Beats All Records - Thirty Two Divorces in Washtenaw in Past Six Months

BEATS ALL RECORDS

Thirty Two Divorces in Washtenaw in Past Six Months.

302 DIVORCES SINCE '90

Less Than Five Per Cent are for Scriptural Causes.

This is Reason Enough Why the Church Should Have Something to Say About the Laxity of the Marriage Laws.

Since Jan. 1, 1890, there have been 302 divorces granted in Washtenaw  county. That means that 604 married people have been made free to marry again if they so desire and many of them have already done so. But startling as this figure is, a further fact should serve to arouse still more public sentiment in this county and give rise to the question what are we coming to? The largest number of divorces granted in Washtenaw during this decade in any year was 36, in 1894, but in the past six months there have been 32 divorces granted. In other words the number of divorces which have been or will be granted in 1899 in Washtenaw will largely exceed the number granted in any previous year in the history of the county. Since Jan. 1 of this year 34 new cases have been commenced, the majority of which will be decided this year and an equally large number of cases which were commenced before Jan. 1 are still pending. The number of divorces granted in this county during the decade by years was as follows: '90, 26; '91, 21; '92, 33; '93, 30; '94, 36; '95, 25; '96, 32; '97, 33; '98, 34; six months of '99, 32.

Nor is this the worst of it; 99 of these divorces were granted where there were minor children whose rights and guardianship the court was called upon to determine and protect. In a few of the other cases there were children but they had attained their majority. During the past six months, in 11 cases where divorce was granted, there were minor children to be provided for. Even the presence of minor children and parental love did not seem to avail to keep the parties together. Such is the influence of lax divorce laws. Nor is Washtenaw one of the worst counties in the state for divorce. The same proportion of divorces would hold good all over the state.

That the church could exert a great deterrent influence in divorces is shown by the fact that few of the divorced parties are members of the Catholic or Episcopal churches, whose ministers in most cases decline to marry divorced parties. It may have been this which has brought the matter forcibly to the attention of the other clergymen of this city.

Another fact of interest is that the proportion of these divorces which were granted on scriptural grounds was considerably less than five per cent. The Chicago Times Herald yesterday editorially said apropos of this matter: "The clergymen of several denominations at Ann Arbor have taken a most effective means of bringing divorce for miscellaneous causes into disfavor among their parishioners. Last Friday evening two persons applied to a Methodist minister to be married. On looking over the license he ascertained that the woman was a divorcee. Thereupon he refused to perform the ceremony. The disappointed couple then applied to a Baptist minister, and he also refused to make them one.

"This led to an inquiry, which disclosed that the Methodist, Baptist, Congregational, Presbyterian, Church of Christ and Trinity Lutheran clergymen of Ann Arbor had held a private meeting and decided not to perform the marriage ceremony where either of the parties has been granted a divorce for any other than scriptural reasons. In the case of strangers who are divorces they will flatly refuse to marry them.

"The action of the clergymen of Ann Arbor is significant of the revulsion of public sentiment against easy and wholesale divorces."