Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 40, Number 179, 10 July 1915 — Page 7

PAGE SEVEN PALLADIUM'S SAT EATURE

THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM AND SUN-TELEGRAU. SATURDAY, JULY 10, 1915

URDAY

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, ' " I i mfmmmmsgmmmmmm Divorce Eftegoiill. i jfoBCTcaini

UA Change Has Come Over Women's Hearts as a Result of Emancipation. The American Woman's Changed View Has Made Divorce a Necessity," Says Mme. Catulle Mendes, French Poetess, Feminist and Social Philosopher.

By Mme. Catulle Mendes The Poetess and Feminist Leader of Parle, the Dletlnfluiehed Poetess 'and Feminist Leader. RIGHTLY or wrongly, we have come to segatd divorce as an American Invention. Therefore one of tbo first curiosities the French woman feels when she comes to this country is to seo how this fa ' mous institution works. As a matter of fact, I Icliove the desire for freedom from the old l.-on bond of marriage began , to show itself In Europo at about the same time as in America, but the latter country with its practical Initincts put It into full working effect sooner Uiau the older one. ' Two views of this subject may be mainutud. One regards chiefly the interest of fcocioty, the -other the happiness of the indlideal. Indissoluble marriage,' Imposed by the Catholic Church and regarded under the old Roman law as a social necessity, has its beauty and its grandeur. It leiiulres that two beings who feel them elves destined, for one another , by secret affinities of heart and mind, or else have been united for serious social reasons, shall remain forever faithful to their oath or to their word, united before Ood and before men. As to the deceptions and the sorrows that may occur, the Church answers with its myslis and persuasive powers, with all the resources of its profound psychology, by offeriric the bosom of religion as a refuge, by counselling the offer to Ood of all one's sufferings as a sacrifice and by promising the eter-r-al happiness of the soul. She obtains thus many earthly resignations. The old Roman law had other reasons for admitting only Indissoluble marriage. Those reasons were not only moral and ideal. The Roman law did not embarrass itself with sentimental or religious questions. Its only point of view was to Insure the cohesion and the predominance of the state of which the legitimate family is the fundamental support. Before, this idea of the state, of civism, It made every one and everything yield, the innocent as well as the guilty, by its lawa of Iron. , We i. must not frivolously poor contempt oa these principles, on which the strength of many nations was founded in the past. If progress,, requires., that, .we .should modify them, we should at least recognise that they had as a basis ideas ot real value. The head of a family charged with such responsibilities was forced to take a high consciousness of his duties, he often showed himself Just, affectionate and good, for humanity, in whatever circumstances it may be placed, never loses Its rights. ' Later, the Catholic religion preached that Jiuman existence had no object but the hope of heaven, and tnen the reformed religions, based on the conscience and dignity of man and on the free will which they credited to By Former Sen. A. J. Beveridge. MACAU LAY once wrote mat aemocracy m America might fall because more and more our population would become dt versified In origin, and that more and more there would come to be separate solidarities ot racial groups instead ot a national solidarity. He argued that successful government by public opinion requires that this public opinion must be divided on rational lines determined only by opposing reasons directed to the merits of any question, and that racial prejudices surely would interfere with such normal public thinking. It is no reflection on any group of our people that their political action should be Influenced by the racial blood that flows in their veins; It is human nature that it should be so. Yet that this does add to the difficulties and problems ot democracy is plain. The bright light thrown upon us by tne flames of the world war make this startllngly clear at the present time. It is only natural that our Italian citizens would be pleased if our national policy favors the country from which they sprang. There Is fundamental blood loyalty, praiseworthy rather than reprehensible, which tuns the men and women of German birth or descent with loving hearts to the Fatherland, sore beset on every side by myriads of enemies. Thoe of us who have manj generations ot American ancestors behind us would be better able to appreciate this it we could imagine ourselves citizens or subjects in seme other country and the news should there come upon us that, surrounded by deadly foes, the United States was fighting for its life. There is not; one of us who, although loyal to the country ot our adoption, would not look with anxious eyes ind feel with bleeding heart the progress ot the armed assailants, of America. We would In such case be American-Frenchmen If we lived in France, American-Englishmen If we were subjects ot Great Britain, American-Mexicans it we were citizens of Mexico. Even many generations ot residence does not overcome this influence ot race. This is seen in the French population of Canada, which, while faithful to British government, nevertheless keeps warm and vigorous their sympathy with and affection for France. The student clearly sees the same thing among those of British descent in our own country at the , present time, and those of us who are ot that blood feel it keenly. Notwithstanding our war for Independence from Great Britain; notwithstanding the war re waged with Great Britain in 1812 for worse sffenses than those which brought on the revolution itself; notwithstanding the hostile British sentiment and action against our national cause durlnr our Civil War: notwithstanding

