Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-04-14
MORAL PREP PAREDNESS
FIRST Is PLEA MADE
BY REV. DIR. TOMKTNS
Holy Trinity Rector, Discussing
Divorce Evil, Says 1t Is
More Important Than
Armament
LIKES EDMoNDs BILL

II believe that the man or woman who
seeks freedom through divorce from the
sacrament of marriage must be stamped
as a coward" said the Rev. DIR. Floyd
w. Tomkins, Of Holy Trinity Episcopal
Church, today, commenting upon his APP
pearance before a House Committee In
Washington on Wednesday in support
Of the Edmonds Uniform Divorce Bill
II am heartily in support of the
Edmonds BILL" he said. "and was very
glad TO appear as one advocating its
enactment.
The bill proposes an amendment to the
Constitution of the United States in the
following language:
The Congress shall have power to
establish uniform laws on the sub
ject of marriage and divorce for the
United States and to provide penal
ties for violation thereof
"while this bill" Doctor Tomkns con-
tinued. would not eradicate a great evil,
tt would go far toward controlling 1t. The
alarming increase in divorce throughout
the United States can be qualified as
ruinous to the moral life of the country.
From 1899 to 1914 divorce increased in
this country 10 times as fast as the popu-
lation In 1915, 1859 divorces were
granted throughout the United States.
Within the last so years there were be-
tween two and three million divorces
granted here, and. by the same token.
one and half million children made or
phans thereby A very large percentage
Of these orphans actually "a per cent,
according to statistics which ] have looked
up, became inmates OF reform schools.
DIVORCES KNOW BETTER
I'VE are now second to Japan. heather
country, In the number OF divorces grant
ed yearly in proportion to the number
of marriages. If we increase granting
divorces for the next so years at the
same ratio we did in the past so, we
shall have one divorce to every three
marriages.
There is great deal of talk and
agitation about preparedness at the
present time. 1 am heartily in favor of
1T; but 1 am even more heartily in favor
OF moral preparedness. The Edmonds
bill, IL It becomes part of the Constitu-
ton, will go far in this direction. 1t
cannot perforce remedy the existing evil.
but it will greatly help in making mar
riage more matter Of federal interest,
and thus logically, make divorce more
difficult The prevalence of divorce at
the present time is largely among people
who know better 1t is often used a
means of immediate remarriage; or re-
marriage so called, because no man or
woman who has been married can ever
be really divorced save by death.
REMARRIAGE IS SwINISH.
"If 1t is not possible for a man and
woman who have been Joined In holy we'd
lock to live together on account of vice or
drunkenness they should not be divorced,
but separated from bed and board and
thus prevented from remarrying. He or
she who would do differently is a coward.
will go further, and say, in plain words,
that l believe remarrlage. SO called after
divorce. is swinish. Even swine would
knoy better
"In supporting the Edmonds bill. In con-
junction with representatives Of other de-
nominations, a representative of Cardinal
Gibbons for the Roman Catholics; DIR. I
Charles Wood of Washington, for the
Presbyterans; Bishop Harding, of WASH
ington, for the Episcopalians, and two
other clergymen representing the Con-
gregationalists and Southern Methodists,
before a well-attended hearing, 1 was
pleading for the morality of our coun-
try. for the good name of little children
for national honor and the moral in
tegrity of the individual who lives any
where under the Stars and Stripes"