| Show FOR UNWRITTEN LAW dean of the wash agton college of law deanes it as the R to de fend the integrity of fam ly life BY ELLEN SPENCER MUSSEY dean of the washington college ot law the unwritten law might be defined to be right to defend the integ rity of family life against all invasion and invaders while the family has statute books or that writ n in the heart of every mother by the pangs ot childbirth so ouie as she lives that mother will obey affie unwritten law and the child she will have it is only ten years since there was taken from our stat ite book the law that a man could by will give bis unborn child to whom he pleased without reference to the paramount claim by affection and suffering of its mother A member of the bai in the one state in the union where there are no divorce laws once told me that in his state they had no serious trouble as to domestic infelicities if a man abuses my sister he knows whom he has to deal with in this case the unwritten law seemed to be preferred erred to the statute law which severs the marriage bond on adequate grounds well proven I 1 suggested to the gen tieman that all women not so fortunate as to have brothers but the reply was that seldom was there a case in which there was no male relative and that he believed that were such a case to arise of gross abuse there was always to be found in the community a man who would protect the woman and her rights no distinct legal entity apart from the persons who compose it yet in the interest of society the law holds the more intimate family relations as sacred and not to be inquired into by a court of justice it is on this ground that communications between husband and wife are privileged and they can not testify as to confidential communal made by one to the other during the marriage marriage Is a civil institution as well as a contract and it should be a religious sacrament law cannot nake n ake or unmake the true marriage relation but so tar as the relation concerns society and the state it must control it the family as a unit the law regards carefully all prop eity rights it deals promptly with the trespasser and the thief and en forces contracts the murderer the embezzler the perjurer have justice meted out to them as enemies of the commonwealth but the law does not deal with the family as a unit every student of sociology knows that the homes of the commonwealth are its real corner stones but the law does not so lecog nize it it is the one institution still left to the defense of the head of the family in the very nature of things there is always a woman in the case it the crime is against her personally if she be over the age of 16 what remedy does the law give hera A young bowan wowan went into a city to support herself unwarned inexpert encee her faith and her affections found an unworthy object too late she found the man was already mar ried and in a wild moment she shot him fatally if the man had boldly threatened her life it she had retreated to the wall to elude him it would ha e been a case of a homicide but his crime against her was a mole atrocious one than mur der it took away her good name the love and affections of her friends ana relations her future her faith in and respect for herself and her trust 1 a god and man written in the mothers heart and again the man takes the unrighteous laws of certain states his child awa from its mother whick law comes first that written in aba who that reads the recent trial of gillette tor the murder of his victim can forget the coolness with which he claimed he said tell your father if ou dont I 1 will there conies a mental picture of that father and what swift vengeance ne would have meted out to the destroyer of his child was gillette such a degen erate that to him the unwritten law had no meaning or was he merely talking tor effect the unwritten law which says ven geande Is mine Is no excuse tor the disgraceful broils of the degenerate man and woman who find their only pleasure in dissipation the man who despoils innocence himself who gives his name and his protection to a worn an whose life has been like unto his own is not in any sense the defender of what the home stands for his sense of moral obligation for himself is too blunted to fit him to judge of the transgressions of another he is himself an outlaw when judged by the standards of common morality his propensity to shoot is the result of a heated brain or the lack of brains no woman no man is safe with such a creature at large let us add to the unwritten law an other section let there be no inu andos against the chastity of woman but only straightforward statements with page and verse and the viola lor of this law shall be placarded this person took away the good name of another without cause and walk the streets in shame in the heart of every man there dwells first absolute faith in his moth er that is his birthright and in pro portion to his baith in and affection for his mother will be his faith in and affection for his wife on that foundation is built his attitude to his offspring the true son the true husband the real father in all these relations owes to the home a clean standard of living he should never invite into that home a man who does not himself respect virtue the man who is a despouey desp of virtue in one instance is an unsafe guest and friend how much more so when license Is his rule of conduct protect my innocence or I 1 fall into the trap that is laid for me |
