"Not marriage at AU, but simple harlotry": The companionate marriage controversy

Journal of American History

Volumn 94, Issue 4, 2008, Pages 1137-1163

  Davis, Rebecca L ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 53949123108     PISSN: 00218723     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/25095323     Document Type: Article

References (185)

1. "Married in Haste as 'Companionates,'" New York Times, Nov. 23, 1927, p. 7.
2. See also "Hold Wedding as Companions Ahead of Date," Chicago Daily Tribune, Nov. 23, 1927, p. 1;
3. and "Students Begin Trial Marriage," Los Angeles Times, Nov. 23, 1927, p. 3.
4. "Trial Bride Tells of Love," Los Angeles Times, Nov. 22, 1927, p. 2.
5. See also "Lindsey Idea to Be Tried," ibid., Nov. 21, 1927, p. 1;
6. "Say 'Companion' Union Solves Their Problem," New York Times, Nov. 22, 1927, p. 26;
7. and "Views of the Mother," ibid., Nov. 21, 1927, p. 25.
8. On the couples financial dependency, see "Parents Approve 'Companion Union,'" ibid.
9. On changing ideas of marriage and sexuality, see, for example, Nancy F. Cott, "Passionlessness: An Interpretation of Victorian Sexual Ideology, 1790-1850," Signs, 4 (Winter 1978), 219-36;
10. John C. Spurlock and Cynthia A. Magistro, New and Improved: The Transformation of American Women's Emotional Culture (New York, 1998);
11. Ellen Kay Trimberger, "Feminism, Men, and Modern Love: Greenwich Village, 1900-1925," in Powers of Desire: The Politics of Sexuality ed. Ann Snitow, Christine Stansell, and Sharon Thompson (New York, 1983), 131-52;
12. Michael Gordon, "From an Unfortunate Necessity to a Cult of Mutual Orgasm: Sex in American Marital Education Literature, 1830-1940," in Studies in the Sociology of Sex, ed. James M. Henslin (New York, 1971), 53-77;
13. and Christina Simmons, "Companionate Marriage and the Lesbian Threat," Frontiers, 4 (Fall 1979), 54-59.
14. Charles Larsen, The Good Fight: The Life and Times of Ben B. Lindsey (Chicago, 1972), 9, 34-54, 247;
15. "Judge Lindsey Dies; Children's Friend," New York Times, March 27, 1943, p. 13.
16. On "Red Scare antifeminism," see Kim E. Nielsen, Un-American Womanhood: Antiradicalism, Antifeminism, and the First Red Scare (Columbus, 2001), 1-2.
17. Dale M. Herder, "Haldeman-Julius, the Little Blue Books, and the Theory of Popular Culture," Journal of Popular Culture, 4 (Spring 1971), 881-91.
18. M. M. Knight, "The Companionate and the Family: The Unobserved Division of an Historical Institution," Journal of Social Hygiene, 10 (May 1924), 258, 260;
19. E. A. Kirkpatrick, "Render unto Caesar," ibid. (Nov. 1924), 461-73, esp. 473.
20. Steven Mintz and Susan Kellogg, Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life (New York, 1989), 107-31, esp. 114-15;
21. Glenda Riley, Divorce: An American Tradition (New York, 1991), 55;
22. Norma Basch, Framing American Divorce: From the Revolutionary Generation to the Victorians (Berkeley, 1999), 99-120, 212-14, esp. 214n3;
23. Nancy F. Cott, The Grounding of Modern Feminism (New Haven, 1987), 156;
24. Stephanie Coontz, The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap (New York, 2000), 13;
25. John D'Emilio and Estelle B. Freedman, Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America (New York, 1989), 241, 265-66;
26. Kevin White, The First Sexual Revolution: The Emergence of Male Heterosexuality in Modern America (New York, 1993), 172;
27. Paula S. Fass, The Damned and the Beautiful: American Youth in the 1920s (New York, 1977), 38-39.
28. On Ben B. Lindsey's proposed reforms, see Christopher Lasch, Haven in a Heartless World: The Family Besieged (New York, 1977), 16-17.
