Note 775 — Chapter XVIII · PROBLEMS OF MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY

For example, Massachusetts created four new causes of divorce in 1870; and in 1873 reduced the time of desertion necessary to constitute a ground of divorce from five to three years. Divorces increased from 337 in 1872 to 611 in 1874. A part of this gain was probably due to the change in law, although in all the entire group of north Atlantic states there was at the same time a large increase which cannot be thus accounted for. The lax law of residence in Utah previous to 1878, and the reduction of the term of desertion from two years to one by the Dakota legislature in 1881, were each responsible for an increase in the divorce rate: compare Wright, Report, 152 ff., 156, 203 ff.; Willcox, A Study in Vital Statistics, 85-90; idem, The Divorce Problem, 41-61; with the criticism of Dike, "Legislation and Divorce," New York Eve. Post, July 2, 1891.