Our Country the Rallying Point to Resist the Awakening East

him, became more and more numerous and important. There Is another important point. The idea that men had in ancient times of love became, as centuries passed, modified, less animal, less brutal, more tender. I recall a referendum which a French feminist Journal planned some years ago for the purpose of finding out the modern feminine . sentiment regarding love. It placed the probfem before the women in the form of a parable which my American readers will recognise as a variation of Frank R. Stockton's story, "The Lady or the Tiger." a story wnich has never been familiar to French people. An Eastern king, so the story went, discovered that his daughter was madly in love with a man of low condition. The father felt very angry, but he concealed his rage because he was aware of the obstinate temper of his daughter. There was an arena In his country where combats between wild beasts and between gladiators were held. At -these spectacles the daughter was always present by the side of her father. The next time one of these entertainments was held, the king turned to his daughter and said: "I have learned of your fondness for a man who is not worthy of you. Understand that I shall never permit you to marry him. This very moment you will have an opportunity to decide his fate. He will come into the arena without arms. Do you see those two closed doors before you? Behind one there is a hungry lion thirsting for human blood. Behind the other there is a young woman of remarkable beauty. Choose now which doer shall be opened. In the first case, he wh.y rod love will be devoured by the wild bf can belong to no one else, although ft cano. be yours. In the second case, he T.ll happy with a beautiful young woman wno is as much in love with him as you are yourself." The young girl Implored her father in vain for mercy. He remained inflexible. The feminist review asked its women readers which door they would have opened. Out of twelve hundred, answers received no one admitted that she would open the door behind which the wild beast was concealed. Eleven hundred and nine women said that they would choose for their lover happiness with another woman, although they would suffea all the torments of Jealousy. The ninetyone remaining answers gave a more unexpected solution of the problem. They said that -the princess, having only the choice between her own unhappiness and that of her lover, should have killed herself and thus avoided making anychoice. , . ,. -' Wlth the answers the review stated-the choice which, according to ancient chroniclers, the princess of the old legend had actually made. She had preferred to see her lover devoured by the Von rather than to know him happy with another woman while she was withering away and growing old In solitude. The modern solutions of this old story show that no longer does anybody believe that a person one loves Is one's own property and that one can condemn her or him to death for the sake of one's own desires. The modern heart rises in horrified revolt at this idea, and

British attitude toward us down to the Spanish war in spite of all this, those of us of English and Scotch descent, no matter how remote, feel an instinctive leaning toward Great Britain In the present crisis. It is a case of blood being thicker than water, and only the sternest sense of justice, impelling us to get the facts; only the most resolute impersonal judgment on those facts enable those ot us who are of British origin to arrive at an opinion exclusively American. All of this shows how wise Macauley was in his prophetic forecast. It shows, too, how ungenerous and unwise is the idea that some ot us of British descent and several generations of American residence are the only loyal Americans, while others of German, Irish, Scandinavian, Hungarian or Italian origin, not so long in America, are not as loyal as we, because they display a human sympathy for their mother country, although we of British descent also show partisanship for the land of our blood. It did not even require war to reveal the grave fact that the racial group is a potent factor in our democracy. There are States where elections, even in domestic politics, are governed by what may be scientifically termed tribal voting rather than by non-racial voting. There are wards in New York City where the racial element is calculated in cold blood by politicians bent on capturing these particular constituencies. All this is unavoidable because we are a nation in the making, not one of whose elements Is native to our soil. We of Scotch or English origin cannot set ourselves up to be the only real "Americans" it so, America is only a racial oligarchy. We are a people in the moulding, every one of whose ingredients ' came and had to come from other and older countries. Not only is it unavoidable that we are compounded of various bloods, but it is fortunate if we consider the far and final outcome and think in terms of centuries. Yet for the present and for a long time to come the basic faet that we are of different breed is and will be a source of vexation anl a stern test of our democratic experiment. It presents problems never dreamed of by the founders of the republic. When Washington and his small following of the colonists braved Great Britain and finally won our independence; when Jefferson brought with him from Paris and transplanted to American soil the extreme ideas of French revolutionary democracy,, the great mass of our people were homogeneous. They were of Enslish origin, and the workings of democracy were comparatively simple. Yet even In Washington's time the greater number of immigrants of English descent were indifferent to the revolution, and most of the upper classes were loyal to the British crown. On the contrary, there was marked fidelity to the patriot cause by the Dutch and German colonists of Pennsylvania, as the English historian, Trevelyan, demonstrates.' Thus we see that even in this Initial stage ot our national gestation, when there was com-

