The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-11-09
UNIFORM DIVORCE LAWS.
From the Philadelphia Ledger.

II loil tne inllauelpnlH beuBel'
The diversity of state divorce laws, and
the facilities which many of the enact
ments on the subject extend to those who,
without sufficient reason, desire to be re-
leased from the marital bond have been
derlorcd by many pUblicists. Lax divorce
regulations in certain states to great
extent nullify the rigorous statutes Of
legislatures that have given intelligent
and conscientious attention to the SUBJ
j5ct. In countries subject to uniform leg
islation on all subjects, these evils may
be reduced to the minimum. In the Unit
ed States the statutory causes for divorce
vary from one to rine, and the period
of residence required to give the courts
or the legislature jurisdiction varies from
only one month to five years. Divorce
legislation, taking the country over. is
no stronger than the weakest statute COW
crng the subject. so that certain states
where the dissolution of the marriage
relation is made easy become the refuge
of persons desiring to secure Il divorce
for trivial reasons
a few years ago one of the newspapers
| of Fargo, n. D., reported that a canvass
of the hotels and boarding houses of the
city showed that the 'lCcal divorce colo
ny then numbered about $50 members.
This meant n consdCrabl increase of
| trade at the hotels and stores The writer
grimly remarked that the matter was
| looked upon purely from a business point
of view, and said that the conditions eX-
| listing in Fargo existed in other cities Of
| the state, but on Il. smaller scale. Con-
| 2rcss, in 1856 prohibited the granting of
divorces by the legislatures of the sew
eral territories, ana this represents about
| all that has been done in the way OF fed
| eral legislation Oh the subject. TO ma
| tionalize, and thereby give complete uni
| formity to divorce legislation, it would
| be necessary to adopt a constitutional
| amendment, unless federal divorce legis
| lation could be lawfully enacted under
| the general welfare" clause OF the con-
| stitution. One other course is open. the
enactment of uniform divorce legislation
| by the several states. This may be af-
| fected in time through the efforts OF the
state commissioners upon uniform loSis-
| lation. which have secured uniform laws
| on other subjects affecting the business
world
The mschiefs of loose and divergent
| divorce legislation are we'll ep!tomized in
| the petitions sent to congress some years
| ago asking that body TO empower the fed
rral commissioners of labor to collect the
statistics of marriage and divorce. These
divergcnces lead to conflict of judicial
| decisions \ marriage is iudicialy re-
garded III Cne state as dissolved ana IN
another state as existing. 1t Is possible
| that a person may Ec convicted OF bigamy
! in one jurisdiction when the second mar
! riage would be accepted as lawful in an
! other jurisdiction. Questions of hcirshlp.
| title to property aid other important
| incidental issues turn upon the legality
| of marriage. The conflict of divorce
| laws involves questions of morality, the
| happiness of families, personal ana prop
| erty rights, and reveals defect I'm our
| governmental institutions