The New York herald., 1921-03-06

Al and marital troubles, treated as
nationwide problem in the Magazine
section of THE NEW YORK HERALD
last Sunday, aroused SO much comment
that the accompanying article on the
question locally is of especial moment.
In this instance the cases of matrimonial
unrest are taken at their earliest official
stage-the Domestic Relations Court.
The figures given show that great many
family debates that might have led to per-
manent dissolution of the marriage ties
are settled by the court and its probation
officers. In the ever increasing number of
such settlements rests the hope that par
tiai solution has been found for what
threatens to be the great American evil.
r Aw tries her best to soften her gran
ite face when she turns it toward
- unhappy couples who seek her aid,
not to unite the coupling, as by divorce, but
usually to get sustenance for the woman.
They crowd into the dismal and ancient
YorkvHe Municipal Court House. which is
now the Domestic Relations Court for Man
haitian, and rehearse their woes TO inter-
viewers and investigators who are instructed
by Edwin ]. Cooley. chief probation officer,
TO have heart"
This Injunction is carried out to the letter
and in the Spirit by Joseph ]. Mackey, pro-
baton officer in charge, and the various
officials under him-who, considering the
quantity of work pling on them daily, are
all too few-are cautioned to proceed with
the same gentleness.
Substituting the Round Table for
Court Etiquette and Ceremony
For" said City Magistrate Alexander
Brough, what We seek to do there is not
to conduct a dgnified court, hampered by
etiquette and ceremonial, but to hold a round
table to consider informally with a view to
remove or soften them, the domestic troubles
of men and women. Our purpose is to make
life easier, not harder. for them when we
can do so within the law.
But we work under great difficulties,
principally insufficient space and inadequate
help. The figures show this instantly. In
1919 there We're 2S2,439 arraignments, 17502O
convictions and 6,646 probations. These
figures represent all the cases. In the Do
mestic Relations Court 4,013 probational
cases were carried over from 1918 and In
1919 releases on probation were 6,646, max
ing a total OF 1863 cases in that court alone.
These figures are swelled by 4.S43 prelimi-
nary examinations to July l, 1920, and pro-
bations in the same six months amounting
to 3,461.'
In the Domestic Relations Court there are
fifteen male and fifteen female probation
officers, on whom falls the heavy duty of
interviewing and investigating these cases.
Some relief afforded when the rule was
passed requiring Capitalization and certain
officers formerly housed here were estab
iished in central office. But this relief was
one of space only.
Two courts are held by day and one at
night in the old building, which is never
free from some degree of marital infelicity,
although these are hardly the words that a
woman demanding relief would be apt to
use. Much more common is the complaint
couched like this: MY man, he run away
He no bring more money for and the
children"
This is, indeed, the ultimate cause that
brings hither the women who utter their
complaint in every kind of dialect and Ian
guage. Now and then a novel reason brings
them to court. AS, for instance. the one put
forward by a young woman who had been
a wife but few months. This was that her
husband called her "out of her name"