The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1872-06-15
These arneliorations

are some of the results of our struggle.
There was single quindecennium OF the
Roman Empire when war, pestilence
and famine consumed half Of the human
species.
Philip H., OF infamous memory, stran-
gled, drowned, burned and beheaded more
than 18, 900 Of his fellow creatures in six
years.
Diseases that used to decimate the cities
have disappeared. Deaths caused by other
complaints are constantly diminishing in
numbers, from the application Of newly
discovered remedies and methods Of treat
ment. Vaccination has limited the ex-
tent of a disease that once produced
CONSERVATION in every community that it
entered
From the operation of the underlying
vital impulse Of our being, the physique Of
the race has at the same time improved
Compare the dwarfsh bodies of the inhabi-
tants of early Europe, the lake and cave
dwellerS, with those of their successors, the
Gauls and Germans, or with the people of
France and Switzerland to-day. The av-
erage strength of savages to do or to
suffer is less than that of more cultivated
communities
1t is only till within fifty to eighty years
that governments have paid much atten-
tiOn to vital statistics, or that the princi-
Piles which should govern in their collection
and tabulation have been understood.
That time il too short to afford complete
statistical proof of the increased longevity
of our race. 1t has been contended by
some that the length of life has much in
creased in England in the last one hundred
and fifty years. But the length Of mans
life Is so disproportionate to the race that
it seems hardly possible to obtain such &C
curate statistics as would indicate the
small fractional improvement made in one
hundred and fifty years. The large in
crease is probably apparent, only resulting
from different methods of calculation.
However, figures, 80 far On they exist, sus-
tain the ideas formed on general view Of
the subject. Ulpianus, Roman jurist who
lived about the year 200 A. D., has left q
table of life expectations for different ages.
According to his calculations, n person un-
der twenty years Of age might expect to
live thirty years longer but Dr. Price cal
culated from data collected early in the last
century, that person at ten might expect
to live thirty-nine and three-quarters years
longer; and at twenty, thirty-three years
and five months. DR. Farr, from data col
lected within comparatively recent peri
cd, calculated that person at twenty
might expect TO live over forty years longer
For the higher ages, the difference is still
more striking Ulpianus says that per-
son at sixty years Of age will probably live
five years longer while DIR. Price says over
thirteen years longer, and DIR. Farr four
teen years.
The city of Geneva, Switzerland, has
maintained a continuous register of births,
deaths and marriages, since 1549, A. D.,
and from this 1t appears that the time
which it was probable that every individual
born in that city would live, was, from the
year 1850 to 1900, about eight years from
1000 to 100, about thirteen years and SC
on increasing, till, at the present time, the
chances are that every person born in that
city will live to be more than fOrty-fve
years Of age, The mean expectation Of life
in that oity is now nearly six times what il
was three hundred years ago.
The prudential restraint exercised by the
inhabitants in regard to marriage, in ODE
dience to the instinct of f-preservation
has had great influence in producing thi,
result. In the United States, by the cen.
sus of 1850, there were % deaths to ever
1000; while, according to the census o.
1860, there were only 20 deaths to the same
number.
INEQUALITY OF THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE.
Now, though there in a constant genera
increase in the duration of life, and a con.
tinual approach to equality in that regard
yet as it stands to-day the chances of living
among different divisions Of society are ex
ceedingly unequal,
Other things being the same, the amount
of sickness and death in a community de.
pends upon the expenditure of physical
force in that community. The sickness and
mortality among men is more than among
women. Men do most of the work From
thirty-eight years Of age and upwards, wo
men have a much better chance of living
than men. That is the reason why the
number of women exceeds that of the mum
ber of men. There are actually more male.
han females born. Here in Massachusetts,
where the disproportion, increased some
what By emigration, is greater than in any
State Of the Union, there were from IS4i
to 1850, over three thousand more male,
than females born. There are now living
In the State about fifty thousand more wo
men than men. For the year ending Junt
l, 1870, there were recorded in the United
States over twenty-nine thousand NOR,
deaths Of males than females. The womer
are left alive after the men have toileC
themselves into their graves. Here we maj
find the reason why women as a class d.
not seek equal privileges with men. Theil
nature fears that anything that abridgel
their dependence onmen, brings them nearer
to deaths door. 1t will not, but it is fear
ed that it will. We all are afraid Of los
ing what we have, that is conservatism. Ye
we want more, that il radicaliam. The
same desire begets them both. Men will in
time concede the demands made by com
parstively small portion of the women, be
cause nature teaches the former that they
will grow more erect if part of the burdeI
they carry Ia more equally divided AmonI
all. When women engage in laborious oc
cupations, however, they are shorter hveC
than men. In Massachusetts,, the averag,
age ut death Of those over twenty, ant
whose occupations were given, was fo
twenty-six years, eight months, between
Fifty and hfty-one years; of these theaveragv
age Of the females was only thirty mine ana
q quarter years. That in in proportion II
the number employed more women diec
at their work than men, because they haG
to expend, relatively, q greater amount o
vital force. IL would seem that for doin,
the same amount of work an men, womeI
ahould not only receive the same, but ever
higher wages, for to them the work In NOR,
1 q n n