The Indianapolis times., 1931-01-23
BY FAITH BALDWIN
Written for NEA Service

can't Tor the life OF me see nov
any thinking person can contend
that marriage from which love
and respect have disappeared should
continue.
A home in which there is not
mutual love and respect between
husband and wife is no fit place for
children-and that is true even
though the parents refrain from
throwing things at each other over
the dinner table.
Children feel tic atmosphere OF
dissension, and they take advan-
tage of it. They play of the mother
against the father, and the other
way around. The young son says
to his father, Mother says 1 can't
go to the ball game. Can go?'
And the father says, Sure"
Such home should be broken up.
1t is foolish to hold it together for
the sake OF the children" I be-
lieve that child should not, how
ever, be shifted back and forth from
his father to his mother when they
are divorced. A boy or girl should
remain with one parent until grown
Divorce Laws Absurd
Our divorce laws are. Of course,
absurd, especially in New York,
where inidelitySis the only grounds
admissible. Dfhdelity is not nearly
as serious as many other matters.
If l were q man, 1 would consider
It reason for divorce, but as a woin-
ain I do not think it is.
I have no patience with the ar
gument that men and women gain
in character By putting up with
marriages that do not make them
happy.
NO one should be required-or
should require himself-to live with
any one who, for instance, arcuses
a physical repulsion. for that means
becoming warped, bitter, or hys-
terical
And let it be understood that
am not arguing for easily broken
marriage ties. If a woman is
thoughtful and decent, she will
hesitate a long time before breaking
them, for TO do so is to confess
failure, and nobody wants to do
that.
Four Grounds for Divorce
Unhappy marriages used to be
suffered in silence because divorce
was so looked down upon, and the
result was that children became the
compensating factors for the dis
traught parents.
That error is passing. Now we
have got away from the smother
ing of children in the love of pos
session. We realize that we owe
our children other things, and that,
sooner or later, they will set out
to do their own living anyway, and
no longer will compensate us for
unlappiness.
There are, it seems to me, four
reasonable grounds for divorce.
These are physical incompatibility,
mental incompatibility, deliberate
smallness Of character, and abso-
Lutte lack of love or affection
Most people marry because Of
physical attraction. That's all right.
If that element is. not present at
the beginning, 1t never will be. On
that foundation, the couple must
build mutual interests and mutual
respect.
If those things are not built, there
is no real marriage. and the spur
ious marriage might as well be dis
solved.
But not with an allowance Of ali
mony. I think ahmony is entirely
uniustified unless there are chill
dren, or unless the marriage has
incapacitated the woman, through
injury OF age
For g. woman to yap about her
modernity and then go Victorian
and demand support from a man
from whom she is separated, is q
sorry sight. It's legal blackmail-
and plenty of women marry for it.
And one more thing: Let me pay
my respects to the woman who tries
to convince man that he must
respect her because she has borne
his children.
That is perfectly idiotic. The
bearing of children is simple nat
ural function, unaccompanled by
any prerogative of inspiring awe.
Monday: G. *. Chesterton. world
famous literary figure, will reply
to Miss Baldwin in an interview
written for The Times. An out
standing Catholic layman, he has
engaged in recent public debates on
the divorce question with Cosmo
Hamilton and others.