The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1911-09-28
President Taft Urges q Cen
eral Uniform Divorce
Law
nase lis Hearers To Insl.r~sansl
That He Was Ready and Willing
To Sign any niIIs Reducing the
Tariff. Ii the Measures Were
rounded Upon the Report of the
Tariff Board-Beiieyes Wooden
Duties Too High, But VIII Wait
For Expert Testimony.

Kansas City. Missouri, Sept. IS
President Taft arrived in Kansas
City tonight to address the National
Conservation Congress. He had
spent a busy day in southeastern
Kansas, making addresses at eleven
or the prosperous towns that dot
that section OF the State. The Presi-
dent was tired but happy over the
warmth OF the reception that the
progressive Kansans had given him.
The crowds were the largest the
President has faced during any OF
his travels. Mr.. Taft confined him
self largely TO the vetoes of the
WOODEN, free list and cotton tariff
bills He gave his hearers to under
stand that he was ready and more
than willing TO sign any bills re-
ducing the tariff, if the measures
were founded upon the report of
the tariff board. The board. the
President said, would be ready to
report on the woolen schedule the
first of December.
4 believe the present woolen
duties are too high" he exclaimed
amid applause. "and just as soon as
I get adequate information, | shall
recommend their reduction"
Aside from his tariff speeches the
President spoke briefly on marriage
and divorce, on the prosperity of the
people Of Kansas and on the trusts.
Senator Curtis, Representative Camp
bell and former Representative
Charles H. Scott, were with him
throughout Tuesday. pf
Discussing the necessity of uni
form laws, governing marriage and
divorce, the President said:
1T is very awkward, to say the
least, that a man who is married on
one side of State line may not be
married on the other. The increase
Of divorces in this country is a re-
Election upon the laws and their
loose administration. We ought not
to permit the marriage to be dis
solved at will.
You say we ought not to keep
unhappy people together. Who
bro lght them together? We did not.
Ii they got together under a con-
tract, why shouldn't they be bound
TO the contract, unless one or the
other does something which, in the
eyes of al men. ought to permit or
requires at least a separation if not
a divorce?
+rn h 10 is ~ hox
divldual case decentralization follows
because they are separated, but the
trouble is mere when a man Or wo-I
nan feels that it is more d question
OF option Wit. her whether she will
live with her husband, or he with
before them, they conduct them
selves in such a way very frequently
as necessarily to lead to breach.
1t IS the ability to and the pros
pect OF getting a divorce, that de-
moraliZes. We ought to have a gen
that stiffens up and makes sacred
the marriage tie. agree that it is
not possible ii this stage and under
present conditions to make marriage
indissolubIe, but it is possible TO
make divorce difficult so that 1t can
not be obtained by collusion AM
only while one party or the other
shall have done something that al
men regard as necessarily affecting
the obligation OF the marriage tie.
Following his conservation ad-
dress here tonight, the President left
again for Kansas. and will spend
Tuesday and Wednesday in that
State.