The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-02-25
ABOUT MODERN DIVORCE,
THE ESIGNIFICANCE OF THIS SOCIAL
 PROBLEM.

Evening at the Church of the Messiah DiVorces and MOrality-ReasOns Cited
 Against Undue Restriction of Divorces- Evils of Continuing Unholy Alliance.
 For the past few Sundays Rev. w. F,
 DiclSerman of the Universalist church
 has been delivering as cries of lectures
 bearing especially on matters of social
 reform, and large crowds have been at
 tracted to hear him. Last evening he
 preached an able sermon on the Moral Significance of Divorce" which was full
 of valuable information and facts com
 oerning this great social problem. MT.
 Dickerman made himself familiar with
 many valuable statistics gleaned from
 conversations with able lawyers and
 we'll known authorities, which inter-
 views were interwoven with his own
 conceptions. The following is brief
 abstract of the lecture:
 We are in favor of any measure that
 will promote purer marriage, happier
 homes and more perfect children. Opin-
 ions of divorce will vary according to
 the theories of marriage entertained.
 During the past twenty years 100000
 divorces have been procured in the
 United States-more than in all the
 world besides. This looks very alarm
 ing. and If we did not stop to consider
 the causes. it would seem to indicate
 the failure of marriage or the increase
 of social depravity. All must admit
 that divorce is a social misfortune; but not an unmitigated evil. It's prohibition is impossible. ,How to restrict it, grave question. How to remove its
 causes, the profoundest of social prob
 lens.
 Marriage does not keep pace with th- increase of population, while the d. vorce rate is greater. The causes for this state of affairs are, the industrial emancipation of woman, her increasing financial independence, the legal recog- milton of her suffering, general enlight- enment and the purer views of mar riage. The increase of divorce is. a healthy indication-a striving for bet ter conditions. Of course it is attended with incidental evils; what reform movement is not? Divorce may have it's beginning in spat over a curly dog, a woman's bangs or a mans buttons The truer reformer would not make marriage legal cage for human cats and dogs; but would prevent such hu- man animals from ever getting together. Popular opinion holds that easy divorce weakens the marriage tie and promotes immortality. But is it not true that where there is any genuine bond be- tWaln of vorce would prompt them to guard and preserve their possessions?
 If divorce be an agent of immortality and a menace to matrimony, it's aholi- tion ought to increase the moral tone of society and promote marital purity and fidelity. But does it? We are not without examples. Take France, noto- rious for it's social vices and impure lit- erature. From 1916 to 1864 legal separa- tion, without privilege of remarriage, only was possible. Five thousand de- crees of separation were granted an- nually. Ten thousand persons were di- annually to celebacy! The result was an alarming increase of the social evil. To remedy this, in 1881 M. Noquet his famous bill to grant di- Vorce on four grounds, to take effect nine months after it was granted. per hitting remarriage after this period of reflection. During the first year after this enactment went into effect 1000 of these previously separated people ap- piled for divorce. Most of them remar- ried, and since then the number of mar riages dissolved has steadily decreased, | and marked improvement in public | is observed.
 In Belgium, where divorce is allowed | by mutual consent, the divorce rate is | lowest, and the moral and intellectual | condition of the people superior to other l European states where divorce is diff | cult or impossible. New York state with it's stringent divorce law, has as many divorced people, by hook or crook, | as any liberal divorce state, and is | noted for it's marital infidelity South | Carolina never grants divorce Here | surely we should look for exceptional so- eial purity. But the fact is this state ! a greater per cent, accord ng to population, of illegitimate chill lren than any other, and recently was obliged to make a special enactment Q provide for these illegitimates
 W OAllGtll. lIC4NI III lllSltI CSl6eIn, mas nore freedom, and occupies more places of trust in America than else where, yet two-thirds of the applications or divorce are by women, most of whom The divorce movement did lot spring from the lower classes of so- iety, but among the educated-the elite. t began in New England and has ex- ended to the states and territories where the descendants of the Puritans Ire most numerous,
 Restriction or difficult divorce will not emove marital unhappiness, but will ather promote infidelity. What law 'er physician or minister that does not ,now that enforced marital relations, .ither by law or to- keep up appear nces, is the prolific cause of social in- luity and the means of the most shame ul hypocrisy known to civilized life? t is not by closing the exit from false marriage, but by guarding the entrance, hat will lessen divorce. Instead of de- loring and fighting smoke 'tis better wisdom to extinguish the fire and keep he combustibles apart.
 It is a common habit to rejoice over a yelling marriage record, while griev- ng over divorce figures, but it is we'll to e doubted if the movement to reduce he latter should not be directed against he former, Only in sixteen states is a