37,000 MARRIAGES, 6000 DIVORCES.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 October 1920, Page 11 (Supplement)

37,000 MARRIAGES, 6000 DIVORCES.

MENACE TO THE FUTURE OF AMERICA. Chicago is rapidly approaching a condition where the number of divorces will equal that of the marriages, according, to Mr. W. F. McUermott, a leading Chicago divorce expert. Statistics just issued show that there were 37,000 marriages and nearly WOO divorces in Chicago last year. This represents a 20 per cent, increase in divorce in eight years, and Mr. Mcßermott estimates that it will require only three decades at the present rate of increase for the divorces to equal the marriages. "Study of the fundamental trouble," he adds, "shows that of the parties concerned in 3577 divorce suits filed in 1914 only 70 owned homes, while in 2171 eases hey were childless. These figures indicate increasing childlessness, the growth of the apartment house habit, and the tendency towards ease, indulgence, and fast living. They presage more broken homes and a still greater menace to America's future." Mr. McDennott'a analysis of the fundamental reasons for divorce, however, is questioned in various quarters. It is stated that Americans do not regard the marriage relationship more lightly than other nations, but that American women are readier than European women to assert their independence and demand divorce when they find they have just cause.