29. Ben B. Lindsey and Wainwright Evans, The Revolt of Modern Youth (New York, 1925), esp. 219-30 and 244-55.
30. Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, Rereading Sex: Battles over Sexual Knowledge and Suppression in Nineteenth-Century America (New York, 2002), 251, 265;
31. Joanne Ellen Passet, Sex Radicals and the Quest for Women's Equality (Urbana, 2003);
32. John C. Spurlock, Free Love: Marriage and Middle-Class Radicalism in America, 1825-1860 (New York, 1988), 139-63;
33. Christine Stansell, American Moderns: Bohemian New York and the Creation of a New Century (New York, 2000), 276-79;
34. Christina Simmons, "Women's Power in Sex: Radical Challenges to Marriage in the EarlyTwentieth-Century United States," Feminist Studies, 29 (Spring 2003), 179-80;
35. Stephanie Coontz, Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy; or, How Love Conquered Marriage (New York, 2005), 204.
36. Ben B. Lindsey, "The Moral Revolt," Red Book Magazine, 47 (Oct. 1926), 42-45, 106-15;
37. Ben B. Lindsey, "The Moral Revolt," ibid., 48 (Feb. 1927), 45, 154;
38. Ben B. Lindsey, "The Moral Revolt," ibid. (April 1927), 46.
39. Lindsey, "Moral Revolt," ibid., 48 (Feb. 1927), 42;
40. Ben B. Lindsey, "The Moral Revolt," ibid. (March 1927), 49, 141;
41. Ben B. Lindsey and Wainwright Evans, The Companionate Marriage (1927; Garden City, 1929), xxiii;
42. Ben B. Lindsey to Wainwright Evans, June 25, 1927, container 73, Ben B. Lindsey Papers (Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.);
43. Ben B. Lindsey, "What Do You Think It Is?," Outlook, April 24, 1928, pp. 656-68.
44. Paul A. Robinson, The Modernization of Sex: Havelock Ellis, Alfred Kinsey William Masters, and Virginia Johnson (Ithaca, 1989), 2-21, 30.
45. For an assertion that Ben Lindsey aimed to promote immorality, see Committee on Marriage and Home, Ideals of Love and Marriage (New York, 1929), 13 in folder 14, box 52, Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America Papers, 1894-1952, RG NCC 18 (Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pa.). Mary T Taylor to Ben B. Lindsey, July 1927, container 74, Lindsey Papers.
46. Lindsey and Evans, Companionate Marriage, xxiv;
47. Bertrand Russell, "My Own View of Marriage," Outlook, March 7, 1928, p. 376;
48. Bertrand Russell, "Is Companionate Marriage Moral? - a Debate," Forum, 80 (Jub/ 1928), 7;
49. H. G. Wells, "Modern Experiments with Marriage," New York Times, June 26, 1927, p. SM3;
50. L. T. Vandenbergh, "Laws of Life," Los Angeles Times, July 19, 1927, p. A4;
51. Larsen, Good Fight, 173.
52. Wendy Kline, Building a Better Race: Gender, Sexuality and Eugenia from the Turn of the Century to the Baby Boom (Berkeley, 2001);
53. Molly Ladd-Taylor, "Eugenics, Sterilisation, and Modern Marriage in the USA: The Strange Career of Paul Popenoe," Gender and History, 13 (Aug. 2001), 298-327;
54. Alexandra Minna Stem, Eugenic Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in Modern America (Berkeley, 2005).
55. Lindsey and Evans, Revolt of Modem Youth, 219;
56. "Birth Control Defended," Los Angeles Times, July 31, 1927, p. B2;
57. Robert E. Rogers, "This Is Life," Boston American, March 20, 1935, p. 13;
58. Lindsey and Evans, Companionate Marriage, 185;
59. "New Marriage Plans Hit," Los Angeles Times, Nov. 5, 1927, p. Al.
