Show DIVERSE DIVORCE LAWS A which more and more urgently year by year demands solution by the lawmakers of the united states is how to avoid the evils that arise from the diverse laws of the different states and territories ri relating to divorce among the worst of these evils are the injustice and fraud of which innocent parties are made victims as when a husband leaves his own state goes into another and there procures a divorce by a procedure which makes it impossible for the wife to secure justice in her own behalf indeed she may know nothing of the suit for divorce until the decree is entered children are rendered illegitimate uncertainty in regard to inheritance is created and in some instances persons have been imprisoned for bigamy for marrying after having procured in one state a divorce not valid in another A superficial person might imagine that it ought to be easy for a uniform system of divorce to be established throughout the whole union through the action of congress but conservative thinkers who are jealous of the rights of the people show a strong opposition to any attempt on the part of congress to pass any law upon the subject ot divorce in the states none except the strongest advocates of centralization are willing to concede that congress has any right under the Constitution to legislate upon social questions in the states the view that congress has not this right has so far prevailed and the states rights school would probably hold bold that all the evils of divorce combined would not be so harmful to the country as would a concession made to congress of the right to legislate on the domestic dom estle concerns of the states another method of securing uniformity in the divorce legislation of the states that has been suggested 1 is through the agency of a convention consisting of representatives from each such a convention might accomplish some good but there is no way by which the legislatures of tile the several states could be compelled to enact a divorce code framed by it and the danger that its labors might fall fail entirely to produce the result desired is probably the principal reason why it has not been held in the meantime the evils of divorce increase rapidly in number and magnitude and cardinal aib bons in the north american sc be view for november expresses the it opinion that therefore the reform and death of the present divorce system must be simultaneous he significantly says divorce as we know it began when marriage was removed from the domain of the church divorce shall cease when the old order shall be restored will this ever come to paw pass perhaps so after many days |