The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1914-01-27
The Divorce Evil.

AuC AIVO1SC l~VA.
According to recently issued statistics cover
ing 1913 about seventy-fve marriages out of
each one hundred thousand in the United States
result in divorce This is not as alarming ratio
as some extremists would have us believe. New
ertheless, the divorce problem is sufficiently seri
Gus. A great many causes have been given, many
of which are just and legitimate, and many OF
which would be relieved by juster economic
system and sounder social fabric
But perhaps the most prominent and even
most frequent cause of divorce is nothing else
than incompatbity.
It is probable that marriages today are as
successful as in past times. We realize the seri
BUSINESS Of the condition more than our forefath
ers did because we have statistics and they die
rot. But anyone who is familiay with the litera
ture of the Nineteenth and the Eighteenth anc
the preceding centuries knows that of the
stock subjects for novels and plays was the un
successful marriage.
Many of our greatest many of our best men
have been very unlucky in their marriages. So
crates had his Xantippe, Marcus Aurelius' mar
riage resulted in Commodus, Napoleon had his
Josephine, Diderot had his peasant girl, Samue
johnson, Goethe Heine, Wesley, Ruskin, Lincoln
these, and many others equally notable, Were
very unhappy in their matings.
It is evident that in these cases the sole cause
of the mis-match was incompatibility; and what
is true of them is doubtless true of multitudes Of
others equally unfortunate though not so vel
known.
The husband becomes interested in his club
his business, his social circle, his books and his
papers; the wife grows absorbed in her clubs he1
own circle, her domestic interests and Other
of
years until finally the two awake to discover
themselves in separate worlds. It is merely al
accident that they live in the same house. 1t il
merely convenience that they continue to live
together. Their bodies mated but their souls
separated They are divorced in fact if MOI
in name.
When such condition arises and one or the
other no longer endure it, almost the one sole
relief that offers itself is divorce One may
reasonably argue that this is often the refuge OF
a coward but he cannot reasonably deny that this
is undoubtedly one of the commonest causes OF
separation.
But why this incompatibility? Is it not due
to the bankruptcy of romance? Is it not due tt
the fact that the old glamor which wove its nets
of passion around each of these souls has beer
permitted to decay and drop away?
In the old counting days each of them strain
ed every nerve to make himself or herself as at
tractive to the other as possible. But now that
the knot is tied, they lapse into kind of ndffer
ence and suppose that love will continue in some
sort OF automatic fashion and sustain ITSELF
This is great fallacy. It may be argued
that love is a duty but it cannot be denied thai
it is also a duty to nurture and to tend it, The
wedding license does not guarantee the perman
ence OF love; that can alone be guaranteed wher
the man and the woman are as faithful to thei1
love as they are to each other
The one cure for incompatibility is to make
marriage lifelong honeymoon When the wife
is always a sweetheart who must be courted
when she uses the same arts of love to retain tn,
love of her husband that she did in the frs
place to win it, and when the husband maintain
the same chivalric attitude toward his wife tina
Re did to the maiden before she became his wife
love will flourish like the green bav tree
After all, responsibility for the right noar,ie
life lies on the shoulders of the wife and th
husband No laws, no social SYSTEM no economi
justice, however desirable or needed will evo
guarantee successful marriages. That alone will
some when husbands and wives come to unde,
stand that love is an art and that every success
full husband and wife must become an artist i
love-
The ''Na,.1 poE..u,