A I Mi i aft ma ivwwrri.rttan.- , .

t "The Confession." By JOHN COLLIER. "The refuge of the bosom of religion," says Mme. Mendes. however agonized it may be, it concedes to every one the right to live. Personally I think that the answer of the ninety-one women is more characteristic of advanced feminine sentiment, and especially of Awien feeling, than any other. These facts prove the change that has come over women's hearts in an age of emancipation, and nowhere is this change so marked and so great as in American women. The American woman cannot be a blind, submissive, passion-driven animal, who will sacrifice everything to her instinctive love herself, her friends, even her lover. She places human rights before Instincts. Her conception of love is one in which reason and justice have their part. Her changed conception of love has made divorce a necessity. Fundamental human rights are to her superior to those of state or society. When the Idea of sacrifice to God in marriage as well as in other things was losing its strength, the idea of sacrifice to humanity gained in force, and love became more civilized and more disinterested. At the same time there was born a sentiment of quite another kind. Individualism developed with intensity demanding the right of every one to control or to renew his life, to direct it according to the dictates of his heart, his instincts and his conscience. These opposing sentiments, the first born of respect for others, the second of respect for oneself, which enter deeply into our morals and manners, began to sap the bases of indissoluble marriage. One of the first symptoms in France of the necessity of divorce as a corollary of marriage was shown in the famous play of Villiers de Sen. A. J. Beveridge, of Indiana. parative solidarity of racial blood even taen the origin of our people bad much to do with their -political opinions. But it is present-day conditions which make Macaulay's analysis prophetic and point to the mighty task before us a task which is primal and which will take decades to perform. Tn.it task '.s the hard but sublime labtfr of makiig a national solidarity, an American entity, independent of and different from that of any other nation or country, not in the sense that it is our duty or even intereet to hold aloof from other peoples from which we sprang on the contrary, as I shall try to show presently, our relations with them must be more and more intimate but that we must build up a national unity and consciousness as separate and different from that of any other country as the Russian is different from the German or the French is different from both. The first short but immediate step to this is to trample under our feet the thought that any of our citizens of one racial descent are less American and less patriotic than those ot another racial descent. Why should any one say that our citizens of German descent ar less American because they love the Germany from which they sprang, than are those of us who are of English or Scotch descent who love the land from which our ancestors came? Our hearts tell and our minds inform all ot us that if our common country were assailed

, 1'Isle Adam, entitled "The Revolt' and written In 1875. This play showed a household where the woman had always been the patient and submissive mate of her husband, a merchant with a hard, practical nature, without kindness as" well as without badness. Every evening in silence, without ever telling the secrets of her mind or heart, without a sign ot resentment, his wife helped him to go over his accounts and gave him intelligent advice on his business. One evening, after seventeen years of this sad and dull existence, she announced to her husband very calmly that all was over, that she was going away, that she had devoted herself to blr and to the success ot his business for s"caieei years, and that her sacrifice was great enough. His business, thnnks to her assiduous devotion, w j going splendidly. Now. after having accomplished the wutles she had undertaken irhen ah married him, she was going to fuKill her df ties to herself. . She was going live for herself, according to her own tastes, according to her personal aspirations, of which her husband had neved had any idea. Stupefied, he asked her what these aspirations were. She explained them to him, but he could not understand them, and she went away, very serious, but full of hope. Several hours later she came back. She did not know whot to do with the liberty to which what to do with the liberty to which she was unaccustomed. Her aspirations .too long repressed and suffocated, could not take their flight toward the divine heights. The poor woman had still an individual conscience, but she had lost the vitality of that conscience. She could no longer act except In dreams. She came back voluntarily to take up the yoke, so long endured, which had become her. vocation. This heroine personified the woman of that generation, too greatly restricted by the iron laws - of the -past and having no strength to realize her individuality. The ideal of indissoluble marriage was, ladeed, of all the conceptions of union between man and woman the most noble and most elevated. We must agree, however, that it has sometimes led to abominable results, and that a remedy for it was necessary. It is very fine to enter into a bond before Ood and before men, but if this bond is made up of disgust, hatred and contempt it has no longer any reason for existence; it is even perfectly immoral and its rupture becomes the sane, just and higher law. If from an ill-assorted marriage no child has been born, I can see no serious objection to a divorce. Even if there are children it appears none the less Inevitable and wise, for it is infinitely painful and immoral for the children to be present at abominable wrangles, where they lose respect for the family and, affection for their parents. A solution that permits them to live in peace must be preferable to that situation. - In France the divorce law at first was very strict and inflexible. Cases were very limited and difficult to carry through. When the law was made more liberal, people attempted to abuse It. Demands for divorce increased. But the French character, which is notably full sf moderation and respect tor traditions, soon brought the matter to a normal condition. Then a revolution in the method of marrying our young girls made the causes for divorce much less pressing and frequent. Formerly with us the consent of a young girl was of extremely little importance in marriage. The parents chose a husband f or -her at their own pleasure, scarcely consulting her. When the girl, having become a woman, found herself shocked In her tastes, her delicacy and her ideals, she did not have to sustain her the illusion and the memory of tender hours which throw a softening light over all a woman's life. But for the last ten years our customs In

