704 THE FAMILY 



In the last few decades the average length of human life has been 

 considerably increased. Fewer children are born, but they are 

 much better in quality. 



There is really no need to be anxious about the destiny of the 

 college woman. It is not marriage or maternity which she shuns; 

 but she is refusing to become merely a child-bearing animal. It is 

 simply wrong wedlock which she avoids. She has a higher ideal of 

 matrimony. The rise of a more refined sentiment of love has become 

 at once a check and an incentive to marriage. With greater economic 

 and political liberty, she is declining to look upon marriage as her 

 sole vocation. As a wife she asks to be admitted to an even partner- 

 ship with the husband in the nurture of the family and in doing 

 the world's work. Thus the liberation movement means in a high 

 degree the socialization of one half of the human race. 



It is perhaps not surprising that of all the alleged evils which 

 threaten the integrity of the family divorce should be commonly 

 looked upon as the most dangerous. In Europe as well as in America 

 the divorce-rate is rising while the marriage-rate is falling. It is 

 higher in the United States than in any other country collecting 

 statistics except Japan. In this instance as in others it does not 

 follow that the individualistic tendency is necessarily vicious. No- 

 where in the field of social ethics, perhaps, is there more confusion 

 of thought than in dealing with the divorce question. Divorce is 

 not favored by any one for its own sake. Probably in every healthy 

 society the ideal of right marriage is a lifelong union. But what if it 

 is not right, if the marriage is a failure? Is there no relief? Here 

 a sharp difference of opinion has arisen. Some persons look upon 

 divorce as an evil in itself; others as a " remedy " for, or a " symp- 

 tom " of, social disease. The one class regards it as a cause; the 

 other as an effect. To the Roman Catholic and to those who believe 

 with him divorce is a sin, the sanction of " successive polygamy," of 

 " polygamy on the installment plan." At the other extreme are 

 those who, like Milton and Humboldt, would allow marriage to be 

 dissolved freely by mutual consent, or even at the desire of either 

 spouse. According to the prevailing opinion, as expressed in modern 

 legislation, civil divorce is the logical counterpart of civil marriage. 

 The right of the state to dissolve wedlock is conceded, although it is 

 clear that in marriage the family relation is more vital than the 

 contract by which entrance into it is sanctioned. The rupture of 

 that relation is indeed " revolutionary," as has been strongly insisted 

 upon; but the state in granting divorce is merely declaring a revolu- 

 tion which in reality has already taken place. 



Yet divorce is sanctioned by the state as an individual right, 

 and there may be occasions when the exercise of that right becomes 

 a social duty. Loose divorce laws may even invite crime. Never- 



