Here in America divorces "sell" like hot cakes. It takes a judge no longer to grant a divorce than it takes a chef to make a waffle. The worst part of it is that the laws regarding divorce are different in each of the forty-eight states. They are so basically different that many men who have been divorced from a "better-half" are not quite sure whether they are free, married, or bigamists. The whole thing depends upon the locality in which they happen to be. In many cities and states it is practically impossible to get a divorce. In these we see husbands putting their wives into insane asylums and wives driving their husbands to suicide. Yet, did not these people, without difficulty, receive marriage licenses in the same city or state that now refuses them divorces. If their unification required so little effort why should their separation demand the almost impossible untying of so much red tape?

It is about time for the lawmaking bodies of all the states to get together and formulate uniform, honest, impartial marriage and divorce laws. This should not be difficult because the basic reasons for marriage and the common causes of divorce are the same among people all over the earth. A woman whose husband gives her a black eye feels and looks the same way whether she is in Illinois or California. She sheds tears to the same extent over a wandering or drunken husband in Utah as in New York. The human element is fundamentally the same in each of the two cases. Reasoning in like manner, if a man is driven to insanity by a nagging wife has the locality in which he lives been a partial cause? The climate or the latitude does not effect human reactions to a very great extent. Therefore, it puzzles me why, if the causes and effects are universal, the laws should be in any way divergent. People would, at least, know that if they moved, their marital status would not change with their house and their mailing address, were our marriage and divorce laws uniform.

Then, of course, there is another angle to the divorce question. Why has the 3marriage contract become so unstable? A couple marries one day and is divorced the next day. Obviously the marriage contract has for them no serious meaning. Nine out of ten people consider marriage an experiment which one puts nothing into. How can such an attitude bring about worthy results? Family, children, and purpose are all missing from the intentions of the contractors. As a result, according to statistics, there are over a million children who have been brought into the world like rabbits, and who know really nothing about family life and parental care. What could uniform laws do to remedy this terrible situation? The greatest tragedy of it all is that the community and society pay an immense price for the marital mistakes of its members. The recruits for crime and indecency come from the ranks of these cheated children who are the tragic results of experimental marriages.

Every year crime costs the American people many times more than education. If some enlightenment were provided for people of marriageable age concerning the 4purpose and sanctity of marriage, so many thoughtless marriages would not be entered into. This, in turn, would lessen the flow of divorce decrees, and simultaneously prevent much unhappiness on the part of both adults and children involved in unfortunate marriages.

Unless something is done soon the results of careless marriages will be of far-reaching effect.