The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1914-07-04
THE DANGERS OF DIVORCE

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Judge William N. Gemmill. of the
municipal court. published in the IL
linois Law review an article in
which he attempts to justify divorce.
going SO far as to call it IAN institu-
ton of the Christian church" and
therefore necessarily potent in up
lifting a community"
AS If in answer to the remarks of
Judge Gemmill come the attack on
divorce made by Judge Adelor ].
Petit. of the circuit court of Cook
county. at the Chicago Educational
Committee Festival, on May 18th.
Judge Petit, himself seated on a
bench before which divorce cases are
almost daily heard, is an authority
on the matter.
Judge Petit pointed out the worst
curse of divorce, the children made
dependent and often as a conse-
quence delinquent, which Judge
Gemmill attempted to minimize.
We print here summary of Judge
Petit's talk and a few extracts from
Judge Gemmill's, so that they may
be contrasted. In speaking of the
Christian Church, Judge Gemmill
forgets that the Catholic church Is
it's most numerous and stable body
and that the Catholic church forbids
divorce, and is bitterly fighting that
growing anti-matrimonial evil.
Judge Petit's Views on Divorce.
Judge Petit, in his talk about obi
vorce." gave some interesting statis-
tics. He explained how his expert
ence in the circuit court as chancel-
lor, hearing divorce cases, had dis
closed to him what menace to So
ciety the reckless granting of divor-
ces had become and how, year after
year, it has insidiously been under
mining the home, destroying the ten
cts of the church and filling the juve-
nile court with dependent and delin-
uuent children who have become
charges upon the public to such an
alarming extent that it was with a
gasp of amazement that his audi
ence heard him read from the first
report of Patrick J. ]. Mccarthy,
marriage and divorce statistician, re-
Gently appointed. that "The number
of children taken into the juvenile
court from July 4, 1899, to March
81, 1914, was 50,353. Prior to July
%. 1918, no record was kept of the
different kinds of cases. Since that
time, 1888 petitions have been filed,
classed as follows: Dependent, 1,1O6,
delinquent, 1901; trunt, $50; pen
sions, 1926.
"It may be seen. that there are
practically the same number of de-
pendents as of delinquents. AS
there we're no pension cases until
year or so ago, and as the truant
cases average about 800 per year, or
less than 5000 since the Juvenile
court was organized, it would leave.
$4,000 dependent and delinquent
children, or approximately 22,500 of
each.
Divorce Makes Dependent Children.
ITO ascertain what percent OF
children were in the juvenile court
as a direct result of divorce proceed
ings. twenty cases selected at ran
domout of 240 petitions filed in jan
uary, 1914. showed that six were in
as a direct result of divorce proceed
ings; four were in as a direct result
of desertion on the part of the faith
er; five were in as direct result OF
drunkenness on the part of the faith
er; three were in as direct result
of tuberculosis in the case of par
ents: one was in on account of IL
legitimate birth and mothers inabil-
ity to provide, and one on account
of immoral mother. Applying this
ratio to the total number of petitions
fled in the juvenile court. we have
1880 as a direct result of divorce
proceedings; 5000 as a result Of de-
sertion on the part of the father;
1880 as a direct result on the part
of the father or a total Of 1880 on
account of misconduct on the part
of the parents for which the chill
dren are made to suffer"
From Circuit Court.
For the purpose of further ascer-
tanning how many children are year
" abandoned to their own devices or
deprived of the comfort and support
of one or the other of their parents
it was found that during January.
1914, in the circuit court alone there
were 1913 DEGREES Of divorce with a
total number of children involved Of
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