Show THE S TORY Y THE A DIVORCE COURT CUR u RECORDS OR lj TS facts that indicate why it Is that americans are earning for being the greatest nation 0 home breakers and homemakers home makers in the world WHATEVER else america may be dc ing it la is not dying W wherever the ten dency toward mar ariage age almost give promise of robbing the cradle to fill the cradle there does vitally abound nor can red corpuscles be said to be lack lag ing 1 in the alood of those who after marriage want to nd rid themselves of the obi actions that they assumed at N the altar such arp the conditions that the census bureau after a four years in has feind foi rid in america only hur huy gary leads the states in the p of marriages to marriageable population but on the other hald haid no country even approach appi es america in its tendency to burst into the d to 0 te tie coal me and smash the domestic relations relation ioni 4 over the judge s bench japan was outdoing us in 1898 when the last japanese census was vas taken but since then the mikado th the eldr eld 1 r statesmen and a few others have promulgated some new divorce laws that have somewhat strangled the japanese desire to emulate the household manners nf their big ne tie gh bors hors across the pacific yet the japanese at their worst t pro babi never approached americans in their tendency toward the divorce courts before a japanese became in a mood where he could do much fighting he cut the domestic ribbons and set himself free tor for divorce in his county country was as easy but in this country where relatively a divorce Is diff difficult cult to obtain the report of the census bureau not only shows an A enormous amount of cruelty and a great increase of cruelty but it shows that nobody knows knovs exactly what is going on in the marriage and di vorce circles of he golden state but connecticut is preceded in the order named uy delaware delavare montana tassa assa chu wyoming rhode isia isla d and pennsylvania I 1 enn pennsylvania sylvania though it contains the city of homes has a ratio of only while new york stands only in other words a levident les ies ident of ind an territory Is almost twice as I 1 kely to marry provided he has not already done so as if he lived in new york in south central states stats stat s not ot only that the ten tendency lency to marry seems to flourish in certain groups of states and to wane in tain other groups the south central states lead the I 1 st with a ratio 0 the south atlantic with con e next while the north central the western and ind the north atlantic groups follow in the order named from all of which it appears that while one may go west for wealth he should go south if he Is having dim culty in finding a matrimonial mate where he is yet exceeding as we do the mar nage rat os of all the world except hungary we are barely holding our own our ratio for the ten year period ending in 1905 was our ratio for the ten bear ear period ending end ingIn in was but if the tendency toward mar ariage shows s gns agns of having reached maximum no such indication Is apparent with regard to divorce in that field we are bounding along not only at prodigious speed but at a ter rifi cally increasing pace the man ner in which our population increases is the wonder of the world but it is dwarfed by the increase of our ten dency to break the homes we have f rm 00 0 0 a TO TO TO AND over average annual number a 0 7 es per COO married population for states and territories 1300 1900 that women are increasing in cruelty more rapidly than men indeed it Is an astounding fact that the cruelty 1 of aomen toward their husbands 4 showed a greater increase during the 20 year period ended in 1906 than any other cause for divorce the gain be ing 1609 1 per cent marriage and divorce perhaps the strangest feature of the report is the fact that it shows an unparalleled marriage ratio side by side with an unparalleled divorce ratio out in indian territory the preachers must almost lave have to fight them off the would be wedded or go short of sleep in matrimony indian territory leads the world even hungary with its ratio of mar nages every year to each 10 of marriageable population is made to look I 1 he ke quite a cold aud and clammy comman ty indian territory s ratio Is 55 the ratio of the united states Is only it if arkansas had held another coun ty fair in 1906 probably it would have beaten indian territory at that ar kansas with a ratio of came just J one short of tying the leader texas florida oklahoma sippi alabama utah and georgia fo fol low in the order named and the ratio of georgia is even in nevada the tendency toward marriage is greater than the average tendency of the united states nevada nevadas s ratio is la in fact one has to go down tb list to kansas the fifteenth in line before he gets to a state the people of which exhibit what might be called t normal matrimonial proclivities kan sas with a ratio of is one above the average tor for the country turning to what might