Judge — July 1937 — page 14: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

GOD FORGIVE ME Living is for the careful and the wise BY A. D. ROTHMAN HAKESPEARE'S sentence about Life —a tale told by an idiot, all sound and fury, signifying nothing—has been trans. muted in my mind into something even a little more pathetic. Really, Life even when least objectionable is no better than a drinking party among deaf mutes, where the laughter is noiseless and the finger-sign language becomes progres. sively more blurred and increasingly less intelligible. I think the foregoing sets the right mood of despair for that truly desperate subject—divorce. And yet, I truly believe that I have the solution. I advocate the abolition by in. ternational convention of all divorce and annulment. Further, in the world as I would have it, it would be impossible to secure any kind of separation. 7 I expect oto say st once, that scpe- ration, ical or factual, is a safety valve, an essential to keep people from murder- ing each other. That's just what I want. I want those fools who have hastily lunged into a marriage without really jowing or caring about the problems to murder each other. Indeed, they're just the kind of idiots who should be com. fs to live together till the only re- lease is the extinction of one or both. Now, of course, Society’s chief aim in the whole problem is to secure wider success for marriage. But it has gone the wrong way about it. It should be the duty of the police authorities of all nations to "If only, my deah, the wrong people didn’t breed!” compel all couples, once married, to live together no matter how disagreeable to the parties concerned and no matter what the consequences. Let’s examine the con. sequences. Furst, the homicide rate everywhere would go up alarmingly. The second practical coi ence to follow on the promulgation of my pro. posal would be an astonishing fall in the number of marriages. That, of course, does not mean that ladies and gentlemen would cease living with each other. On the contrary, nature’s ends would in no way be defeated. As a matter of fact, while the gauge of marriage would be notably depressed the score of liaisons would notably mount. There'd be a fine snouting around here and there for love for love's sake, so to speak. Actually, so much of that goes on all the time that a little more or less wouldn't matter, and there'd be no cause for those with moral scruples to view with alarm. In the end the very things they themselves are striv- ing for would be served. So many of those liaisons would prove successful that neither the need nor the roblem of marriage would arise. People faving begun to live with each other and finding it pleasant, would just go on do- ing so without further fuss. A second group inevitably to arise would be those who having failed in finding a desirable partner first chance would succeed on second, third — or even fiftieth — try. Now, for those pairs that click at once, soon or in the end—who yet must have their union sanctified by holy matrimony —let them have bread if they will not eat cake, if you follow my meaning. Let "em get married. But, if my proposal for the interdiction of divorce and separation is given fair trial, the improvement in technique in the choice of a wife or hus- band will be enormous. "Today all that people ask each other before fing down for the marriage license is that they be mutually attracted , to each other. In the days of no divorce and no separation the thing that men and women will look for first and foremost in their prospective husbands or wives will be the quality of livabilityness. Knowing that the prime feature of the marriage is to be the maintenance of the relation, entrants will discard beauty, brains, inspiration, indeed will ask them. selves only one question: Will living with him or her be bearable no matter what? And only a silly few will not make good and sure that the answer is yes. Those few would ultimately murder each other, so it won't matter much anyway. Thus the world will be left to the clever, the careful and the wise. Every- one knows that we need more fool-proof devices in our social scheme. Mine should certainly point the way in other direc. tions—such as the prevention of war, the elimination of poverty and the guarantee of personal immortality. Judge comicbooks.com