The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1911-09-07
AGE on MATR|M0NY.
Speaker Recommends 81 Years
! as the Limit
Ssresldsnt 81 Eussnlo Society Explalls
I 20 English Royal Commission
He sNeWs on Marriage
Certificate Of Fitness

He 'NeWs on Marriage
Certificate OF Fitness
/ LQndoq.-The eugenic view Of mat
6tmony. including the proposal to es-
sablish Q new age limit for marriage.
vas explained to the royal commits
lion on divorce by Mr.. Montague
3rackenthorpe. X. G.. president Of
he Mugenic Society.
! In this view, he said, marriage was
IN institution designed, amongst other
SShingS, for the continuance of the
,uman race. It should, therefore. be
segulated by the community, which
:.ad q great interest In the children
corn into It.
One-half Of eugenic teaching was
,oncerned with the production Of the
IL, the other with the elimination Of
be unfit. So when certain defects
we're present before marriage in one
Is the intending parties the marriage
hould not take place, and II they de-
eloped after marriage 1t should be
Issoluble at the instance Of the UNI
alemished party.
As to insanity, though in a sense .
pouse was taken for better or for
Eorse, to propagate children "for
7orse" was q wicked and selfish act
hat must hinder the community's
progress.
It is absolutely cruel that a man
hould marry q girl of whom he knows
cry little-except that he has met
Ter in society and regarded her as q
;harming object-and shortly after
marriage she should show herself Of
snsound mind and has to be put away,
nd that man is made celibate
5gainst his will.
As to the equality of the sexes, it
7as contended that there should be
erfect equality, but biologically the
exes were not and never could be
$slade equal. The sexes started equal,
ut with adolescence they diheren-
lated and nature had ordained that.
The sexes were not equal, for you
AUST consider consequences. If a sin
lie act on the part of a man be fol-
owed by the same legal consequence
9 misconduct IN the part Of a wife
Sivorce will be made too "easy," for a
title c~ollusion would always bring
bout a divorce.
Marriage" continued Mr.. Crackan-
s1orptt, Should only be permitted aft
81 a certificate Of fitness for matri-
3lony had been obtained.
Moreover, no man should be al
tywed to marry before the age Of
wenty-one and no woman before the
&c Of eighteen"
Witness said that, in suggesting
shese rules, the Eugenic Society had
#ot forgotten that marriage involved
suestions Of sex instinct and passion.
f'hese rules might have been found
anpracticable in every age, race and
;ountry in the past, but what may
Cot be practicable In one age may be
gracticable In another"
"Banns," he continued, were made.
ssuate as at present published. They
rould be published in an official mat
S.monial gazette"
He was followed by F. ". Mott, Of
haring Gross hospital. and pathol-
gst Of the L. G. c. asylums. He
ad been nominated by the Eugenic
society, he said, to give evidence on
s!lsanity and inebriety.
He dealt first with heredity and in
anity. There were twenty thousand
slnatics in London asylums. Two
Slousand who had been in the asylums
j the last two years had relatives in
Lsylums. He advocated divorce in
Asses of chronic, incurable insanity as
senef1cial to the individual and to So
5.ety.
Drink. he went on, had a pernicious
feet On mentally unstable people,
nd caused the sending Of many to
sylums. A very small quantity made
lem anti-social and insane. He did
ut ind that the children Of drunkards
ore feeble minded. but If the in
uenoe existed for two or three gen.
A.ations disease manifested itself.
DR.. Chambers, joint editor Of the
s,urnal Of Mental Science, said that
10 remedy lay not in making insan-
IL q ground for divorce, but in pre-
mting the marriage of the unfit.
he knowledge that insanity was a
ound for divorce would have a pre-
dicial effect on the mental health of
S,me people, and would distress the
inds and retards the recoveries of
any Of the insane who were under
ire.
Tho last witness Of the day was DR..
H. Savage. the famous mental ex-
ss,rt, who has forty years experience
the treatment Of the insane. He
I'D written to medical officers Of
S;ylums asking whether insanity was
justifable ground for divorce, re-
living eighty-two replies. These
3ere: Yes. 81; no, 20; Indifferent. 2.
He himself thought that, despite
lie existence of a verv large num.