Durant weekly news. (Durant, Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 190?-1944, 1920-12-17
WOULD MAKE MARRIAGE AND
DIVORCE MORE DIFFICULT

There will in all probability be q
bill presented to the next session Of
the Oklahoma Legislature, having for
its object the lessening Of the num-
ber of divorces by making marriage
more difficult and incidentally more
expensive.
Any legislation that will tend to les
sen the number of divorces without
increasing immortality would be well
coined by all those who have the well
fare of the country at heart but it
is extremely doubtful If throwing le-
gal red tape around the issuance of
marriage licenses as Is proposed in
the bill under consideration would
have any such effect.
As a general rule any law which
seeks to lessen the number Of mar
riages is against public policy and
should be viewed with grave suspi-
,cion.
The proposed law would require the
publication of the intention to "Com-
init matrimony" for q period Of at
least sixty days before the solemni-
zation of the marriage and would in
addition require the filing with the
county or court clerk issuing the IL
cense health certificates by both par
ties, showing that they were free from
contagious or infectious disease. These
requirements and others c0ntemplat-
ed would be irksome, expensive. irri-
tating, and to an extent humiliating;
and if they had the effect of lessen
ing the number of marriages they
would be almost certain to increase
the number Of irregulars matings.
That the ease with which marriage
may be contracted has no bearing on
divorce, or if it has it proves that
the greater the ease with which mar
riage may be contracted the less the
number of divorces, is amply proved
by the history Of the past. In the
earlier days of this country (aside
from the puritanical scttlcments)
there was little or no supervision over
the matter. In many places no license
was required. The contracting par
ties made the matrimonial, vows be-
fore the first preacher they could find
and that was all there was to it--and
divorces were almost nil.
While the increasing of the diff
Guilty of getting II divorce decreases
the number OF divorces. 1t increases
the number of irregular unions as Is
proven in England where the expense
of obtaining divorce bars all but
the wealthy from seeking that re-
lief from unhappy marriages. Biga-
my and unlu" "ful cohabitation arc
much more common there than in this
country and looked on with greater
fOrbearance.
Remedial Legislation will not wipe
out the divorce evil without substi-
tuting something worse. Like all re-
forms which touch on the personal
life Of men and women the impulse
must come from within and not from
without. 1t may be possible to make
it more difficult to contract mar
riage and more difficult to dissolve
that contract when once entered into;
but so long as men are men and women
are women they will mate. and if they
cannot do SO with the sanction of the
law they will do SO without its sane
ton and if it is too difficult to le-
gally dissolve the marriage tie it will
be illegally severed and ether unions
formed without the laws permission,
If the conscience of the parties to the
contract will permit of its being dis
solved at all. This has been the ex-
perience of all those countries which
have made either marriage or divorce
too difficult of attainment.
Reform along this line is needed
but must come from the hearts and
minds of the men and women of Our
country and not through the perfunct-
ory acts of legislatures or dry decis-
.sions of the courts of law.