Marriage should therefore always be a matter of definite and open record in the archives of the community.  It should also be advertised, through the public record, for a considerable time, preferably six months or a year, before consummation, that the past experiences of contracting parties may be looked up by interested friends or officials, and the marriage of the unfit prevented; and so that mere caprice and passion shall have time to realize their mistake and turn away.  The form which the final ceremony of marriage will take can well be left to the tastes and traditions of the contracting parties.

The question of rights in children, or in property acquired after marriage, should be settled by the state; and it is hard to see how it can ever be settled satisfactorily except on a basis of equal partnership.  No man should be contented with a woman to bear and train his children, and create a social atmosphere for his home, who is not worth half of what he makes; and the same holds true of a woman.  So with regard to children, while one parent or the other may, under certain conditions, be given the direction of the child’s life, it is hard to imagine any circumstances that would justify society in refusing either father or mother the right frequently to see his child.

Since marriages must be contracted in youth and since inexperienced people must make mistakes and the wisest must sometimes change, it will sometimes happen that men and women must face the possibility of separation.  The problem of divorce is very difficult.[54] In less than twenty years, from 1887 to 1906, 945,625 divorces were granted in the United States; so that probably to-day there are nearly one million divorced people in this country.  Generally speaking, the divorce rate increases as one goes westward.  In 1900, the State of Washington led the country with 184 divorces for each 100,000 of population.  For the whole country we averaged 73 per 100,000 of population.  Japan alone leads us with 215, while England and Wales had only 2.  England grants divorce only for infidelity; and on the man’s side it must be accompanied by cruelty; all divorce cases must be tried in London, and the expense, never less than two hundred dollars, is prohibitive for the poor.  Meantime, England grants many separation orders; and it seems sure that the Royal Commission, which has been taking evidence for the past three years, will favor a freer system of divorce.

[54] See Statistics of Marriage and Divorce, prepared by the Bureau of the Census, beginning in 1906, and published in 1910.