2IO UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



REMARRIAGE OF DIVORCED PERSONS IN SWITZERLAND' 



Time between End of First and Be- 

 ginning of Second Marriage 



Of looo Wid- 

 owers Remar- 

 rying within 

 Ten Years, 

 Number Re- 

 marrying 

 Each Year 



Of looo Such 

 Divorced 



Men, Num- 

 ber Remar- 

 rying Each 

 Year 



Of looo Such 

 Widows, 

 Number Re- 

 marrying 

 Each Year 



Of looo Such 

 Divorced 

 Women, Num- 

 ber Remarry- 

 ing Each Year 



Less than one year 



One year 



Two years 



Three years 



Four years 



Five-nine years . . . 

 Ten years 



Total 



323 



260 



136 



82 



48 



108 



43 



300 

 255 

 151 

 106 



53 



lOI 



34 



95 

 264 



152 

 132 



91 



196 



70 



194 

 282 

 166 

 127 



68 

 125 



38 



1000 



This table shows that in Switzerland divorced men are not more 

 likely to remarry than widowers, while divorced women remarry during 

 the year in which the divorce was granted at a rate about twice as great 

 as that of the widows during their first year of widowhood. In explana- 

 tion of the higher remarriage rate of divorced women than of widows, 

 it might be pointed out that widows are more likely to be mothers with 

 children than are divorced women and this lessens their chance of 

 remarrying. If divorce is sought for the purpose of remarriage, it would 

 seem that divorced men would remarry at a greater rate during the first 

 year after the divorce is granted than widowers during their first year of 

 widowhood. But the figures seem to show that they do not. Similar 

 results appear in the statistics of Holland and Berlin. If, therefore, 

 divorce is not sought in any great degree for the purpose of remarriage, 

 restrictions of the remarriage of divorced persons will not tend greatly 

 to diminish the number of divorces. 



Restriction of marriage is bad for the morals of any community. 

 About the middle of the last century, Bavaria enacted legislation requir- 

 ing all men desiring to marry to show legal evidence that they could 

 support a wife and family. In a few years the number of marriages fell 



' Berth-lon, "Fate of the Divorced," Journal of Royal Statistical Society, Vol. XLVII, p. 521, Septem- 

 ber, 1884. Given in Wn-Lcox, "The Divorce Problem," Columbia University Studies, Vol. I, No. i, p. 27. 



In Connecticut, during each of the years 1889 and 1890, about one-third as many divorced persons 

 remarried during the year as were granted divorces. Howard, History of Matrimcnial Institutions, Vol. Ill, 

 p. 219. 



