THE PROBLEM OF THE FAMILY 



BY SAMUEL WARREN DIKE 



[Samuel Warren Dike, Corresponding Secretary, National League for the Pro- 

 tection of the Family, since 1881. b. Thompson, Connecticut, February 13, 

 1839. A.B., LL.D. Williams College; B.D. Andover Theological Seminary. 

 Special Lecturer at Andover, Hartford, Meadville, and Garrett Biblical In- 

 stitute. Member of Washington Academy of Sciences and various other sci- 

 entific societies. Author of numerous articles on divorce and other topics of 

 the family; also on methods of sociological study, problems of church organiza- 

 tion and the country town.] 



WITHIN the last twenty-five or thirty years there has come to be 

 recognized a problem of the family. It is the object of this paper to 

 give a brief outline of this problem, especially as it has been treated 

 in this country within this period, and then to look a little at some 

 phases of it that seem most likely to call for attention in the early 

 future. 



Interest in the subject is due to two classes of causes: The first 

 of these is the practical one - - the growth of certain evils affecting 

 the family. Mormon polygamy, the increase almost everywhere 

 throughout the civilized world of the rate of divorce and the immense 

 volume of it in the United States, the decrease of the marriage-rate 

 and the postponement of marriage, the prevalence of unchastity 

 and the lightness with which its offenses are regarded, the decrease 

 of the birth-rate among those best fitted by their own training and 

 resources to rear large families, the growing self-assertion of youth, 

 and the lessened power of the home over character have combined 

 to bring the family to the front as one of the most vital subjects for 

 practical consideration. 



The other cause is the new social conceptions of the times and the 

 interest in the study of social problems in a scientific way. We are 

 coming to see that what we call society is a most interesting as well as 

 a most important subject of scientific study. In a way it has been 

 studied for all the centuries of human learning. But we are now at 

 work on it in the new field of social science with sociology and the 

 social sciences for our instruments. In the pursuit of this line of 

 study students are confronted everywhere with the family in some 

 of its forms. In its history they find in great degree the story of the 

 other great social institutions. And it has become apparent that 

 the progress of social science must continue to interest students in 

 the past, present, and future of the family. 



As we cannot understand the present problem nor form a wise 

 opinion about its future without some knowledge of the way in which 

 the present came about, let us look a moment at some of the changes 



