THE INCREASE OF DIVORCE 21$ 



the applicant as is done with witnesses in ordinary suits at law. ^ These 

 are desirable reforms. The greatest evil with the procedure in granting 

 divorces at the present time is the secrecy with which the proceeding is 

 surrounded. In many states it is not the practice for the judge to hear 

 the evidence himself. He usually appoints a master in chancery or 

 referee to hear the evidence and make a report to him, and on the 

 evidence in this report grants the decree. The master in chancery or 

 referee frequently hears the evidence in some lawyer's private office 

 where no one appears but the plaintiff and one or two witnesses and as a 

 result few know anything about it till the judge acting on the report of 

 the master or referee has granted the decree desired. If the appUcant 

 were obhged to tell the story of alleged matrimonial wrongs in open 

 court and at the same time be questioned by an officer representing the 

 state, it is probable that many persons who now seek divorces for whim- 

 sical causes would be content to abide in the friction necessarily resulting 

 from all married hfe. 



There are various views of the effect of increasing divorce. Some 

 consider it as an indication of the disintegration of society; others 

 offer a more optimistic explanation. In so far as the increase of divorce 

 grants greater liberty to woman, it means her elevation. It is part of 

 the movement that has granted to woman the right to Hve on a higher 

 plane than was possible in the earlier days. When the possibihty of 

 divorce is open to every married woman, it is quite Hkely that this tends 

 in some degree to protect her from harsh treatment at the hands of the 

 husband. In no other country is the position of woman so much 

 respected as in the United States, and it may be that this respect is in 

 part due to the privilege our women enjoy to be divorced from the 

 husband who will make their Hves unhappy. 



It is certain that societies with many divorces are not more immoral 

 than those societies that grant few or no divorces. Though Italy grants 

 no divorce, it is not more moral than England. No one will maintain 

 that the United States is less moral than Europe, although its divorce 

 rate is very much higher. Nor is it true that the eastern and southern 



' Report of the Ninth National Conference of State Boards of Commissioners for Promoting Uniformity 

 of Legislation in the United States, August, iSgp, p. 14. 



