The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-03-13

very serious problem on socioio-
gists; but we are inclined to regard
them as only temporary and due to a
process of readjustment resulting from
a number of other changes character
istic of the age.
The second complaint stated above
is a much less serious-though often q
very vexatious matter. 1t also is ike
ly to work out its own solution in due
time. Some of the elements OF hope
which we are about to indicate in
the greater field of female competition
with men, apply in an equal or greater
degree to the minor issue, as anyone
who thinks it over may readily see for
himself.
The primary principle of readjust-
ment is, of course, to be found in the
fact that man is a marrying animal.
tits doubtful whether today the num-
Der of the unmarried is any larger in
proportion to population than 1T was
in any previous age. 1t may be for a
year or two but not for any extended
period of time. The law of nature is
that a vast majority of persons, men
and women-at least ninety five per
cent, we should say-marry sooner
or later in their lives, and we think it
exceedingly unlikely that this gen.
eral average will eve be changed.
The tendency just now is to marrl-
ages later in life than of old. The
standard of living has gone up, and
the competition of woinen has made
it harder and harder for young men
to realize an income sufficient for a
matrimonial venture. But if the in
comes of young men are lower than
of old, it does not seem to us that
those of middle aged and elderly men
has decreased on the average. Mar
riage has with US always been
undertaken from five to ten
years earlier than in Europe at
least in cities and the present
conditions seem to be tending to a
postponement of the act until a later
period of life. By following out the
train of reasoning which this idea
suggests, it will be seen that presently
a new adjustment of the labor market
must take place. The surplus OF
women will gradually be Withdrawn
through an increase in the number OF
marriages, and the reduction of the
supply of persons available for work
will once again tend to increase wages.
In other words, women, it will be
found, are only in the labor field for a
small number of years, and therefore
the temporary overcrowding which
resulted from their recent sudden In
fux into it will tend to disappear.
1t may be regarded as certain that
no state which initiates generally
against marriage a be of long g n
durance, and woman herself will in
stinctively help to solve such a situ-
alton. For a while, girls may rejoice
in the opportunity to hew out their
own paths and earn their own Evell-
hoods. But they soon languish I'M
der the sun of their own prosperity
and long ( or the shelter of the home.
They soon begin to make sacrifices
for the sake of the companionship
that is natural to them. In other
words, they marry and will always
marry as fast as they can get the
chance, and in the vast majority Of
cases their marriage is the end OF
their competition with men in the
wage market.
The world cannot go altogether
wrong. 1t is a complex system OF
compromising forces, and wnen So
ciety begins running too fast in n
direction, some counter weight begins
to act or some counter movement is
established, and at the end of the
century one finds that the balance is
ahout the Same aS ever.