by a foreign foe, American citizens of Irish. Italian, Hungarian, German and Scandinavian descent would be found rallying to the colors and fighting side by side with us ot British origin for the defense of the Republic, as the Civil War proved. Thus it is that an American blood charity based on truth is the duty ot the hour, and the sentiment of Americanism first, last and all the time is the wholesoina fruit of that duty fruit which our children and our children's children shall eat to their own strength and well-being and the good ot the world. The tolerance of patriotic brotherhood Is the watchword of our salvation. Let not the rancor ot distinction of Jew and Gentile, Protestant and Catholic, German, Erltish.-or Irish, Italian. French or Russian, vex nd aonfound our form ing nation. Let each in nis sympathy be true to his faith and his blood we could not prevent that if we would but let us nobly realize that just because each of these racial and religious units of our people have the courage and conscience to be faithful to the fundamentals within them, they also have the- capacity to be still more true to that great democracy, the American people. It will take a long time to achieve this Independent American solidarity. But above ilLl other periods in our history, now is the hour to begin it. We must teach it in our school?, preach it from our pulpits, talk it in our daily life. In every schoolroom over the teacher's desk, In plain letters, over every pulpit, on the walls ot every Board or Trade, I woula have these words printed: "We are all Ameri:ans." Americans tolerant of one anotner, and Americans BECAUSE' we are tolerant ot one another. What now is coming? What, if we do not slindly attach ourselves to some European combination ot powers, is our historic task and glory? All who are not blinded by blood-lust cannot fail to see it. Let the big fact of contemporaneous world events Instruct us: For a long time it has been the habit ot Occidental peoples to say that the Oriental peoples were sleeping. But is it not more accurate to say that they have been resting? Today the yellow races are being marshalled under able generalship. Every student is familiar with the fact that science, literature and art were already old la China and Japan when the forbears of those who now boast of world leadership were, in truth as well as in name, barbarians- Olive Schriner truly said that the eternal analogy holds, and that everything is like everything else. A man becomes exhausted and must rest, and then does good work again; a field is drained of its fertility, and then must rest to bloom forth in new P luxuriance. A race achieves great things, and then declines, but only to rise once more. Italy is an examplethree times she has declined, and three times had her recrudescence. Germany is the most notable illustration in history in the Thirty . Years' War Germany'-) pooulation sank from

