The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1910-04-23 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

DIVORCE COMMISSION. The Royal Commission on Divorce, at rerent suspended, is doing a great public ?nice trom the point of view of bringing into I die icretront ot practical discussion the many diniculties and debatable points which present themselves to everyone who even slightly looks into the question. As Dr. tAautos Cort, leader of the Ethical Move. rent in this country, said recently, Royal Commissions are a sign that there 13 an awakening social conscience with regard to the quesnon What is right in the matter? The shyness, he went on to bay, of the 8„ti.41 public, which would rather the on be delivered, frequently prevented eiscussion.r. 'I uo women sat on the Cornirtoct showed that u e were moving, •ty..‘. ha l not bat on a previous Divorce tetlnurion. Commissioners acre not preowned to be experts on questions, but they represented the social conscience and should be proe.-ed ot breadth of pidgment, and per auty was to summon expert evidence pd then to weigh carefully all they heard. bfue-hooks, said Dr. Coils passed into the hands of the lea, but great bodies of organized opinion, the pulpits of all the Churches, etc., might influence the many. What more potent influence could be used ? Surely, definite teaching in morals aas the sipterne function of religion. sin and ignorance were at the back or the causes of divorce actions. in reference to marriage and divorce, the ordinary person had no opinions. Novelists ant dramatists had great rponsibihties 111 the matter. Towards marriage, Dr. Cort was of opinion that Socialists were extreme Individualists. If a group like an Ethical Society upheld the preservation:, 01 order and the stricter regulation oi the laws of dit orce, then the public would think something of its views, or it would not be a stray opinion. Positivists did not believe in divorce at all, nor ' did Roman Catholics, nor did Felix Adler. Dr. Cort did not propose to touch upon the &Arability of facilities for divorce for the poorer classes, nor upon the inequality of ot these laws as regarded the two sexes, nor upon the laws which existed in Germany, America, or other countries. He wished to gut a general outline of the relation of oivo:ce to marriage and to human happiness, ar he raw it. . . .  He felt that the laws oi the State ought to maiC divorce easy, but that moral teaching a;v public opinion should make it almost imivessible. the highest State should be that where there were fewest divorces. lhat the law remitted a thing did not mean that that thing was right. The neighbour had a right to urge a reconciliation. But the Church should say, we shall 50 regulate he that these causes of disagreement shall be removed. "We shall show people how to live." I might say anti those groups and with Felix Adler, Dr. Cort said, that divorce could not absolutely be ever right. It might be a duty to SEPARAIL absolutely. The present-day absence oi divorce laws made light of marriage; they could not make light of it by being in existence.  , Or. Cort emphasised the importance of forgiveness. He reverted to the corollary cit ho original paradox," which was, base divorce made easy and do not divorce. Public opinion was a mighty deterrent, and ttligion could do an enormous lot in the matter. One noted physician had said, after being in the divorce courts, that the churcLei should be expert in these matters, or else they should call in mental experts. Husbands and wives would be softened by hearing the opinions of medical men as to the causes et irritability, nerves, etc. Nervous dyspepsia had a ereat deal to say in this connection. People should care more ior one another. In the delirium of egotism, persons tortured their best-beloved ones. Then Dr. tort warned his hearers against allowing themselves to brood over their emotions, as Phedra did, to the point of madness, so dial she became possessed of an " ides: mie," which she might have had her mind cleared oily the help of a priest. He also instanced the case ot the heroine in lbsen's " Ghosts," who went to her pastor and, like a lunatic, or one of lax iharacter, asked ham to allow her to live uitn hira. There often seemed to be no alternative but some such mad act as this aco:lrcling to some dramatists and novelists. Dr. Cart cited another Ibsen plot which ended in three suicides—that of the husband, the wife, and the other man. He felt that censors might have to label some stories and plays insane. Referring to childless marriages, Dr. Cort said that a good solution was to adopt a child, as the Japs did. He believed that amongst normal people platonic friendships viere not possible.