60. Sanford J. Fox, "The Early History of the Court," Future of Children, 6 (Winter 1996), 34-36;
61. Ben B. Lindsey and Rube Borough, The Dangerous Life (NewYork, 1931), 25-43;
62. Larsen, Good Fight, 7, 33, 55-127.
63. For Theodore Roosevelt's recolleaion about the "Bull Mouse" label, see Larsen, Good Fight, 7.
64. "The Greatest Man in the United States," American Magazine, 78 (Oct. 1914), 63;
65. Lindsey and Borough, Dangerous Life, 43. American Magazine's readers ranked great Americans as follows, in declining order: Theodore Roosevelt; Thomas Edison; Woodrow Wilson; "Ordinary Citizen"; William Jennings Bryan; Henry Ford; and (tied) Booker T. Washington, Robert LaFollette, and Luther Burbank.
66. Philip Whitwell Wilson, "Divorce and the Church," North American Review, 224 (Nov. 1927), 479.
67. For newspaper coverage of Soviet marital praaices, see, for example, Walter Duranty, "Russian Marriage Back to Normal," New York Times, Jan. 6, 1922, p. 6;
68. "Soviet Proposes New Family Law," ibid, Dec. 27, 1925, p. 9;
69. "Stamps on Identity Cards Wed Couples in Russia," ibid, Nov. 18, 1926, p. 1;
70. P. W. Wilson, "Divorce Issue Surges Up with New Force," ibid., Dec. 19, 1926, p. 5;
71. and "Soviet to Protect Common Law Wives," Atlanta Constitution, Nov. 20, 1926, p. 15.
72. For scholars'discussions of Soviet marriage reform, see Alice Erh-Soon Tay, "The Status of Women in the Soviet Union," American Journal of Comparative Law, 20 (Autumn 1972), 668-74;
73. and Mary Buckley, Women and Ideology in the Soviet Union (NewYork, 1989), 34-43.
74. Helen Lumley to KOA Broadcasting Station, March 14, 1927, container 72, Lindsey Papers; Jennie F. Pettit to KOA Broadcasting Station, March 14, 1927, ibid;
75. R. R. Ohaver to KOA Broadcasting Station, March 15, 1927, ibid.
76. "Smith Questionnaire," n.d., p. 1, folder 2, box 39, William T. Manning Papers (General Theological Seminary Archives, New York, N.Y.);
77. Blanche J. Bigelow to William T Manning, June 30, July 15, 1927, ibid.;
78. Nielsen, Un-American Womanhood 33;
79. Lawrence J. Nelson, Rumors of Indiscretion: The University of Missouri "Sex Questionnaire" Scandal in the Jazz Age (Columbia, Mo., 2003).
80. J. A. Graves, "Some Reflections," Los Angeles Times, Dec. 1, 1927, p. A4;
81. Alma Whitaker, "Marital Turbulencies," ibid., Nov. 13, 1927, p. B2.
82. See also Nielsen, Un-American Womanhood 28-49.
83. "Lenten address of the Rt. Rev. William T Manning at St. Thomas' Church, 5 P.M., March 4, 1926," pp. 3-6, folder 3, box 12, Manning Papers;
84. "New Idea in Marriage Held Peril," Los Angeles Times, Nov. 12, 1927, p. A9.
85. On discourses about civilization, see Gail Bederman, Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880-1917 (Chicago, 1995).
86. "Manning Scores Habits of Modern Americans," Washington Post, Aug. 1, 1927, p. 3;
87. Arthur J. Todd, "Is Marriage a Failure?" Welfare Magazine, 20 (Nov. 1928), 1187-99;
88. "Current Magazines," New York Times Book Review, May 22, 1927, p. 16;
89. "New Marriage Ideals Branded as 'Vicious,'" New York Times, Oct. 10, 1927, p. 26;
90. "Hits Marriage Idea of Judge Lindsey," ibid, July 25, 1927, p. 22.
