The morning call., 1893-11-11
INCREASE OF POPULATION
All Marriages Are Governed by
General Laws.
NO ROMANCE IN CoURTsHIP.
The Fourth Lecture of the State Uni
versity Extension Course Deals
With Interesting Questions.

The usual crowd tiled the lecture-room
in the Mark Hopkins Art Institute last
evening TO listen to the fourth lecture on
political economy in the State University
extension course.
The subject for the evening was Pop
ulation and It's Needs" and it was mos
skillfully and interestingly handled By
Professor c. c. Plehn.
After briefly stating that while nature
is the basis of economic life. popula ion is
the second great factor, the lecturer pro-
ceeded to discuss the Malthusian theory OF
population with that of Charles Darwin.
The theory of Nautilus he stated to be SIM
ply that left TO itself or to the unrestrained
workings of natural impulses population
tends to increase more rapidly than the
supply of food can possibly increase. There
are two checks, however. which in most
cases act to restrain this increase: the
preventive, which is of a moral nature and
comprises all those influences which
restrain population by reducing the birth
rate, such as prudence and foresight in
contracting marriages, or abstinence from
marriage altogether, and the positive,
which cuts off superahundant population
perance.
In this connection Professor Plehn
spoke of the fact that early marriages
were less the rule than formerly. When
New England was younger her sons at the
age OF II or Is would stake out claim in
her forests and marry, since the sooner
they raised a family the better off they
were, as there was land all around to be
cleared and added to the family posses
sions. But now all this has changed.
Larger families mean more expense, and
the prudence and foresight of to-day are
just the contrary of what was the prudence
and foresight OF the past.
In civilized nations it is now the rule for
a man not 10 marry until able TO support
n family. In Italy only &c per cent marry
before tie age of %, in France only q per
cent, Ia England 53 per cent.
The question of free will was then taken
up and it was conclusively proved by
statistics that however much the indi-
vidual man thinks that ne is free agent
in his love-makiug and marriage he is in
reality governed by general law. This
takes something of the romance away
from a courtshp, but is nevertheless true.
Oddly enough the number OF marriages
ia any given period expresses the expect
ancy of economic prosperity prevailing a
that time, and expresses this the more
plainly the greater the economic freedom
in the country under consideration. In
general the population of the world is in
creasiag, although the pure French amt
pure New England stock. together with
the American Indian and certain savage
tribes in the far East, are steadily decreas-
ing.
In the consid Grafton of the death rate
the saddest fact is that of all children born
from % TO 40 per cent die before they reach
their fifth year. In Bavaria 40 per cent die
before their first birthday.
The quality of the population was then
taken up, and it was shown that while LOG
boys are born for every 100 girls the pro-
portion becomes equal when they attain
the age of 10 or II. and after that usually
, women average 103 10 every 100 men. The
number of defective individuals, blind.
deaf, insane. etc, averages only about
from $50 to 800 in every 100000.
In discussing the needs OF population the
lecturer SAID that the spur to economic
pros perty lies in the wants OF its people.
Wants he classified as necessities, comforts
and luXuries, and stated that while there
were certain undesirable wants, civilZa-
tion advances more rapidly where the
reasonable wants of men are greatest. In
classifying wants much depends on the
point of view of the individual since the
classification is necessarily relative one.
Ferdinand Lasalle, who bitterly berated
the German laborer for being content with
piece of bad sausage and glass OF beer,
WAS moving in the right direction since the
sooner we can arouse q man 10 desire
something better than he has and at The
same time take away from him undesirable
wants the better it is for him. Modern
charity has begun to understand and work
upon this idea, giving the poor oDpOrtuni-
ties to see and be associated with some Of
the refnements Of life.
The standard of life was defined as that
degree of comfort in certain countries to
which its people are accustomed and the
deprivation OF which would cause them
hardship. To illustrate this several very
interesting anecdotes were told of the
speakers experience iE collecting Stats
ties, and he said that those who were
strongest against pauper labor thought
that the coming together Of two differe1
standards of life would eventuate i'll the
lower standard prevailing. The state Of
society in which the standard OF life is
constantly growing higher is called the
dynamic; that in which 1t is not advancing
is called the static. and is really going
backward in relation TO the rest of the
world.
In conclusion Professor Plehn said that
as rule the higher the standard of life
the greater the energy, strength and skull
of the man, and that the nation is most
prosperous which is able to maintain with
large population the highest standard o.
life and continually advances toward an
even higher standard.
The subject of the next lecture will be
Labor and Wages"