XVI MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE

SELF-PRESERVATION, the desire to live the longest, happiest life; nutrition, the desire for plenty of good food and other material things; liberty, the desire for the widest range of personal freedom; and reproduction, the strong desire to love and be loved seem to be the four deepest sentiments in all animal creatures. Hence, from what has 67already been said, we can plainly see that future Marriage and Divorce will be very simple and harmonious, based entirely on the important fundamental principle of complete self-ownership in ideal democracy.

The History of the Past plainly shows that woman has so far been treated very largely either as a pampered doll, largely kept for the purpose of ministering to the whimsical and passionate wants of the man, or as a domestic and maternal drudge, and such is still largely her lot, and must always remain her subordinate and dependent condition as long as the family-cottage and servant-kept mansion methods of living and working are continued; that long she must expect to remain the dependent subordinate. Nothing but domestic and parental co-operation will really emancipate her, and that the intelligent woman will more and more demand, and the considerate man more and more grant.

Marriage and Divorce—human mating—in some form is undoubtedly as old as the human race, likely more than a million years. But like all other human institutions, they progressed from time to time.

At first the husband captured his mate. Later suitors purchased her from her father 68for so many head of cattle or other property. Her consent was then not solicited, so that it was a forced marriage on her part. The present give-and-take Marriage was then not yet practiced. It was then all take by the husband and all give by the wife. Still later the parents largely manipulated the marriage of their children to suit the parents’ whims, and to some extent that is still sometimes the case, but the modern children now usually follow their own choice.

Formerly it was also obligatory to have the marriage solemnized by the church. Marriage was then regarded as a holy sacrament and binding for life no matter how discordant it later became. There was then no legal Divorce as now. Later it became optional with the contracting parties to have either the church or the state “tie the knot.”

As we all know, it is no longer obligatory to have the Church perform the marriage ceremony. Millions of couples now annually marry without any religious ceremonies, but the State still insists to have the marriage ceremony performed either by a clergyman or by some state official.

Under the Common Law, the husband and the wife are supposed to be “one” and the husband who was the lawmaker and physically 69the stronger claimed to be the “one.” That is a very one-sided and unjust affair. Of recent years, that has been modified to quite an extent; but the woman when she marries still not only drops her own name, but also her economic independence and her social freedom. As a rule, the wife is still the dependent subordinate and is also invariably judged by a different moral standard.

The foregoing progressive steps in Marriage and Divorce show that the rapid trend of advancing Civilization is toward the freedom, independence and private judgment of the mating parties, and that freedom and personal judgment of the contracting parties will, no doubt, continue until Marriage and Divorce will be regarded as a mere contract or partnership, like any other contract or partnership, and the mating parties to have the sole say as to when, where and how long that contract shall continue, or when it shall be discontinued. There will then be no interference of parents, church or state in the matters of Marriage and Divorce, for no one knows as well as the mated parties whether the conjugal partnership shall continue or be terminated. Hence, they should be the sole judges in these vital matters.

Again, we all know that motherhood involves much more danger, worry, responsibility and 70care in the matter of giving birth and nurture to offspring than fatherhood does, and for that reason should woman have the just right to enjoy all the Rights and Privileges that the man enjoys and one more.

That one more is, that she and not he be accorded the initial step in the important function of parenthood; that she be the solicitor in love affairs, the principal director of her child in so far as she desires that, and that the child bear her name instead of the father’s. Rights and privileges should be commensurate with dangers, burdens and responsibilities.

When every marriageable boy and girl, man and woman, inherits a fine home, a life-long $10-a-day job as equal partner, and is thoroughly educated on all practical affairs of life, including sex-hygiene and scientific eugenics as well as in the best methods of raising and training children, like young and old in the future will be, no harm can then result from leaving all questions of Marriage and Divorce to the best judgment of the mating parties, whether young or old.

