
the impediment that the law offered tC
marriage. >bbe Lemire, one of the lew
priest deputies in the chamber and d
man OF admirable enthusiasms,
brought in a bill year ago to SIM
pity the formalities After the age
OF so the consent of the parents is no
longer required. This seems very
meagre concession to the modern
spirit, but it has already worked mar
wells. The marriage rate is on the up
turn, to the tune of 5000 more mar
1iages in the latter part of 1907, the
law being passed in June. The good
able attempted a still larger reform,
but was not successful.
He wished, in imitation of the re
form in Belgium, to place marriage
within the limits of the common law
that is to say, to enable the person
who had attained his majority to con-
tract it without the intervention Of
his parents. This, however, was TOO
daring d proposition for the chamber,
and it stayed short at modifying the
foTmalities for all marriages and alb
solving the fiances from their parents
consent after the age Of 30.
The upward movement in marriage
is to be directly traceable to the new
legislation, as DR.. Jacques Bertillon,
the municipal statistician, points out;
it is proved by the immediate advance
in the figures after it was promul-
gated.
DR.. Bertillon pleads for the Belgian
method on the ground that it en-
cOurages early marriages, reduces the
number of Nightmares and aids IN
the natality returns. Here is an in
stance, despite the old Latin tag to
the contrary, that morals are really
affected by laws. AS a consequence o.
the concession here noted, the mar
riages for 1907 are more numerous
than since the two years following ire
war Ga case of retarded marriages.,
which have hitherto constituted the
record, and more numerous proper
tionate to the population than in 1918,
when the young men rushed to matri-
mOny to escape CONSUMPTION. The
marriage figures for the second hall
of 1907 stand at 160,680.