Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-10-19
Yale Student Group
Falls 40 Feet to Quarry
Pit Near Middletown. Ct.
MRS. STOKES, RADICAL,
|NTERPRETS Love AS
HUSBAND DIVORCES

New York, Oct. 1S.-(AP)-Rose
Pastor Stokes, radical speaker and
propaganda, who was divorced by
her husband, James Graham Phelps
Stokes, millionaire philanthropist,
yesterday after a hearing at Nyack,
n. Y, and who was charged with
misconduct with a hotel manager
named Grossman. issued a statement
tonight at the home of her mother
in which she blamed the laws of
New York state for whatever "scan-
dar' there might be in her divorce
proceedings. She said there was no
small measure of disgrace to any
one is willing to be made the sub
Ject for scandal, and expressed the
opinion that man and woman
living together without love violate
the best in their natures.
Mrs. Stokes declined to say wheth-
er a financial settlement had been
made on her by Mr.. Stokes and also
refused to say whether she would
attempt to interfere with the divorce
decree being made final. She also
refused to discuss her plans for the
future and would not give informa-
ton as to the identity of MIR. Gross
man." the correspondent. At the
trial of her case George II. Gilman,
counsel for Mr.. Stokes, testified that
Mrs. Stokes said she would marry
Grossman when she was divorced.
Mrs. Stokes refused to discuss this
testimony.
Her statement follows:
Though living under the same
roof Mr.. Stokes and / have been
purely friends for the larger part of
our married life. (Since the war,
just friendly enemies.) Profound
political differences tended to de-
velop situations, domestic and per-
sonal, that caused both of us in
tense suffering and made con-
tinued truce impossible.
VA year ago last summer, l asked
Mr.. Stokes to free me and have
made several similar requests during
the several years preceding that
time. A few months ago, when I
left my home, l again begged Mr..
Stokes to free me.
THE mantle of shame appears to
fall upon the defendant in our case.
1t should be placed upon the Shout
ders of the state of New York
where 1t properly belongs. There is
due no small measure of disgrace
to any state whose laws will not per-
NIT one to get divorce unless one
is willing to be made a subject for
scandal.
1T is my belief that man and
woman living together without love
as man and wife with or without
benefit of justice of the peace) vio-
late the very essence of what is best
in them; they destroy those elements
within themselves that are most
worth nourishing. On the other
hand, love is always justified even
when short lived, even when mis-
taken. because during its existence
it enlarges and ennobles the natures
of the men and women experiencing
the love-
But the prevailing social system
degrades lovers and sanctifies the
most unwholesome, degrading and
destructive relationship that it is
possible to conceive. In this regard
the state of New York reflects. the
worst aspects of this social system.
A married woman cannot get a
divorce in this state upon proof that
she is the wife to the man she was
married in name only. If she would
be free she must go out of her home
to produce proof that she is wife
in all that might glorify and ennoble
but not in name. This becomes
scandal. The real scandal (the wife
who gives herself to the husband
without love, the husband who gives
himself to the wife without love)
the real breach is given a veneer
of scanctity of the church and COW
cred with a cloak of decency by the
law"