No conjugal evil can then befall anyone, and motherhood will then for the first time in the history of the human race stand elevated to its proper dignity, freedom and independence. When free and independent woman is 71accorded the initial step in courtship and parenthood, there will then be few if any unwelcomed children born and the present deteriorating sexual excesses both in and out of wedlock will then, no doubt, be gradually normalized.

This will also do away with the danger, support and worry of millions of parents over their grown-up boys and girls in keeping them on the present conventional course of shiftless life. Millions of parents now frequently lie awake nights thinking where is my boy and still more so where is my girl. Will their conduct bring ruin and disgrace on me and them. In the future, all this parental worry, strife and support will be practically eliminated by leaving all questions of Marriage and Divorce solely to the best judgment of the home-owning and highly educated and refined mating parties, whether young or old. “Moral Squads” and meddling Chaperons will then no longer be necessary. Under the give-and-take marriage regime, millions of husbands and wives are practically cloistered nuns and monks, when their mates are absent on visits or business. That makes life to both lonely, dependent and burdensome. Complete self-ownership at all times is the only remedy for this wide-spread evil.

72At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Rev. Thomas Robert Malthus, an English political economist, frightened the world with his ideas of overpopulation. He advocated that Population increases faster than the means of subsistence can be increased; and that by this ever-increasing Population wide-spread famine and wholesale death will in time be produced. For some time, many believed his reasoning, and some careless thinkers still believe it.

But, in reality, everything now seems to point the other way. We can readily see that in order to prevent the present Population of the world from decreasing, every fertile adult female has to give birth, in an average, of at least three or more children. Two children must be born to every couple to supplant the two parents, and quite a number more, because many children die before they become adults.

We must also bear in mind that quite an increasing per cent of the intelligent females as well as the males already refuse to marry under our present distressing conditions of living and working. Other females and males are naturally barren, and still many others that do not want children resort to birth control.

73Then there are at present some 10,000,000 more females in the world than males. Under our present monogamous marriage regime, these 10,000,000 excess females can not become mothers unless they become intimate with some other woman’s husband. From all this, we can plainly see that all the fertile females that have mates have to average three or more children in order to prevent race suicide. Will the refined women of the future who are free and independent and who know all about birth control do that unless motherhood is elevated to the very highest standard?

On the point of national population, I may suggest that the population of a number of the leading Nations is already decreasing instead of increasing. Among these decreasing Nations may be mentioned France, England, Germany, Russia, Greece and others. Even in the United States, the birth rate of 1922 was nearly two less per 1,000 than it was in 1921.

In view of these facts, there seems to be much more probability for race suicide than for the Malthusian scarecrow of starvation by over-population. But after motherhood receives the proper dignity, care and assistance by sane domestic co-operation, will the healthy, strong, sturdy women of the future, no doubt, see to it that the proper number of babies are 74born, no more, no less. The “naughty” marriage and divorce problem will then be completely settled, and all without sensational gossip and spectacular scandal.

The Reader may thus see that a good system of Money, Education, Marriage and Divorce, etc., can not come in without an all-round sane method of Thinking, Living and Working. They must evolve together, and all this depends on the intelligence and refinement of the people. Human Institutions are invariably about as good as the contemporaries of any age can appreciate them.

In our present competitive system of thinking, living and working, we still invariably offer the premium on the bad instead of the good. The lawyer is interested in having the people quarrel and fight, the doctor in disease and accidents; the dentist in decaying teeth; the insurance agent in having houses burn; the minister, priest and rabbi in keeping the people superstitious; the militarist in war; some wives to have the husband die to get the big insurance.

In Modern Paradise all this is just the opposite. There the premiums naturally goes to the good instead of the bad. We may thus see that refined posterity will discard practically all our present institutions, habits and customs, no matter how sacred we now regard them, but for every old one they discard, they will substitute a much better new one.

75AUTHOR’S HOME STUDY

(Fig. 8)

In this Study the Author does his literary, artistic, scientific and research work, and entertains his friends and callers. It is one of the two rooms of his bachelor’s suite, 2219 Larimore Avenue, Omaha, Nebraska, in which many of the big world problems are frequently discussed and put to writing.

77