DIVORCE

a legal decree di olving a marriage, either through the agency of a court of justice, a legislature or an ecclesiastic tribunal. In the United States the power to di olve marriages originally reposed in the legislatives of ‘the colonial provinces or states, but such aeae proved defective, and except South Carolina (where the legislature still has this authority, but does not recognize absolute divorce for any cause) the granting of divorces has long since been transferred to State courts. The States make their own laws governing the grounds for divorce, and their diversity is so wide and confusing that they frequently come in conflict in suits where the parties have been married in one State and seek a di olution in another. Many cases occur in which a couple, married in one State before the divorce decree allows it, are branded bigamists in another State. The forty-eight States at present have more than forty different codes of law on the subject of marriage and divorce. For many years these conditions and the laxity of some State laws have produced an active movement for a fundamental reform in divorce legislation, either by the States deciding -among themselves to establish uniform statutes, or by removing the power of divorce to the federal courts under a uniform federal law. Recent available figures down to 1916 show divorce increasing in the United States, as it is in other countries. In that year the reported number of American divorces was 112,036, but this figure is under the mark, as 95 counties did not furnish statistics. Of the 112,036 divorces, 33,809 were granted to husbands, or 31.1 per cent., and 74,893 to wives, or 68.9 per cent. The total figure for 1916 compared with 72,062 in 1906 and 42,927 in 1896. The states which granted most divorces in 1916 were Iilinois, 8546; Texas, 8504; Ohio, 7607; Mi ouri, 5791; Indiana, 5636; California, 5573; and Michigan, 5317. Since 1916 the number of American divorces were estimated at 120,000 in 1917, 125,000 in 1918, 129,000 in 1919 and 132,000 in 1920. The laws of western States enumerate more grounds for divorce than do those of the eastern States, which explains the greater frequency of divorce in the first named sections. New York, for example, only permits divorce on the single ground of adultery, while such causes as religious belief, aversion of couples for one or the other, bad temper (incompatibility of temperament), or failure to live together in harmony alone constitute sufficient grounds for breaking the wedding bond in some of the newer States. Cruelty, conviction of felony and habitual intoxication are sufficient grounds for divorce in most of the States, but there are a number of imDistrict of Columbia, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Tenne ee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington do not accept cruelty as a sole cause. There must be more than @ conviction of felony to obtain a divorce in Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Mi i ippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Dakota and Tenne ee; failure to provide means of subsistence serves as a sole cause of divorce. Adultery and bigamy, of course, are a fundamental grounds for divorce in all the States. The chief causes for divorce in the United States are desertion and cruelty, which account for almost two-thirds of the decrees granted. Adultery furnishes about one-fifth of the causes of action. Drunkenne has become a minor element in divorce suits. More than one half of divorce couples were childle . Divorce proceedings may come before a judge, or before a referee appointed by the court to take testimony, or they may be determined by a jury. In some States either party to a divorce suit may demand a jury trial. The failure of a defendant to appear to contest a suit is not accepted by the court as an admi ion of the offense and a plaintiff does not therefore win a verdict by default, as happens in other actions. A plaintiff must prove his or her case. The discovery of collusion, or a conspiracy between the parties to effect a divorce, will bar a di olution. A case will also fail if condonation of a conjugal offense is proved, but the right of action becomes restored if the offense is repeated. English law grants a divorce on the ground of adultery alone to a husband, but an injured wife must also prove cruelty or desertion. Strong efforts have been made since the World War to change the law so as to permit a woman to obtain a divorce on misconduct alone, as a man can, and legislation providing for this reform pa ed the House of Lords in 1921. An English divorce decree is not operative for six months after it is pronounced. The law does not safeguard the conditions preliminary to marriage in order to le en the chances of subsequent divorce. Bigamous or clandestine marriages are restricted in France by the legal obligation of youthful eouples to have the consent of their parents or other relatives to their union. Germany and other countries have similar provisions. In France the es must also produce certificates of birth and any previous marriage must be proved to have been annulled by death or divorce. By these safeguards bigamy is greatly checked in Prance. Divorces in that country did not exist from 1816 to 1884. The law now permits a di olution of marriage. on the ground of adultery, ill treatment (which includes opprobrious epithets), conviction of crime, and mutual incompatibility. Belgium follows France tn her divorce laws. One feature of the divorce laws of France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Portugal and Spain does not prevail in the United States or England. it is that where one party is divorced by reason of adultery, the spouse found guilty cannot intermarry with his or her paramour.