91. C. A. Johnson to Ben B. Lindsey, Feb. 18, 1927, container 71, Lindsey Papers; Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Stewart to Ben B. Lindsey, March 14, 1927, container 72, ibid;
92. Mrs. Hays to Ben B. Lindsey, Jan. 15, 1927, container 71, ibid.;
93. Mary Roberts Rinehart, "Marriage-a Trial? A Failure? A Conquest?," McCall's, 54 (March 1928), 86;
94. Frances M'Donald, "Wives of Tomorrow," Washington Post, Nov. 2, 1927, p. 12;
95. J. Nouch to Ben B. Lindsey, March 14, 1927, container 72, Lindsey Papers.
96. Margaret Toal to Ben B. Lindsey, Jan. 12, 1927, container 71, Lindsey Papers; Mrs. L. J. Miller to Ben B. Lindsey, Jan. 15, 1927, ibid;
97. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "Divorce and Birth Control," Outlook, Jan. 25, 1928, pp. 130-31.
98. For Lindsey's descriptions of the charges against him, see Ben B. Lindsey to Fremont Older, Feb. 10, 1927, container 71, Lindsey Papers; Ben B. Lindsey to Lincoln Steffens, May 23, 1927, container 73, ibid;
99. Ben B. Lindsey to Bertrand Russell, June 20, 1927, ibid.;
100. Ben B. Lindsey to Bradford Merrill, June 21, 1927, ibid.;
101. and Lindsey and Borough, Dangerous Life, 3-11, 388-99, and esp. 311.
102. On the suit for lost wages, see Ben B. Lindsey to the editor of the Times, June 7, 1927, container 73, Lindsey Papers;
103. Horace N. Hawkins to Ben B. Lindsey, July 6, 1927, container 74, ibid.;
104. and Ben B. Lindsey to Boyd Gurley, Indianapolis Times, Oct. 3, 1927,
105. ibid On the charges against Lindsey and his disbarment,
106. see Larsen, Good Fight, 192-203.
107. Ben B. Lindsey to W. T. Manning, Feb. 5, 1927, container 71, Lindsey Papers; Ben B. Lindsey to C. E. Bachman (Redpath Lyceum Bureau), Feb. 3, 1927, ibid.;
108. "Statement by Judge Ben B. Lindsey in answer to critics" [1927], ibid.
109. For examples of responses to the "answer to critics," see Louis Newman to Ben B. Lindsey, May 17, 1927, container 73, ibid.;
110. Mrs. C. M. Alley to Ben B. Lindsey, Feb. 13, 1927, container 71, ibid.
111. L. B. Crotty to Mrs. Ben B. (Henrietta) Lindsey, April 28, 1927, container 72, ibid.;
112. Ben B. Lindsey to Havelock Ellis, May 11, 1927, container 73, ibid;
113. Ben B. Lindsey to Walter Ricks, June 30, 1927, ibid;
114. Harrirt Snyder, Clara Anderson, and Kate T. Simpson to Ben B. Lindsey, Feb. 1, 1927, container 71, ibid.
115. Michael A. Meyer, Response to Modernity: A History of the Reform Movement in Judaism (New York, 1988), 302-3.
116. "It seems to me," Wise noted, "that all my good friends are debating with Judge Lindsey"; see Stephen S. Wise to Fred Adams, Feb. 24, 1928, folder 5, box 11, Stephen S. Wise Papers (American Jewish Historical Society at the Center for Jewish History, New York, N.Y.).
117. "Lindsey and Wise Debate Marriage," New York Times, Jan. 29, 1928, p. 3.
118. For reports of Lindsey's leaure tour, see "Birth Control Defended," p. B2;
119. and "New Marriage Plans Hit," p. Al.
120. Stephen S. Wise, untided typescript, Jan. 28, 1928, pp. 4, 7, folder 5, box 11, Wise Papers;
121. Wise to Ben B. Lindsey, Jan. 31, 1928, ibid;
122. "Lindsey and Wise Debate Marriage," 3; Christine Rosen, Preaching Eugenics: Religious Leaders and the American Eugenics Movement (NewYork, 2004), 156-57;
123. "Rabbi Newman and Judge Lindsey Return from Northwest to Continue Discussion on 'Companionate Marriage'" [1927], folder 5, box 11, Wise Papers;
124. Louis I. Newman, "Telling It in Gath," Scribe, Oct. 28, 1927, p. 5,
125. ibid.;
126. "Lindsey in Debate on Marriage," Los Angeles Times, Nov. 1, 1927, p. 22.
