The Divorce Evil

Southland Times, Issue 9717, 5 January 1888, Page 4

The Divorce Evil

♦ (Letlie's Illustrated Newsptpcr.) The fact that over one hundred cases were recently dwpcsed of in a single day in five Chicago divorce courts illustrates a tendency which is becoming everywhere apparent m American Moiety. The American people are not yet fully alive to tbe eerioui extent to fchicl family life is undermined by the ftcili yof divorce. Marriage has ceased to be look d upon by mwj people as a hfelo eg |9i98, iaa las ceo§ to be regarded a« * WM° »

between one man and one woman for so long a time only aa is mutually agreeable. Tbe woman who said that she got married after knowing her husband only a week, • because, if do sot like each other we can be divorced,' is tbe exponent of many women and of many men. We have no superstitions worship for marriage as marriage ; bet we have a regard for marriage as the foundation of the family, and we have a regard forthe family as the foundation of all social order and national c xi tence. Therefore, whatever tends to destroy the marriage relation tends to destroy, through the destruction of family life, the life of the whole people. ' It is'not in Chicago alone that this monstrous evil is apparent. Other great cities, both Bast and West, are suffering from it. Much might be said as to ft remedy for thia condition of affairs, bot we limit ourselves to two or three suggestions. Ih the first place, the divorce laws of the different States should be made more strict. Loose laws tend to pro* mote the evil ; strict laws to restrain it. For the simple fact is, that if a man and a woman once married know that they can be easily separated, this knowledge tends to promote dissension and aversion ; but if they realite that they are legally tied together, and tbat they can be separated only for the gravest and most serious reasons, slight and trifling causes for separation are not suffered to have undue weight. Knowing [that they must live together, they seek to make the best of their anion. And not simply sbould the divorce laws of the different States be made more strict, but tbis legal condition would also be aided by the enactment of a national marriage and divorce law. Such a statute would tend to give symmetry to the statutes of the different States.

The American nation fis now passing through a period somewhat like that through which the Roman Republic pasted when divorce was exceedingly common, and when sensual sins were conspicuously rife. Id this condition it becomes every citizen to do all ke can to stay these perils of the social and politic body. Much, it is true, is being done; societies are formed for the arrest of these evils. A National Divorce Reform Association is doing most excellent service. The Commission appointed by the last CongreEß to col.ect statistics sb to divorce in the different States is now at work. The public Press is publishing articles upon this vital subject. All thtse are favourable signs. We do not assure ourselves, however, that this evil is to be at once stayed ; but we are confident that within a decade this flood-tide of divorce, which now is sweeping through the great cities and through many of the country districts, will be, if the agitation of the subject is maintained, in large part arrested,