Evening star., 1923-03-11
DRIVE ON in CONGRESS
FOR SOCIAL LEGISLATION
Child, Labor, Marriage and Divorce
Amendments to the Constitution
Are to Be Pressed.

Z divorce law much of the romance of
marriage will be thrown into the
| discard. On the other hand, there
will be fewer cases of marry in haste
and repent at leisure"
Under the proposed federal law, it
will require persons desiring to be
married to apply for license two
weeks prior to the issuance of the
license. Furthermore, both parties
must present affidavits to the effect
they are not afflicted with communi-
cable diseases and are of normal
mentality. The application for a mar
riage license must be posted in the
office of the clerk in his public
record.
So much for the marriage end of
the problem. Where divorces are
sought, under the proposed law, it is
necessary for application to be made
sixty days prior to the trial of the
case. And after the granting of a
divorce. a year must elapse before q
final decree is entered, and during
that year neither party to the di-
vorce may marry again. In case Of
reconciliation, the two may take up
their married life together upon the
dismissal of the suit during the year
In other words, there is to be year
of trial divorce"
Enforcement With State Courts.
The enforcement of the proposed
federal marriage and divorce law is
~ hn 1nf% 70
effort, 1t is said. is to be made to set
up new federal bureau dealing with
the subjects.
The number of causes for which di-
vorce may be obtained. it is proposed,
shall be limited to six, as follows:
Adultry, physical or mental cruelty,
abandonment, failure to provide for
one year or more, incurable insanity
or the commission of a felony. SO
diverse are the laws relating to di-
vorce in the various states today that
in one of the states divorce is not
obtainable on any ground and in an
other divorce may be had on evil
dence Of bad temper
Marriage is forbidden. under the
proposed law. to the feeble-rninded, to
those afflicted with epilepsy, insanity
or communicable diseases and to
those within the first degree of blood
relationship. With the consent of
their parents boys may marry at the
age of eighteen, and girls may marry
at the age of sixteen. Without the
consent of their parents, girls may
marry at eighteen and boys at twen-
ty-one Thousands of boys and girls
far below these ages are married to-
day in the United States; for example,
there are thirteen thousand girls fif-
teen years old now legally married;
sixteen hundred boys fifteen years old
are legally married and three thou
sand boys sixteen years old.
Child Labor and Non-support.
In this connection it may be men
toned that if the Congress is going
to put through a law to prohibit
child labor it certainly seems neces-
sary that a law should be put
through preventing the marriage of
children, since in most cases a child
husband would be expected to sup
port his wife. Senator Capper re-
Gently has called attention to the
case of a f1fteen-year-o old husband who
was hailed into court in Detroit be-
cause of refusing to support his
wife.
The bill proposing to repeal the ex-
listing law which prohibits the dis
semination of information relating
to birth control was introduced in
the last Congress by Senator Cum
Minis Of Iowa, and in the House by
Representative Kissel of New York.
1t was introduced at the request of the
Voluntary Parenthood League, with
headquarters in New York city. 1t
proposes to repeal certain sections
of existing law, particularly the law
enacted fifty years ago known as the
Comstock act. The proponents of
the Cummins- -Kissel bill insist that
Congress at the time it put through
tho Comstock act did not realize that
it was legislating against the proper
of information regard
ing birth control. Furthermore, they
insist that to keep this information
from tho people will result in tho
bringing into the world of children
whose parents cannot in many cases
support or give them proper care
and attention which children should
have.