WHAT IS COMING ?

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4924, 11 January 1926, Page 3

WHAT IS COMING ?

FUTURE OF MARIUAGEI AN ETERNAL INSTITUTION. There seem to be only two kinds of opinion about marriage and the future of sex relations in general, (writes. W. L. George in the “Evening Dispatch”). One type of interested party says that in a few years there wiN be no such thing as marriage, and that the world will then be living in a state of free love. Some deplore this, some welcome the idea, but they are all agreed as to what will happen. The second type asserts that human nature never changes, ando therefore tliat to the end of .the world marriage * will go on as we know it. I cannot believe that anything so extreme will happen. Marriage has often altered, but it has endured for thousands of years. Not so long ago the wife was bought and sold, lost the control of her property, and even her share in the control of her children. All .that has. gone. Likewise divorce was once impossible, or so expensive as. to be beyond the reach of the poor. AU that has 'gone. On the other hand, men jynd women have always wanted to form homes ; i am convinced that in prehistoric times many unions were as tender ana _as steadfast as they can be to-day. - Nothing of this has gone. The opening of ancient vaultsi h.as revealed, side by side, the remains, of men a,nd women, old men and old women, which: means husband and wife for many years, and. no ‘discarding of the old wife for a younger one. Nothing of this has gone. " In other words, I believe that a hundred or a thousand years from now-marriage may have altered in some details, and yet it will, be essentialiy the same. It may alter more, and much more quickly, if private property disappears. People who take an interest in the marriage question are given to/ignoring the fact that marriage is. first, though not last, an institution intended to settle to whom property shall go. Legal wife, child, these are terms which would hardly mean anything if -there ! were no< property. Therefore, we may be sure that marriage will become easier to contract and easir to dissolve if some form of Socialism is established. , ‘ 1 am not here attacking or defending Socialism ; T am only saying that free love is much easier to conduct where there is. no difference between one child and another; all. children • are wards of the community. The ten- ' dency of the world being towlards Socialism; in. the sense that the most conservative are ready to envisage the nationalisation of mines l , of railways,'etc., it is quite likely that in days, to come thejmincipaJ. industries will be. controlled by the State. In that case the majority of children *~svill be cared for by the State, and marriage Will, be easier because it will entail lesser financial! responsibilities. ‘ But this does not mean the end of marriage. What happened in Russia is. highly instructive. When the Bolshevists came iyto power the old marriage system of Russia, was replaced by free love. People “married.” But ■they could do so without any form ; divorce ; the’ same day, and marry again before sunset. Littlb by littls, as. a small amount of private property formed again in Russia, and especially as men and women aspired to form homes, once again marriage became an official affair. To-day in ■ Russia marriage isi easy, but it is once again legal marriage. I believe, therefore, that ajl through

human history there will be some sort

marriage. The community will alneed to register the fact that so-and-so and so-and-so are married, therefore more or less responsible for certain children. Where, however, the change is, likely to be rapid is in divorce. To-day divorce is in chaos ; in this country’ ills hard-to obtain, in France it is easier; in New York Sta;te divorce is only granted for one reason; in Nevada for any reason. I believe that in the future, and that may be only fifty or a hundred years hence, over Almost all the world divorce will be much easier than it isi to-day. We may expect tliat in tnese days, - alivorce will be granted without any reason to childless couples, since in - their case divorce affects fiobody. J We may also expect that divorce will.be / granted for adu'ltery, desertion, cruelty, chronic drunkenness, insanity, cei- ■ tain -contagious diseases, and imprisonment for. life (assuming that our barbarous prison system endures). There will, therefore, be more freedom. Marriage will not be as final as it is to-day. Therefore the line drawn between the married and the unmarried will be thinner, and cue consequence must be a change in our attitude towards .the illegitimate child. That child to-day is treated better than z it was a century .ago. In ong- - la,nd it can obtain maintenance. In France it may at least seek out its : father. In North Dakota it is now entitled .to a share in the inheritance of its parents.; This does not mean that I ?ook forward to a state of things which will be uniform the world over. Indeed, it would be undesirable for a world-des- ' po.t to impose .the same marriage la,w and the same divorce law upon humanity. Though it may be inconvenient to have different rules in different countries, yet !■ do not think ■ that .the same set of ideas fit white men, black men, yellow men. We -shall always need different laws for frozen Canada and burning Sicily, different Laws for the wilderness a t nd for ■ the crowded city. But we can hope for friendly law instead of hard ones. To conclude, one may say that the future seems to have set its steps in that kindly direction more freedom, Jess compulsory unions, and-perhaps a little more happiness for mankind.