| Show I FAILED MARRIAGES One of the most interesting of the public documents that has gone to the present Congress is the report of Labor Commissioner Wright presented last week on the statistics relating tQ mari mar-i 3 mlj divorce in the United Stated for the twenty feats from 1867 to 1886 inclusive It will be remembered that Mr Wright had an agent in this country coun-try for several weeks lat year compiling compil-ing those statistics The statistics of marriage cover sixty six per cent of all the counties in the country while those relating to divorce are complete as to ninetysix per cent of the counties and over ninetyeight per cent of the population The whole number of divorces granted in the United States is given by years aj follows fol-lows In 1867 9937 1868 10150 1869 10935 1870 10962 1871 11568 1872 12390 187313156 1874 13989 1875 14212 1876 14800 1877 15687 1878 16089 1879 17083 1880 19663 1881 2J762 1882 22112 1883 23193 1881 2299i 1885 23 472 1886 25535 Total for the twenty years 328716 The record by States and Territories is presented below together with the number of married couples to one divorce for the years 1870 and 1880 Married couples to one divorce Divorces > Slates granted 1870 iSSu Alabama 5204 1652 795 Arizona 237 1690 307 Arkansas 6041 810 326 California 12118 355 239 Colorado 3687 232 lit Connecticut 8642 216 310 Dakota 1C87 S2S Delaware 289 23627 5511 District Columbia 1105 638 60S Florida 2128 622 Ml Georgia 39 > 9 1896 1152 Idaho 368 292 24 i IlinoiE 36 072 407 271 Indiana 25rJ3 271 i02 Iowa 16584 395 106 Kansas 7191 445 425 Kentucky I 10248 678 S49 Louisiana 3097 4579 1629 Maine 8412 3il 2U4 Maryland 2185 1757 1380 Massachusetts 9853 681 556 Michigan 18433 403 269 Minnesota S623 1001 647 Mississippi 5040 1840 498 MISSiSsirpt Missouri 15278 662 400 Montana 822 257 180 Nebraska 3034 774 431 Nevada 1123 265 170 New Hampshire 4979 569 386 New Jersey 2642 1924 1583 New Mexico 255 16077 2615 New York 15355 1133 1151 North Carolina 1318 4938 3119 Ohio 26367 507 3i9 Oregon 2609 248 175 Pennsylvania 16020 lCCS ail Rhode Island 44bl 263 190 South Carolina 163 133359 Tennessee 9625 836 428 Texas 11472 949 S82 Utah 4078 185 219 Vermont 3238 380 453 Virginia 2635 3731 1743 Washington 996 V79 202 West Virginia 2555 1044 974 Wisconsn 9985 505 464 Wyoming 401 122 173 UnltedStatell328716 664 479 Rhode Island stands at the bottom of the list in the ratio of marriages to one divorce the ratio being 1111 marriages to each divorce Connecticut follows next and makes a close second with 1132 marriages to one divorce Massachusetts Massa-chusetts is at the head of the list having 5128 marriages to each divorce The District of Columbia however bids fair to overtake Rhode Island In 1867 the ratio in the District was 6829 marriages mar-riages to one divorce since which time there has been a steady decrease the ratio in 1886 being 2883 marriages to one divorce Throughout the country at large there is a rapid decrease of the ratio though in two or three States there has been a slight gain In the matter of causes for divorce it is shown that of the 328716 divorces granted for the twenty years 216739 or 65 per cent of the whole were granted to wives and 111975 were granted to husbands The causes in which wives are the petitioners petition-ers more largely than husbands are cruelty where the wife seeks divorce as 7 to 1 in desertion where the proportion pro-portion is over l > i to 1 in drunkenness drunken-ness where it is 9 to 1 The husband is shown to have sought divorce for the adultery of the wife in 38 155 cases while the wife has obtained a divorce in 28 480 cases for the adultery of the husband The cause for which the greatest number of divorces were granted is that of desertion being 126 557 or 38 per cent of the whole number num-ber As will be seen from the above list Utah does not figure well in these statistics In 1880 there were only nine States and Territories below her in the number of married couples to one divorce as follows Colorado Maine Montana Nevada New Hampshire Oregon Rhode Island Washington and Wyomiag Utah is improving however how-ever for since 1880 the divorce business busi-ness has not been worked so industriously in-dustriously her |
