THE PROBLEM OF THE FAMILY 713 



the restriction of the remarriage of the defendant or of both parties 

 in fourteen states, and the prohibition of the advertising of divorce 

 business in six, are some of the features of the divorce legislation 

 of the last twenty-five years. 



Meanwhile Congress has, as already intimated, made the term of 

 residence before a divorce can be sought one year for all the terri- 

 tories and for the District of Columbia, and thirty or more states 

 have created commissions to secure uniformity of law on these and 

 other subjects of common concern. France enacted a new divorce 

 law in 1884, and an imperial law uniform for all the Empire went into 

 operation in Germany in 1901. New South Wales greatly modified 

 its divorce law a few years ago, and now the new constitution of 

 Australia provides for a uniform law throughout the federation. 

 Japan has for the first time brought her people under the control of 

 public law in respect to marriage and divorce, having established 

 a marriage and divorce code very much like the Familienrecht of 

 Germany. The age of consent so-called has been raised in 

 many states of this country. 



An important educational work relating to the family has begun 

 within the last twenty years. Twenty-five years ago there was no 

 study of the family in any of our educational institutions. Indeed, 

 "there was not then a single course of lectures given on the subject 

 anywhere in the entire country. Now such courses of lectures or of 

 study are frequent. Perhaps it may already be said that the higher 

 educational institution that does nothing with the family has become 

 the exception rather than the rule. The colleges for women have 

 opened this important line of study to their students. And the 

 study is taking on more practical form in what is now known as 

 domestic science, but which, as pursued, is confined pretty closely to 

 the study of housekeeping in its practical aspects, but along scientific 

 lines. Domestic science has also become a department in some of our 

 best secondary schools and is rapidly growing in public favor. There 

 has been, too, a marked increase of attention to the home in the 

 periodical press. Departments or pages for the home have taken 

 the place of the old single column and are of a much more scientific 

 character and more valuable as a whole. 



I am speaking of the United States. Perhaps more has been done 

 in parts of Europe. Within the last twenty-five years attention has 

 been given in new ways to the practical value of the home in a number 

 of directions, that is full of promise for the future. Our American 

 churches, in their large use of the voluntary principle of organization, 

 have had unusual opportunities for experiment, which some of 

 them have used to advantage. They have developed a great 

 number of small societies within the local churches for doing work 

 by collections of individuals in groups of a portion of their adherents. 



