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Show The Marriage Problem By MARGARET TURNBULL Marriage Must Be Made More Alluring to WoTtian ""pO REGARD marriage of the fu-ture fu-ture througb the eyes of the unmarried is to be intrigued by a fascinating problem. Naturally, every improvement In marriage laws tends to make marriage mar-riage more interesting to the wary, Independent spinster. The bachelor bach-elor has always had things his way. But now that the curse has been lifted from the spinster, now that she no longer need dread the chimney chim-ney corner or the uneasy post of "handy woman" In some kinsman's household; now that she takes her place as a useful citizen, marriage, no longer the one refuge, must be made alluring. Yet marriage in the future will undoubtedly un-doubtedly be uncommonly like mar-riage mar-riage of today. The rules o, the game may change or develop differently, but that is all. Look back through the ages and marriage, whether by club, trade, capture, church, or state, has been practically the same. It Is true that, nowadays, divorce Is fairly easy and the woman's rights fairly well protected. It may be safely argued that In the future fu-ture these will be even more carefully care-fully looked after. Divorce need not necessarily entail a hateful dragging into court and turning over, before the curious eyes of the public, all of ihf household's dirty linen. It could be quietly and cleanly done, and in private. There should be one marriage law for the whole country. Granted that there are still to be considered the results of marriage the children. There lies the real problem of future marriage. A procession of three or four different dif-ferent "fathers" or "mothers,", as their respective parents lightly "change partners," Is scarcely conducive con-ducive of respect for marriage. To the spinster it seems that a little lit-tle selfontrol might be practiced by adults, and taugh. to children, with excellent effect on manne. and marriage. mar-riage. All of the Puritan virtues are not to be despised. It Is the good fortune of the youth of today that they approach marriage with greater frankness, with more desire to get all there Is out of frank, friendly comradeship, comrade-ship, than did the previous generation. genera-tion. Heady manners and headstrong disregard dis-regard for the parental view may be condoned if they really lead to better understanding between mer. and women. wom-en. It is i great thing to lay some of the old bogies low, and to realize that all men are not beasts nor all women angels. The rank and file of us are just men and women, with the faults and virtues due to our birth and breeding, and, Improve laws relating relat-ing to marriage as we may, there will always be those who make the married state difficult and unattractive: un-attractive: Female harpies to whom marriage Is speculation, and alimony the goal. Men to whom marriage Is really a temporary affair, no one woman sufficient to hold them long; no home, be It ever so cheerful ; no children, however lovely, who will make up for the joys of freedom. Men who exploit marriage, as their sister harpies do, for whom marriage is always "for revenue only." Though marriage In the future be safeguarded ever so wisely, though just and equitable laws may be made to govern It, though church and state unite to protect the children chil-dren and property, though men honestly hon-estly try their best to make the yoke light and the burden easy; still It will be Imperfect at Its best For it is not marriage itself that makes men and women able to live together in something as near happiness happi-ness as this world shows, or in as great a misery as the conventional hell could promise. It is what men and women bring to their marriage. As a man and woman think of marriage, so will their marriage be. If marriage of the future Is to be greatly different from the marriage mar-riage of yesterday and today, It will not be because of new laws, but because the men and women of the future are more Just and fair toward to-ward one another, more kindly and less self-centered, more Hhpral and less narrow, than we are today. And even then it will not be per- frction. because men and women are not and cannot be perfrctand if they were, hnw deadly uninteresting it would all be! This from the outside looking In. Public Ledger, Inc. WNU Service. |
