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Show DIVORCE IS INCREASING 1 Records of District Court Marriage a Divine or Human Ordinance Treated i as Human Its Object the Family, the i Foundation of Society and State Logical Consequences of Divorce Family Inconvenient. I (Written for the Intermountain Catholic.) I '. ia-ts and others who pre fighting the I divorce evil might gain some Valuable information I pnnff niincr the growth of the 'marriage cure,' by in- respiting the records in the office of the third ! district court. As is well known, there is nn staff. I ,,r political subdivision in any civilized country I vkr-TP a divorce may be secured more easily than iii I I'tnii. 'i'lirrc are4eight grounds upon which a de-I de-I croc may ho obtained. They are impotency, failure . tn support, cruelty, habitual drunkenness, convic- -inn f a felony, desertion, infidelity and perma- Ent insanity. -The only advantage that any state has over J '-ah is in the matter of residence. In Utah the jsintitf in a divorce case must prove bona fide id'-ne in t lie county in which the suit is brought I ; one year immediately preceding the institution I ,if the ai'iion. while in a few states a residence of I f:xnr ntii is necessary. 1 It i- pn-sible in Utah to file an action for div-I div-I ir'T. secure a decree and remarry, all within thirty I minutes. In these cases, however, it is necessary J t'" have a waiver from the defendant in the ac- f tion. "For example, a woman files an action, eharg- ir.rher hu-band with failure to support. The hus- k-i .Mfiis a document, in which be waives time in whi'di to answer. TTis default is immediately c- trtvd and the wife may then go into court and se-j se-j cure her drcree. If she desires, she can remarry f before the ink is dry upon her decree of divorce. The divorce business of Utah, however, means 1 much to the fee side of the' ledger in the offices of I nV various county clerks. In the third district ! court more than one-third of the cases filed are divorce rases. In proof of this statement, the rec-rds rec-rds of the third district court from January 1, I VW to June 15, 190. show that there have been 41 cases filed. Of this number 176 are divorce ca:i".. Thus it can be seen that more than one-uitrd one-uitrd f all the cases filed are actions for divorce. 5 "In a large majority of cases non-support is the round alleged, although cruelty is a close second. Fully five out of six of the cases are brought by in? wife, which goes to show that the husbands of I tab are either very much remiss in their duty to .'if:r better halves, or that they are very obliging it comes to giving their wives their freedom nr. any old ground that will satisfy the court.'" Hit Lake Tribune. June 16, 3 90S. j This is a sad comment on the state of Christian -"ality. How remedy the evil which is on the ty-:w in our divorce courts? The question, rvh invests itself in answer to this query, is: I-marriage a divine or simply a human ordinance? k apponl to popular sentiment, which denies its 'rameijud character, or something always sacred, t".e answer will be it is simply a human ordinance, a contract which may be dissolved by the mu-'ueI mu-'ueI roi:r-nt of the contracting parties, or for any which the state may deem sufficient to Ive The union. Others hold that marriage is civile institution, and 1hat its conditions, duties 2nd regulations belong to the law of God. With End ail modern nations the Btate assumes juris- ( ' ' t;o;j 0vpj. Tae marriage contract, but as the state ini!N its incompetency in spirituals, it reduces arr-iL'o m a mere civil contract. All admit that t:ir- r;uf--;,,ji of marriage is of the most serious im-r"n.i!)c im-r"n.i!)c t 'cause on it depends the family, ,md on lr;p family rests society, which is the foundation "1 ti:c 'zw. n our district court, from January to June 1,". 190S, 176 divorce cases were "'(1. vM.-ll nlnorl- i -tr-ll Q f O foorflll Ovtpnt !ll"drr: s .cicty has come to regard marriage as im-'""iu: im-'""iu: ij.i moral obligation of binding "till death u"h'm )i;:i-t." Of the 176 applicants, doubtless !!' u.-uld heed St. Paul's advice: "But to them .lia ar r;iarrifd. not I. but the Lord, conimandeth, "' ifo depart not from her husband. And if s;' '' r'. that hr remain unmarried, or be recon-'iir'i recon-'iir'i i hi r husband. And let not the husband put a.v ,:. v5i-(1m (I Cor yiif 10-11.) Nor would 'lii-y ( ,,.:,,.,. anv of the eight causes upon which a ;.,.. ,., ,r.,v -bp r(raiy obtained anything more than M ;rv , ivil offense. Take the case of infidelity ff wiff. 1 (i the husband, or the husband. to the Vr., i( illf. majority of those who arnly for f Sf i' .r;,ti.,n consider that a sin or contrary to the o! Co, Xot only this, but many of our ad-ya-vH l:inkers maintain that the state exceeds :? .'ri.di.'tion when it legislates the infidelity of ''r Tarty to be a civil offense. Others go still 'ar-v-r ,:71 fcnv the rjglt cf the state to bind '1,r' n -r;t! to one woman during the whole period 't' r lives. Is 110t this, at least theoretically, Maintaining not only the right of divorce with the I'-iyil. Ko of remarr-ing, but also questioning the Jfcii'.iny f.f ai marriage laws. The next step in hR fiwnward crade would be free love, which is !Kl maintained bv many who pass for respectable r.s in society , liis is not all. As already stated, on marriage 'yfMs the family, but a family is a great inconve-"'ii'c inconve-"'ii'c whr.n an(i vhere divorces are frequent and :;s.'!y ''l'tnined. What are the consequences? J"''hon must not be born. New methods to pre-Dt pre-Dt o;ucption and procure abortion are reduced ' a s.-i,.,1(.p anj so extensively practiced that th.v tl lUug to an alaieiiig extent on the health and robust constitution of our women. Oppose the natural na-tural law and the motherless mother can not escape punishment. Do away with Christian ethics, live a life unrestrained by religion and maternal instinct, which is smothered, will soon become extinct. History His-tory repeats itself. Xatural instincts are always and everywhere the same, and the present state of society is simply a return to pagan principles and methods. The sexual passions, fostered by idleness and luxury, coupled with the great desire for excitement ex-citement and dissipation that prevails in light society, so-ciety, and the burden of child-bearing, tend not only to extinguish maternal instinct a longing inward craving to be a mother but it unsexes our modern mod-ern club women, who are not satisfied with equality, but claim superiority. Notwithstanding all this, we have it on the authority above quoted that "fully five-out of six of the cases 176 divorce cases in f ix months are brought by the wife." According to the divine law the object of marriage mar-riage is the family. "Increase and multiply." But the family consists of the husband, wife and child. We will not refer personally to the 176 cases above quoted, but will ask what percentage of those who enter the matrimonial state consider that the chief object of Christian marriage is the procreation and proper raising and training of children. There is no blinking the answer to this question if we take the number of children in the average well-to-do American families. Compare them with the despised foreigners' families. The comparison, with statistics statis-tics which are so often published, will tell the difference dif-ference between paganism and Christianity |