The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-05-10
THE DIVORCE EVIL.

| The whole country has been nau-
seated by the revelations in the in
vestigation by the Senate Committee
of the conditions existing in Utah
| Mormonism is a plague upon the po-
| Iitical life of the Republic, fostered
! by trades with the leaders of the
| National Republican party. The evil
dence adduced fully justified the ex-
pulsion of Senator-elect Smoot nay,
| it demands his expulsion.
But, while the Christian people of
America do we'll to demand that the
| highest legislative body in the world
be purged by the expulsion of the
product of political alliance with
polygamy they have a duty to per-
| form in their own States-the duty of
! Iessening the number of divorces and
of teaching that marriage is a holy
| thing not to be entered into "unad-
visedly or lightly or to be annulled
| for convenience.
Fourteen churches in Philadelphia
have united to wage war on easy di-
vorces, and have issued a strong ad-
| dress from which this extract is taken:
What words can we find to express
the adherence which ought to rise in
righteous Indignation against the pres
ent possibilities and the existing facts
of the divorce habit i'm America? Just
now polygamous Utah looms large and
ugly in our minds. But we must look
nearer home to realize the true con-
dition of things. The proportion of
divorces to marriages in 1902 in eight
States reporting statistics is as fol-
lows: In Maine, l to 6; in New
Hampshire, / to S.3; in Vermont, L
to 10; in Massachusetts, 1 to 16; in
Rhode Island, / to 8; in Ohio, 1 to SIS;
in Indiana, l to 10; in Michigan, /
to IL In these States there has been
steady and rapid increase in di-
vorces duri/S the decade, and this in
crease is believed to be true of the
country at large.
I'VE are setting ourselves earnestly
to study what best methods the
| churches can adopt and what wise
measures should be asked in civil leg
islation to abate this disgrace. The
| results of our study we hope to pre-
sent in subsequent statements and an
peals. But this appeal is to the con-
| science of Christian people to cleanse
| and purify the atmosphere of public
| opinion and social recognition. The
| lear OIL IeSallHed pOIySdmy In one
State is enhanced by the fact of I'M
holy divorce in many States. The
faces of Christian people must be set
against this. The voices OF Christian
people must be lifted against this,
not only to secure civil legislation, not
only to enforce church discipline but
| to correct the tendency, to control the
| inclination, and to condemn the fact
We are pleading for the home, for
the family, for the children born and
to be born, for the protection of So
| ciety and for the preservation of the
State. We ask you to unite with us
in earnest effort, SO that more and
more the manhood, the womanhood
and the childhood of America may
| make itself heard and felt in the de-
| termined purpose to stem the currents
which are sapping the foundations OF
all that is best and hottest and dearest
in human life. Let us strive unitedly
for the things which are pure and
true, for the sanctity of marriage, fol
i the permanence of the family foi
the preservation OF the home, and fol
the perpetuity of the State"