DIVORCE IN AMERICA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3161, 13 April 1909, Page 3

DIVORCE IN AMERICA.

The American Government has just published the results of an inquiry into the marriage and divorce statistics of the country from 1887 to 1906. It is a significant, many will call it an appalling, document. It shows that about one American marriage in every 12 ends in the Divorce Court, and that divorces during the period under review have increased three times as fant as the population. In two thirds of the .suits the wife is the plaintiff. The most common ground of divorce has been found to be desertion, nearly 40 per cent, of the total being granted for this cause alone. Of the divorces granted to the wife, 33 per cent, were on account of desertion, 27 per cent. for cruelty, only 10 per cent, for adultery, arid 5 per cent, for drunkenness. Of the divorces granted to the husband, some 50 per cent, were for desertion, 28 per cent, for infidelity, 10 per cent, for cruelty, and slightly over 1 per cent, for drunkenness. One learns without surprise that only 15 per cent, of the divorces were contested, "and probably in many of ttjese cases," adds the report, "the contest was hardly more than a formality." The United States has long been known as the land of easy divorce, but bow well it deserved the title few probably were aware before the pub lication of this amazing document.