living, for friction, both within and without the domestic circle.

(6) The higher standards of living and comfort which have come with the
growth of our industrial civilization, especially of our cities, must
also be set down as a cause of increasing instability of the family.
High standards of living are, of course, desirable if they can be
realized, that is, if they are reasonable. But many elements of our
population have standards of living and comfort which they find are
practically impossible to realize with the income which they have. Many
classes, in other words, are unable to meet the social demands which
they suppose they must meet in order to maintain a home. To found and
maintain a home, therefore, with these rising standards of living, and
also within the last decade or two with the rising cost of living,
requires such a large income that an increasingly smaller proportion of
the population are able to do this satisfactorily. From this cause,
undoubtedly, a great deal of domestic misery and unhappiness results,
which finally shows itself in desertion or in the divorce court.

It is evident that higher standards of taste and higher standards of
morality may also operate under certain circumstances to render the
family life unstable in a similar way.

(7) Directly connected with these last mentioned causes is another
cause,--the higher age of marriage. Some have thought that a low age of
marriage was more prolific in divorces than a relatively high age of
marriage. But a low age of marriage cannot be a cause of the increase of
divorce in the United States, because the proportion of immature
marriages in this country is steadily lessening, that is, the age of
marriage is steadily increasing, and all must admit that along with the
higher age of marriage has gone increasing divorce; and there may