The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-28
Statistics Compiled For Ten Government Census Bureau Issues In- terestins Statements Of Marital
 Anairs of People in the
 Unitsd states.
nY ALFRHn .. sT0FER

Washington, Nov. 27.---(SpeciaL)--- The Census Bureau has just Issued a bulletin giving statistics of marriage and divorce In the United States du- ring the period from 1887 to 1906.
 There heing no divorce laws. in South Carolina none of course are reported for that State. The number for Ala bama was 22.s07 as compared with D. 2s4 for the twenty, year period before that. Tn Tennessee there were SO,44f dLvorces and I9.aa2 in Mississippi; the figures for Florida being 7,5S6. Geor- Rla had 10,40l. Illinois leadB the en" tire country with S2.oo0, the Empire State of New York having had only 2s,000. ,-,-r4
 Michigan. Wisconsin, Ohio, Iowa and Kansas rank. near the top of the list. Several of the last named are even ahead of Pennsylvania. which had Ss,- coo. Texas had more divorces than any of the Southern States--62,bs5.
 This Is the second statistical inves' tiRation of. this character authorized by the Federal government, the earlier in" Quiry being carried out through the agency of the Department (now Bu- reau) of Labor, under the direction Of Carroll D. Wright, who was then Com missioner of Labor. Mir. Wright has also been associated with the present inquiry, acting Sas an expert special agent of the Census Bureau. The de- tailed report presenting the results of the present inquiry, and including also a. standardization of figures presented In the former report, which is now out of print, is in press; but in the meantime the Census Bureau has issued bulle- lin nrenared by Joseph A. Hin, which presents a summary of the results of the inquiry with as much detail as will probably be desired by the general pub lie.
 The total number of marriages re- corded during the twenty years from 1887 to 1908, inclusive, was l2,sS2, ,O44. The number annually reported in- creased from As3.0se in the year 1887 to S5S.2sO in the year ls0S' The m crease year by year vas by no means uniform. The marriage rate Is quick ly responsive to changes in economic conditions. 4 small increase shown for 1893 and an actual decrease in the succeeding year reflect the innu- ence of the panic of 1892, and normal conditions do not appear to have been restored in the matrimonial market un- til the year 1899. It Is computed that if the average annual increase In mar riages during the five years ending with 1892 had continued for the next six years, the aggregate number of marriages contracted during the latter period would have been greater than 1t was by 25s,813. It is to be presumed that a considerable number of persons in this large total never contracted marriage. This suggests loss to the community heretofore little considered in connection with periods Of financial depression.
 The marriage rate in the United States in the year 1900 was 93 per 10 900 population. Based upon the adult unmarried (single, widowed, or diVorces) population, the rate becomes s21 per 10000, indicating that in each year something over three per cent Of the unmarried, adult population mar ". The marriage rate based on. the total population is higher in the Uni ted States than in any other country for which reliable statistics are avail kbie. But taking the marriageble population as the basis-that is, the, population which is of marriageable age but not married-the rate in the United States is not as high as 1t is in Hungary, is about the same as 1t is in Saxony, but is still higher than in any of the other countries Included in the comparison.
 Nearly One Million Marital Failures.
 The total number of divorces report cd for the twenty years. 1887 to 1906. inclusive. was s45.625. For the earlier investigation. covering the twenty twenty years 1887 to 1886, inclusive, the number reported was S2s,7ls. or hardly more than one-thlrd of the number recorded in the secopd twenty years. At the beginning of the forty year period covered by the two in Vestigations, .divorces occurred at the rate of 10000 a year; at the end of that period the annual number was about 66OOO This increase, however. must be considered in connection with increase in population, q. cd An increase of soepe1