The Greeneville daily sun. (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1918-1920, 1920-09-24
Family Court Plan
Gains Endorsement
Written for International News
Service.
BY Margaret Rex.

1 ~ Ns&t NtSt NV
NEW YORK, Sept. 3D. Have you
ever struck domestic deadlock? Do
your family quarrels and troubles go
around and around in circle of bit
terness and misunderstanding from
which there is no outlet?
Is the problem of the aged parent
or the neglected child yours? Do you
long for an impartial outsider to en-
ter and to straighten out pleasantly
the tangle Of household tempers and
their terrible results?
If 50 your need may be answered
in the proposed plan of Justice Ed
gar Dooley, Of the Brooklyn Court of
Domestic Relations, who, in speak
ing at the sixth biennial session Of the
National Conference of Catholic
Charities, urged the establishment Of
a Family Court to deal with mat
tiers concerning the home.
Justice Dooley says:
To Safeguard Home.
Such court would serve as a
sheet anchor to society. 1t should be
SO constituted that it would protect
and enforce the right of abandoned
and neglected wives, children, par
ents and grandparents to safeguard
the home and to execute with vigor
the marital, parental, moral and le-
gal obligations imposed upon man in
his relations to his family"
Justice Dooley, since he is still in
Washington, could not be seen to
elaborate upon his plan. But what
he intends in an undoubtedly a
broadening of the powers Of the
present Domestic Relations Court,
where many family entanglements
are now Strengthened out.
But his proposed plans calls forth
favorable comment from such well
known women as Mrs. Olive Scott
Gabriel, lawyer, and Mrs. Clarence
Burns, president of the Little Moth
ers' Aid Association.
Mrs. Gabriel's Opinion.
Justice Dooley," says Mrs. Ga
briel, probably means by Family
Court a tribunal where a larger ju-
risdiction that that of Domestic Re-
latiol,s can be established.
"The weakness Of the present Do
nestle Relations Court is this: In
many instances if the law is applied
it fails to reach an amicable adjust
ment and often, instead of uniting
people, makes the berach wider.
II, personally, don't believe in i'm
prisonment for many Of the lesser
breaches of contract. When people
are angry and come into court they
are SO lacking in reason they exag-
gerate their wrongs and demand pris-
on sentences for each other. Mean
qualities develop in family quarrels
and people demand punishment in
their own case which, if the affair
were another's they wouldn't deem
gross injustice.
1t seems to me that no thinking
parent should want the other parent
of child to be stigmatized with
Jail sentence. Of course, 2any Sc
rious cases, we know, are settled well
and amically by this efficient court.
Would Check Quarrels.
.The proposed plan for the family
court, it seems to me, would catch
these people before their grudges and
differences had grown so great that
they are imperilled to make untrue
the outrages charged in another court
"Ir the Domestic Relations Court
it has always seemed to me that the
enforcement of the martial obliga-
tions necessarily came before con-
sideration for the child. Although we
have Children's Court, the child's
welfare is important in any consider
alton Of the family life.
Decrease Lawsuits.
"The Domestic Relations Court, al
though such tribunal, being human,
cannot be absolutely perfect, has one
good. A family court might help
matters, too, and preclude the posi-
bility of lawsuits ir higher court.
Unfortunately these courts deal
for the greater part with working peo-
pie. Rich citizens who have domes-
tic difficulties arrange their money
settlements in lawyers office, or
in some other way to keep the matter
out Of court, unless matters are so
serious they must sue for divorce or
separation.
Interpreting law to help suffer
ers is the most important phase of
the whole situation, it seems to me.
Grownups are like children in that
advice, punishment and correction
IL