be called subnormal communities the people of connecticut with a ratio of are really at the bottom of the list call ornia fornia is in last place in the statistics but californians are actually not as frigid as they are tabulated the flie file that followed I 1 the great california earthquake destroyed so many rec ree made in 1867 there were granted in this country 9 divorces in 1406 1906 72 population laton increased at out per cent divorce increased ry ore than per cent furthermore the increase between 1890 and 1900 was greater than that of any other de ade sine 1870 the increase of divorce exceeded the increase of population more than per cent putting it in still another way in 18 0 28 divorces were granted grant ert to every of population in loo 73 divorces were granted to r iery ery of population figures for D corces only once during the last 40 stars has bar the number of divorces actu illy shown a decrease that was in 1884 when here was v as a decline of over the number granted during the pre ceding vear in 1870 1844 1894 and 1902 there was a decline in the rate though an increase in the number doubtless there was also a decline in 1908 though the figures have havi inot not been corn com piled the reason for believing there was a decline last year is that there was vas a pinic in 1907 panics in anvari vari ably che k the tendency toward in creased divorce when times are hard people forget their domestic troubles lor a time and occupy their minds with the problem of how to get a living As soon as times improve the rate i 1 dually bounds upward with a rapid rapidity ltv that indicates that nothing has been forgotten or forgiven or nothing learned accumulated ances are worked off in th divorce div court and the t de sweeps on more rapidly than bafo e where in the united states would one naturally exp ct to find the great est tendency towa d divorce 7 9 in what stated not one person in a hundred could guess right it if he were given a dozen chances washington is the state far par from the stress of mot mo rn industrial life away across the country where the people for the moist mot t part aie at e engaged in agricultural pursuits pursuit there V I 1 couples are annually divorced to every of 0 married population the rate for the whole country is washington is fol followed loved in the order named by montana colorado arkan sis texas oregon and wyoming wyoming has an exceed egiy low mar ridge rate and a very high divorce rate in this respect it is unique but in general it will have been observed that while one is most likely to be married it if he live in the south he is most likely to be divorced if he live in the west new york yorks s low record new yorks divorce rate as might naturally be expected Is low new ew york stands forty seventh in the list of 50 states and territories with a ratio of 60 new jersey s ratio is the same a connecticut is thirty ninth with a ratio of while in pennsyl vania vartia married couples are ie quiren to produce 94 divorces in a year coming down to causes we find that most men who obtain divorces assign as their grievance the deser lion of their wives and that most women give the same reason it also appears that women are more 1 kely to desert than men of the divorces granted to men 49 4 pet cent were tor for desertion the divorces granted to women because of the desertion of their husbands amounted to 33 6 per cent of the whole v hole number of divorces that were mere granted to women cruelty comes second as a cause first place as an increased cause u v tl tt a jump of 1 4 per cent which barring the utah gentlemen goes en to women drunkenness comes second as an in creased cause with a general inar increase of 2 per cent th drunkenness of husbands increased 9 per cent the drunkenness of wives ives 5 pel pet cent desertion ranks third as an in creased cause with an increase 0 S 8 per cent while hile infidelity has in creased the least of all only 2 0 per cent here again the census figures pla plan tricks infidelity among women la represented to be increasing marc rapidly than infidelity among men for women ornen an increase is shown of ol 8 per cent for men 2371 1 pe cent figures as to su r e de rate americans it would seem take dl vorce more easily than do some ott es e s over in europe the fact has been ascertained that the suicide rate IQ I 1 abnormally high among those wl c have been separated from their mate by due process s of law ratter than b death it is not so in this co atri on the face of the returns one Is I 1 ire ly to have lived longer if he has beer divorced than he Is ii if the death of the one to whom he was married has ill him alone the suicide rate for jbf widowed is 22 to each of pop lation of the divorced 20 the director of the census says tha 1906 Z 6 00 19 1905 1902 VAN A t 1901 11 1900 1899 laba lag 7 1096 1895 1894 1895 1892 2 1891 1091 11 1890 1889 1888 1887 1597 1656 1586 1864 1885 1803 1881 1880 and as in the preceding cause it ap plies heavily both to men and women of the