Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/386

* DIVORCE. 383 DIVORCE. In the West liijili ilivoree rates previiil. but iire no higlier tlimi some iilready given. The iiioren?e of population there is so great that figures arc .Tiisleading, unless comparcj with population. A few instanees in the South may be eitcd: From ISO? to lS8t) the inerease was as follows: Ala- bama, from 78 to til!2 ; Arkansas, 121 to 640; Kentueky, 2!t2 to 7.">7 ; Mississippi, 4!l to 504: Xorth Carolina, 21 to Ui:i : Tennessee, 287 to 801: Texas. HI to 132(i: Virginia. 00 (o 2.38. South Carolina grants no divonc. In the South as a whole the movement was slow in the first part of the period, but was greatl.v aeeelerated later. I'nfortunately, no data exist regarding the influence of race and religion ujwn divorce in this country. Technically 20 per cent, of all the divorces in the L'nited States were granted for adultery; 38 per cent, for desertion; 16 (ler cent, for cruelty; 4 jjer cent, for drunk- enness ; and so on. Itut these figures are of little value as indications of the real causes. Better, in reference to intemperance, is the result of a special examfnation of 20.065 divorces in 45 representative counties. This discovered in- temperance as a direct or indirect cause of 20.1 per cent, of the whole niunlier. The length of married life before divorce averaged 9.17 years — a little shorter than the period of some European countries. The wife is the applicant in about two-thirds of the cases — often, it should be noted, as a personal convenience to the parties. From two-thirds to four-fifths of the applications ap- pear to be granted. Out of 280,546 divorces whose places of marriage were known. 80.1 per cent, were granted in the State where the parties had been married, notwithstanding the fact that on the average over nine years had elapsed be- tween marriage and divorce, and that somewhat less than that per cent, of the population were living in the State of their birth. This shows that migratory divorces, though many in number, are a ver,v small part of the entire nmnber granted in the countrv. The abuse of our con- flicting laws and the uncertaintj- to which they expose our people are ver,v serious. But the real gravity of the situation is in the almost imi- versal prevalence of divorce in all parts of the country, both in city and rural communities, though generally somewhat less in the latter than in the former. .pparcntly more divorces in this coiuitrv (K-cur in familic-' where there arc verv few or no chil- dren, and at the other extreme, where children are very uuiiierous. The latter fact is due prob- ably to the desertion by fathers of large families among the lower classes. One or two States check this by statutes making culpable neglect to support one's famil.v a misdemeanor. European figures are also instructive. Di- vorces or separations — the latter chiefly in Cath- olic countries — are as follows: ndgium granted 130 in 1807, and 747 in 1898, or 1 to 74 mar- riages celebrated in the latter vcar; Denmark, 479 in 1871, and 577 in 1881: Vrance, 2181 in 1867, and 2800 in 1882. In 1885, the first full .year under the law of 1884, there were 6245, and 7460 in 1S07. and 7179 in 1899. ICnglaml and Wales grant.d 130 in 1867, anil 398 in 1891: Scotland, .12 in 1867. and 96 in 1880. The Oer- man Empire entire granted 3942 in 1881. and R«78 in 1897: Prussia granted 2.329 in 1881. and 3308 in 1886; Bavaria granted 270 in 1807, and 308 in 1891: .Saxony, 396 in 1867. and 935 in 1893: Hadcn, 19 in 1867, and 143 in 1880; Ham burg, 145 in 1880, and 287 in 1886; Wilrttem- l>erg. 94 in 1867, and 153 in 1892. In Italy the movement fluctuated a good deal from year to vcar. but there is no marked change as a whole. In 1891 (here «ere 591 divorces. In the Xether- lands there were 133 divorces in 1867, and 474 in 1892. Xorwav granted 33 in 1870. and 71 in 1890. Sweden granted 128 in 1867. and 310 in 1892. Kumania granted 270 in 1871, and 7(>2 in 1890. Switzerland, in six cantons, granted 190 in 1807, and 287 in 1875. The next year, under the uniform Federal law, the same can- tons graiite<l 444, and 390 in 1880. In the entire eoiuitrv, under a uniform law, there were 1102 in 1870; 1030 for each of the two following years; there were less than 900 on the average tintil 1891;, when they rose to 1058, being 1018 in 1898. The ratio to marriage is generally about 1 to 22, being the highest of any country in Euro]n and about the same as in Massachusetts. In Kussia there were 892 divorces in 1867. and 1 190 in 1885, among the Orthodox; 147 in 1807. among those of the Evangelical Augsburg Confession, and 188 in 1880. All divorces in Poland numbered 103 in 1807, and 3!5 in 1886. Fully three-fourths of these were among Jews. Divorces in Canada are very few, there being only 135 in the 21 years ending 1888. Of these, 94 were granted in Nova .Scotia and New Bruns- wick, where the courts and not the legislative bodies have jurisdiction of the subject. In Atis- tralia there were 140 divorces in 1890, and 340 in 1896, a more liberal law affecting New South Wales in later years. New Zealand granted 10 in 1884, and 25 in 1893. In the city and province of Buenos Avres there wi'rc 2139 ajipli- cations for s<>paration in the 10 years prior to 1S!I4, of which only 118 were granted. In .T:ipan the divoH'Cs for several years arc abotit one third the nuirriages. Until recently publii- law there exercised no control over marriage and divorce, these being left to the families innnediately con- cerned. As a rule the divorce rale in the l'nited States is several times greater than in Europe. There are cotirts of divorce in all of the nearly three thousand comities in the l'nited States, ex- ec])! in South Carolina and New .Tersey. . single divorce court exists in England: one in each of the twenty-eight judicial districts of Ger- many; while there is one in each of the seventy- nine departments of France. The presence of sev- eral statutory grounds for retation. afTect the number grant- ed. The prevailing local sentiment is proliably a still more influential factor in determining the number. With exceptions here and there, changes toward greater laxity in legislation are now almost never nuide. The trend is in the direction of greater stringency. This appears in the removal of the 'omnibus clause' — that giving general discrctirui to the cimrts to act beyond the definitive statutes — from the statutes of Connect icvit and other States; in the raising of the period of residence from three or six months to one or more years in several Stales and all the Territories; in re- quiring a period of six monlh-* or more to inter- vene between the granting €if the decree and its final issue to the parties; and in striking out all