DIVORCE 



1822 



DIXIE 



In a number of Protestant churches divorce is 

 regarded as justifiable only when the case is 

 considered extreme. 



CAUSES OF DIVORCE IN THE UNITED 

 STATES 



For any ten-year period within fifty years the 

 reasons for seeking divorce have changed but 

 little. The above diagrams relate to the period 

 between 1906 and 1916: 



1. Granted to husband: (a) drunkenness, 1%; 

 (6) desertion, 49%; (c) cruelty, 12%; (d) adul- 

 tery, 28% ; (e) all other causes, 10%. 



2. Granted to wife: (o) drunkenness, 5%; (6) 

 desertion, 33% ; (c) cruelty, 29% ; (d) adultery, 

 10% ; (e) neglect to provide, 6% ; (/) all other 

 causes, 17%. 



Laws Governing Divorce. Laws governing 

 divorce are widely different in various states of 

 the American Union, and difficult questions are 

 constantly arising in regard to the validity in 

 one state of divorces granted in another. South 

 Carolina does not permit divorces. By a 

 change in its law in 1914 Nevada requires an 

 actual residence of one year within the state, 

 instead of six months, before either party may 

 apply for divorce. This step was taken to 

 lessen the influx of Eastern mismated people 

 who found the Nevada laws the most lenient 

 of any in the nation. In some states two, 

 three or five years must elapse before divorced 

 parties can remarry, while in other states there 

 is no restriction. The wife, when she is granted 

 a divorce, is usually allowed a stipulated sum, 

 called alimony, payable at regular times, until 

 she remarries or until the husband dies. 



Ratio of Divorce. In the United States sta- 

 tistics show that the ratio of divorce is in- 

 creasing, more divorces being granted, in pro- 

 portion to population, than in Europe, and, as 

 a consequence, there is a growing movement 

 for even stricter laws upon the subject. Some 

 students of the problem -favor a national di- 

 vorce law, to be enacted by Congress, hence 

 affecting equally all parts of the country; 

 others prefer more uniform laws throughout 

 the several states, believing the evil can be 

 regulated better by the states than by the na- 

 tion. There is also a very widespread belief 

 that more stringent marriage laws would very 

 greatly decrease divorce. 



Canadian Divorce Courts. By the British 

 North America Act the Canadian Parliament 

 has sole power to deal with the subject of mar- 

 riage and divorce, and it alone can grant di- 

 vorce by special legislation on each case from 

 the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, 

 Manitoba and Saskatchewan and the Northwest 

 Territories. In the provinces of New Bruns- 

 wick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island 

 courts have power to annul a marriage for such 

 causes as are stipulated by law. The supreme 

 court of British Columbia holds that it pos- 

 sesses all the jurisdiction conferred on the 

 English divorce court. Divorces in Canada are 

 rare, totaling fewer than 100 a year among 

 more than 7,500,000 people; in Prince Edward 

 Island no divorce was granted from 1868 to 

 1912. A.E.R. 



Consult Thwing's The Family; Lichtenberger's 

 Divorce: A Study in Social Causation. 



DIX, JOHN ADAMS (1798-1879), an American 

 statesman and soldier of wide reading and cul- 

 ture, especially famous for his services while 

 Secretary of the Treasury in President Bu- 

 chanan's Cabinet. He was born at Boscawen, 

 N. H., saw service in the War of 1812 and 

 remained in the army until 1826, when he 

 resigned his commission as captain to study 

 law. He was admitted to the bar in 1828 and 

 filled many local and state offices, becoming 

 Secretary of State in New York in 1833, and 

 United States Senator in 1845. 



While he was Secretary of the Treasury, 

 government finances became more stable, and 

 it was in that capacity that he issued his fa- 

 mous order, when a revenue cutter at New 

 Orleans attempted to ignore his command to 

 come to New York, "If any man attempts to 

 haul down the American flag, shoot him on the 

 spot." 



At the beginning of the War of Secession he 

 became brigadier-general and major-general of 

 volunteers. In 1866 he was appointed minister 

 to France, and in 1872 was elected governor 

 of New York. Among other works he left 

 several books relating to the city of New York. 



DIX 'IE, or DIXIE-LAND, a name pop- 

 ularly used to signify the Southern United 

 States. The origin of the term is disputed. 

 Some investigators claim it was derived from 

 the Mason and Dixon's Line, which at one time 

 roughly divided the free from the slave states. 

 New York legends show that in the beginning 

 of the nineteenth century it was the negro 

 name for Manhattan Island, and signified to 



