THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1920. MARRIAGE AND MORALITY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18047, 22 September 1920, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1920. MARRIAGE AND MORALITY.

Probably there never was a time in tta history of the dominion when the marriage relation was more lightly entered upon by both sexes and when the conse quent parental responsibilities Were less seriously regarded, if indeed not altogether evaded. The crop of divorces and'separations, tho frequency of wife desertions, the multiplication of orphanages, which are no sooner open than filled to the doors, to say nothing of the continually reported cases of infanticide, abortion, and other sexual offences, constitute alarming phenomena which the student of sociology may by no means disregard. It is not safe, however, to assume that the social morality of to-day is on a lower level ! than, say, fifty years ago; only with the spread of knowledge and a wider outlook public opinion on such matters as marriage and morality has undergone a surprising change and the expression in everyday life differs considerably. A concrete illustration may serve to stress the alteration : In 1877 Mrs Besant in conjunction with Mr Bradlaugh, caused to be reprinted a pamphlet entitled The Fruits of Philosophy," by an American physician, Dr Charles Knowlton, which, originally published in 1835 advocated the artificial limitation of families within their means of livelihood Mrs Besant was moved to take this action because—to use her own wordsshe "had seen the misery of the poor ox my sister-woman with children crying for bread; the wages of the workmen were often sufficient for four, but eight or ten they could not maintain" At the instance of the Christian Evidence Society Mrs Besant and Mr Bradlaugh were prosecuted and committed for trial, the unanimous verdict of the jury being "that the bock in question is calculated to deprave public morals." And although this verdict was subsequently quashed, Mrs Besant who was separated from her husband, an Anglican clergyman, was deprived of the custody of ner little giri on the ground that, her Atheism and Malthusianism mad« her an unfit guardian for the child. Indeed, one of tho counsel enRaged in the caso went so far as to declare that if educated by Mrs Besant the girl would "bo helpless for good in this world," and "hopeless for good hereafter, outcast in this life and damned in the noxt." Since that d?y

thought and opinion have moved apace; tho Report of tho National Birlh Ilatu Commission, issued some fivo or six years ago, practically admits tho entire doctrine of birth-control, and nowhere does it actually condemn eithei the doctrine or the propaganda of tho doctrine. Still more striking is the admission of Dean Inge, of St. Paul's, in a paper on "Tho Birth Kate," published in 1917, that " the great saving of life which has been effected during the last fifty years carries with it the necessity of restricting the births." Referring to the use and sale of preventives "to which many persons take objection on moral or aesthetic grounds, but which is surely on an entirely different level from the destruction of life that has already begun, ,1 Dean Inge remarks: " It is worse than useless to try and put down a practice which a very large number of people believes to be innocent, and which must be loft to the taste and conscience of the individual. , ' To which tho Dean adds: "This is emphatically a matter in which every man and woman mast judge for them selves and must refrain from judging others." Contrasting artificial limita tiou -with tho alternatives of the deliberate postponement of marriage and the consequent prostitution, Dean Inge concludes- "Under this pressure we must expect to see preventive methods widely acepted as the least of unavoidable evils." As the inevitable outcome of such expressions of opinion books and pamphlets, the work of duly accredited medical men and women, are to-day widely circulated, which not only openly advocate neo-malthusian doctrine but place within reach of all certain safo and simple methods by which the limitation of births can be successfully carried out.

The writer of an article on " The Future of Marriage," in a recent number of the English Review, starting out with the premise that "the institution of marriage is in grave danger," goes on to say :

.There can be no doubt that all marwho™ A!" 0 b3CO! " in S > ess fertile, and that where the parents either nroduce no children or only one or two, their mcrriaire becomes a loss permanent tie than j n the cose of a larger family. It is impossible to obtain_ statistics on the question of irregular intercourse; but it can scarcely be doubted that there has been much more of it dunnp the last ten years. iMftj years ago there were three power■iiil deterrents—namely, the fear of Hell of conception and of venereal disease.' ino fear of Hell has disappeared, and the community , s widely supplied with information how to prevent conception anrt now to avoid infection. Public opinion is tf> say the least, not austere, Religion blushing veils her sacred fires J nil unawares morality expires. The bearing of all this upon present day conditions in the dominion may be perceived by reference to the discussion at tbo annual meeting of the Men's Mission last week, when tho Chaplain reported an "alarming increase" in cases of men neglecting their family respon. abilities, a growing tendency to open adultery and a great increase in immorality. Bishop Richards, who in tht matter of the suggested amendment in the Marriage Laws has ranged himself with Archbishop O'Shea and the other dignitaries of the Roman CatholicChurch, declared that the alleged immorality was closely allied to the question of marriage, and further declared that "no greater wrong could be inflicted on any community than anything tending to weaken the marriage bond or to lower the conception of marriage which obtained in the Church." Just as Bishop Richards sought for a con- ' nection between a rising tide of immorality and a growing secularisation of the marriage relation, so Bishop Nevill endeavoured to lay the blame upon the secular system of national education, going so far as to make an unsupporfcable allegation that the schools did not teach the children "any moral principles whatever, so far as he was aware"; which constitutes a grave reflection upou the Bishop's awareness. Miss Balktine, whose mission in Otago is to ■expound the purpose of a Social Hygiene Bill which the Government has under consideration, advocated the provision of " decent and adequate amusement for young people" as antidote for" the prevalent vicious practices. Probably however, of all those who took part in the discussion, Mr J. M. Gallaway came nearest the truth when he said "As a matter of fact, most of us were exceedingly afraid of the subject, and shrouded it in mystery and kept it in the background."

Huxley in an address "On Elementary Instruction in Physiology" uttered the profound truth: "If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the ma" who has so much as to be out of danger," and the axiom holds good in the present discussion. The days of the ignorant-innocent theory in the matter of sex and marriage has long since passed never again to return, but the tide of knowledge is not yet full. The wise saying variously attributed to Solon and Pythagoras, "Know thyself," calls for special application in this particular and it may only be realised by united action. While it is the mission and privilege of the Church to impress upon the mind and the conscience the loftiest possible conception of marriage, it is the duty of the scientist and tho medical man to popularise and make Plain the real truth in all matters affecting the relation of the sexes and their eftect upon the health and the future of the community. The sociologist and the political economist have also' a right to be heard upon the respective values of a low and a high birth-rate, while the educationalist may work wonders b 7 diverting from the channels of base and unlawful passion those energies and enthusiasms which rightly guided will generate noble ambitions and ideals. This problem of Marriage and Morality requires united . action Science has not yet come to its own in forming the beliefs and procedure of mankind," says Dean Inge, "because it has teen so much excluded from hHiei education and so much repressed*" by sentimental ism under the wing of religion. The nation that first finds a | practical reconciliation between science and idealism is likely to take the first place among tho peoples of the world."