The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-11-22
Divorce In Vermont

Orce proceedings in New York City
involving the ancient house of Astor
has served to emphasize the alarming
extent to which the homes of the
-Four Hundred have been invaded
during the past few years by the div
orce microbe. Mrs. w. X. Vanderbilt
secured a divorce and married the
late o. Fl. r. Belmont while her hus-
band also remarked. Her daughter,
the Duchess OF Marlborough separated
from her husband few years ago and
now 1t is stated that W. K Wander
bilt, Jr., is as good as separated from
| his wife. Some other families have
witnessed divorces and marriages fol-
lowing with startling rapidity, until it
must bother some of Gotham's leading
people to know at which house to
stop and just what their relations are.
Other cities and other states also pre-
sent startling as well sas pathetic
spectacle in connection with the div
orce courts.
| The National League for the Pro
lection of the family has just issued
an important report dealing with the
subject of marriage and divorce in the
United States, and our readers will
be particularly interested in the show
ing made regarding the situation in
New England. In Vermont, according
to this authority, the number of div
orces granted from 1887 to 1906 reach
ed the alarming as well as surprising
total of 4740. The smallest number
in any one year during the period was
in 1889, when only 1872 divorces were
recorded in our state. The number
varied from 100 to IT'S until 1894 when
the number jumped to 236 and since
that year the total has not been less
than 227 in any one year. In 1895 the
divorce epidemic seems to have ragged
furiously; for 1927 couples were legally
separated. Strangely enough the
same number of divorces was granted
in 1902
1t should not be assumed, however,
that the divorce bug has confined its
ravages in Vermont to the period
named. Going back to 1867 we find
that during that year 157 divorces
were granted in the Green Mountain
state, while in 1871 the total reached
211. The smallest number of divor-
ces granted in Vermont in any one
year from 1867 to 1886 was 81 in 1885,
but that was the only year in which
the number was less than 1919, the to-
tai for 1886, and most of the time the
annual number ranged from 1872 to 1913
the total for the whole period of 20
years being 323S.
The average number of divorces
granted annually in Vermont during
the twenty years from 1867 to 1886 in
elusive was 161 and nine-tenths,
whereas during the succeeding TWEEN
ty years from 1887 to 1906 inclusive,
the average was 237. The increase in
the average during these two periods
was no less than AIS per cent or al
most one half the rate for the first
period
The increases in population in Yer
mont from 1910 to 1880 was from $50,
551 to 1872. 1856. or only one-half of one
per cent. During the following de
cade the gain in the whole state was
only 1876 people which was not worth
reducing to percentage. From 1890
the total gain in Vermont's popula-
ton was 11,219 or 3.S per cent
1t is evident from this showing that
the increase in divorce in Vermont
has been about ten times as rapid as
our increase in population, unless the
population of Vermont has increased
much faster, than has been supposed.
Other New England states have suf-
fered also and Massachusetts to
much greater degree. For example,
the average number of divorces in the
Bay state from 1867 to 1880 was only
479, total for the period being 1888,
whereas the total for the twenty years
ended with 1906 was 22.940, an aver
age of 1147, an increase of 140 per
cent, as compared with Vermont's in
crease between the average of the
two periods of 47.5 per cent.
Speaking broadly the report shows
that the divorce rate increases as one
goes westward in the United States
1t is also stated that the implication
that social differences between old
and new regions will lessen so as to
cause differences in divorce rates to
disappear is not well founded TAX
ing one decade with another the rate
of divorce increases more slowly in
the northeastern part of the country
than fopnerly, while that of the ives
tern and newer sections increases
more rapidly.
1t is interesting and instructive to
consider the rate of divorce per hun
dred thousand of population. as an in
dication of the increase in the differ
ent states. For example in 1900 the
state of Washington led the list with
1874 divorces for every 100000 of pop
ulation, Montana had 1877, Colorado
1853, Arkansas 1856, and Oregon 1874.
We have been accustomed to re-
gard the Dakotas as the hotbed of di-
vorce, but in the year named, South
Dakota had 95 per hundred thousand
and North Dakota SO. with the Chic
ago divorce court in it's midst, had a
rate of ony 100, while Utah's was not
bad, having been l05.
Turning to New England we find
that Vermont's rate per hundred thou
sand of population was rs, as com
pared with so for Connecticut, AZ for
Massachusetts, 105 for Rhode Island,
III for Maine and 112 for New Hamp-
shire Vermont and New Hampshire
have lost ground as compared with
| their neighbors Maine has remained
stationary, while Massachusetts, Con
necticut and Rhode Island have gain
ed in relative rank
The surprising feature of the report
is that some of the states which
might be expected to be high in the
list of divorces are conspicuously low.
New York's rate per hundred thous-
and of population in 1900 was 23 as
was that of New Jersey, Pennsylvan-
las 35. Xirginia's 3S. MarYland's 40