Evening star., 1925-12-27


interests. The abolition of vested in
terests will have certain effects in
political and social progress. But
when YOU come to domestic freedom,
then it is not so much case of vested
interests-it is a case of economic in
dependence.
"A tremendous difference will
necessarily be made If you bring
about a state of society in which
every individual is absolutely econom-
ically .independent--that is to say in
a family the husband is economically
independent of the wife. and the chill
dren are economically independent of
the parents. From the moment the
child is born the child has an income
which is equal TO that of the prime
minister-unless. indeed. ii may pos
sibly be found necessary to allow the
baby more for a very brief time.
But what is it that keeps house
holds together at the present time?
We are all, l suppose. happily mar
ried men, more or less. Some of us
are really SO unhappily married that
We allow ourselves to recognize the
fact that we are unhappily married
but a very great many of us would
only recognize that we were not very
happily married If we could escape
from the marriage.
Practically of Mind
There is an extraordinary practi.
cality about the human mind, men s
and women'S. Somehow or other the
ordinary men or women who have got
what is called good sense, do not al
low themselves to worry about things
that cannot be helped. Accordingly,
n ynI
married together: if the woman can
not break up her household and go,
because she has no means of ex-
iStence, and II the man Is really In the
same position and cannot extricate
himself without running or embarrass-
ing himself tremendously, then those
two people will never allow their
minds to dwell on the fact that thAy
are not we'll suited to each other a9Dd
might do better elsewhere. They
know that they would be asking for
trouble If they allowed themselves to
face that.
I'VE have at the present time a
certain number of very happy and
suitable marriages. / know some of
them myself. l recall two marriages
which really seem to be romantically
successful. But they are not the first
attempts. in either case. One man is
ideally attached to his wife, who is
ideally attached to him, and she Is a
very charming and talented woman:
but in order to marry him she had
to make her previous husband di-
yorCe her. In the other case, the
husband has tried one wife before
and the lady has had two husbands.
The thing has been arrived at by a
process of trial and error, and the
result is all right.
Nature of Marriages. q
Now between the happy marriages,
on the one hand. and the down
right unhappy marriages-the ones
which just stop short of being so in
tolerable that people get divorced and
break them up--there are large
number of unions in which people
go on together because they must
Il occasionally get a letter from a
lady-it is almost always from a lady
who says: Dear Mr.. Shaw, hope you
will excuse the liberty l take in writ.
ing to you, though l do not know you
but I feel that 1 must tell you that
your book has changed the entire cur.
rent of my life. I saw your very beau.
tiful Candida, and / Immediately left
my husband and formed a union with
the man whom 1 felt really was my
affinity
We'll. when l pursue the CORE.
spondence 1 invariably ask this ques-
ton: Did you find this second man
any Improvement on the other chap?'
Il am sorry to destroy the romance
of the situation by declaring that in
almost every case the answer is strong
ly in the negative; in fact, in quite a
large proportion of them the lady ad.
q Ch ,Hr h.
pan into the fire.
Matrimonial Pragmatists.
"A great many people hold together
not because they have a very ex.
travagant esteem or affection for one
another, but because they think that
they might go farther and fare worse
They have no conviction, after a little
experience of the world, that they
would do any better in any other con.
nection. That, of course. may be a
for keeping people togther, but when
you make all possible allowances j
think you will see that in a state of
things where a wife could leave her
husband without experiencing the
slightest pecuniary embarrassment
where she would be perfectly self.
supporting. where she would have an
income quite independent Of whether
she was with her husband or not, and
where the husband would be in exact
ly the same position in regard to him.
self-naturally the social pressure that
keeps many households together would
break up-that is to say, a great
many households that do not now
break up would break up under so.
cialiSm. because there would he q
great deal of trial and error before
the perfect union was formed.
Il also very much doubt whethef
the union under socialism would he of
that extremely close nature that it is
at present. l mean the way in which
married people, even under existing
circumstances, interfere with one an.
others lives to an entirely unneces
Sary extent.
Would Loosen Ties.
When the economic pressure was
removed l think that the marriage tie
would really be a looser tie, and that
l think would make for greater free
dom and probably for greater hap
piness in marriage.
But I remember a nobleman who
died a little time ago, a very noble
nobleman, saying that the reason he
was opposed to socialism was that ht
was afraid 1t would break up the fam
lily. He was a man whose own char
acter in that respect was Of extraordi
nary latitudinarianism. But still he
had, as very often is the case with
men of that kind, such q dread of a
world consisting largely of people like
themselves that he really was con
cerned at the loosening Of the mar
riage tie.
Il think that we must frankly con
fess that the effect of socialism would
be to loosen all those ties which al
present make for unhappiness and the
restriction of freedom.
"Of course, marriage is an extraordi
nariiy elastic term. Marriage does not