The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1915-06-10
PAGE TWELVE
WHERE DOES THE ITALIAN
pCpE'S LAW LEAVES TIE
CHILDREN?

ct3ETOYefSy with The Macon TGle-
graph, II re the Ne tcmerA decree Of
the Bishop Of Rome, with interest.
Your arguments are convincing
ana final, your defense Of the az
RsicTed ladies, mastery; but what
2lout tie Brown and BoifeUillet
csildccE, it any. What is their
status under existing conditions?
The Telegraph suggests alimony as
q soothing balm for the wives, but
what does it recommend for the I'M
fcrtu"2to issues Of those marriages?
Would The Telegraph have inno-
cent children witness the mor5ifying
spectacle Of the separation Of their
fathers and mothers, and in effect,
submit to the scan laliZing condi-
tiOG of having Themselves branded
as ilie3itim etcs, by their own fathers,
3gd the stigmitiZation of their moth
eT3, as concubines, by the very men
TO whom they were legally married,
because, forsooth foreign born
potentate, living in a foreign country,
arrogantly assumes universal juris-
dictio1 at the marriage altar?
Would The Telegraph have chill
GTen sit quietly by and suffer the
debasement OF their mothers, for no
other reason than that those moth
ers choose to exercise their Free
Born-American right of religious
liberty, because Of the presumptuous
assumption Of authority, over GeOrr
gia's marriage laws, by foreign &C.
c!esiastic?
The mothers, whom you have so
ably defended, it is true, have just
and transcendent grievance, but they
aid not have to marry the men in
question, while the children of such
unions had no choice in the prem
Uses, hence they are the real and
helpless sufferers at the hands of
tnis infamous foreign decree; they
must endure the taunts and jeerS
of their playmates in early life, and
the humiliating consciousness of a
disrupted and bl'ghted paternal
home, in after years; all Lecause of
the application of the ukase of a
foreigner to American citizens.
Would The Telegraph allow the
lives of children blighted, and deny
them the rights and benefits of a
united home, with the father and
mother, working in loving Unison,
to enhance the purity and usefulness
of their lives, just because a fanati-
cal foreign prelate assumes authority
that is not his due?
All me, I almost agree with The
Telegraph-"it is scarcely a ques-
ton for Georgia law to handle"
Quicker, shorter, and more salutary
action should be applied in the
premises and the wonder is, that
the Macon ladies have ho male rela-
tiyes to apply it,
When homes are destroyed, as af-
fecting men, the unwritten law il;
usually appealed to, with little
thought or care for methods adopted
just action. swift and sure.
I assume that the children Of the
marriages in question. if any. are
small At least, that there is no
male among them as old as well up
in the teens; otherwise, I should
expect tidings of heroic methods be-
ing applied to father by an irate
son, and that an American va2sal Of
"a foreign potentate had met a swift,
just and timely fate.
The Telegraph resents the impli-
cation, that it is Tending the Ne
temere Law, but it has no apologies
TO make for excusing it. One is as
bad as the other, in this case, inyolv-
ing as it does the sanctity of our
home circle, the most priceless boon
known to man.
Fla. WALLACE CHEVES.