DIVORCE the functions assigned to the King’s Proctor by the English Act cannot but have great influence on the number of applications for divorce, as well as on their results. (f. h. j.) United States. Divorce is the termination by proper legal authority, sometimes legislatively but usually judicially, of a marriage which up to the time of the decree was legal and binding. It is to be distinguished from a decree of nullity of marriage, which is simply a legal determination that no legal marriage has ever existed between the two parties. It is also to be distinguished from a decree of separation, which permits or commands the parties to live apart, but does not completely and for all purposes sever the marriage tie. Upon the subject of divorce in the United States, and, to some extent, in foreign countries, a careful investigation has been made by the American Department of Labour, and its report, covering the years 1867 to 1886, is the main source of information. There is no reason to suspect that if the returns for the following ten or fifteen years were known they would discredit the main conclusions of the report. The number of divorces granted in the United States was in 1886 over 25,000, and unless the rate of increase has materially slackened, which is improbable, it is now 30,000. This is about equal to the number reported from all the rest of the Christian world. As divorce presupposes a legal marriage, the amount of divorce, or the divorce - rate, is best stated as the ratio between the number of divorces decreed during a year and the number of subsisting marriages or married couples. The usual basis is 100,000 married couples. In 1886 the divorcerate in the United States was 250 to 100,000 married couples. This is equivalent to more than one divorce annually to each 2500 people. The several states differ in divorce - rate, from South Carolina (q.v.), with no provision for legal divorce, to some of the Kocky Mountain states, where the rate is from three to four times the average for the country. In general the rate is greater in the North than in the South, and in the West than in the East; but to this rule the New England states, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Arizona are exceptions. The New England states have a far higher rate than their geographical position would lead one to expect in accordance with the preceding statement; and the other three, owing doubtless, in part at least, to the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, have a lower rate than the states about them. The several state groups had the following divorce - rates in 1886: South Atlantic, 106; North Atlantic, 149; South Central, 296; North Central, 334; Western, 527. The divorce-rate in the United States has increased rapidly and steadily in twenty years from 173 in 1867 to 250 in 1886. But distinct tendencies are traceable in different regions. In the North Atlantic group the rate fell in twenty years; in all other groups it rose—in the North Central by 21 per cent., in the Western by 54 per cent., in the South Atlantic by 100 per cent., and in the South Central by over 200 per cent. The great increase in the South was mainly due to the spread of divorce among the emancipated negroes. The ground pleaded for a divorce is seldom an index to the motives which caused the suit to be brought. This is determined by the character of the law rather than by the state of mind of the parties; and so far as the individuals are concerned, the ground alleged is thus a cloak rather than a clue or revelation. Still those causes which have been enacted into law by the various state legislatures do indicate the pleas which have been endorsed hy the social judgment of the respective communities.
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In the United States there are fifty-two different jurisdictions in the matter of divorce. Six out of every seven allow divorce for desertion, adultery, or cruelty; and of the divorces reported with their causes during the twenty years, of which there were 315,547 in the United States, nearly 78 per cent, were granted for some one of these three causes, viz., 40 per cent, for desertion, 21 per cent, for adultery, and 16 per cent, for cruelty. Probably nearly 10 per cent, more were for some combination of these causes. Three other grounds for divorce are admitted as legal in many or most American states, viz., imprisonment in 39, habitual drunkenness in 38, and neglect to provide in 22. About 98 per cent, of American divorces are granted on some one or more of these six grounds. In general the legislation on the subject of the causes allowed for divorce is most restrictive in the states on the Atlantic coast, from New York to South Carolina inclusive, and is least so in the Western states. The slight expense of obtaining a divorce in many of the states, and the lack of publicity which is given to the suit, are also important reasons for the great number of decrees issued. The importance of the former consideration is reflected in the fact that the divorce-rate for the United States as a whole shows clearly, in its fluctuations, the influences of good and bad times. When times are good and the income of the working and industrial classes likely to be assured, the divorce-rate rises. In periods of industrial depression it falls, fluctuating thus in the same way and probably for the same reason that the marriage-rate in industrial communities fluctuates. In two-thirds of the divorce suits the wife is the plaintiff, and the proportion increased in the twenty years. In the Northern states the percentage issued to wives is 69, while in the Southern states it is only 55. But where both parties desire a decree, and each has a legal ground to urge, a jury will usually listen more favourably to a woman’s suit. Divorce is probably especially frequent among the native population of the United States, and among these probably more common in the city than in the country. This statement cannot be established absolutely, since statistics afford no -means of distinguishing the native from the foreign-born applicants. It is, however, the most obvious reason for explaining the fact that, while in Europe the city divorce-rate is from three to five times as great as that of the surrounding country, the difference in the United States between the two regions is very much less. In other words, the great number of foreigners in American cities tend to obscure by their low divorcerate the high rate of the native population. Divorce is certainly more common in the New England states than in any others on the Atlantic coast north of Florida, and it is not unlikely that wherever the New England families have gone divorce is more frequent than elsewhere. For example, it is much more common in the northern counties of Ohio than in the southern counties settled from the Middle Atlantic states. There are two statements frequently made regarding divorce in the United States which do not find warrant in the statistics on the subject. The first is, that the real motive for divorce with one or both parties is the desire for marriage to a third person. The second is, that a very large proportion of divorces are granted to persons who move from one jurisdiction to another in order to avail themselves of lax divorce laws. On the first point the American statistics are practically silent, since, in issuing a marriage license to parties one or both of whom have been previously divorced, no record is generally made of the fact. In Connecticut, however, for a number of years this information was required; and, if the statements were trustworthy, the number of persons remarrying each
