The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-12-07

! While divorce is increasing in al- most every portion of continentai United States. 1t is decreasing in Con- necticut- Uncle Sam has completed his investigation into this subject. The investigation has done for mar iiage what the life insurance com panies have done for divorce. In the latter case it cannot be predicted what man will die. or when, but it can be foretold that in each year so many will die. And so of marriage. The census figures will not enable us to say which of a number of mar iages will be terminated by divorce. But they do show that alr1ost one couple in IF that is married in this country will be divorced, after. having lived in wedlock an average of some W hat less than 12 years. and that one-thIrd of the divorced, not dis outraged by a single experience. will marry again.
 In Connecticut in tine past 20 years but one marriage in 5 has been judi cially dissolved. Divorce was more 1870 than it appears to be now
 Forty-six other states grant more divorces. population consider ed, than Connecticut does
 The progressive change is partly due 10 altered economic conditions which have reduced the numbers of marriages It appears to be much more largely due, however. to the fn crease in Roman Catholic, population, and to the opposition of the Roman Catholic church to divorce-
 Death is a decreasing Quantity. That IS, the average tfe IS longer. But divorce is an increasing -quan- tity. The death of marriage IS about two and one half times as common as 1t was 20 years Ago. There is growth relative to population. that is tc be- expected. But the growth of divorce far exceeds the growth of population.
 Two wives seek judicial separation to every husband who does so. This is in the entire country. In Connec- ticut the proportion of wives is high CT. In the 20 years from 1887 to 1906 the divorce knife descended up- on 9.224 marriages In CASA cases the petitioner was the wife, and in 2.73O cases. the husband. Of each hundred divorces granted here. II were to the wife and 29 to the hus- band.
 For the United States the propor- ton of divorces granted to the wife is about 66 in each hundred.
 But many as are the divorces granted in this state. 1t is not the leader in this respect. but on the contrary ranks 41th in the list of states more divorces. relative to pop Li1tion, are granted.
 In fact divorce is not so common in Connecticut as it was in 1870. A greater number of divorces are grant cd now than were granted then. But fewer when population is. considered. Here only about one marriage in 15 has ended in the courts.
 Only South Carolina grants no dTvcrces. the law permitting the set ting aside of the marriage contract having been repealed there in IS7S but the census shows that many resi- dents of the state were divorced in other states.
 South Dakota which has a bad name has a small divorce rate.
 But if divorce has declined in Con- necticut in the past 20 years so has marriage. SO that the outlook is not cutie SO pleasing as it would other wise be. The average number of marriages in the state each year for the decade ending in 1890 was S3. For the decade ending in 1900 it was cnly n. The rate is for each 10000 of population The source. of the de- cline In marriages is almost certain ly found in the fact that it Is harder to earn a living than it used to be- It Is a curious fact that divorce de- clines in hard times. as we'll as mar riages.
 By referring to 1893, a panic year, it will be found that there was an actual decline in the number of di- vorces granted of more than a hun- dred where there would otherwise