The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1911-03-17
UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR
TALKS DIVORCE
Sarcastic Onslaught Against Murder
Laws at Session of Northwest
Iowa Teachers Association

Sioux City journal: Did you even
listen on warm summer night when
all the windows are open to what is
going on in your neighbours house.
Ii you have, and do not declare that
a divorce is a necessary evil, you
have a different opinion from mine"
This declaration startled the con-
vention Of the Northwestern Teach
ers Association in the Assembly
room at the High school this morn
ing.
Dean c. Wilcox, of the department
Of history of the Iowa university
was the speaker ''The Present Cri-
sis in American History was the Sub
Ject OF The educators address. 1t
tened with wit and pointed shafts
OF satire at American institutions
that kept his auditors
laughing or soberly facing some bold
fact which he laid bare in charming
manner. Eight hundred teachers
heard him.
Dean Wilcox classed America and
its institutions in two divisions. the
positive and the negative The pos
tive follows:
we are the greatest raisers of
corn and wheat in the world.
Our manufacturing output for
last year represented in value a sum
greater than the capital stock of all
the institutions by which that pro
duct was turned out.
America is the land of expert
mentatiOn. Our constitution would
be failure, it was declared, because
no other country had ever successful
ly lived up to all engrossed constitU-
ton up to the time it was drafted
Because we have no national
faith it was said we cannot live. But
we have lived and there is no men
zion OF God in that great document.
Yet We are the most God fearing ma
ton in the world.
Our civilization is more advanced
than any Of the older countries be-
cause the Pilgrim Fathers We're civil
lied, while the forefathers of the
European countries We're barbarians,
who built pyramids and drank mead
from skulls.
Another advantage lis that we
speak universal language. From
Portland, Me-, to Portland, Ore, one
tongue will suffice. All Germans are
supposed to speak German and all
English speak English you say. Yet
not long ago in a London court they
had to have an Interpreter SO that
the court might know what a Cor
nlshman was saying. Yet the Corn
ishman and the jurist spoke the same
language"
On the negative side of the ques-
ton he continues:
"Some statistics are historical and
others are hysterical. Would that
had time to quote them. However, it
is a known fact that we lead the
world in lynchings; that we lead the
world in divorces.
I'VE beat our own records every
year in the divorce courts and at the
lynching tree. But do not under
stand me to be decrying divorce.
believe in it. The trouble is not with
divorce. Under certain conditions
there would be no such thing in this
country. Did you ever see bache-
Tor who had to sue for a divorce?
"The trouble is in the marriages.
There Is no county on earth today
where the average young man can
meet the average young woman, mar
ry her and have such a good chance
to provide for her suitable living.
And on the other hand there is no
country in the world today where the
average young man may meet the av-
erage young woman, marry her, and
have such great chance for their
adventure in matrimony ending on
the rocks of the divorce court.
America is a land of experiment
tation. That old crony, Spain, sits
by and grins, yet her toothless gums
tell no tale such as the annual fig
ures of the divorce courts of America
show. Holland, protected from flood
by a dirt fence which some one has
to stay pail night to watch, does
not show anything like the record in
this respect. England. with its
great concentration Of population,
cannot show comparative record.
The situation is this: We lead the
world in divorce because we lead it
In marriage