The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1896-07-23
HERE'S A SOCIAL TANGLB.
Thousands Of Kansas Divorces Are Found
to Be Illegal.

which divorces have been granted in
that State for the past IS years. During
that period from $4,000 to 10000
divorces have been granted in Kansas
Courts, all of which are probably lille.
gal. The marital and property rights
involved are SO great that the news of
the decision has excited extraordinary
interest and apprehension, leading, as
it will, to confusion in the adjustment
of estates and the rights and custody
of the children of litigants.
Lawyers in New York city appre.
hend that the decision will cause an
almost endless amount of confusion
in marital relations, in the relations of
children to parents, and in the custody
and disposition of property rights. If
such a decision should be given in
reference to the DEGREES of divorce
which have been granted in Okl; e.
homa and the Dakotas in the past
few years, it would cause a veritable
revolution among the many well-known
families in the East
Kansas has never been a favorite
State for outsiders to 60 to to get di-
vorces, as since 1881 its divorce law
has required an actual residence of
the applicant for at least one year
before the beginning of the action. In
other respects, the divorce law of
Kansas is an easy one for litigants.
Divorces are granted there for aband-
onment for one year for extreme
cruelty, and extreme neglect of duty,
besides the more serious causes.
There is one clause of the Kansas
law which in Itself would make it un-
popula. with many who want divorces.
1t makes it bigamy for divorced per-
sons to re-maify within six months of
the date of the decree against them.
Nearly all the DEGREES of divorce
granted in Kansas have, therefore.
been presumably to its OWL residents,
but that other persons than actual
residents of Kansas will be affected by
the decision there can be no doubt.
Many of the divorced persons have
moved away from their former homes
and remarked, and some of their
can probably be found in
almost every State in the Union.
Every lawyer who was asked about
the matter spoke of it as a very
grave situation. at is very serious
indeed" said Frederic r. c.
Coudert; ''it will affect the present
marital relations of the parties to the
divorce suits, making their new marri-
ages illegal, perhaps depriving their
children of legitimacy and disturbing
the property interests ofmany families.
"lf the decision is based upon the
lmperfections of some matter of pro-
cedure, then, perhaps, the troubles
caused by 1t may be remedied, but if
it is based upon the unconstitu. .ona-
lily of the law itself, then l do not see
how it can be remedied.
SIN that case, the whole of the de-
crees which have been issued under
the law will stand as if they had never
been issued. Therefore, the people
who were married before the DEGREES
were issued will be married now; new
marriages will be void it will be un-
lawful for the couples to continue to
live together, and children born of
these new marriages will be illegiti-
mate.
"Even the Legislature, in that case,
will be unable to straighten out mat
tiers, 1t cannot impair the rights of
the older contracts nor deprive the
people who would have acquired pro-
perty rights of the older contracts, nor
deprive the people who would have
acquired property rights under the old
condition of things, of these rights.
It could mitigate the evils which
would be produced by upsetting such
a log line of legal action, but not
cure them
Just how many persons will be
affected by the decision must be a
matter of conjecture. When the
ce-sus of 1890 was taken it gave the
total population of Kansas as I,427,
o95 persons. OF these 752,II2 were
males and 67A9S4 females. OF the
males 469,428 were unmarried, 263,-
ia married, I6,o91 widowed and
1856 divorced.
OF the females $4,000 were MARI
ed, a63,5o6 were single, 29,6So were
widowed and s117 divorced.
This made total of divorced per-
sons living in the State of sS73, but
this does not include the large mum.
Der who have been divorced and then
remarked. Nor does it give any
guide to the number of children of
two generations, at least, who have
been born as the result of these re-
ThA