The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-09-28
o REPORT ISSUED
Government Gives Out Its Findings
of Last Census.
Shows Tha in Ten Years Growth of Di.
vorced Wage Farmers Has Been
twenty-five Per Cent.

Washington, d. C.-The United
States Government. ut Il cost OF thou
sands Of dollars and several years of
time. has established the fact. through
its Census Bureau, that divorces are
becoming more numerous every year
and that in the len years between 1890
and 1900 the number Of divorced men
engaged in gainful occupations i'll
creased twenty-five per cent.
Another fact that has been cstall-
lisled by the same means is that SOL
1iers and sailors are the most tickle
men in tho country. and thai farmers
and clcrgymcn are the least tickle.
The old belief that early marriage
leads oftcnest to divorce is shattered
by figures that prove th& contrary.
The statistics upon which the Cen
suS Bureaus results are based and
which are published in Il Volume of
occupations. were gathered four years
ago.. Since then n small army of eX-
perts have been tabulating the results.
The report says that in 1900 five out
Of every 1000 men painfully employed
who had been married We're living in
q state OF divorce Oh the census day.
compared with four out of every 1000
in 1880. In other words, the number Of
divorced males g%aintully employed had
increased Il fourth in a decade. The
increase held good in nearly every Oc-
! cupation, but no greater tendency to
divorce was shown in the cases of
clergymen, teachers and professors in
college. manufacturers and officials and
textile mill operatives. With these few
exceptions in every occupation consid-
cred by tho, ccnSuS experts the tend
ency to divorce was found to be grow
ing.
On analysis the Census Bureau found
that most of the occupations in which
divorce is most frequent contain a high
percentage Of bachelors. Statistics
show that in nine Of the fifteen occu-
patiOns in that list the tendency to
defer marriage is exceptionally strong.
While not going so far rs to assert
that a prOlOngation Of the period of
bacilelorhood increases the probability
of divorce when once the marriage tie
has been formed, the census experts
say:
This is Il proposition which appar-
entity derives some further support
from the fact that those occupations
in which the percentage Of divorced
males is exceptionally low are most
of them occupations in which, early
marriages appear to be exceptionally
prevalent
1t is shown that in a long list Of
occupation groups in which there Are
not more than three divorces to 1000
marriages. the tendency is toward
early matrimOny.
This says the report. might seem
to contradict the rather common i'm
preston that it is the early marriage
which is most apt TO be the imprudent
marriage leading to divorce. But i'll
general probably the most that can be
said is that some of the conditions
which promote single life and defer
marriage also promote divorce
The report shows that the number of
married women in gainful occupations
is steadily growing. In 1880 4.G pei
cent Of all the married women of the
country were thus employed. In 1900
this percentage had increased to Dc.
/ 1t is also shown that the percentage
Of single women in Gainful occupations
has declined since 1890, while that of
married, widowed and divorced, i'll
each case, has increased