The Washington times., 1923-01-28
|EASY DIVORCE PLAN
OPPOSED BY FRANKS
Member of Vocational Board
DepIores Increasing
w. Separations.
SEES MENACE TO HOME
Says Liberal Laws in Courts
Threaten National
DecadenCe.
SEES MENACE TO HOME
By e. T. FRANKS,
Member of Federal Board of VO-
catiOnal Training.

AACCA CSL Iu0 O1SCuSS1OnS now Q0lUS
carried on in The Washington Her.
aid on the question, of marriage
and divorce, where the champions
OF easy access to both appear to
have the center of the stage.
Mere assertions without some
Facts or reasons to substantiate
our statements will never get us
anywhere. 1t has been my duty
to give some thought to the ques;
ton of marriage and divorce
through the work of home eco
nomics or home building, which in
my opinion is g. better term, and
find conditions alarming in the
crime waves sweeping over the
country. Different people give diff
ferent reasons for the cause. Some
say it is the aftermath of the
world war. Others, equally sure
of their grounds, give other causes
while many claim that the crime
wave began in 1916, prior to our
entering the war. Regardless OF
when it began, or what caused it
there Is 10 doubt that it exists
l have always believed that, if pos
sible, you should offer some evi
dence to prove your statements il
you expect the public to believe
those statements.
believe that this Republic is
the outgroWth of well-regulated
homes, that its future glory de
ponds upon the sanctity Of its
homes, and that the Republic's
strength - morally, mentally and
commercially-will be just what
those homes make 1t. When ]
cease to believe that I want to for
get the Mayflower, Bunker Hill,
YTktowp. and Valley Forge.
HOMES BUILT NATION.
especially if they cannot use them
to support their theory. A chemist
once boasted Of the purity of the
waters Of the Ganges. To prove
his statement he placed a drop
under the microscope to find il
was filled with microbes. He was
SO Disguised that he broke the in.
strument. The mistake he made
was in breaking the instrument
without taking steps to remove
what the instr disclosed.
A recent census taken by the
Department of Commerce discloses
the startling evidence that from
July l, 1917, to July 1, 1922, a
period OF five years, out of 6,275
state, county, municipal prisons
and chain gangs, COS percent of
them reported), that on July /,
1917. there We're confined in those
institutions 1858 people, while
on July /, 1922, there were con-
fined in those institutions 154,297
people, an increase Of 1Oh per cent
in five years.
With per cent Of the insti-
tutions not reporting, Gf reported
they would have increased the per.
centage). our population during
that time has not increased more
than per cent, which would
indicate that the crime wave in.
creased 1Ok per cent while our
population increased only AZ to 5
per cent. Those statements bear
out the headlines in your daily press
OF the crime wave that is sweeping
the country.
DIVORCE EASY.
I find that divorces are growing
at a much more rapid rate. In
some of the larger cities of the
country, they have increased 1875
per cent in five years. In other
cities they have increased from 17G
per cent to 226 per cent in six
years. and in others, from PA to
289 per cent in ten years.
In one city l find that for every
100 couples that marched to the
marriage altar In 1921, twenty-five
went through the divorce courts; in
another city, in 1921, for every 100
couples that marched to the altar,
forty-six couples went through the
divorce court, and yet some people
advocate a more liberal divorce
law. How it could be done easier,
I am unable to understand, un-
less 1t could be done by postal
card, telephone, or even quicker,
announced by radio. If the next
twenty-five years Is to increase
divorce in the same ratio, what the
end will be no one will be foolish
enough to undertake to predict.
If the divorce is to increase in
the future as in the past, why go
to the expense of a marriage license,
a minister, or a magistrate, or an
organist to play the wedding march.
Adopt the Socialist doctrine in its
most dangerous form and end the
useless delay Of a marriage cere-
mOny. THIS doctrine of easier mar
riage and divorce is not a new one.
Plato, in one of his books entitled
THE Republic" not only advocated
community Of goods, but a com.
munity of wives and children.
Emma Goldman, the expelled So
cialist, in writing on marriage and
love, quotes Dante's motto over In
ferno: Eye who enter here leave all
hope behind" Then she adds: THAT
marriage is failure none but the
very stupid will deny" She fur
Their says: 1.-THE average girl is told
that marriage is her ultimate goal
and she is educated to that end like
the mute beast fattened for slaugh-
ter"
CHILDREN HELPLESS.
Great emphasis has been placed
upon the children in the home where
frequently. the abandoned home). 1t
is the child or children in a home
where there has been divorce
that | am most interested in. The
children are unfortunate and in no
wise responsible for their condition,
and it is a crime to drag innocent
or helpless children through a di-
vorce court. A separation and a
divorce is not SO bad when no
children are involved.
If our divorce laws were more uni
form and stringent, those contem-
Waiting the marriage vow would give
the question more serious ConSidera-
ton and no doubt the more cOns:d-
Grafton given these questions, the
fewer divorces would be. AS a Ger
tain lady said on the train leaving
E,N1