Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1922-02-14
DIVORCE MILL
BUSILY GRINDS
AT ALEXANDRIA
Little Reno of the East
Thrives in Shadow of Ma
TONS Capital.
RENT RECEIPT FRAUDS

%&W ASH1NG1ON, req. 14.--N ILnln bIBut
OF the dome of the United States Capitol,
near enough almost to be called impu-
dent, is the tOwnlet of Alexandria, on the
Virginia shore Of the Potomac, and there
in is alleged to operate a divorce colony
second only in flagrancy to that of
world-famOus Reno.
On the sworn statement of woman
householder dwelling in that historic
little hamlet, according to records re-
Gently made public, hundreds of divorces
have been granted.
Investigation of some Of these cases
has shown that the persons have never
spent a night in Alexandria and have
Obtained their divorces on the sworn
statement Of landladies that they have
lived in their houses for one year prior to
the filing Of the suit.
RENT RECEIPT
Is PIVOT.
A years residence in the State of Vir-
GINA being neces sary to secure divorce,
revelations made recently have shown
that parties in pursuit Of marital dis
ruption paid their rent for one full year
to a landlady and then received q receipt
for same, which they then produced as
evidence Of their years residence in the
State Of Virginia. IN the meantime they
whiled away the wearisome hours that
ordinarily would have to be spent in
Alexandria in some ltvelier city, perhaps
in Washington, just across the placid
Petomac
Forty-two days was the minimum time
limit in which divorce could be Sc
cured, provided the seeker for relief was
sent to the right attorney, according
statements made by landladies and others
I'D printed in the local press. 1t was
81 planned that a certain staff Of attOr-
neys, adopts at severing the bonds that
bind all too loosely, could secure pronto
service in smashing marital ties.
One landlady termed this little Reno
Of the East" q ''Teritable haven Of ref
uge for Washington people" And she
had a little more to say.
DUMPING GROUND
FOR DIVORCES.
You know" she declared, not without
some evidence Of local pride, alexandria
IS getting to be the dumping ground for
Washington divorce seekers, and / have
lots Of them stay at my house. OF
course, that is, they don't really stay here
in fact. They pay me the rent for the
year, and they send themselves an occa-
siOnal letter through the regular mail,
and then when their cases come up they
produce these letters and the receipt
which I gave them as evidence of the fact
that they have lived here one year. It's
all very simple
Dr. Wilbur f. Crafts, superintendent
of the International Reform Bureau, and
more widely known as the star patient in
the blue law" fever spreading through
out the land, thinks it is anything but
simple" He thinks it's awful" Dr..
Crafts said, to be explicit:
"Profteering in divorces is al awful
thing The wholesale issuance Of di-
vorces, as it has been done in Alexandria,
is a disgrace to that city and to the Ma
ton. 1t is ALMOST lnconceivable that
such conditions could obtain in Alexan-
dria, or for chat matter, elsewhere"
GIVES LIST OF
DIVORCE MILLS.
- Doc" Crafts then flung 4 rebuke at
@Seno and other Far West divorce para
S1NSes. He said Reno was "a divorce
sewer serving as a drain for marital
garbage. Those places in the Far West
are divorce sewers, and the thought that
we have a divorce sewer so close to
Washington should awaken the people
all over the country
Another locality which DR.. Crafts in
dicted as a moral drawback 10 the ma
ton was Trinity County. California. He
said it was another sewer AS a mat
ter of fact trinity is even more pic
taresQuc than Reno, for il is in Trinity
that the ..nIath and Eel Rivers start
on their t.4tkInE voyages, and 1t is the
haven Of western campers and western
sports as well. Another one Is Mono
County, California, probably the moss
scenic background ever discovered for
Il divorce arena
Other counties blacklisted for their
records by DR.. Crafts We're Owyhee,
Idaho; Washoe, New. lin which Reno
holds sway CiatsOp. Ore; Clackamas,
Ore, ana Columbia, Ore.