127. Lena Porter to Ben B. Lindsey, April 20, 1927, container 72, Lindsey Papers; Naomi Struthets to Ben B. Lindsey, Jan. 4, 1927, container 71, ibid.
128. On the abortion issue, see Marion L. Wood to Ben B. Lindsey, May 12, 1927, container 73, ibid
129. The Companionate Marriage, dir. Erle C. Kenton (CM Corporation, 1928).
130. See also Larsen, Good Fight, 217-18.
131. Lindsey and Borough, Dangerous Life, vii, xi, 399-413.
132. "Lindsey Disbarred from Colorado Court," New York Times, Dec. 10, 1929, pp. 1, 28;
133. "Judge Ben Lindsey Reinstated," ibid, Nov. 26, 1935, p. 31.
134. Ben B. Lindsey, "Companionate Marriage," Spring 1927, pp. 3, 5, folder 11, box 5, Wise Papers.
135. George M. Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism, 1870-1925 (New York, 1980), 118-23.
136. W. D. F. Hughes, Prudently with Power: William Thomas Manning Tenth Bishop of New York (West Park, 1964), 11, 16-17, 43-44, 49-50, 187-94;
137. James Davison Hunter, American Evangelicalism: Conservative Religion and the Quandary of Modernity (New Brunswick, 1983), 36.
138. "Lenten address of the Rt. Rev. William T. Manning," 1-2.
139. "Manning Bans Talk by Judge Lindsey," New York Times, Dec 1, 1930, p. 1 ;
140. William T. Manning, "Bishop Mannings Address on 'Companionate Marriage,' with a Prefatory Note by the Clergy of the St. James Church, Philadelphia," Dec. 1930, pp. 8-10, folder 3, record group 274, Bishop William Manning Collection (Archives of the Episcopal Church U.SA., Austin, Tex.);
141. "Lindsey Talks to Churchmen," Los Angeles Times, Dec. 2, 1930, p. 3;
142. "Lindsey Will Blame Manning for 'Riot," New York Times, Dec. 10, 1930, p. 26.
143. "Lindsey to Hear Manning Sermon Today; Says He May 'Rise up' and Retort to Bishop," New York Times, Dec. 7, 1930, p. 1;
144. "Lindsey Arrested, Put Out of Church for Heckling Bishop," ibid, Dec. 8, 1930, p. 1.
145. "Bishop Manning's Address on 'Companionate Marriage,'" 5-7, 10-12.
146. "Lindsey Arrested," 1, 3; Lindsey and Borough, Dangerous Life, 345-50.
147. See also Larsen, Good Fight, 219-22.
148. "Lindsey Arrested," 1. See The Hymnal, As Authorized and Approved for Use by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America in the Year of Our Lord 1916 (1916; New York, 1930), 120. Lyrics to the hymn include: "Fight the good fight with all thy might / Christ is thy strength, and Christ thy right / Lay hold on life, and it shall be Thy joy and crown eternally / Lay hold on life, and it shall be Thy joy and crown eternally."
149. "Bishop Subpoenaed for Lindsey Trial," New York Times, Dec. 9, 1930, pp. 1, 3;
150. "Two Thousand Hear Lindsey Reply to Manning," ibid., Dec. 21, 1930, p. 21.
151. Pius XI, Christian Marriage: In View of the Present Condition, Needs, Errors, and Vices That Affect the Family and Society (Casti Connubii-of Chaste Marriage) (1930; Washington, 1931), 19, in folder 5, box 222, Office of the General Secretary, National Catholic Welfare Conference Papers (American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives, Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.);
152. Dndsey and Borough, Dangerous Life, 417, 421.
153. Ernest R. Groves, The Marriage Crisis (New York, 1928), 13-14;
154. Paul Popenoe, "Family or Companionate?," Journal of Social Hygiene, 11 (March 1925), 132;
155. "Education Urged for Matrimony," Los Angeles Times, Jan. 13, 1928, p. A13.
