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Show they want. In t hTTweirTTT" preceding 1!00. alimor.v "vf ""r only 13.2 por (via of tl granted In only 9. nor k, v"irs' J alimony was sought U1C',', h, ! all cases and was p.amtlT 1 ''' ,Ccnl il cent. It is nearly hv, "a,UQf ' who who Rets the aiiW l'", voree is hcvoming lneiv;islL"iv V Me venture for women, aa,t ,. 1L,'n,"J more expensive one lor " "T'V1' connection it is inlerestii,,. i ' '" 1 the chances for Kettiu- , ' ; L, . n'"-' ' better in some slates thin ' ,r , percentage of cases in wiilel , i " 1 J allowed for .livoree K1-a ' V vanes from less than 1 per v u Vtl sylvanla to nearly v,, rrn Children are admitted ,v ,., ,,. , i to be a Kreat. lorre for fhe, " 'thonl ' of miii-rlMKos, and perhaps n,',. , the increase of divorce ,, f, ; ,,,"''0 fact that children ,Wuro if, a t,!!'',, pereenta,;,. of Hie cases Kr , ",' h'1 year period preceding , , ured In asi.S per cent of th'e V ' ", ' ' voree, while in l:)u; t!,v , l" ( In only 37.7 per cent of U,e , i, um" Divorce and marriage both v.',;,. Rraphieally. Jn general the ys C ' meaning thereby the s'out'i e' '' states, show the hlht Propnr io,' : liiarrlnKes and the lowest of divor the west the divorce rale l-i hi-h ,i i " inu partly due to the fact tliit , ''' many easterners ko West In marei, f ' voree because the laws ilure n ' : vorco easier to net. Tho Kcno v,,';.1' voree colony Is, of course tin-" .''tX example of this tendem.v. Ther" ' Konerally nbout 5u0 poisons resui', ; lteno for the purpose of is,.ttln ,,v ' , :: according to n recent estinrite nv F.nfflnnd also has liberal divorce i',,, , compared with those of the south",'! tho mlddlo-Atlantlc slates. " As has often been pointed out h. f, more divorces take place In the i -i i i States than In any other Christian coi's try In the world, and this conn, ,',. leads In the number of mnrriac n'.i considered not improbable, however t :' the great disproportion of women to n-In n-In Kurope, as a result of tho w.ir , affect this comparison, and will, liidcJ-have liidcJ-have momentous consequences in' h;tst ing the change which seems to bo talt place In the marital relation. u - Both Marriage and Divorce Increase By Frederic J. Ha skin. 4 . 1 M'A.SIIIXOTO.V, May CO. Each ytur the proportion of Ainorlt-ans ivno m:'.rry t;rt--ao:- than it was the rear before, and ea.'h year a reaier proportion of the na rrlt-a set ur, married. The divorce rati- continues to prow with a yteao'i-n-as and rapidity that threatens to make j tKe ihrnse "till deatii do us iart" a mcantnuless anachronism. What shall we ! do rNjui it? This is the f.'i.st of a new arid inter-etinir inter-etinir study of marriuso and divorce which has just been completed by the i:ur(?au of the cer.-sus. Coiin-ss made a special appropriation for tliis work. and. according: to the cens-.is oiTt.-inis, it was undertaken largely be-iause of ''the i?row-ins? i?row-ins? demand' for an amfmlnipnt to the . federal (institution giving contii'fss pow.-T to legislate on all questions ol" man iae and divorce." Xow, of course, the divorce laws are different in each state so different that you may be a married man in one slate and legally divorced in another, and that, i while Xew York will jrmnt a divorce only for the most serious offenses, Xevada has been known to set a wife free because she did not like the kind of tobacco her husband smoked. Conservatives, who view with alarm, and radicals who believe be-lieve that the increase of divorce is a line thing, agree that this lack of uniformity uni-formity is deplorable, and also that it is unjust to make divorce easy for the rich' and almost impossible for the poor. It may be assumed, therefore, thai in due course congress will give the matter fome attention, and that this statistical study will be the basis of the congressional cogitations. The statistics knock a hole In the theory that men hesitate to marry these days. At least, If they do, the "women overcome their hesitation with growing success. In 191 fi there were 105 marriages mar-riages for every 10,000 of population, while in 1906 there were only 102, in lflOO there were 93, and in 1SS0 there were 91. The number of marriages in any given year is largely Influenced bv economic conditions, but these figures clearly indicate indi-cate a steady increase in the number of those who put their heads through the noose. This increase is small in comparison with that of the number who afterward withdraw. In lMt- there were 112 divorces for everv K'0,000 of population, while im-re were but M per 10t.u0o in 190ii, 73 per lOt'.OuO in nn0, and S3 per lou.uoo in n other words, about one marriage mar-riage in every nine goes to smash nowadays, nowa-days, and this proportion of unsuccessful marriages has more than doubled in a quarter of a century. If it goes on Increasing In-creasing at this rate, the end of marriage mar-riage as a lifelong monogamous union is in sight. It is interesting to note that the percentage per-centage of divorces granted to the husband hus-band is on the decrease. The wife Is tho one who strikes for freedom in an increasing in-creasing number of cases. The anonymous anony-mous compiler of these statistics thinks this is due chichy to the fact that it is easier for the wife to get a divorce than for the husband. Nonsupport and neglect, neg-lect, lie points out, frequently furnish the wife with cause for divorce, but seldom are used by the husb.-uid, who has fewer grounds for a plea than his spouse. He might have added that the women have a great deal more sueeess in convincing the court of the justice of their claims than do the men. The leading cause for divorce In this country is that one of the pair gets tired of living with the other and departs. Insertion, In-sertion, in other words, leads all other cau.se s for divorce, being tho complaint in ."t;.S per cent of all cases. Cruelty comes next as the ground tor 2S.3 per cent of the divorce. The term cruelty, it must be added, is very, libera 11 construed con-strued in many wefnern states. One man in Xevada got a divorce on that ground by complaining that his wife's practice of j Christian Science was a cruel annoyance to him. Adultery is the third ranking cause for i divorce, figuring in 11.5 per cent of tho cases. It may surprise some persona to ' learn that the woman Is most often the offender, so far as divorce is concerned. Of divorces for this cause. M.9 per cent were granted to the husband for unfaithfulness unfaith-fulness on the part of the wife, while 45-1 per cent were granted to wives for wrongdoing on the part of husbands. This by no means indicates that men are on the whole more virtuous than women. The compiler quotes an authority to the effect that "the difference may be attributed at-tributed to the probability that the offense of-fense when committed by the wife is less likely to be condoned, and perhaps more likelv to be discovered." Those who believe that the increase of divorce Is due to a growing desire for freedom on the part of women, and to their new economic Independence, will be shocked to learn that more and more of the women demand and get alimony, Indicating Indi-cating that freedom is not the only thing |
