Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1894-11-23
A CRYING EVIL.

The facility with which divorces may be
obtained in this country, and the increasing
advantages taken of it, has rightly been long
regarded as one Of the crying evils Of ouI
social system. In no State in the Union,
we believe, save South Carolina, may di
vorce not be had for conjugal infidelity, and
in the majority Of the States it is granted for
other causes, some of them of very trivial
sort In Tennessee, for example, the mere
refusal of wife to immigrate with her hus-
band to that State is ground for absolute
divorce, as in Florida is habitual indulgence
in violent temper True, the same tendency
has been shown elsewhere In France, since
1884, absolute divorces have been granted
Oh grounds which were previously regarded
as justifying only separation from bed and
board, while in Austria, Hungary and Ire
land civil, and not ecclesiastical, courts now
have jurisdiction over marital quarrels. The
same tendency toward laxity is shown in
Germany and Switzerland, where mum
OF causes are now held to justify divorce.
But in no other country have the safe
and the number of divorces 50 rapidly in
creased as in the United States, the increase
between 1867 and 1894 being no less than a
157 per cent.
Within the last fifteen years, however,
the tendency of legislation has been in the OPP.
posite direction, and the sanctity of the mar
rage relation has been reinforced by legal
safeguards The suppression of polygamy
in Utah and elsewhere under the Edmunds
law had much to do in inaugurating this
reform, that law being an expression OF both
the nations right and determination to main
tain the same family order throughout its
territories. The Christian family, with one
husband and one wife, was affirmed To be
the type to which all must conform, and
the principle Of the dependence of national
unity upon the identity of social institu
tons laid down and enforced. Inevitably
the suppression of polygamy called atten-
lion TO the laxity of marriage and divorce
laws in other States and Territories through
which a kind OF Consecutive polygamy"
had been established, and the sentiment and
convictions which had been marshaled in
opposition to the former evil were turned
against the latter 1t has, moreover, en-
deavored to arouse the public conscience TO
the magnitude Of the iniquity and the neces-
sily OF reform, and has so impressed that
necessity upon the legislatures of the differ.
eDt States that twenty one of them have ap-
pointed commissioners to frame uniform
code Of laws relating 10 marriage and d.
vorce. No intelligent person questions for
moment the necessity and Importance Of
the social reformation aimed at, nor the
energy and earnestness with which the agi
lation has been conducted
Nevertheless, public opinion has not kept
pace with the Observation-Disclosures has so.
ciety, save in exceptional cases, ostraczed
any one for obtaining divorce on any ground
recognized by the civil law, and mismated
couple may at any time be divorced and
marry again without losing social caste, at
least TO such au extent as to prove pre-
Nentive to the evil. Indeed, despite the
tendency of legislation to more strictly sale
luard marriage, and the prolonged agita.
ton for the restriction of grounds for divorce,
the evil is on the increase and public senti
ment apparently becoming more indifferent
To it,