ree times, while Japan, with the
largest divorce rate in the world, had reduced its rate one-half.

(3) Divorces in the United States are least common among people of the
middle class; they are higher among native whites than among
immigrants, and they are highest in cities and among childless
couples.

(4) Two-thirds of the divorces are granted on the demands of the wife.

(5) Divorce laws are very variable in the different States, but most
divorces are obtained from the States where the applicants reside.

79. =Causes of Divorce.=--The causes recorded in divorce cases do not
represent accurately the real causes, for the reason that it is easier
to get an uncontested decision when the charges are not severe, and
also for the reason that State laws vary and that which best fits the
law will be put forward as the principal cause. Divorce laws in the
United States generally recognize adultery, desertion, cruelty,
drunkenness, lack of support, and crime as legitimate grounds for
divorce. In the five years from 1902 to 1906 desertion was given as
the ground for divorce in thirty-eight per cent of the cases, cruelty
in twenty-three per cent, and adultery in fifteen per cent.
Intemperance was given as the direct cause in only four per cent, and
neglect approximately the same. The assignment of marital
unfaithfulness in less than one-sixth of the cases, as compared with
one-fourth twenty years before does not mean, however, that there is
less unfaithfulness, but that minor offenses are considered sufficient
on which to base a claim; the small percentage of charges of
intemperance as the principal cause ought not to obscure the fact that
it was an indirect cause in one-fifth of the cases.

It is natural that the countries of Europe should present greater
variety of laws and of causes assigned. In England, where the law has
insisted on adultery as a necessary cause, divorces have been few. In
Ireland, where the church forbids it, divorce is rare, less than one
to thirty-five marriages. In Scotland fifty per cent of the cases
reported are due to adultery. Cruelty was the principal cause ascribed
in France, Austria, and Rumania; desertion in Russia and Sweden. The
tendency abroad is to ascribe more rather than less to adultery.

The real causes for divorce are more remote than the specific acts of
adultery, desertion, or cruelty that are mentioned as grounds for
divorce. The primary cause is undoubtedly the spirit of individ