The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-11-17
IS THERE NO nEMrprs

OmCiaL SJaListlcb bn0W kudt ourluB the twenty years just past there were
 one million divorces granted in the United States. The same statistics fur ther show that during the same period, besides those granted. half a million applications fer divorce had been de-
 nied.. These figures show that If the Americans are great at marrying. they are not slow at getting themselves un- married. Getting out seems about as easy as getting in.
 But the most disturbing feature of the statistics is that there were just about four and one-half times as many applications for divorce during these past twenty years as there were for the twenty years preceding. To put it dif- ferently. where there were one hundred
 applications during the last twenty years, there were but twenty-two in the preceding twenty.
 These figures are not pleasant to con-
 template, as we think most good people will readily admit. If they mean any, thing at all. they mean that the mar riage relation is losing its sanctity to an alarming extent. e People in too
 many instances marry without proper thought and consideration, and then, when they find that all their bright an- ticipations have not been realized, they rush to the divorce courts for relief. Instead of taking pains to assure them- selves that their marriage will be a proper and happy one. they go into it bIindfolded. Then, if they have been deceived, or have deceived themselves, instead of making the best of a bad bargain, they ask the law to correct their mistake.
 If this divorce evil keeps on increas- ing as it has done of late, the trial mar riages advocated by some will not be much worse. If 1t is such an easy and expeditions matter to have the bonds of matrimony .sundered, marriage will get to be little better than trial, after all, for if two people get married with the intent to remain together only so long as they are mutually satisfied, and two others marry with the intention to get a legal divorce as soon as they desire 1t, there is not really very much dif- ference an morals between the two. nor is one example much worse than the other.
 What can be done to render the mar
 riage tie more sacred and binding3 Counsels and denunciations of the divorce evil, from the pulpit and the better class of newspapers, apparently have no effect, because the evil contin- ues to increase, as the statistics show. One great obstacle in the way of a better social condition lies in the loose laws of some States. While in few of them a divorce cannot be obtained for any cause whatever. there are some others where legal separation is al- most as easy as legal marriage. For almost any stated cause, or for no cause at all, marriage contracts are set aside and one or both parties made free to try another venture. Divorce granted
 while you wait" is about the style.
 Plainly. both these extremes are un- desirable. There are instances where it is worse than savage berbarity to force man and woman to live together. and in such leases humanity and the good of one or both parties point to legal separation as the only real remedy. It is true that if a man and woman cannot live together, they can separate without appealing to the law, but such separa- tfons are not desirable and the effect Is not good. Where married life becomes a constant danger to one of the parties, or where living together Is a constant shame. they had better separate legally and go their several ways in peace. There are cases. well-known to all of us, where the refusal of the courts to free the injured party would be a grievous outrage. Such cases should have a legal remedy in all the States.
 But the other extreme is worse as an example, and as to its effects on the public mind and morals. Where the laws of State interpose hardly any barrier to divorce the eRsct cannot be oth herwise than bad. In most of, the