The record-union., 1897-03-07
INCREASE OF DIVORCE.
F. Marion Crawford Attributes Il 70
Socialism.
r. w. Shufeldt Takes Issue With the
NOvelist's AnaIys sis of the
Situation.

| don magazines an article in which
have attempted to point out some of
| the causes that have led to the re-
markable increase in the number of di-
vorces in this country, and briefly sug
| gested therein what l consider TO be
some needed revision in both our laws
| of marriage and its dissolution. Taken
in conjunction with other matters, my
attention has been drawn to this sub
| Ject by what Marion Crawford has
| lately said in the Century Magazine"
and by my having observed in the coll
umns of the Post for year or more
past the undoubted increase in suits OF
this nature brought before the Wash
iEgton courts. In my aforesaid article
have taken occasion to show wherein
my views in the premises are directly
at varience with those entertained by
our distinguished novelist, who seems
inclined to believe that the modern
school of socialism should be held re-
sponsible for this evidence of apparent
grown Of domestic infehcity. Regard
ing the questions as a whole, and as af-
fecting the whole country, Mr. Craw-
| ford, in the course of his argument, re-
marks that there are various forms of
AiOAiOA dOlC pOIlliCdI anu VI
dishonorable political misunderstanding
nowadays, which we are accustomed to
call collectively, socialism. Most of
these rely for their hope of popular sue
cess upon their avowed intention of di-
viding property and of preventing its
subsequent accumulation. Marriage is
an incentive of such accumulation, be-
cause it perpetuateS families, and,
therefore, keeps property together by
inheritance Therefore, all forms of So
cialism are at present in favor of di-
vorce as means of ultimately destroy
| ing marriage altogether. y proverb
| says that whosoeVer desires the end
| desires also the means. There is more
| truth in the saying than morality in
| the point of view which it expresses.
But there are some who desire neither
the means nor the end to which they
| lead, and a struggle is coming, the like
| of which has not been seen since the
beginning of the world, and of which
we who are now alive shall not see the
| termination"
Apart from everything else that |
have said in my somewhat lengthy re-
ply to these statements, and the dire
full prophecy based upon them, l believe
if anyone will undertake to analyZe the
forty or more suits for divorce that are
entertained by our local courts
in the course of every month,
that persons will be very quick
ly convinced that none of the now-ex-
isting forms of socialism have anything
to do with the state of affairs under
discussion. Doubtless there are many
socialists who would be very glad to.
see any steps taken that would lead to
more uniform, and especially to more
| consistent interstate legislation in the
laws of divorce, as they are now franz
ed for the guidance of the tribunals of
our States ana Territories; and doubt
less, too, would heartily be in favor of
more sensible, more legal statutes in
the matter of the laws enacted to regu-
late marriage. AS it is, the present
contract governing wedlock read to the
parties who are supposed to be bound
by it has no legal status whatever. 1t
has come to pass in these days that in
nineteen cases out of twenty, when a
man marries he has no intention what
ever, in the legal sense, OF making an
endowment of all his worldly goods to
the woman OF his choice, any more
than she has of obeying him fully, or
frequently at all, when he exacts it.
Twenty-Five years ago these specifca-
tions of the matrimonial compact were
more universally adhered to, but not
now.
In this last quarter of a century a
vast change has come over the spirit
of the dreams of our coming race of
daughters, and this spirit at the pres
ent time pervadeS the minds of the
sex representing every plane of society.
Women throughout the country are
striving to become co-equals of men
in all lines of activity in which the lat
ter engage. This applies to the trades,
the professions, to competition in the
schools and colleges, and even extends
to the majority of athletic sports. Such
revolution, coming about as rapidly
as it has, may have it's advantages in
some directions, but beyond all ques-
| ton it is producing change in our So
! cial organization, in so far as women
are concerned, that can but result in a
total disappearance of the domestic
| housewife of former times. Household
| duties and household cares have be-
come irkSome to them; in a great many
cases the charge of children is relegat-
| ed to others, while the desire for COM
| plete independence, pecuniary and 9TH
erwise, is now the ruling passion both
prior to and after marriage.
| Thus it is that nearly all the suits for
divorce are being brought by the wo-
| men, and very frequently upon the
most trivial grounds imaginable, caus-
| ing in most instances either great in
| convenience or pecuniary loss to the
| husbands, who have unfortunately
mated with the hope of securing wives
| for themselves But wives, as we knew
our mothers to be, from our boyhood
recollections, are as rare in these days
as women lawyers were during the
| middle of the present century.