ontrast the divorce situation in the country with that in the city
also fails to give the basis for social optimism that the facts are
often used to prove. Public opinion has more to do with actions than
law, and at present the general attitude toward the granting of divorce
is more conservative in the country than in the city. The reason for
this difference is, in large measure, the fact that once again the
country shows itself less sensitive to the changes that are taking place
with reference to the conditions of marriage. It certainly is not safe
to assume that the unhappy marriages in the country are in proportion
to the number of divorces. It is more likely that unless the urban
attitude changes, in time the country will come to feel toward divorces
much as city people do at present.

It is important to notice that, although legal divorce is frowned upon,
there is often a considerable social indifference to the loose living
together of men and women. Two clergymen at work in a rural community of
about a thousand people recently stated that there were in the community
at least forty unmarried people living together as husband and wife.
Later, I was informed by another resident of the town that the clergymen
had not exaggerated the situation. And yet I doubt not that the
community had a rather low divorce record. It is very interesting how
the moral code of a community may be strict at one point, while lenient
at another. In some rural communities, at least, one may find an
inconsistent public opinion that expresses very rigid hostility to
divorce and little practical opposition to lax sex relations. The low
attitude toward the sex element in marriage and the coarse viewpoint
disclosed by conversation often surprise the country visitor who is not
acquainted with the occasional inconsistency of rural ethics. Judging
the standing of married life by infrequent divorces and rather early
marriage, he is painfully disconcerted to discover that the marriage
ideal is nevertheless mean and lacking in social inspiration.

A third criticism is deserved by the rural family, namely, its failure
to make use of its social opportunity. It is easy to demonstrate the
greater normality of the rural family as compared with the urban family,
with respect to the family conditions that make possible an efficient
home life. It is not always true, however, that these superior family
opportunities are of social value. It is true that children