divorces granted to men 10 5 per cent were for the cruelty of their wives of the divorce 0 granted to women 27 5 per der cent were for the cruelty of their husbands in the case of both men and women infidelity Is the third baase in relative importance on the bare fac face e of the censi s figures it would appear that women are more likely to be untrue to their husbands than men are to be untra e to their wives since only ten per cent of the divorces granted to women were for the infidelity of their husband while 28 7 per cent of the divorces granted to men were toi fox the infidelity of their wives but of course it is not true that women sin more than men in this respect what is true is that women who thus err are more frequently found out end nd less le ss frequent forgiven and a poor old census bureau is not of course expected to tabulate such a fact as this because the figures to sustain the fact cannot be obtained la d to drunkenness drunkenness comes forward as the fourth cause but it comes forward shaky in its legs and emaciated in form only 3 6 per cent of all the di v corces r e are granted b because ec ause of habits formed around hot stoves in the bar room and as between the sexes most of the blame of course goes to the men only 11 per cent of the dl di corces granted to men were for the drunkenness of their wives while 53 5 3 per cent of the divorces granted to women were vere for the drunkenness of their husbands in relative importance neglect to provide is the fath cause this reason having been ass ened in 3 7 per cent of the divorces granted in alleging this grievance ance women would have had a monopoly had it not been for six gentlemen in utah who were actually granted divorces because even these figures probably give only an imperfect idea of the relative longevity of those who have volun tartly sundered the matrimonial tie since it is reasonable to believe so he declares that the real suicide ratio of divorced persons Is less than 20 but the difference 7 anyone nho is determined to commit suicide will probably do so anyway even if he might be reconciled to I 1 fe by yield i ing up the price of a decree in the united states 73 divorces are annually granted to every of I 1 opu lation to the same number of 0 persons ireland annually grants les tl an one england two italy three austria one scotland tour four germany 15 prance france 23 switzerland 32 and japar As a matter of fact the divorce rat 0 in japan is probably not now ac a high as 0 r own the ratio of was revealed by the japanese census of 1898 since which the divorce law of the country have been made more stringent switzerland with a ratio of 32 comes next to us in the fong lk on 9 gap between switzerland a 32 and our 73 there is no comie competitor titor the q clestion now arises if the united states does not like so high a divorce rate what Is it going to do about ita there was a time when it was be lieveld that if we had uniform di vorce laws the question qi qt estion would be set bla it was the opinion of those who favored this method that a large number of persons took up temporary res dences in lax divorce law states for the purpose of obtaining decrees that they could not get at home but the present investigation dis proves this theory by showing that the proportion of divorces granted to noi not residents in any state Is in einsig sig ant comment Is general when some rich person goes to nevada throws up a couple of boards as a home plants a geranium in front of them and settles down to attain a 0 0 10 5 60 sz vs f x iff ivf 13 ELM 2 Z K G pary 7 aie f 1 a a a aaa bojt cat fc ZOO mafit ow a r v a a 2 4 a ua boo asoo their wives did not provide them with the necessary clothing shelter and nourishment combinations Cambi nations of the five preceding causes were responsible for 9 4 per cent if f the divorces and other ancee u not here enumerated caused the other 6 61 1 per cent some interesting facts were also discovered with regard to the relative speeds at which the various causes or divorce are increasing in the case of women cruelty heads th list with an increase in 40 years of 1609 I 1 8 per cent in trite ole case of men cru coulty ity shows an increase of 8 per cent cruelty in fact holds first place among increased causes in both sexes with a climb of 1035 1 3 per cent but on the whole neglect to provide takes legal residence with which to obtain a divorce but such a person counts only one in the statistics and thee are not many such persons so ith carolina prohibits divorce will not grant one tor for any cause but there are many desertions in south carolina and does anyone believe there Is more domestic happiness in south carolina than anywhere elsea women seem to be getting their courage back their increased cruelty heads the list of increased causes and their ability to bid the home an unceremonious and final farewell ex ceede anything that men are doing in the same direction again the question arises what is to be done ask d t ikc lcuio vs |