The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-07-20
THE DIVORCE PROBLEM.
An Old Subject in New Phases.
* By SAMUEL w. Dixie, ***
Secretary of the Divorce Reform League.


the questions at issue than in former
years.
Thoughtful people are not less con-
vinced of the claims of the monogram
GUS family, or of the permanence of
the marriage relation as the ideal of
human society. If they are less in
sistent upon this or that specific dog
ma regarding divorce, it is because
they now feel more deeply than be-
fore the intricate nature of this prob
lem, and the importance of putting
their defense of the integrity of the
family in way to commend it to the
modern student. Then the Church
is perceiving more clearly that a
strong, healthy home means the de-
cline of divorce and its attendant evils.
The attention of the people is begin
ming to be turned to the home as
worthy of something of the care, the
thoughtful invention and diligent de-
velopment that of late have been given
to various other devices for social i'm
provement.
Thus to survey the progress hither-
to made is to point out in a general
way the path of the future. Further
investigation is needed. A complete
system for the registration of the i'm.
portant transactions of marriage and
divorce and the publication of their
statistics should be extended into
every State and Territory of the coun-
try. Only the records of the transfer
of real estate, even if we grant this
exception, can be said to be of
more social value than those of the
formation and dissolution of the
family.
The present plan of uniformity
through concurrent action of the
States should be pursued on broad
national and international lines, and
made to do all that can be done in the
matter, or prepare the way for some
other plan, to which it should give
place in due time, if it is itself un-
successful and some other can do
what needs to be done. The exper-
ience of Germany and Switzerland,
and very recently of Japan, in pro-
viding for more or less extensively
uniform law, should be studied.
| A Matter of Official Regulation.
Meanwhile the various States can
do much to perfect their own statutes
and the procedure of their courts.
Marriage should everywhere be made
a matter of official regulation and
record. Limitations of relationship,
age, the place of it's celebration and
record need much attention. Divorce
for trivial reasons, without proper
trial and suitable discouragements to
its abuses, needs much more atten-
ton than it is getting.
But above all, Religion and Educa-
tion have much to do. For one thing.
our people should be made to see
that divorce is not in itself remedy
for domestic ills, but only an attempt
to run away from them. While it
may relieve the individual it DESTROYS
the family. For, as has been we'll
said, SO far as the family is concerned
divorce is simply surgery. 1t makes
no attempt to heal a particular fam
lily, but applies the knife to its vital
bond. Society must come to under
stand that here as in other things,
resort to capital operation is never
justifiable, either in science or NOR
ais, until all other means of relief
have been used in vain. 1t must see
that in order to get the best attention
given to real remedies it must make
it less easy for people to resort to
the surgery of the courts.
The problem of legal reform and
of social betterment in domestic life
are dependent upon each other.
More restrictive laws are needed to
turn popular attention away from
the surgery of the divorce court to
the more effective though slower and
and less attractive tasks of moral and
social reform. On the other hand,
the thorough application of the re-
sources of the church, the school, the
press, and of social influences gener-
ally, will improve legislation and re-
duce the evils under it.
AUBURNDALE, MASS.
Tho new canon Of Westm;nsta- moe