2. Grant divorce at the request of either party, whether the other
consents or not; and admit no other ground than the request, which
should be made without stating any reasons.
3. Confine the power of dissolving marriage for misconduct to the
State acting on the petition of the king's proctor or other suitable
functionary, who may, however, be moved by either party to intervene in
ordinary request cases, not to prevent the divorce taking place, but to
enforce alimony if it be refused and the case is one which needs it.
4. Make it impossible for marriage to be used as a punishment as it
is at present. Send the husband and wife to penal servitude if you
disapprove of their conduct and want to punish them; but do not send
them back to perpetual wedlock.
5. If, on the other hand, you think a couple perfectly innocent and well
conducted, do not condemn them also to perpetual wedlock against their
wills, thereby making the treatment of what you consider innocence on
both sides the same as the treatment of what you consider guilt on both
sides.
6. Place the work of a wife and mother on the same footing as other
work: that is, on the footing of labor worthy of its hire; and provide
for unemployment in it exactly as for unemployment in shipbuilding or an
other recognized bread-winning trade.
7. And take and deal with all the consequences of these acts of justice
instead of letting yourself be frightened out of reason and good sense
by fear of consequences. We must finally adapt our institutions to human
nature. In the long run our present plan of trying to force human nature
into a mould of existing abuses, superstitions, and corrupt interests,
produces the explosive forces that wreck civilization.
8. Never forget that if you leave your law to judges and your religion
to bishops, you will presently find yourself without either law or
religion. If you doubt this, ask any decent judge or bishop. Do NOT ask
somebody who does not know what a judge is, or what a bishop is, or
what the law is, or what religion is. In other words, do not ask your
newspaper. Journalists are too poorly paid in this country to know
anything that is fit for publication.