The Yale expositor., 1900-06-01
The Question of the Census
Questions.

The objects Of the federal census are
of three kinds: To furnish a basis for
the apportionment of Representatives
in the lower house of Congress; to as
certain the growth of the United
States in numbers, wealth and indus
try; and to investigate the social organ
iZations and institutions which de-
termine the growth of population and
wealth. The first is constitutional
necessity, the second study Of facts
and the third study of causes.
Probably no social institution is sc
intimately connected with the growth
of population as that of marriage. In
investigating marital conditions the
law requires about each person state
ment whether he or she is single, mar
ried, widowed, or divorced; if married
how many years the marriage has last
ed; if mother, how many children she
has had, and how many of these chill
dren are now living.
From the answers to the questions
it is possible to determine the birth
rate, the prevalence of marriage, the
proportion of women and children to
the whole population, the duration and
fruitfulness of marriage. So far as the
power and Importance of nations are
dependent upon the size of the popula-
tion, to that extent is the accurate de-
termination of these questions a mat
ter af public necessity.
In the United States there would
seem to be little danger of decline in
the population. But even when we are
sure that the population is growing, it
is still necessary to know how it is grow
ing. The millions OfIndia are increas-
ing, but it is by process of many
births and many deaths. In good years
millions are born; in times of famine
millions die, the population increasing
because few more are born than die.
1t is a growth, but savage growth.
There is a more excellent kind of prog
ress, that resulting from the combina-
tion of a moderate birth rate and a
small death rate.
The material statistics collected by
the census are in many respects very
interesting. Thus, the extent and pow
er of the anti-marital forces can be es-
timated in way by ascertaining the
proportion of people between 55 and
ga years of age who have never been
married. Census statistics show that
the proportion of unmarried females
between these ages is greatest in the
east, in North Carolina, Rhode Island,
and Massachusetts, for instance, while
the proportion is smallest i'm the West,
South Dakota, Utah, and Oklahoma
bringing up the rear in the order named.
Men, on the contrary, are far more
likely to remain single in the West
than in the East. The proportion of
unmarried men between 50 and 64 is
lower is the Southern States, Q. g., Ar
kansas, Alabama, and Georgia, and
greatest in the block of Western States
west of the Mississippi. In Nevada
1872 per cent of the males between 30
and ga have never been married, Idaho
coming next with 32.4 per cent, Mon
tana next with 29.5 percent, etc.
That marriage is still prominently
the sphere of women seems to be indi-
Gated by the fact that more women
marry than men, and they marry at
earlier ages. Thus, only 81 per cent of
females 10 years of age and oyer are
unmarried, while among males of the
same ages the proportion is al per cent.
Taking girls and boys between 10 and
20 years of age, it is found that one out
of every ten girls is married, while
among the boys the proportion falls to
one in two hundred. These were the
proportions in 1890. Whether these
conditions have changed since then is
a question that can only be answered
by the census of 1900.