here in the United States, as elsewhere in the
world, includes marriage; and although no one wants to go back to
family arrangement of nuptials, the desirability of marriage within a
congenial and familiar circle--that which the family arrangement
distinctly set out to secure--is still obvious.

The fourth element of family stability and well-being which the
ancient parental arrangement of marriage was intended to secure is
deliberation and chance for learning all the facts on both sides, so
that there may be no marrying in haste to repent at leisure. The
reaction from this deliberation in tying the nuptial knot is seen in
"running away to be married" without the slightest knowledge on either
side of the qualities or capacities of the chosen partner and without
giving the parents any opportunity of safeguarding from disastrous
choice. This is the swing of the pendulum in a new freedom, often to
personal disaster. Social ideals and legal provisions are alike
engaged more and more to prevent too ignorant and too hasty marriages.
Such may turn out to have been made in heaven as nearly as the average
union, but the chances are against that happy consummation.

=New Demands for Social Control of Marriage Choices.=--Social wisdom
obliges more deliberation in the case of young people seeking a
marriage license on their own initiative and perhaps after a very
brief acquaintance. There is a strong demand that a certain period
shall elapse between the request for the license and its granting and
that sufficient publicity be secured to make it easy for interested
parties to ascertain any facts concerning both the man and the woman
involved, which might make the marriage either illegal, as bigamy, or
a catastrophe, as uniting one unfit for marriage with an unsuspecting
person blinded by sudden attraction. More than this, many States of
our Union are beginning processes of law to require certificates of
physical fitness, of freedom from infectious or dangerous disease, and
some statement of facts as to previous obedience to law and ability
for self-support such as alone would make marriage successful.
Ministers of religion of various sects are taking more and more a
stand against marriage of persons whom they know are of bad habits or
otherwise likely to give a married partner an unhappy life. Insanity
in the family is now considered in some States a disqualification for
marriage, and statutes requiring some family testimony to fa