SELFISH INTENTIONS - K-REx - Kansas State University

grounds used to petition for a divorce. Between July 1, 1908, and July 1, 1909, there were 2,000
divorces granted in Kansas. Of these 2,000 divorces, 850 of them were granted on the grounds
of abandonment. By comparing each of these article titles, it was clear that the same information
could be examined and interpreted in different ways, but it was also clear that alarm was a more
common response than indifference. 120
For example, an article published in the Kansas City Star on December 25, 1910, by
Professor Ellwood of the Sociological Department at the University of Missouri landed on the
side of alarm when he contended that if a change did not occur soon in divorce rates all
marriages would be terminated by divorce instead of death. Professor Ellwood used statistics
from Kansas City from the year 1910 in his investigation of divorce and marriage. He found the
city issued 4,448 marriage licenses and the courts granted 722 divorces. There was one divorce
for every six marriages in Kansas City that year. In the state of Missouri, there was one divorce
for every eight marriages. One may think that the statistics for divorce in the rural areas would
be significantly different from the city but Professor Ellwood determined this was not the case.
The rural areas had just as many divorces.
Dr. Ellwood addressed the issue of rising divorce rates in the United States, “‘For a long
time the United States has led the world in the number of its divorces. Already in 1885 this
country had more divorces than all the rest of the Christian civilized world put together.’” 121
Furthermore, Professor Ellwood explained the annual statistics of divorce in the United States
showed approximately 68,000 divorces granted annually, while the rest of the Christian world
only granted 40,000 divorces. Ellwood noted, “In France there is only one divorce to every
120 Kansas City Journal, “Ratio of Divorces is Remarkably Low,” 28 November 1909.
Topeka Capitol, “One-Eighth of Marriages are Failures,” 28 November 1909.
121 Kansas City Star, “Computing the Divorce Census of Tomorrow,” 25 December 1910.
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