ombination of these
causes. Three other grounds for divorce are admitted as legal in many or
most American states, viz. imprisonment in 39, habitual drunkenness in
38, and neglect to provide in 22. About 98% of American divorces are
granted on some one or more of these six grounds. In general the
legislation on the subject of the causes allowed for divorce is most
restrictive in the states on the Atlantic coast, from New York to South
Carolina inclusive, and is least so in the Western states. The slight
expense of obtaining a divorce in many of the states, and the lack of
publicity which is given to the suit, are also important reasons for the
great number of decrees issued. The importance of the former
consideration is reflected in the fact that the divorce-rate for the
United States as a whole shows clearly, in its fluctuations, the
influences of good and bad times. When times are good and the income of
the working and industrial classes likely to be assured, the
divorce-rate rises. In periods of industrial depression it falls,
fluctuating thus in the same way and probably for the same reason that
the marriage-rate in industrial communities fluctuates. In two-thirds of
the divorce suits the wife is the plaintiff, and the proportion slightly
increased in the forty years. In the Northern states the percentage
issued to wives (1887-1906) was 71, while in the Southern states it was
only 56. But where both parties desire a decree, and each has a legal
ground to urge, a jury will usually listen more favourably to a woman's
suit.

Divorce is probably especially frequent among the native population of
the United States, and among these probably more common in the city than
in the country. This statement cannot be established absolutely, since
statistics afford no means of distinguishing the native from the
foreign-born applicants. It is, however, the most obvious reason for
explaining the fact that, while in Europe the city divorce-rate is from
three to five times as great as that of the surrounding country, the
difference in the United States between the two regions is very much
less. In other words, the great number of foreigners in American cities
probably tends to obscure by a low divorce-rate the high rate of the
native population. Divorce is certainly more common in the New England
states than in any others on the Atlantic coast north of Florida, and it
is not unlikely that wherever the New England families have gone di