The Irish standard., 1907-06-15
IN RE- DIVORCE
Judge E. Ray Stevens Of Wis
consin Sets Forth
The Fearful Social Conditions
Existing in America.

Judge E. Ray Stevens, of the Ninth
Judicial Circuit, Wisconsin, writes in
The Outlook of June 1 of Divorce in
| America: The Problem" He will
write in the following issue of the
solution as he sees it. Meanwhile,
though his present paper shows him
bitterly anti-Catholic, and not likely
to favor the solution so obvious to
those who regard marriage as Sac
rament, and therefore see a way for
ali the preventions as we'll as the oc-
casional drastic cure of social evils
which he suggests, it is interesting to
quote a portion of his terrible admis-
sions.
The court loungers and hangers-on
showed evident signs of interest and
surprise as the accused told that he
had been married to two wives, both
of whom lived with him in his scanty
quarters in the capitol city of Wiscon-
sin. A few days later, seated in his
cell in the Jail, this same man wrote
on long strips of cardboard, his only
writing material: L want to say a
word to the people of the state.--1
feel in my own heart that l am not a
bigamist, for l and my first wife had
parted before l married my second
wife. My wife and myself agreed to
part for good and we told one an
other that we could do as we liked.
We had troubles on both sides, and
Thought it best to separate for
good. AS far as all of us living in
the same house is concerned, l want
to say that my first wife was badly
in need of help. We We're going to
keep her with US for about two
months
I'm his thought this man takes us
back to the time when man claimed
the right to change his spouse as
often as We procure new garments
Like the Iroquois, he believed in the
right of either party to dissolve the
marriage bond at will.
ITO this man marriage and divorce
are purely matters of agreement be-
tween the man and the woman-a con-
tract that may be made and unma1e
at the will Of these two persons alone
"a relationship in which the people
as whole have not so much interest
as in the agreement that one may
make to have his walks cleared of
snow.
"A dozen states have collected the
statistics of divorce for the past
twenty years. In all of them except
Connecticut the flood of divorces has
been steadily increasing during this
period. The same is true of European
countries, although no civilized nation
except Japan has SO great percent
age of divorce as the United States"
Judge Stevens declares that more
divorces are granted in the United
States every year than in all the rest
of the Christian world. protestant,
Catholic and Greek" but he does not
tell us that even in the United States.
divorce with leave to remarry is I'M
dreamed of among the many millions
Of practical Catholics in that country.
For all that, however, in some states
one marriage in ten ends in divorce,
H.. ~ 1:
one to five.
Does the judge grasp the full sig
nificance of his further statement:
Divorce is but the outward manifes-
tation Of underlying social evils. a part
Of the movement for social liberation
which has been gaining strength and
volume since the days of the Reforma-
ton" With multiplication of divorces
among us come the Strengthening of
the socialistic and anarchical move
ments, race suicide. irreligion, and the
worship of material success, however
achieved. and of bodily luxury. Pat
riots would like to see our social
liberation" if any be needed. accom-
pished in some way that does not so
painfully suggest. Peace at Moscow"
Judge Stevens thinks there is a
| bright side to the divorce problem in
| the growing economic independence
of women. Yet elsewhere he tells u.s.
Social discomfort plays it's part
Girls who dream of marriage with a
| peer of the realm or a captain in the
army. find life with wage-earner
rather irksome. The young married
couple with an income of fifteen hum
dred dollars. but living as if it were
| five thousand. need not be far-sighted
to see the divorce court at the other
end of the path that leads from the
church door. Lessened belief in the
sacredness of marriage permits many
! to seek legal separation who other
wise would be restrained by religious