Part 21 (2/2)
Comparison of census returns for 1890, 1900 and 1910, reveals that for both s.e.xes the percentage of married has steadily increased and the percentage listed as single has as steadily decreased. The census cla.s.sifies young men, for this purpose, in three age-groups: 15-19, 20-24, and 25-34; and in every one of these groups, a larger proportion was married in 1910 than in 1900 or 1890. Conditions are the same for women. So far as the United States as a whole is concerned, therefore, marriage is neither being avoided altogether, nor postponed unduly,--in fact, conditions in both respects seem to be improving every year.
So far the findings should gratify every eugenist. But the census returns permit further a.n.a.lysis of the figures. They cla.s.sify the population under four headings: Native White of Native Parentage, Native White of Foreign Parentage or of Mixed Parentage, Foreign-born White, and Negro. Except among Foreign-born Whites, who are standing still, the returns for 1910 show that in every one of these groups the marriage rate has steadily increased during the past three decades; and that the age of marriage is steadily declining in all groups during the same period, with a slight irregularity of no real importance in the statistics for foreign-born males.
On the whole, then, the marriage statistics of the United States are rea.s.suring. Even if examination is limited to the Native Whites of Native Parentage, who are probably of greater eugenic worth, as a group, than any of the other three, the marriage rate is found to be moving in the right direction.
But going a step farther, one finds that within this group there are great irregularities, which do not appear when the group is considered as a whole. And these irregularities are of a nature to give the eugenist grave concern.
If one sought, for example, to find a group of women distinctly superior to the average, he might safely take the college graduates. Their superior quality as a cla.s.s lies in the facts that:
(a) They have survived the weeding-out process of grammar and high school, and the repeated elimination by examinations in college.
(b) They have persevered, after those with less mental ability have grown tired of the strain and have voluntarily dropped out.
(c) Some have even forced their way to college against great obstacles, because attracted by the opportunities it offers them for mental activity.
(d) Some have gone to college because their excellence has been discovered by teachers or others who have strongly urged it.
All these attributes can not be merely acquired, but must be in some degree inherent. Furthermore, these girls are not only superior in themselves, but are ordinarily from superior parents, because
(a) Their parents have in most cases cooperated by desiring this higher education for their daughters.
(b) The parents have in most cases had sufficient economic efficiency to be able to afford a college course for their daughters.
Therefore, although the number of college women in the United States is not great, their value eugenically is wholly disproportionate to their numbers. If marriage within such a selected cla.s.s as this is being avoided, or greatly postponed, the eugenist can not help feeling concerned.
And the first glance at the statistics gives adequate ground for uneasiness. Take the figures for Wellesley College, for instance:
_Status in fall of 1912_ _Graduates_ _All students_
Per cent married (graduated 1879-1888) 55% 60% Per cent married in: 10 years from graduation 35% 37% 20 years from graduation 48% 49%
From a racial standpoint, the significant marriage rate of any group of women is the percentage that have married before the end of the child-bearing period. Cla.s.ses graduating later than 1888 are therefore not included, and the record shows the marital status in the fall of 1912. In compiling these data deceased members and the few lost from record are of course omitted.
In the foregoing study care was taken to distinguish as to when the marriage took place. Obviously marriages with the women at 45 or over being sterile must not be counted where it is the fecundity of the marriage that is being studied. The reader is warned therefore to make any necessary correction for this factor in the studies to follow in some of which unfortunately care has not been taken to make the necessary distinction.
Turn to Mount Holyoke College, the oldest of the great inst.i.tutions for the higher education of women in this country. Professor Amy Hewes has collected the following data:
_Decade of graduation Per cent remaining single Per cent marrying_
1842-1849 14.6 85.4 1850-1859 24.5 75.5 1860-1869 39.1 60.9 1870-1879 40.6 59.4 1880-1889 42.4 57.6 1890-1892 50.0 50.0
Bryn Mawr College, between 1888 and 1900, graduated 376 girls, of whom 165, or 43.9%, had married up to January 1, 1913.
Studying the Va.s.sar College graduates between 1867 and 1892, Robert J.
Sprague found that 509 of the total of 959 had married, leaving 47% celibate. Adding the cla.s.ses up to 1900, it was found that less than half of the total number of graduates of the inst.i.tution had married.
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