Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-03-27
TRIAL MARRIAGES A FACT

One marriage in twelve in the Unit
ed States ends in the divorce court.
The number of divorces has increased
SO astonishingly of late years that at
the present rate of increase within ten
years one marriage in every six viii
ultimately be annulled. The much dis
cussed trial marriage, 1t would seem,
is about to be realized. Incidentally
the proportion of divorces Is far high
err in America than in any foreign
country sufficiently civilized to record
such statistics. + The divorce rate per
100000 of population in the United
States, which was 20 in 1870, had risen
to So in 1895, or. in other words, 1t has
practically been trebled in thirty-six
years.
The divorce rate varies widely in va
rious sections of the United States. The
laws governing divorce not only differ
widely in the several states, but fire.
quently contradict one another. In the
west and south the rate Is considerably
higher than in the east and north. Since
a great proportion of the divorces
granted in the western states are
sought by people from the east who
temporarily take up residence for the
purpose, 1t is unfair to say that any
one section offends more than any
other.
In New England, New York, New
Jersey and Pennsylvania there were,
for example, 73,303 divorces between
1867 and 1886, while between 1887 and
1906 the number had jumped to 142,s2o.
In the middle west, in the district
bounded by Ohio on the east and the
Dakotas on the west, the number in
creased from 1888 in the earlier
period to 434,476 in the later. Almost
one-half of the total number of
divorces for the entire Union were is
sued in this section, The most rapid
rate of increase in the number of di-
vorces is to be found in the south. In
Texas, for instance, the increase in the
two periods was from 11,472 to 62,655.
The number of divorces for the entire
country is astounding. In twenty
years there have been practically
100000 divorces granted In America.
The total number OF marriages for the
same period in America was a trifie
more than 100000. 1t Is interesting
to note in this connection that but
per cent of the population marry In
the average year. or all the divorces
on the plea of desertion. One Of the
most remarkable phases of these sta
tistics is that So per cent of all the di-
vorces were not contested. In other
words, in the great majority OF cases
both parties to the divorce consent IN
advance to the separation, and the
only difficulty encountered is in salts
flying the law. In the cases in which
notice was served personally upon the
defendant 20 per cent were contested,
while in the cases where the notice
was published in the newspapers only
per cent were contested.
More than one-fourth of all the di-
vorces are granted to the wife. For
every divorce for cruelty granted to the
wife there are three. granted to the
husband. Only in IS per cent of all the
divorces granted was alimony demand
ed. Three wives in every sixteen asked
for alimony and two out of sixteen OBJ
tanned 1t. The proportion of husbands
asking for alimony was but 2.S per
cent, and but per cent received 1t. 1t
will be surprise to most people to
know that 40 per cent of the couples
seeking divorce had children. The aver
age duration OF marriage terminated
by divorce is just ten years. Fully
wo-thirds OF all these marriages last
less than ten years. At the present
rate OF increase 1t will be possible in q
few years to calculate the probable
length of marriage from these tables
with reasonable certainty.