The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1909-05-11
And Nowhere so Rapidly
as In the United States
CAUSES OF THE CONDITIONS
At Present Increase in Forty Years
One Marriage in Four will End
by Divorce Vital Role of the
Family In a Healthy Society.

creaslng Divorce in the May Cen
tury.
Twenty years ago an investigation
by the Department of Labor showed
that 32S ,71G divorces had been grant
ed in the United States between 1861
and 1886, and that divorces were in
creasing two and one-half times as
last as population. The recent CEN
sus for 1SS7-d9O6 brings to light
945, ,G2j divorces, and demonstrates
that the movement constantly gains
in velocity. At present probably
one marriage in ten Is broken of,
and in some states the proportion
may be as high as one i'm four. For
ty years ago the broad contrast was
between north and south: but the di-
Yorce rates of north and south have
been converging, whereas those Of
east and west have diverged The
Central States have two and one-half
times the rate of the Atlantic States,
while for the Western States the
proportion is three and one-half.
Although the tide OF divorce is
rising the world over, nowhere is It
so high, nowhere is it rising so fast,
as in the United States. Our rate is
twice that OF Switzerland, thrice
that OF France, and five times that
OF Germany.
The census figures disslpate many
false impressions. 1t is often as
sumed that many couples separate
precipitately before they have given
marriage fair trial; but the aver
age interval before separation ex-
ceeds six and one-half years. and is
not diminishing. Since more than
half the couples lived together above
four years, while in the majority Of
cases the duration of marriage ex-
ceeded seven years, it would be rash
TO surmise that people are forming
risky and unstable unions in full
view of their easy dissolution.
Nor is divorce usually sought in
order to remarry. In Connecticut,
during a period of years. the num-
her OF divorced persons married was
about forty per cent. of the number
divorced in the same time. In Rhode
Island, from 1889 to 1896. the proper
tiOn was only twenty-eight per cent.
Remarriage Is one OF those cases in
which, as Doctor Johnson put It,
''hope triumphs over experience" I"
and it Is not at all certain that the
rate for divorced persons much ex-
ceeds that for widows and widowers
of the same age. Certainly the re-
strictions that many states are i'm
posing on remarriage do not seem to
affect appreciably the divorce rate.
1t is doubtful if one divorce in
twenty is obtained by migrating TO a
liberal" State. A divorce colony"
at Sioux Falls or Cheyenne obscures
the fact that divorce has descended
among the plain people, few of
whom can afford to seek relief out
side of their own State.
II is erroneous to suppose that the
| explanation and cure OF the drift
toward divorce Is to be found in leg
islation. Twenty years ago, Prot
| Wilcox on the basis of the most rig
i'd investigations, declared '"The i'm
mediate, direct and measurable influ-
ence of legislation is subsidiary, UNI
important, almost imperceptible. "
Dr.. Dixie, the secretary of the Ma
| tional League for the Protection of
the Family, said "The direct infiu-
ence of lax laws in producing the
great increase OF divorce in the last
forty years is relatively small .
Moreover, the tendency of legisla-
tion for the last twenty years has
been decidedly in the direction OF
| greater strngency.
The calling grip Of the Legal instl-
tuition need not entail a correspond.
Ing abandonment OF the hallowed
ideal Of marriage as lifelong union
II the iron clamp be loOsed, It does
not follow that the silken cord Is
weaker Although in thirty-eighl
| years the resort to divorce has be-
come three times as frequent there
is little to show that couples are
taking the VOWS of wedlOck with
any other desire or expectation than
union until death. Nor can we con.
clude that wronged spouses are less
faithful than formerly to this ideal
The loyeless couple of the good old
times appear to have been held to,
gether by public opinion, religious or,
dinance, Ignorance of a remedy, The
expense Of divorce or the wifes eco.
aorlic helplessness, rather than by
heroic fidelity to an ideal.
In nineteen cases out of twenty
the marriage purports to be shat,
tered by some flagrant wrong sucf
as adultery, cruelty, drunkenness
desertion imprisonment for crime ol
neglect to provide. Nevertheless, tht
growth of divorce cannot be taken al
a sure sign of increasing depravit!
on the part of husbands or wives
Often the cause" that figures il
the record is a screen for some deep