The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1905-11-08

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were PAST divorced women in the
United States under the age of twenty,
and 1915 divorced women between
twenty and twenty-five years of age.
South Carolina is the only State In
the Union which grants no divorce.
New York is the only State in the
| Union which proposes TO grant divorces
only on Scriptural grounds; yet New
York grants, annually, more than a
thousand divorces.
Illinois gives fair illustration of
the laws Of almost all the States. AZ
ter reciting long list of grounds upon
which a divorce may be granted, the
law concludes by empowering the court
to grant divorce upon any plea which
1t thinks justlfiable.
The Western States, in order to in
! crease their population, are making
open aud shameless bids for those dis
satisfied with the married state to come
to them and have it dissolved.
Statistics given by the Chicago Daily
News Almanac, 1908. show the follow
ing number of divorces granted in lend
ing cities of our country in 1901:
Providence, 327; Cincinnati, 405; Bos-
ton, 406 Cleveland, 454: Philadelphia,
492: st. Louis, 573: New York. S1I; San
The statistics of Carroll ID. Wright.
| Commissioner of Labor, for twenty
years, from 1867 to 1886, show 32S,112
divorces granted In the United States
in those years. In 1867, 9937 divorces
were granted, while in 1886 25,535 di-
vorces We're granted, making an in
crease of 15T per cent. The increase of
population was sixty per cent. during
the same period.
In 1867 Ohio granted 901 divorces,
and in 1900 the State granted 3217
divorces-one TO every eleven marriages
solemniZed in the State. Indiana
granted, in 1867, 1906 divorces, and in
1900, 4599-one divorce to every six
marriages solemnized in the State.
Only short time ago the papers were
telling of woman in Indiana who
had eight living husbands. from whom
she had been divorced, and this same
woman was then preparing to be mar
rled to the ninth victim. Michigan in
1867 granted 440 divorces, and in 1900
granted 241S dlvorces-one divorce TO
every eleven marriages solemniZed in
the State.
A table of divorces in the Christian
world in 1885, as given in Studies in
History, Economics and Public Law"
issued by Columbia University, gives
the following interesting fact: Canada,
Great Britain and Ireland, France,
Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland,
Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Austria,
Roumania, Russia and Australia grant
cd total of 20,111 divorces, while in
the same year the United States grant
ed 23,472 divorces-an excess over all
other countries in the Christian world
of 3361
Forty-five States and several Terri
tories have various and conflicting
laws, and more than 1000 courts lave
jurisdiction of divorce cases. A
learned essayist says of our legislation
that it presents the largest and strang
est,and perhaps the saddest experiment
in the sphere of family laws which
free, self governing countries have ever
tried" 1t was published in a recent
journal that divorces were granted in
Chicago for the following causes: Snor-
ing, cold feet, eating with a knife IN
sisting upon going to bed in his over
coat and boots. smoking cigarettes,
failure as cook.
During recent years divorce has de-
velOped into an industry in the United
States, the legal profession and the
this terrible traffic.
For 6211 divorces in France in a
given period, the United States offers |
25,000 the United Kingdom showing |
a75 and the German Empire 607S for |
the same time. For period of twenty |
years in Maryland the rate of marriage |
to divorce was 61.94. Massachusetts !
averaged 312S to every divorce.
Some of the popular theories are that |
divorce is due to the conflicting and in /
harmonious statutes of various States. |
Thus as Colonel Wright, in his report, |
Informs us, it is the belief that persons |
residing in the State of New York, |
where the law is strict, are in the habit |
of seeking divorces in Rhode Island
But the statistics show that of 4402 |
divorces granted in Rhode Island only |
ninety-Seven were to parties married
in New York, and of GO2O granted in
Pennsylvania only 765 were to parties |
married in New York, while of the
2S9,546 couples whose place of mar |.
riage was ascertained, 231, ,S67 We're dl-
y0rced in the same State in which they
had been married.
Third-A fatal danger. The attack
upon the integrity of the family is an
unmitlgated evil and crime against
social order, which can only result in
the destruction of all that is purest,
noblest and best in the world. Here
we find the secret cause of the decline
and fall of the Roman Empire. The
laws as to family life were loose; d-
yorce became epidemic, and the empire
went downrin ruin and disgrace. The
Reign of Terror in France followed the
establishment of a law that marriage
could be dissolved merely by applica-
cation; 10000 divorces were granted in
Paris in one year, and during the same
period $4,000 outcast children were car
ried into founding hospitals and near
ly 10000 newborn babies were taken
out of the sewers of the city and from
the secret places by the police. The
horrors of those times it
is impossible to picture, and who will
say that directly or indirectly the vic
lation of the sanctity of the marriage
state and the purity of the family life
did not contribute largely toward those
days of terror? The rejection of the
Bible, the denial of God and the desc
Grafton of the home yielded bitter fruit,
the taste of which still fingers in the
mouth Of France, and lessons written
In blood have never been forgotten.
To-day in that country 1t is allowable
to obtain separation for five years,
and at the end of that time TO apply
for the conversion of the separation
into absolute divorce If the parties