156. Committee on Marriage and Home, Ideals of Love and Marriage, 14, 18-19;
157. Sydney E. Ahlstrom, A Religious History of the American People (New Haven, 1972), 802-4;
158. Martin E. Marty, Modern American Religion: The Irony ofIt All (Chicago, 1986), 274-80.
159. Committee on Marriage and Home, Ideals of Love and Marriage, 11-12;
160. Orland Kay Armstrong, "The Churches Look at Companionate Marriage," Christian Herald Jan. 12, 1929, p. 31, in folder 13, box 52, Federal Council of the Chutches of Christ in America Papers;
161. Jeffrey M. Burns, American Catholics and the Family Crisis, 1930-1962: An Ideological and Organizational Response (New York, 1988), 115-17;
162. CCAS Yearbook, 48 (1938), 98-105.
163. See, for example, Alice Kessler-Harris, Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States (New York, 1982), 250-72;
164. Alice Kessler-Harris, In Pursuit of Equity: Women, Men, and the Quest for Economic Citizenship in Twentieth Century America (New York, 2001), 64-116;
165. Elaine S. Abelson, "'Women Who Have No Men to Work for Them': Gender and Homelessness in the Great Depression, 1930-1934," Feminist Studies, 29 (Spring 2003), 104-27;
166. Margaret Jarraan Hagood, Mothers of the South: Portraiture of the White Tenant Farm Woman (Chapel Hill, 1939);
167. Linda Gordon, Pitied lmt Not Entitled-Single Mothers and the History of Welfare, 1890-1935 (Cambridge, Mass., 1994);
168. and Anna R. Igra, "Likely to Become a Public Charge: Deserted Women and the Family Law of the Poor in New York City, 1910-1936," Journal of Womens History 11 (Winter 2000), 59-81.
169. On early twentieth-century policies that tried to enforce husbands' breadwinning roles by disciplining men's behavior, see Michael Willrich, "Home Slackers: Men, the State, and Welfare in Modern America," Journal of American History 87 (Sept. 2000), 460-89.
170. Ernest Watson Burgess and Leonard S. Cottrell, Predicting Success or Failure in Marriage (New York, 1939), vii.
171. For definitions of companionate marriage close to Burgess's, see Ernest R. Mowrer, Family Disorganization: An Introduction to a Sociological Analysis (Chicago, 1939), 3-25;
172. and Abraham Stone and Lena Levine, The Premarital Consultation: A Manual for Physicians (New York, 1956).
173. Lester Dearborn to Dorothy Miller, copy, Sept. 27, 1937, folder 236, box 19, Maida Herman Solomon Papers (Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.);
174. S. Bernard Wortis, "The Premarital Interview," Living, 2 (May 1940), 37;
175. Emily H. Mudd, "An Analysis of One Hundred Consecutive Cases in the Marriage Counsel of Philadelphia," Mental Hygiene, 21 (April 1937), 19-20;
176. Emily H. Mudd, "Information and Attitude: Their Relation to Counseling Procedures in Sexual Adjustment," typescript, n.d., folder 8, box 1, Papers of Emily and Stuart Mudd (University of Pennsylvania Archives, Philadelphia).
177. Ray Baber, Marriage and the Family (New York, 1939), 500;
178. Roy A. Burkhart, Ministerial Counseling and Planned Parenthood (New York [1946?]), 8, in folder 8, box 33, Planned Parenthood Federation of America Papers - I (Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Mass.);
179. Coontz, Marriage, a History 204, 212;
180. Stansell, American Moderns, 304-7.
181. "Companionate Break Denied," Los Angeles Times, Feb. 19, 1928, p. 4;
182. "Films Lure 'Lindsey Mates,'" ibid., April 19, 1928, p. A2;
183. "Companionate Couple Happy Here," Chicago Daily Tribune, Nov. 24, 1929, p. 6;
184. "Companionate Union Succeeds," Los Angeles Times, Nov. 28, 1929, p. 9.
185. John W. Maloney, "Marriage for Moderns?-The Old Kind Is Best, Says Lindsey," Washington Post, April 21, 1935, p. FE3.