Of all our divorces nearly seventy per cent, are upon petition
of the wife; and it can be safely said that nearly all will agree that
to compel a woman to submit to the cruelty and brutalities of a drunken
or profligate husband, is not only inflicting upon her legal cruelty,
but has an influence which extends beyond the individual and is powerful
for evil upon those who are to come after us.
Strangely enough as our educational advantages have increased, as more
avenues of self support have been opened to women, so has the ratio of
divorce to marriage also grown larger, thus apparently furnishing
conclusive proof that it is not legislative reform that is now needed.
It is not necessary to argue that no legislation can operate in any way
to strengthen those family ties which have their foundation in the
social and domestic affections. On the other hand, any thing in the
direction of education of the young tending to strengthen love of home
and domestic life, and to do away with the prevalent tendency to what
has been termed individualism, will be a step in the right path and will
aid in lessening the evils which so many wrongly ascribe to faulty
legislation.
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