May Have to Marry, Move or Be Fined

Proposed Ordinances in Fort Dodge to Stimulate the Spinsters to Say Yes

And to Prod Bachelors to Pop the Question -- Penalties of $10 to $100 Each to Be Visited on Those Who Don't Wed Within a Year.

FORT DODGE, Ia., March 23. - Fort Dodge and even all Iowa is deeply-interested in the introduction of the celebrated "marriage ordinance" by the city council of this city. The ordinance was received at the regular session and read to the body by Mayor S. J. Bennett, who is an exponent of the marriage theory, and the necessity of a widespread move toward wedlock, hardly less ardent than Roosevelt himself. Its measures provide that all able-bodied persons between the ages of twenty-five and forty-five years whose mental and physical capabilities are normal and who are not married shall be required to obtain a license and procure a bride within one year under penalty of a fine of not less than $10 nor more than $100.

The fine may be relevied every year thereafter for non-compliance with the ordinance.

Mayor Bennett to-day said: "We found a condition here that was considered by the authorities detrimental to the best interests of the community. Large numbers of wealthy bachelors and spinsters refuse to marry, and for the purpose of stimulating a move toward marriage, which is fast becoming a necessity here, the ordinance was prepared. I assure you it will be enforced if passed.

"Fort Dodge is a growing and prosperous city of upward of 16,000 population. It should be larger and would be larger and better from the standpoint of morals and happiness if everybody did his duty. Inasmuch as the bachelors and spinsters seem inclined to shirk responsibility in the one direction this move by the city council was for the purpose of bringing the matter home to the people and compelling them to do their duty as good citizens.

"Probably the fault is more with the men than the women. In my opinion a woman who refuses a worthy man after he has scraped up sufficient nerve to ask her should be fined a double amount, for she may give him a setback that will preclude all future thought of marrying."

Mayor Bennett has long been almost a crank on the marriage question. "Drunks" and vagrants who have been before him in police court have time and again been urged by him to marry and settle down, become men of family and thus have some incentive to stay at home nights and not drink. No fees have ever been charged by him in exercising his prerogative as mayor to perform the marriage ceremony.

The bill has been referred to a special committee consisting of Aldermen C. J. Crawford, from the First ward; H. E. Busby, from the Second ward, and L. E. Gagnon, from the Fourth ward. All are married men. This committee will report on the measure March 25.

C. J. Crawford, the chairman of the committee, said to-day: "Frankly I am in favor of it. No man of good health has a right to shirk the responsibility of married life. No woman of good health has a right to refuse offers of marriage unless the suitor is extremely distasteful to her. I am in doubt about the wisdom of the measure owing to the difficulty of enforcing it."

Mr. Crawford would say nothing to the likelihood of a favorable or unfavorable report.

--Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, Fort Wayne, Indiana, March 24, 1907, page 8.
--Picture of Mayor from The Newark Advocate, Newark, Ohio, April 9, 1907, page. 1

Comment: About the mayor, there is this item online, to which I made some edits:

"In politics, Mr. Bennett was a Republican. He served four years in the city council in 1885-6 and 1895-6, and was four times elected mayor in 1889, 1901, 1905, 1909. He was a member of the Webster county board of supervisors in 1878, serving until April, 1884, when he resigned to go west. Again in 1898 he was appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Mr. Julius and served until 1901. During this period he was chairman of the board and most instrumental in the president court house. The great executive ability of the officer and the geniality of the man are well marked by two acts closing his term as mayor, that of the consummation of the plans for the Farley street viaduct (named the Bennett Viaduct), and the passage of the joke marriage ordinance." [My emphasis]

"In 1909 Mr Bennett was again elected mayor, serving for a term of two years; at the close of the term he was talked of for reelection, but on account of ill health it was not deemed advisable for his to again enter the race. Mr. Bennett died at his home in Fort Dodge, May 24, 1911" (original source: History of Webster County, 1913, by H.M. Pratt, 1977.7, pp. 161-162).

I have another post on this topic, following this one, posted March 24, 2007.