Alarming Divorce Figures

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 26, 1911

Alarming Divorce Figures

The editor of the Christian Work and Evangelist, according to the Literary Digest of December 24, sees great danger in the rapidly increasing divorce figures presented by the country's record. He feels that while a terrible hue and cry is raised every time an anarchist or well-known writer advocates “as free love as a proper and permanent condition of society, in the present tremendous growth of the divorce habit the nation is rushing toward it about as fast as it would by popular consent:—

We see nothing but free love if the increase in the ratio of divorces to marriage goes on during the next thirty years as it has during the last thirty. Divorce at present is increasing two and one-half times as fast as our population. In 1906 the increase had risen to that point where it was one divorce for every twelve marriages. We presume the percentage is much higher now. In some States it is much higher than this, where it can be had for the mere asking, as in one State. There it is one to every six. You can see the incredible increase in twenty years when you remember that in 1880 the percentage was only 38 for 100,000 population, whereas in 1900 it was 73. When you subtract the great Roman Catholic population, you can see at once that these figures are really much higher. There is no sign of this abating, but it rushes on with ever-increasing speed. It becomes easier every year. It is already so easy that many men and women are no longer stopping to consider whether they are fit for each other or not, whether they wish to live together always or not, but rush into marriage as lightly as in Paris two members of the Latin Quarter go and live together for a while. Everybody knows that two thirds of the required causes, “cruelty,” “desertion,” “non-support,” etc., are nothing but pretexts, often agreed upon by both parties.