AMERICA'S DIVORCE PROBLEM

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1295, 25 November 1911, Page 9

AMERICA'S DIVORCE PROBLEM

ONE DIVORCE TO TEN MARRIAGES. America is becoming shocked and alarmed at tho terrible progress of divorce. At the present rate it will only take twenty-five years for every other marriage- to end in divorca. In IS7O the. ratio was one divorce, to thirty-four marriages. In 1907 it was ono to "twelve. In laou, Professor Y, , . V. Willcox estimated the ratio as one to ten. No wonder that i-a'KV and thoughtful people aro becoming alarmed. Tho effect on*the children i≤ heartbreaking. I'rivate nurseries, sauaiorimus, and schools are'often nothing more than dumping grounds for the children of divorced parents. Only recently in a New York court a litole hoy ran distracted first to his mother and then to his lather, crying in v.iiu tor love and attention, whiln they snarled and fought over a divorce. It is useless to nsk lor now and .stronger laws—too many peoplo want to licci) the laws lax and easy. .»liii!.<ters nny refuse to marry divorced couples, but there is alwaj-s a Justice of the Peace who will pnrlorm tho ceremony. The evil is threatening the stability ol_ the nation. In' Kansas City tho l statistic? show a ratio of one divorce suit to every four marriage licenses issued The Stale ui granted in lttio, in u≤ mobt populous county, one divorce to every six murnasree. Four-filths of the divorces arc- by mutual conseul, the suit nover being contested by tho defendant. .\ curious fact is that ihu vast majority of divorces c.inio alter ten years of married lite. Conimis>iom>rs are studying tho problem, coniera'.ces are suggested, but at present nothing is being done—nothing apparently can be done. The Christian iorces of tho country look on with hopelcts horror.-"Chvistian World."