Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1908 — Indiana Fourth in Divorce Column. [ARTICLE]

Indiana Fourth in Divorce Column.

The statistics; on marriage and divorce, just issued toy the Census Bureau, show that only three states, Washington, Colorado and Montana, exceed Indiana in the number of divorces granted in proportion to population. The bureau's statistics cover a period of twenty years, from 18S7 to 1906, inclusive. During that tweqty-year period, 60,721 divorc s were granted in Indiana. That is at the rate of 142 divorces annually for each 100,000 of population. In 1880 the divorces in the state were at the rate of seventy for each 100,000 of population. A compilation of statistics for Indiana shows, first, the number of divorces granted in each county for the twenty-year period, from 1887 to 1906, inclusive; second, the number of divorces granted in each county in 1906, and third, the number of divorces granted in each county in 1887. The figures show that 1906 was the banner year for divorces in Indiana. Only in fourteen counties do the figures show fewer divorces in 1906 than in 1887. In Dearborn county twenty-one divorces were granted in 1887, and in 1906 nine were granted. The proportionate decrease in the other thirteen counties was not so large. From 1887 to 1906, | 7,535 divorces were granted in Marlon I county. In 1906, 611 divorces were granted, and in 1887, 240 were granted. In Madison county 2,441 divorces were granted fiom 1887 to 1906. I In the entire United States, from 1887 to 1906, there were 12,832,044 marriages and 945,625 divorces, against 328,716 divorces for the preceding twenty years. Divorce is now two and a half times as coinnrn compared with the married population, as it was forty years ago. Utah and Connecticut are the only two states showing decreased divorce rate. Desertion caused 38.9 of tho total divorces in the twenty years, almost half of the divorces being granted to the husband for this cause, and > bout one-third to tie wi'e for tte same cause.

Dr nkennes' was Ibe ground in 5 3 per cent of the ca-x 3 in yhich the wife brought suit, and ’r. 1.1 per cent of the cases in which the suit was b. ought bv the husband, The ab"'e peicntage represent those cases iu which the specified cause was the sole ground on which the divorce was gr.med. Very frequently, however, divorces are granted not upon one ground ciiy, but upon two or more in oombiUdticn.