France have been happily changed In this respect. Young girls moat often choose their husbands themselves, and tn doing so give full rein to their natural feelings, their and their education. It ts therefore, xil that, once 'married, there should be bwn the couple fewer misunderstandings. LJvorce. then, In Franee remains quite e. ceptional. In the first, place because one class of society, small but Important, refuses to make use of It all. on account of religious principles, and because the other classes are not disposed to abuse It for the psychological reasons I have mentioned, And now I must say that the war,-which has simplified and ennobled all sentiments among us, has had an unexpected effect on divorce. Many demands for divorce have been withdrawn, many households have forgotten their domestic quarrels and sentimental disappointments and have become reconciled In the oatburst of a common passion love of country. In the United States, the country of liberty, the country where the emancipation of women is the most advanced and the most ardently maintained, divorce, which, does not encounter perceptibly the opposition of religion, was necessarily bound to find a very favorable ground. The strong will of the American nation to make nse of all Its Individual powers, to give them a complete development, could not be reconciled to the restrictions and the social cares of the old world. Built on foundations which are drawn from nature and from pore reason. American society was bound to throw aside the masks of duties which appeared to it as prejudices and the masks ot concessions which seemed to It hypocrisy. Quite naturally they decreed that divorce ta as Just and legal as marriage. Since everybody condemns a marriage in which reciprocal affection does not exist from the first, why should they not condemn It when It ceases to exist? The true dissolution of marriage cornea from the divergence ot hearts, ot minds and ot Ideas. Why should we preserve an appearance of union when the rupture' has already taken place? Immorality consists in this lie. Dignity and morality consist in the legal dissolution of a household which Is already dissolved morally. That, indeed. Is the doctrine In which there la not In appearance anything reprehensible. But liberty Is a sword with two edges. Perhaps easy divorce, which appears favorable tc the woman, is not so much so as It appears to be. If It is often welcome to women ot fortune, it may cause great injury to women without resources, burdened with children, whom the caprices of a bad husband may reduce to desolation and misery. The proposition has been advanced that we should give more rights to a woman in divorce than to a man, because she suffers more from an unhappy marriage, but I cannot see how that can be done. The woman can only ask the same rights as a man. The suggestion has been made that an Irreproachable wife to whom married life has become Impossible with her husband, should have the choice between a separation which gives her certain rights over her erring husband or ot obtaining a complete divorce. This arrangement is Insured to a limited extent by existing divorce laws, but I cannot see how it can be carried to the point of giving the woman the dominating position In matrimony which some feminists demand. I have not the presumption to settle questions as deep and grave as this. I will only quote a line from a poet -because in my opinion poets are always right Victor Hugo says: "Liberty is like the lance of Achillea. It alone cures the wound which it makes." If, then, it Is true that people abuse divorce a little In free America, the intuition, the good sense and the noble principles of humanity of American citizens will soon find a way, like the lance of Achillea, of curing the evil which their liberalism may have caused.

twenty millions to six millions; In the Sevea Years War she was so crossed that she seemed extinguished; yt, after rest. Germany rose again, stronger, nobler than ever. May not Asia, the cradle of human learning and achievement, also revive? Add now to this fact that, bad as It seems to be to human wisdom, conflict appears to be the law of nature. China was masterful when she was militant; and that the war-like blood runs hot in Chinese veins has long been plain to the observer of that wonderful people who studied them on the ground. Thirty years ago that white man would have been scoffed and scorned who predicted aa armed, warlike and triumphant Japan; yet by the sword Japan has won the mastery ot the East. Only yesterday the overthrow of the Chinese dynasty was accomplished by such fierce fighting as the present war has not yet equalled. And now the event which all who have given study to Oriental conditions have known a long time ago has come to passChina is being reorganized and again made militant by a capable power that has learned and Improved upon all that the western mcrld has had to teach. Does any one doubt, therefore, that if the white races were to disarm. Oriental domination would follow? Let any one who does doubt this read history. Thus it is that a duty so high, so deep, so all-embracing that we are not yet conscious of it, nevertheless is upon us. That elemental duty is the union ot all Occidental races, each distinct in its culture and yet united for common defense under a common direction. Just this is bound to come. In Germany, in France, in Holland, In every country I have visited I have found scholars and philosophers thinking along this common line. But how to do it! How to harmonize the discords among Occidental peoples, which will be deemed transient and Irrational to the eye of history, however they may imd to bo consequential to the eye ot the hour? What nation Is akin to all other Occidental nations? In the veins ot what one people flows English, German, Irish. Italian, French, Hungarian. Slav and every other western blood? If such a nation there be, and If It can so overcome blood passion as to realize Occidental racial unity, that nation holds in Its hands the seep tre of the future and the fate of western civilization. Where, then. Is such a nation? Is it not the United States? So it is that the very circumstance which troubles our democratic experiment will, if successfully dealt with, make the American Republic the blood bond ot onion among the peoples now at war a union which shall form a rampart against the Oriental myriads gathering behind the coming years. The slogan of world peace, the guarantee of the preservation . ot the civilisation ot Shakespeare and Goethe, of Mollere and Dante. Is - this r -"Get -together, men of the Occident. If -we remain separatsr we may be in danger if -w combine, we are secure." . . -