The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1921-05-13
s ,,- -. LOSES LEAD
IN DIVORCES GRANTED
United States Now Heads
World In Breaking
Marriage Vows.

Japan has yielded to Christian Am
erica the possession of the highest ma
tional divorce rate, and the figures
when coupled with the sensational
divorce cases to which the daily pa
pers have devoted such extensive
space, are regarded by our religious
press as a sinister commentary on the
state of American society. Since the
war the moral leadership of the
world has been accorded to America,
but now, we are told, her position in
this respect must be seriously shaken
by the revelations of the Internation-
al Reform Bureau, whose report has
Just been ssued and published by sew
eral religious journals. 1t takes
years to collect and compute such
statistics, so the figures now being
DISGUST are for the year 1916. They
show that thirty-two- American States
ranging from Vermont, with its 1913
divorces to every 1O0,0O population,
TO Nevada, with 652-have a divorce
rate higher than that of Japan. So
widespread, indeed, has become the
evil that sociologists and religious
leaders look upon it as a national
CALAMITY and the report would seem
to bear out the view that the churches
must set themselves seriously to the
task of combating the evil if they
would preserve the social fabric
There is real need now to emphasize
in home, in church, and in school the
alarming menace to our country's'
welfare in these statistics" declares
The Christian Observer (Presbyter-
lam Gods word should be studied
and taught with greater zeal that
this natiora! shame may be removed
According to the report, Japan's rate
was 229 in 1886, but a Federal Jaw
brought it down in 1899 to Isl. and
by 1915 it had fallen to 100. The
rate for all States in this country in
1916 was 1876 divorces for each 1907
900 net population (that is, not
counting Roman Catholics, who do
not permit divorce except in rare
cases of papal dispensation) and 112
divorces for each 100000 tJial popu-
lation Gncluding Roman Catholics).
1t is revealed further that there are
six counties in five States which had
more divorces than marriages at the
time the statistics were compiled
Oklahoma, Pawnee County, to.G.77;
Nevada, Washoe, l to 0.S7; Califor-
mia, Trinity. 1 to 0.S5; Tennessee, |
Rutherford l to 0.S7; Oregon, Union
L to 0.S7; Clackamas, l to 0.92. Re-
no has given place to Seattle as the |
great divorce center, and Atlanta |
comes into prominence as the Reno |
of the South" sharing the distinction
with Savannah.
But none of these cities enjoys its
notoriety, says a writer in the Balti-
more American, and measures are
being taken to relieve them Of an I'M
desirable distinction. Everywhere,
we are told further, judges, lawyers,
clergymen, legislators, and welfare
workers attest the gravity of the sit
uation in urging reform measures and
striving to arouse greater appre- +
citation on the part of the people of
the sancity of the marriage bond. So
60
against the evil. Delving into the
court records fails to disclose what
might be termed the main cause of
increased divorces, but, says the
writer in the Baltimore paper, there
are some clearly defined major, if
not main, factors to be found among
the contributing causes of the alarm
ing increase. He reports that
'These factors, which are to be
found in the observation of judges,
court recorders and others in close
touch with divorce proceedings, in
clude the laxity of law and its admin
istration, making DEGREES easy to get
in many States, growing tendency
of young folks to wed in haste, fail
ure on the part of parents to exercise
a proper oversight in the matter of
their children's associates, a free-and-
easy public mind, which seems to hold
the marriage VOWS lightly and conse-
Iuently attaches little moral weight
10 the divorce.
"The 'jazzing wife is coming into
prominence, according to
some statisticians, while the unrest
Of husbands, condition attributed to
recent war service, is scarcely less
But Of all the factors
hat can be traced directly to the
war the Stacker marriage figures
most prominently. From every
source comes comment on the large
number of such marriages that are
l..