Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1879-05-21

Total. - .is5 -.

A A NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.: e ilts : 81
Total. i7s9 .... ...
Ratio Of divorces 70 marrages from 1899 TO sl9 iog
Ha,io of dvorces IN nonnletion in sio to 1855
Ratio of divorces to population In is75' .. to 2Sos
The ratio of divorces in 1878 to popula-
ton is probably still greater, as the population
of that state has increased little if any since
1875. Fully forty per cent. of the popula-
ton of Massachusetts is either foreign born
or of foreign parentage and among the
Catholic portion of it divorces are extremely
rare
In Rhode Island for the nine years COW
cred by our statistics there have been one
thousand six hundred and seventy divorces to
twenty-oDe thousand seven hundred and ff
teen marriages. The ratio of divorces to
marriages for the period is one to thirteen,
with slight increase in the later years.
There is one divorce to about every one
thousand and two hundred of its inhabit.
ants. The divorces in this state vary from
year to year, probably on account of changes
in the laws.
In Connecticut we have the statistics for
nearly thirty years. In 1S40 only ninety
one divorces were granted. Under the new
law of that date the number was increased
more than onethird in a single year. The
evil grew steadily until 1864, when four hun
bred and twenty-six were granted But
from that time until the close of 1877 the
number, four hundred and forty.eight annu-
ally on the average, was varied but little,
the ratio to marriages being about to 1914,
and one divorce to every one thousand and
two hundred inhabitants. In Connecticut
there must be one divorce to every eight
Protestant marriages. A comparison made
from the table of the last report of the
State Librarian, giving the births, marriages,
death and divorces for fourteen years, will
show, unless we mistake in our calculation,
that there is less variation in that state from
the average annual number in the divorces
than in either the births, the deaths, or the
marriages. If all are collected with equal
care, divorce in Connecticut is more uni
| FORM if not more certain, than death The
steady habits of that land appear in her
vices as well as in virtues
Recalling the figures of Vermont it will
| be seen that the ratio of divorce to marriage
in the four states for the last few years is
as follows: Vermont, to lG; Massachu
sets, to 23.7 Rhode Island, to ID; Con-
necticut, to l04. Massachusetts, began to
decline last, and is better off as yet than
either of the other three states, but her down
ward tendency is fearfully rapid. Indeed it
is scarcely paralleled by the increase of d.
vorce in Connecticut from lSi9 to 1853.
| Taking now the four states together, in the
year 1877 there were granted one thousand
three hundred and thirty-one divorces in those
states. If Maine and New Hampshire had
granted the same number in proportion to
their population, at which we can only
guess, and assuming that the evil goes on at
the rate of the last year or two, there are
not far from eighteen hundred divorces
granted annually in New England. Is it
not high time that our people awake to the
study of the problem it presents We can
but think that the people of Massachusetts,
in the absence of a knowledge of the facts
concerning their own state, carelessly allowed
the evils to increase beyond their apprehen-
sion.
We have noticed another thing in the
divorce statistics of these four states. 1t is,
so far as we can see, generally true that any
changes in the laws of divorce towards laxity
are quickly followed by increase in the
number of annual divorces. The next pow
erful cause is probably the extravaganza
and loose living which bear their fruit after
certain time. The largest number of
divorces in year often occur two or three
years after the number of marriages. But
changes in the law seem to be the most
fruitful occasion of increase. So little is
done on the part of the Christian people and
others of a state by way of instruction, that
the laws constitute almost the chief barrier
against divorce among large class
Connecticut and Vermont have recently
changed their laws little for the better.
improvement is already very noticeable in
the Vermont courts We cannot tell whether
the last changes in Massachusetts laws are
for the better or for the worse. Probably
the latter, as divorces increased last year in
that state.
, We can only add that these statistics
especially those of the old Bay State, greatly
confirm us in our often expressed opinion
that divorce, and the family as affected by
t it and other things, present problem of the
J highest Importance to our people. The right
: of the family to the protection of its life ant
] sanctity, its relation to the labor question
e and to that of suffrage, its place in tn,
> structure of the state and the workings O
\ social and business interests, combine t.
a make it one of the greatest subjects of con
g sideration at the hands of the Christian an,
q patriot.