Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/92

 DIVORCE

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DIVORCE

ited, (3) existing marriage, (4) fraud, force, or coercion, (5) insanity unl;nown to the otlier party.

The growth of divorce in the United States under the general divorce laws has been unprecedented, and ex- ceeds in number those of any other modern nation, except ing Japan. An analysis of t he stat ist ics prepared by Carroll D. Wright, Commissioner of Labor, in 18S9, showed the total number of divorces for a period of twenty years, from 1S67 to 1S87, to be 328,716, an in- crease of 157 per cent, while the increase in population for the same period was 60 per cent. The Census Bulletin upon marriage and divorce in the United States, issued by the Department of Labor and Com- merce under authority of an Act of Congress, in 1908, shows that the total number of divorces for the entire country from 1SS7 to 1906 inclusive was 945,625. For the earlier investigation covering the twenty years, from 1867 to 1886 inclusive, the number re- ported was 328,716, or hardly more than one-third of the number reported in the second twenty years.

At the beginning of the forty-year period covered by the two investigations, divorces occurred at the rate of 10,000 a year. At the end of that period the annual number was about 66,000. This increase, however, must be considered in connexion with the increase in population. An increase of 30 per cent in population between the years 1870 to ISSO, was ac- companied by an increase of 79 per cent in the num- ber of divorces granted. In the next decade, 1880 to 1890, the population increased 25 per cent and divor- ces 70 per cent. In the following decade, 1890 to 1900, an increase of 21 per cent in population was ac- companied by an increase of 66 per cent in the number of divorces. In the six years from 1900 to 1906, pop- ulation, as estimated, increased 10.5 per cent and di- vorces 29.3 per cent. It thus appears at the end of the forty-year period that divorces were increasing about three times as fast as the population, while in the first decade, 1870 to 1880, they increased only about two and two-thirds as fast.

The divorce rate per 100,000 population increased from 29 in 1S70 to 82 in 1905. In the former year there was one divorce for every 3441 persons and in the latter year one for every 1218. The rate per 100,- 000 married population was 81 in the year 1870 and 200 in the year 1900. This comparison indicates that divorce is at present two and one-halt times as com- mon, compared with married population, as it was forty years ago. Divorce rates appear to be much higher in the United States than in any of the foreign countries for which statistics relating to this subject have been obtained. Two-thirds of the total number of divorces granted in the twenty-year period covered by this investigation were granted to the wife. The most common single ground for divorce is desertion. This accounts for 38.9 per cent of all divorces (period 1887 to 1906), 49.4 per cent or almost one-half of tho.se granted to the husband, and 33.5 per cent orone- third of those granted to the wife. The next most important ground of divorce is, for husbands, adul- tery, and for wives, cruelty. Of the divorces granted to husbands (1887 to 1906), 28.8 per cent were for adultery, and of those granted to wives 27.5 per cent were for cruelty. Only 10 per cent of the divorces granted to wives were for adultery of the husband, and 10.5 per cent of divorces granted to husbands were for cruelty on the part of the wife. Drunkenness was the ground for divorce in 5.3 per cent of the cases for which the wife lirought suit, and in 1.1 per cent of the cases in which the suit was brought by the husband. Intemperance was reported as an indirect or contribu- tory cause for divorce in 5 per cent of the divorces granteil to the husband, and in 18 per cent of the di- vorces granteil to the wife, and appeared as a direct or indirect cause in 19.5 per cent of all divorces, and 26.3 per cent of those granted to wives, and 6.1 per cent of those granted to husbands. Only 15 per cent of the

divorces were returned as contested and probably in many of these cases the contesting was hardly more than a formality. Alimony was demanded in IS per cent of the divorces granted to the wife and was granted in 12.7 per cent. The proportion of husbands who asked for alimony was 2.8 per cent and the pro- portion obtaining it was 2 per cent. The average duration of marriages terminated by divorce is about ten years. Si.xty per cent or three-fifths last less than ten years and forty per cent last longer. Of the di- vorced couples known to have been married in the United States 88.5 per cent were married in the same state in which they were divorced. Of the divorced couples known to have been married in foreign coun- tries 36.9 per cent were married in Canada, 12.7 per cent in England, 16.1 per cent in Germany and 1.9 per cent in Ireland. Children were reported in 39.8 per cent of the total number of divorced cases. The proportion is much larger for divorces granted to the wife than for divorces granted to the husband; children being present in 46.8 per cent of the former class of divorces and 26 per cent of the latter. A rea- son suggested for this is that the children are usually assigned by the court to the mothers, and to her, therefore, divorce does not imply separation from her children, while to the husband it involves a severance of the parental as well as the marital relation. In Canada during 1900 there were eleven divorces; in 1901 nineteen. In England there were 284 in 1902, as compared with 177 in 1901. In Germany at the same time there were about 10,000 annually, and in France 21,939, with a tendency towards a rapid in- crease. Among the Japanese there are about 100,000 divorces per annum. It is estimated that about fifty per cent of divorced couples have children, and it is urged " that consideration for the children of divorced people should be a first concern in stimulating re- strictive legislation". It has been stated that three- quarters of the boys in two reformatories, one in Ohio and one in Illinois, come from families broken up by death or divorce, "mainly by divorce" (The Divorce Question in New Hampshire, Rev. W. Stanley Emery). Divorce Congress of I'MIG. — A well concerted effort was made in 1906, upon the initiative of the State of Pennsylvania, to secure uniform legislation by the various states and territories of the Union so as to eliminate as far as possible fraudulent proceedings for divorce. It resulted in the meeting of a Divorce Con- gress in the City of Washington, where all of the states, excepting Nevada, Mississippi, and South Carolina, were represented, in addition to the District of Colum- bia and the territory of New Mexico. The outcome of this congress was the adoption of a form of statute designed to overcome flagrant evils arising from lack of uniformity, and also from inherent objections to various existing methods of procedure. A summary of these points will show how far the existing statutes were considered to need amendment. Ha\-ing in mind the evils that have arisen from migratory divorce (that is, where the plaintiff has left his or her own state to obtain a residence for the purpose of divorce in another) the congress recommended that all suits for divorce should be brought and prosecuted only in the state where one of the parties has a bona fide residence ; that when the courts are given cognizance of suits where the plaintiff was domiciled in a foreign jurisdiction at the time the cause of complaint arose, relief .should not be granted unless the cause lie included among those recognized in the foreign tlomieile. and the same rule should apply in the case of the defendant. At least two years residence should be required of one of the parties before jurisdiction should be assumed. The defendant should be given every opportunity to ap- pear and make defence, and one accused as co-respon- dent should be permitted to defend in the sanie suit. Hearings and trials should always be before the court and not before a delegateil representative of it, and in