The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1915-04-15
Georgia's Divorce Laws.

anu CIOuUle. georgia is CnOCK 1ulI or Lnem,
and the fact that some Of them are made to
work as mouth-pleces for measures they do
not understand, does not lessen their power
for harm.
Recently, man was defeated for the Leg
islature, who had declared he was going to
revolutionize Georgia's divorce laws, and that
he was the tool of religious body that only
believes In divorce for those who can pay the
stiffest of prices for it, doesn't lessen the pos
slblllties for harm that he might have worked,
had he not been defeated.
The attack on Georgia's divorce laws, is an
attack on the jury system of Georgia, first.
With all due respect to those newspapers of
Georgia which deplore the religious issue'
which IS creeping into our State matters, it is
not an easy matter to get divorce, IN Geor
gia, and the man or woman who has run the
gamut of it. knows this to their own bitter
sorrow.
The statutes clearly define the grounds on
which divorce may be granted, and a careful
reading of it will show that trivial grounds
are not considered Non-support alone, will
not give woman freedom from man who
ignores his duty toward her, in Georgia;
drunkenness, alone, will not give it; the mere
statement of Cruelty and neglect" will not
free her, and when QUE goes into the divorce
COuil3 one HAS 10 nave Tie nerve OIL IL SOuOI0lUo
to keep on until the divorce is granted.
After the filing of the papers, which has
been preceded by telling the miserable, de-
grading tale Of ones marital troubles to the
lawyer one has hired one has to 90 to court
for the first presentation Of the tale to the
judge and the twelve jurors, who are to de-
eide whether the case warrants the second
hearing before another twelve jurors.
Take wh1tn woman rnHno6 noodncf
shrinking from the publicity of court room;
remember that our courts are open, and that
the gallery is at all times filled with negroes,
and the court room proper with men (rarely
are women In Southern court rOOms) and you
will realize it takes Just cause to make
woman of this sort brave it out to the end.
If the husband has not cared to appear,
knowing he has outraged every law of man
IN his treatment of the woman who asks only
to be freed from him, the court appoints a
lawyer for the absent party of the second
part and it is the privilege of this appointed
lawyer, to ask the woman suing for divorce,
as many questions as he cares, on the allega-
lions she has made
1t was the experience of one woman seeking
divorce In Georgia, to have appointed to
''defend' the husband who did not offer any
defense himself, a man who had been his boon
companion The grounds on which the divorce
were asked were those Of "habitual drunken
ness, non-support, and cruelty" The woman
was asked to specify what she meant by the
term ''habitual;" did she mean the husband
chad been drunk Monday, Tuesday, Wednes-
day, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sun
day." And the answer had to be given, amid
the titterings of the over crowded gallery of
negroes, and there was no way to get around
answering it,
Does an experience like that look as though
Georgia granted divorce easily? This was
ths second appearance, and twenty four men,