War and Wedlock

Levin Daily Chronicle, 16 March 1918, Page 1

War and Wedlock

WILL POLYGAMY OB FREE LOVE PREVAIL? (By Geoffrey Singleton.) In a recent sermon at St. Paul's Cathedral, London, the Bishop of Peterborough said:— "One of the tragedies of the war ia that the wholesale destruction of young manhood will have the effect that many thousands .of girls will never know the joys of motherhood.'' That is a tragedy which no one, can estimate now, but it is becoming more terrible as the war goes on. The first armies in the field were composed largely of married men, husbands and fathers. The new levies are composed of young men," most of them unmarried The new .casualty lists represent the loss not only of the men of this but of those of the next generation. Counting all the belligerents it is safe to say that up to the end of last year, the world has lost between four and live million men who have not known marriage or fatherhood. In those countries where the male always has been numerically stronger than the female the effect will not be felt immediately. In countries like. England, where the percentage usually has been 55 of women to 45 pf men, the effect will be overwhelming.

This is now realised by thinking people, and the Bishop of Peterborough only expressed what many feel when he said, in the same sermon:— "One grave question of the future, perhaps of the near future, is the ideas of mariage which will prevail. It is possible that the holy estate will be attacked in a way we never have known; we may be confronted by the efforts of many people, in view of the present unprecedented situation.''

What are ' the efforts of many people' to which the Bishop refers? In*general they fall into two divisions, indicated by these two questions:— , Will the world go in for polygamy after the war?

Or shall we world whej:c there is neither marriage or giving in mar-

riage? From the day Great Britain set half a million women of all degrees working at munitions, prophets have announced that marriage was done for. A little prematurely they declared that the women of "after the war" would be economically independent and would not need to marry. They said she would choose her husband where she liked and keep him as long as she chose,.and no longer. And now comes a German, MajorGeneral Andres, attached to the Turkish army, who declares in all sober seriousness that the only hope for his country is in the adoption of polygamy. It is clear that something like polygamy is being considered for the devastated countries of Europe. WHAT IS LIKELY TO HAPPEN. Between these two extremes some change will probably come over the institution of mariage as we know it today. The war, which has torn up men's lives by the roots, is not likely to be a respecter of conventions. What will be the new relationship between men and women after the war The first thing to be noted is that the prophets of the woman worker have begun to draw in thok sails a little. Their chief mistake was in forgetting that neither men nor women live and love by themselves. They said that women were earning, their own living and therefore women were liberated. And they forgot that all the money in the world never liberated a woman from loving the right man, nor did it emancipate her from a longing for children. After hearing a 1 great deal of talk about the free woman I went to a certain munition factory and looked up the matron in chief, an old friend of mine. Her experience in establishing social centres at munition plants had taken her all over England since the war began; she had made friends with thousands of girls and had been their mother-confessor; she knew many hundreds of married women who had come into the factories to make Bill and Bert a useful present in the shape of a shell. I asked her what effect "munishing" would have on women of England. "Listen," she said. "You taie a year's holiday and wander through the factories—really, do. Then, on the day you find one of my girl's crooning a lullaby to a 15-inch shell or' putting on her best bib and tucker for a box of cordite, come to me and I will answer your question. I will tell you then that marriage is a 'wash-out,' as the lads say. But not till then." It is quite likely, though, that the real transforming power of the woman worker will not bein absolute industrial tasks, but in other work. Women who could prepare breakfast for their husbands, send the children off to school and then go to a "movie' in the afternoon will exist after the war. But a fair number of them will not sit among the audience—they will be operating the picture machine themselves. And through the length and breadth of Britain women have proved that they can deliver bread and milk in the morning, or call taxis to the department store entrance, or sell tickets at the box office. CHANCE OP TROUBLE. These occupations and thousands of others make up an inspiring total of women workers not on war work, and a fair percentage of the women employed in such work will be able to "carry en" after their husbands come home. Trouble may come for a short time when the men are being demobilised and find women in their jobs. In the end some readjustment will be made, the net result will be that-in Britain no woman will have to marry in order to keep alive, and many women will work after they are married. And every married man is a lot different when the distaff side is earning its little bit. Possibly the prophets who announced the dissolution of all marriage ties will have some reason to claim they were right. Some countries are less strict than others in regard to marriage; in parts of Southern Europe, for instance illegitimate children are recognised by the law as having claims on inheritance. If the necessity for re-population becomes very acute it is quite likely that children born out of wedlock will receive fuller recognition from the law, and possibly from society.