The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-12-06
MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE"
As a Woman Sees Them - Ad- dresses by Mrs. A. G.
 Spencer
Interesting Sociological Study of Prob lens-State, Not Church, Should Have Power to LegaIize
 Marriage

Women may again take hand in dicta ting the terms of marriage, be- cause they have learned the feel of their own pay envelopes in their own hands The result is that in c7roos- ing for marriage women are asking that men in addition to their achieve the right to ask that in addition to being good women shall be good for
 something This principle of grow
 ing cooperation in life between men
 and women as the hope to make mar
 riage what it ought to be was the
 keynote struck by Mrs. Anna Ga11in
 Spencer of New York, who stirred the
 enthusiasm of a large audience of
 men in Springfie recently with her
 stimulating talk on Marriage and Di-
 Vorce.'' The interest in Mrs. Spen-
 cer was evident when she appeared. a
 small, cheery. motflerly-looAing worn-
 an. gray-haired and dressed in a. dark
 coloreG material, and when she began
 to talk of the causes of divorce and
 the need Of Ia WIS to regulate marriages
 to start them right there was no doubt
 that she had her hearers with her. The
 position taken by Mrs. Spencer was
 that the state is now the only fnsti- tuition broad enough to control mar
 riage, and that no church should have
 the right to leaalize marriages, in
 which the state must be recognized
 as arbiter. The interest in her talk
 was such that many of the men stay ed after the applause had ceased to question Mrs. Spencer further on her views. The devotional service with
 which the meeting opened was led by Rev. Clarence F.. Rice of St. Paul g church. and two solos were we'll sung by Walter Marsh. Before the intro duction of Mrs. Spencer, Secretary. Kenneth Robbie announced plans for an emancipation day celebration to be observed by the Young Mems Chris titan Association on January 26.
 There is no problem more thought fully and tragically considered, said Mrs. Spencer, than that of the increase af iS said that the figures this year will show us that one out of every 10 marriages is severed in the divorce courts. Cltriously, many peo-i pie seem to take the view that when people could not get divorced. they were all happily married. when the truth is that the old un1rappiness, held freedom The talk would lead one to think that nothing tragic could hap pen to children except the separation of their parents, but those who know what children need. know that the worst tragedy is for the child whose parents do not live and work together for the welfare of the home.
 The recent report of the majority of the English parlianen tar-y commission on marriage and divorce was in favor of greater freedom of divorce in Great Britain. Their position was that 1t is not suited to the character of mod ern women to keep them in state of bondage, that a denlora1- ized social condition follows such coer- cion. and that the care of child life requires that the high ideal of mar Fiage should be preserved and the destruction of its spiritual clements recognized by the courts. This is an indication that the movement for greater freedom is reaching our most centers. We no longer be- lieve in eternal punishment, said Mrs Spencer, in marriage any more than we do in eternal punishment in gen eral. Two things women will no longer stand-and I speak as one who knows something about wUmen-that outrage upon a. faithful wife and mother enforced union with a man whose touch is pollution, and the threat of disease to unborn children. won't stand that any longer. gentlemen and they don't have to