New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-11-14
DIVORCE EVIL REMEDIES.
MEETING -4T ST. 4GNES,S.
Longer Residence and Year Before
Granting Decree Suggested.

acted SIS chairman.
a remedy for the divorce evil along secular
lines which seemed to many Of those present
not ultra radical and which could be applied
easily, was suggested by Francis Lewis, the
well known Philadelphia lawyer. It TO
curtail the speed at which divorces were granted
by making long residence OF the petitioner
necessary before he could begin a 1uit, and a
law making it compulsory for the courts 10
wait q year after hearing the evidence before
granting a decree. He also attacked oiergymen.
IN part those of Episcopalian faith. saying that
divorced persons could always find minister
to perform the marriage ceremony.
The Rev. DR.. ". d. Manning vicar of ST.
Agnes's. said that the meeting not to be
considered a protest against the action of the
recent General Convention OF the Church in Bos-
ton when the canon divorce was so amended
TO make rernarriage by clergyman OF the
Church more difficult. He said the new canon,
while not all that he and many of his brother
clergymen had wanted, was nevertheless step
in advance and in the right direction.
1T is the strongest action this Church has
ever taken he said land we hope soon to see
the Church 90 further and declare against the
rernarriage Of any man woman who has either
wife or husband living.
DR. Dix in opening the discussion said there
was much to be saba great need for educating
the Church on that awful subject. divorce. and
that worse subject remarriage.
The chief speakers were Bishop Coadjutor
Greer. Bishop Frederic Courtney. rector of St
James's Church: Silas McBee Editor OF THE
Churchrnan," and Mr.. Lewis. VINO one Of
the delegates in the General Convention to fight
against any recognition Of divorced persons by
the Church.
Bishop Greer was the first speaker He said
that the greatest and most vital need of the
nation at the present time was the security of
vraca hiatt a
against whatever weakened or impaired it. The
question of divorce and rernarriage was not only
a social and religious question. but patriotic
one as well. Now, never before, forces We're
at work in the Republic menacing the security
of the home He did not wish TO be understood
as saying that the great majority OF American
homes were not happy and abodes of virtue, but
he saw a great menace In the ever-increaslns
number of divorces which in this country had
.lnoost exceeded the total in all the rest OF
Christendom and the percentage of which was
increasing far faster than the population
This widespread divorce evil" he said, us
,be wasting sickness in our national life. calling
for Immediate treatment and heroic IT is the
growing and spreading cancer spot In the ma
ffou's body whose only remedy is the knife You
NAV not ternporize with 1t; IT must be cut out
10y the roots"
He declared that the only remedy would be for
the Church TO insist that entered on. the
married state might be dissolved for one cause
only-death. There might be separation for
other causes but the Church should sanction no
separation which would make reconciliation i'm
possible
That is the ideal We must hold before the
American people" he said. land strongly and
persistentiy insist upon. This may not cure
this awful sore. but 1t will do much toward that
end This is the ideal. and it is to an ideal that
the human heart ever leaps. When it comes to
moral matters there is nothing to which men SO
quickly respond great and high ideal"
He had read with reverence in Boston the
other day the inscription the statue of one
of fhe great pioneers in the abolition movement.
It read:
II am in earnest; will not excuse: will not
eouivocate: / will not retreat single inch; will
be heard"
With this great ideal the chains of human
slavery had been broken. said DIR. Greer He
recommended fl to the forces fighting d.
vorce.
Mr.. Lewis stated that in the thirty-four years
from 1869 TO 1901 there had been sixty-nine d.
vorces in the Dominion Of Canada, and in the
United States seven hundred thousand. That
meant that the homes OF not less than fourteen
hundred thousand persons had been desOlated
in this country and that as many children had
been robbed of their right to q real home.
At the present ratio OF increase the next
thirty-four years would three million di-
Vorces, with the resultant evils II would not do
for church mem bers merely to acknowledge that
there existed great evil. national peril, in
the words of the political conventions, to view
with alarm"
While agreeing with Bishop Greer the
genital need Of a high ideal he would none the
less deal with the present situation wherever
possible. As a practical step along secular lines
he would see what might be done TO prevent the
haste with which divorces sought and
granted.
He knew Of a in Philadelphia where a
woman had wanted divorce she could get
married that same night. and a man had con-
tracted for his second wedding feast before ask
ing his lawyers to get divorce. He wanted the
States to make a long residence necessary be-
fore a divorce suit could be begun, and the pass
ing OF law making IL compulsory for the court
10 wait a year after hearing the evidence before
granting a decree. This would prevent thou
sands OF hurried divorces.
AS chairman Of a committee of the American
Bar Association, recently appointed to work
with several State legislatures he had called
on the proper committee of the legislature of \
neighboring State TO urge certain amendments
TO the divorce laws The chairman Of the COM
mittee told him 10 first go and convert all the
ciergynlen OF the country 10 his vicws and then
20 back TO the legislatures. That would be
time enough
1T is the clergymen Of your various churches
who 10 this thing. who remarry these people"
he told.
And regret to say" said the speaker. that
what the chairman of that committee said is
true. Il is true. IN part least even Of our
own clergyTIen, although ! hope II Will be less
true now that the canon IS IN effect The