THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
period within which neither person may marry again; and usually, if proceedings in error or on appeal be instituted, the restraint is extended to final judgment, or to thirty days beyond it, as in Kansas and Oklahoma. This term of delay varies from three months in North Dakota to one year in Colorado and Wisconsin. On the other hand, two Western States are more stringent, discriminating against the guilty person. Thus Illinois (1905) requires such a person to wait two years, and Montana (1905) three years; while in those commonwealths one year and two years respectively are the period for the aggrieved. An anomalous condition of the law should be noted. Owing to the want of precision and uniformity in the legislation of the States the restraints placed on the marriage of divorced persons are practically futile. In 1829 the supreme court of Massachusetts (in Putnam v. Putnam, 8 Pick., 433-435) decided that if a man, " being a resident in this State, for the sake of evading the law goes into a neighboring State where such a marriage is valid, and is there married and immediately returns and continues to reside here, the marriage is valid here, and after his death his widow is entitled to dower in his estate." This precedent was followed by New York in 1881 (Van Voorhis V. Brintnall, 86 N. Y., 18), Washington in 1900 (Willey v. Willey, 22 Wash., 115-121), and California in 1903 (Estate of Wood, 137 Cal., 129). The prevailing doctrine of the courts appears to be that a marriage good where it is contracted is good everywhere; but there are opposing decisions.
Bad laws relating to residence and notice are the chief source of clandestine divorce in the United States. Notice to the defendant 3. Res- through publication in the newspapers, idence still quite generally permitted, is espeand cially capable of abuse; but in recent Notices, years a nxmiber of States have enacted rigorous statutes governing notice when personal service can not be had. The provisions regarding residence are conflicting, lax, and wanting in precision. They invite migration for divorce. At present the term of previous residence for the plaintiff, or at least for one of the parties, varies from six months to five years; but the prevailing period is one year, at least twenty-eight commonwealths, under various conditions, having that requirement. Massachusetts, in particular, has a very stringent and carefully drawn statute which in principle may serve as a model for other States.
The government report, compiled under the direction of Hon. Carroll D. Wright and published in 1889, contains fairly com- 4. Amer- plete statistics, drawn from a careful lean analysis of the manuscript court Statistics, records in all the States and Territories for the twenty years, 1867-86, inclusive. In the entire country during this time 328,716 petitions for full or partial divorce were granted. From 9,937 decrees in 1867 the number rose to 11,586 in 1871, 14,800 in 1876, 20,762 in 1881, and 25,535 in 1886; thus, comparing the last year with the first, showing an increase of 157 per cent, while the population grew but sixty per cent during the same two decades.
Again — to express the result in terms of the divorce rate — in 1867, it is estimated, there were 173 divorces to 100,000 married couples, while in 1886 the number had risen to 250. As a matter of fact, in the last-named year the average divorce rate in the United States was higher than for any other country collecting statistics, except Japan. Of the whole number of divorces during the period 112,540 were granted to the husband, and 216,176 to the wife. Among the principal causes, at each stage of the wedded life, only for adultery were more decrees granted on the husband's petition than on that of the wife. But the relative number granted on the wife's petition varies greatly; from 39.3 per cent in North Carolina to 77.9 in Nevada. "These figures are one indication of the relative significance of the divorce problem to women.
Important generalizations may be drawn from the available divorce statistics. In the United States, as in Europe, the divorce rate is higher in the city than in the country. Willcox (A Study of Vital Statistics, in the Political Science Quarterly, viii., 1893, pp. 76, 77) has demonstrated that the average divorce rate for the whole country, like the marriage rate everywhere, sinks in hard times and rises on the restoration of business. The report of 1889 shows that the evil of migration for easy divorce, due to the lack of uniformity of State laws, is greatly exaggerated by popular opinion. It seems probable that not more than two or three per cent of all divorces are secured by persons migrating to other jurisdictions for the purpose. As early as 1889, the Rev. Samuel W Dike, of Auburndale, Mass., secretary of the National League for the Protection of the Family, to whom especially is due the inception of the great government report, declared that " the establishment of uniform laws is not the central point " of the divorce problem. Moreover, since 1900 the action of the Federal and certain State courts is significant. In a number of cases arising in various States they have declared null and void decrees secured in jurisdictions where the plaintiffs were not bona fide residents, even when they had dwelt in such jurisdictions for the statutory term prescribed as a condition for obtaining a divorce. Thus both the statutes and the courts are distinctly discouraging the " divorce colony." In certain places, however, the evil of migration for divorce has been very pronounced. Previous to the reform legislation of 1899, probably the most flourishing divorce colonies in the world were those at Fargo and Mandan, N. D. In 1899, in Morton County, containing Mandan, there was one divorce to 1.11 marriages (ci. J. L. Coulter, Marriage and Divorce in North Dakota, in the American Journal of Sociology, xii., Nov., 1906, p. 412).
It appears, likewise, that to some extent the evil of lax administration of divorce laws is exaggerated by popular opinion. The report shows that in seventy counties scattered over twelve States about thirty per cent of all petitions for divorce were rejected. But here also there are extreme or exceptional cases. In North Dakota, between 1900 and 1903, 87.4 per cent of all actions were success-