The Washington times., 1922-10-23
Divorce LaUs
---WhutKind?
rDIToR OF THE TIMES:

IL the passage Of uniform d.
vorce laws throughout the United
States? Marriage Is the same
everywhere, and divorce should
be the same everywhere. Is it not
a shame to give easy divorces in
one State, difficult divorces in
another State, and no divorce at
all in a third" Many of your
readers would like to hear you
advocate a natio al divorce law
to cover the entire country. Will
you please write along these
lines?
That is a condensed letter from
one of our readers.
His idea seems good one. at
the first glance. But, 1.-THE first
glance" is often an inaccurate
glance.
Uniformity of law means ABB
SENCE OF EXPERIMENT.
One of the very interesting fea-
lures of our nation is its complex
system of laws ALLOWING EACH
STATE TO MAKE IT'S OWN EN-
PERIMENTS, adding to human
Wisdom, perhaps, BUT NOT IN
TERFERING WITH THE OTHER
STATES.
This nation owes great deal to
the fact that the different States
can make their experiments IN leg
islation, in politics, in social Gus
toms, without interfering with each
other or committing each other.
The great thing in the manage
ment of nation of an individual
is REASONABLE LATITUDE,
ELASTICITY.
The nation as a whole has not
made up it's mind about divorce.
Our nation has not entirely made
up its mind about public ownership,
although we are on the verge of it.
With these matters still unsettled,
it is we'll to allow the different
States to act according to their best
Judgment in their different juris-
dictions, allowing the nation to act
according to the national instruc-
tions in the national jurisdiction.
In some States divorce is granted
Ion account Of insanity. In others it
is granted on account of brutality.
In others on account of infidelity.
Some States permit divorce as the
result of a whim.
There is much folly in some of
the divorce laws. YET THERE is
USEFUL EXPERIMENTING IN
ALL OF THEM.
The nation as whole studies
the results in Florida, in Rhode
Island, in South Dakota, in Illinois.
Eventually it will make up its
mind-perhaps in ten years, per-
haps in ten hundred-just which is
the wisest way Of regulating the
married life of human beings.
BUT>I 1T HAS NOT MADE UP
IT'S MIND YET.
And as long as we do not really
know what we all believe, is it
not pretty wise thing to allow
the different bodies of citizens in
the different States to experiment
and change around according to
their best judgment?
| The opinion of this newspaper is
that in time THE DIVORCE PROB
LEM WILL BE SOLVED BY THE
| NATURAL, VOLUNTARY ABO-
LITION OF DIVORCE.
Divorce in every instance is based
upon human disloyalty.
Behind the, divorce there stands
a CRUEL man, FAITIILESS man,
a COWARDLY man who lodges his
duty, or some other defective indi-
yidual.
The improvement of the human
race will mean the gradual decrease
and the final ending of divorce.
The laws that we look upon as
an eternal feature of our life are
really passing phases, MEANT TO
DEAL WITH PASSING CRIMI-
NALITY.
During the earthquake in San
Francisco they had to shoot men
for merely entering building But
nobody imagined that that would lie
II permanent.
While we.live in this moral earth
quake that we are pleased to call
civilization we are compelled to
arrange dreadful laws for divorcing
and hanging and jailing and fining.
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