Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 February 1917 — THE M’KINLEY DIVORCE BILL [ARTICLE]

THE M’KINLEY DIVORCE BILL

Under the provisions 6f the McKinley divorce bill, which passed Kinley divorce.bill, which passed the senate and has gone to the house, with the county clerk a preliminary notice sixty days before the suit is filed. Under the present law. there is a provision for sixty days between the time the suit is filed and the time it comes to trial. If the McKinley bill becomes law. therefore, the good features of the provision for waiting sixty days will be retained, and the effectiveness of the delay strengthened by the circ.’.-itstances that suit has nor actually been begun.

There can be no doubt that many divorces in this state can not be attributed to reasonable grounds, but to an outburst of ill temper followed by a brief period of stubborn resentment. In this state of mind no person is able to judge calmly of the penalties cf divorce. It is regarded for the moment as merely a step which promises relief from an intolerable condition,' when it really often serves only to prolong and intensify such a condition. Under the present law, and with the aid of the $lO divorce lawyers who infest the state and disgrace their profession, it is a pimple matter to file suit, and in districts where much publicity is given to divorce cases, the case usually comes ta trial. The McKinley measure is an effort to solve one of the many problems growing out of the divorce evil, and has the merit of affording some relief. Its aim is not so much to make divorce more difficult as to make reconciliation easier. It should serve to reduce the number of cases where couples are divorced only to remarry in a short tipie, a practice that makes the statistics on divorces appear ■much more alarming than the actual situation warrants.- —Indianapolis News.