The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-06-10

. IRENE cruelty, aDltuai ofuilhSHieSS VI
the habit of intoxication whether arls-
ing from the use OF drink or drugs, con-
viction of felony with sentence of inn
prisonment to State prison or peni-
Tertiary and continuous desertion for
at least years" 1t provides that 'di-
vorce from the bond of marriage shall
not be granted for any other cause arts
ing after marriage" If the States
would all adopt the suggestions of the
! Commission, it would mean an impor-
tant advance Surely since the mar
riage laws affect a nations life as no
other laws can. the uniformity of mar
rage and divorce laws is of more inn
portance than the uniformity of those
relating to any other matters.
But the people as a whole do not as
yet see this, they do not perceive the
! danger of the present laxity. They
need to be shown in the press and by
sermons that nothing is more clearly
seen in history than that the disintigra-
ton of the family means the decadence
of the State. A learned lawyer said to
me not long ago: NO nation could long
endure if the ratio of one divorce to
three marriages as it exists in some
| localities were to become universal" 1t
may be doubted whether there are such
| localities. 1 happen to have statistics
| taken from the court records of Los
| Angeles County, California.
disadvantages, 1872; divorces, s. Ra-
ito, 1-19.
Marriages, $50: divorces, 60. Ra-
, tic, 1-9.
disadvantages, 1880; divorces. 1876.
Ratio, 1-312.
| 1 learn from the newspapers, that the
ratio has been since that, during several
years, Is. 1t was so in 1899.
In San Diego County for the year
1899, the ratio of divorces to marriages
was Is. Despite such figures as these,
there are Christian people who defend
easy divorce laws.
In order that it shall be understood
that the evil prevails all over the coun-
try, except in the one State of South
Carolina, which grants divorce for no
cause, 1 will give a few figures. In
Maine in 1892, there were 552 divorces,
in 1902 there were 905. The ratio at
the last date was one divorce to six
marriages. In New Hampshire the
ratio last year was 1-8 $40. There has
been in the New England States a
steady increase in divorces except in
Connecticut. There were granted last
year 4351 divorces in these six States.
In Ohio the ratio was, in 1870, one to
25 marriages. In 1890, LA. In 1900,
1-8 $40.
In Indiana there were, in 1900, 1869
divorces, the ratio being I-5 7-10. Is it
wonder then that some people are
being aroused to a sense of the evil?
I will note a few evidences of this
arousaI. A large proportion of the
clergy in the State of Rhode Island
have entered into an agreement in re-
gard to the marriage of divorced per-
sons.
The Bishop of Albany last year pre-
sided at a meeting of men of various
denominations, the object of which is
a National movement to get the various
Christian ministers of the country to
make some agreement on the subject of
the remarriage of divorced persons.
In Philadelphia on May Sth of this
year an inter Church Conference was
held representing officially fourteen
leading denominations the object being
to consider the divorce question. The
secretary, the Rev. VIM. H. Roberts,
D. D., in his appeal to the public, says:
Before any civil legislation can be en-
acted which will be operative, the con-
science of Christian people must be
reached"
At the late Methodist Conference held
in Los Angeles the question was given
large attention.
These instances of movements for the
education of public opinion are encour-
aging. What is needed is that people
should study the facts and think. Then
they will begin to see the truth of what
so deep a thinker as Gladstone has said:
''While divorce of any kind impairs the
integrity of the family, -remarriage de-
stroys it root and branch" They will
see that it is the relation of individuals,
and not individuals themselves which
should be considered by legislators, for
as Gladstone said: THE parental and
conjugal relations are joined together
by the hand of the Almighty, no less
than the persons united by the mar
riage tie to one another. Marriage con-
templates-the creation of new joint,
and Independent obligations, stretching
into the future, and limited only by the
stroke of death. These obligations,
where divorce is in force, lose all COM
munity, and the obedience reciprocal in
them, is dislocated and destroyed
Those who take pains to know the
facts, know how true the above is. We
speak of Rome in the opening years of
our era as a time when marriage be-
came largely a temporary connection.
In the minds of millions of American
Christians, this condition. which is
ours is one in which they see no wrong
and no danger. In fact it may be said
of some communities, as Octave Uzanne
said of French society under the Direc-
tory: "They marry and divorce, break
marriages and marry again without a
touch of jealousy on the mans part, or
modesty on the woman's!"
1t is no wonder then that apart from
any dispute as to what the words mean
by which Christians certainly must be
bound. that men of all kinds see that
the laws must at least be changed so
that the family shall have some pro-
lection.
A lawyer of wide experience told me
that he did not believe in divorce and
remarriage under any circumstances,
because he believed that greater misery