The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-01-26

There are three notable exceptions TO the
uniform decrease of the marriage rate, but
they are easily explained. In Prussia. In
Austria, and in Italy the marriage rate
of 1866 was distinctly below that Of 1856
The secret, of course, is that IN 1866 the
three States were at war, and campaigns
and matrimony do not go well together.
Italy alone OF the great European States
keeps up her marriage rate. 1t averaged
l5.2 for eighteen years; it was 1916 IN
1886. In this she resembles Sweden.
But the other States show the same
phenomenon:
Den Stcit- Aus Ger Rol-
mark zerldHd trin. many. land.
AySraFe 20 years i3s Isl Isl i55 55 i iS
These figures all point in one direction,
and all tell the same tale. Europeans are
not such a marrying people now as they
were twenty years ago, and among the
marrying peoples we are nearly at the bot
tom of the tree. The Irish marriage rate is
in itself enough to account for much of the
misery and unrest of Erin, and the Scotch
rate is lower than that of any nation in
Europe. Our marriage rate is now lower
than it has ever been since 1883, when the
statistics were first collected on scientific
basis. The average for quiuquennial periods
which tluctuated from b. i'll 1888 40 to II. =
in 1878 has gone down steadily since
1918, and is still tending downward.
Another fact which no doubt explains one
cause of the falling away in the marriage
rate is that people, if they do not postpone
marriage altogether, postpone it as late as
possible. That is to say, an increasing pro-
portion of the years Of human existence are
spent outside Of matrimony. The mean age
has been steadily rising since 1873, and the
mean age of 1856 is the highest yet recorded
being 2S2 for men and 25.9 for women.
The average age at which the professional
and independent classes marry is 81. % for
the man, 26. 40 for the woman.
OF course the meaning of the postpone
ment or the rejection of marriage is the in
crease of prostitution. No one will pre-
tend that the average man in these later
years has become more ascetic, more CONT
nent, more severe in holding his senses
under control The tendency has rather
been the other way A celibate population
is not, as a rule, a chaste population, but
rather the reverse To postpone marriage
is to increase prostitution, and that often of
the worst kind. For it is interesting to note
that the postponement and partial abandon
ment of marrage has not had as might
have been expected, its natural result in
the increase of illegitimate births. If
marriage had been succeeded by con-
cubinage OF the higher order, where the
union, although not permanent, has still
sufficient human relationship about it to
surround the partners with the redeem
ing influences of children, the falling
off in the marriage rate would have been
accompanied by the rise pdri pdSsu of the
number of children born out of wedlock.
The very reverse is the case. The marriage
rate in lS45 was 172, and the illegitimate
births @.3 per 1000 while in 1886, with a
marriage rate Of al, the illegitimate birth
rate had fallen to Is. The proportion of
Legitimate births in every thousand births
was IS in the ten years between 1851 and
1860. 1t was only A. in 1886. Putting it
roughly prostitution is elbowing matri
mony out of the field.
Apart altogether from the question of
vice, and looking at the subject solely from
the point of view of human happiness, a
more melancholy conclusion could hardly
be arrived at by the pessimist than that
which-born optimists as we are-seems to
be deducible from the Registrars figures.