Welcome to the disruptive world of facts, the world of Gonzo History.
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In the roaring 1920s, when men in the US began to create formal associations to combat the alimony racket, it was a universally accepted fact that women had the opportunity to support themselves outside marriage. The nation’s leading divorce judges spoke this truth openly and frequently in the 1920s.
The currently believed myth – of women’s economic oppression before Marxist-feminists arrived on the scene in the 1960s with the express aim to initiate a “gender” utopia – is merely a fictional 1980s concoction that has been deliberately spread by the education industry (in both K-12 and college) and is still widely assumed to be true. (see Newsweek, March 3, 1986)
Judge Joseph Sabath of Chicago, who by 1939 had heard more divorce cases than any other judge in the world, called alimony an “easy money racket” which makes men “slaves.” Yet the eminent judge was bound by standing law and he made his rulings in according with statue even though it was against his conscience.
It should be remembered however that the institution of debtor’s prison in the US has been used in most cases for alimony-owing ex-husbands. In other countries and in earlier times few women have ever been thrown in debtor’s prison but many men have been incarcerated for their wives’ debts.
Following is newspaper article describing a variation on the theme of alimony slavery in cases before Judge Sabath and other Chicago judges in late 1942 which, to the knowledge of the Gonzo Historian, has been completely forgotten.
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FULL TEXT: Chicago, Jul 3 – The fight for freedom today had six seasoned campaigners on its side, all having a definite appreciation of the word, liberty.
The sextet of warriors was released from alimony row in Cook County Jail by Superior Court Judge Joseph Sabath on their promises to enlist in the armed services.
Their wives agreed to suspend domestic warfare for the duration of the real thing.
One woman donated her former husband in lieu of war bonds.
The donation was Joseph Patrovsky, 32, a butcher, who was in jail since April trying to figure out a way of stopping the little woman’s spring offensive.
“My client,” said the attorney for Mrs. Anna Patrovsky, “feels that since she cannot afford to buy bonds, it is only patriotic to release her husband.”
Judge Thomas J. Lynch agreed, and so it went with other alimony grapples.
“My client wishes to have her husband, Joseph Michalezwsky, 28, released if he will join the service immediately propounded the attorney for Mrs. Anne Michalezwsky, “but we want to be sure he enlists.”
“As, I already enlisted in the Coast Guard several days before she had me thrown in the clink,” the prisoner interrupted.
Judge Lynch concluded: “We’ll release you. I’m beginning to feel like a recruiting officer.”
[“Alimony Jail Opens for Six As Wives Send Them To War – Chicago Judge Says He’s Beginning to Feel Like A Recruiting Officer as He Gets Promise Of Sextet to Serve Uncle Sam.” syndicated (INS), Toledo Blade (Oh.), Jul. 3, 1942, p. 1]
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