T HE present total war scarcely leaves a single custom unaffected. It is natural, then, to expect marriages, births, and divorces to be changed. At first, our impression may be that marriages are increased, that perhaps births may be increased too; but we are not sure what the effect on divorce may be. These impressions are only partly true, for in the First World War, marriages and births were decreased. Our experience in this war has been only with its first phase, namely, its beginning. Wars go through different phases as they progress, and their effects on society vary according to their length. They also vary according to the intensity and extent of the fighting. For instance, we were in the First World War only a year and a half, and family life was not profoundly affected. The question of the effect of war on marriages, births, and divorces is not, therefore, a simple question. Like most apparently simple questions, it must be broken, for proper analysis, into subquestions concerning the different stages of the war and the extent of our participation at the battle fronts, wherever they may be. The approach will be to inquire about marriages during the war's beginning.