Evening star., 1933-09-03
BY ELIZABETH WALKER.

jokes are merely gags
and that mothers-in-
= law, despite what the
gagsters say about
them, are a boon to the welded
happiness of their children?
Do you think that the ancient
proverb about Marry in haste and
repent at leisure" is too old to be
true?
Are you of the opinion that
the higher person scars educa-
tionally the lower are his chances
for connubial contentment?
If "yes" is your answer to these
three questions, you are wrong.
You are wrong, that is, If the
sociological findings of DR.. Leonard
S. Cottreu, jr., of the University OF
Chicago are right.
DR.. Cottren, who is engaged in
studying the pre-marital histories
of 1900 average American married
couples, has found that mother
far from keeping her children's
matrimonial bark on an even keel
is frequently the first to rock
the boat.
Similarly, he has unearthed
social statistics, tending to prove
that the longer the courtship the
more enduring the marriage, and
that college graduates have bet
ter chance of remaining happy
though married than husbands and
wives who have only high school
education.
THESE are but few of the cher
ished beliefs regarding mar
riage which DR.. Cottrell exploded
recently at a round-table gather
ing of the American Sociological
Society on the University of Chi
cago campus.
At that meeting he also pooh
bah-ed the widespread notion that
mother always knows best when
it comes to picking an altar part
ner for her offspring, and he pro-
phesied that within a decade or
two there will be professional mar
riage counsellors to forecast the
future Of any given match.
This prophecy was only a
shade less startling than his re-
pudiation of the current falacy
that working wives are response
BILE for Uncle Sans mounting di-
vorce rate, and his advocacy OF
going to church as a preliminary
for welded permanence.
Throughout the discussion Prof.
Cottren emphasized that these are
the tentative results Of the study
being conducted by the University I
Social Science Research Committee
Craftsmanship of DR.. Ernest w. Blu
Working on the theory that
known about the pre-marital fat
make for the success or failure OF
ceremony, Prof. Burgess, assisted
trell and Richard o. Lang, set out
half years ago to learn about MARI
To accomplish this he enlisted tn
tion of some 2,6oO married couples
the United States, couples ranging
20 to SO years and whose marriae
dured from two to six years. The
ton consisted chiefly in filling {
question blanks submitted to them
search committee.
These questionnaires were a frank
the part Of the committee memb
the causes underlying matrimonial
failure. Thus, persons who were h
ried were asked to detail what ha
their happiness, while those whose p
experiences had been less ecstatic
mitted failures were urged to tell a
their conjugal difficulties.
A PPROxIMATELY five Of the sew
~ half crowded pages Of the q
were occupied more or less by routir
Minute details were sought regardh
cational and economic backgrounds
husbands and wives interrogated; Il
tions before and after marriage;
and age of their children; the soci
nomic status Of their parents.
But sandwiched in between such !
were other questions Of much less
character:
do you kiss your husband {
day?"
"How many times a year does
husbands parents; wife's parents?"
estate approximate extent Of ae
disagreement ON handling family I'm
ters Of recreation, friends, table ma
Of dealing with tn-laws?"
Check which Of the following we
main reasons for marrying: To pie,
escape your own family; for money;
reasons; social custom; loneliness;
home; for romantic lover"
Addressing the visiting savsnts
Versity's survey Of cOntemporary III