The Washington herald., 1912-10-30
TOPICS or INTEREST," 10 EVERY WOMAN
EDITED Br JUzxA caAEDLsR Mxu s
for Men and Nonien
III the Matter of Div0rce
D FRANCOIS slIAFVRR.

H
For many months the Divores Com
mission of England has bssn consid.
srang the amshdmsnt Of the Ensiish
divoccs laws
A. thar stand ak present q husband
may secure q divorce from his wife
on the single ground Of unfaithful-
ness. But not 20 With the wtfe ehs
may prove that count against him.
ana hs may humiliats and disgrace her
all he likes. but unless he has coupled
personal violence With unfaithfulpess she
has no redress at all II he has boen
seen to strike or abuse her. then she
gan 20 ON with her suit; but the ground
tnst for the husband b all-sufacieut
under english law counts for nothing
with the wife unless he has seen At
to descend to what the senior Mr.. Weller
calls the '.amiable weakness'' Of wife
beating.
- C1stsia 10 Ne Chaas~k
Women. and men. who believe In fair
play. for years have endeavored to make
the law recognize that misconduct on
tho part Of q husband should be classed
with that Of Q wife. but 30 far II has
been obdurate in its old demands.
Now. however. 1t looks a. II English
statute books might be cleared Of that
long-standing evidence Of unjust, dis
elimination. For the London Times
in its forecast of the reports Of the
commission makes II pretty clear that
the Recommendation will favor equality
for men and women In the matter Of d.
vorcA.
One really hopes It 10 true. for Eng
land has been asleep for many years
In that one regard.
And II Ii not easy to understand just
why England or any other country 10
satisfied to be governed by laws which
do not treat the whole btg family alike.
Bat an UGly Memory.
There's that sorry relic Of other days
wife-beating. we may say that It il all
wiped out and that nc Ling remains but
an ugly memory. hut the facts do
not bear out that pleasant conclusion.
because wife-beating in England. 20 we
are told, is flagrantly common to-day,
among the lower classes.
You see, the old common law recog-
nised the right Of a husband to cor
rect and chastise his wife" It speci-
fed that he must treat her well and
decently and never infiict any injury
upon her SO long as she was good and
dOcile. but when she needed correction.
why. then he might exert his right. And
the civil law gave him sfi1l higher
powers.
And that same old law permitted the
husband to restrain his wife's liberty II
he deemed 1t well to keep her in durance
for while. Indeed. 1t was not 30 many
years ago that that practice became en-
tfrely obsolete. What matter that It re-
mained among the few and the very, very
low? For the horror Of It 10 that It
ever stood at all.
MN>.>~A - m
The echoes Of those old laws have
lasted down the years % well that there
is still an element away down among
the worst Of all that seems to reckon
wife-beating as an "ammble weakness."
At any rate. that Ii the reputation II
has. and the reports that sometimes
reach the press apparently bear 1t out.
1t Ii not strange that the old-tfua
gil he surveyed.
And while that Divorce Commission d
hard at work, trying to straighten out
an ugly tanxle II would look sort of pro.
gressive and human II side by side with
1t there was another commission to take
away from husband the right to COL
lect q wife's earnings, for a. IT stands
now he can take every penny that she
earns and spend 1t as he likes. Like
ASS hS Soh CohipCi HE o2uXnIGT8 10 IuIn
their weekly wages over to him a. long
ss they remain under his roof.
Her Consent Didn't Count.
And still another commission might
find plenty Of work to do in the matter
of joint guardianship over children.
Some one tells Of the way Lady Russell.
the wife Of an English earl, once opened
her eyes in unpleasant surprise Dur
ing an epidemic Of smallpox IT happened
that friend who was visiting at her
house wanted to have her young son
The physicikn told her he
must drst secure the consent Of the
child's parent. The mother hastily
reached for . bit Of paper on which to
record her conseEx. But 1t remained
foi the physieL>n to remind her that
the English law recognized but one
parent, the father-she was only a
mother and her consent did not count.
Since then she has been rather urgent in
her demand for reform.
And, because the great majority of
men are 20 far from approving Of such
conditions. since their every act and
thought speak Of fairness. one believed
that they must understand why some
English women have grown q bit ex-
cited in the effort IN hurrv thin1a nlon1