New-York tribune., 1901-10-20
SEX AND POPULATION.
WHY THIS COUNTRY HAS MORE MEN
THAN WOMEN

INTENDED between the spheres OF influence OF
men and women, she evidently intended that
numerically at least the two sexes should stand
IN nearly the footing. The world over.
xcept where recognizable and what might be
called artificial causes interfere. the male and
female elements of the population are about
equal.
AT first sight perhaps, this may not seem at
all remarkable. But il is TO be remembered
that in many fames-large cnes, too-the great
majority of the children of the
other And should not be surprised if the
aggregate effect of this lOpsdedness to pro-
duce considerable excess of men women in
a nation. The fact that such is not the case
then, shows that there is potent and mys-
terious law of compensation at work upon the
a whole And this law operates upon
many of the animals we'll men. On the
farm it is found convenient to preserve a great
predomnance of one over the other in cattle
and chickens. The bull calf is predestined from
his birth to conversion into veal and a similarly
stern fate cOnsigns the superfluous cockerel to
the gridiron chicken pie at a tender age. But.
far the natural increase is concerned
among cattle and poultry, approximately
even balance is preserved.
Curiosity, not say astonshment, is excited
therefore. by recent announcement of the
Census Bureau. The enumeration of 1900 shows
that there are more men and boys than women
and girls in this country, and that the difference
exceeds 100000 in a population of 6303 3s7.
The excess appears more distinctly, perhaps,
when it is said that there are 512 males and only
4SS females in every thousand people in the
United States.
What is more. this sort of thing has been
going on, with some little iuctuation in the per
centage. for over half a century. AS long ago
as 1880 there was distinct numerical superb
orlty Of the male over the female element. BY
1ooo the preponderance was even more coI.-
spicuous. but in 1870 less than for several dec
ades- The returns for 1850 show a sgh; gain
once more though the disparity of 1860 was not
quite reached. and those for 1890 still further
increase. The situation has scarcely changed in
the last ten years. Indeed. the Census Bureau /
figures out a microscopic falling off in the
growth of the male population compared with
the female. To be sure. the excess was only
1,56OO97 in 1880. and has since been enlarged
by 254 727; but the bureau finds that the per
centages of gain are not quite alike, and that
there faint indications Of a future reaction.
The state of things here revealed is the more
striking when compared with that existing in
Europe. Both in the United Kingdom and on
the Continent the numerous
than the men. 1t is possible to detect forces
that disturb the balance in some of these coun-
tries. But Mr.. Porter, Superintendent of the
Census Of 1890, inclined to think that these
influences did not operate perceptibly in Austria
and the Netherlands, and hence that normally
the female sex outnumberS the male in nearly |
the proportion of u to 80. Comparison with |
that standard, then, makes the excess of males
in America stranger than if Nature exhibited
strict impartiality.
The two forces which appear to be chiefly con-
cerned in upsetting the equilibrium and
Immigration. And OF the two the former is much
the less effective. Still, ii was powerful enough
after the famous struggle of 1S7O-'71 And in
the United States it pulled down the male pro-
norton Of Sip in every 10000 in 1860 to 5,0JG
in 1870.
Migration, of course, works IN two ways. The
majority of immigrants are men. The depart !
ures from one country, therefore, leave the |
other sex in excess in one part Of the world, |
while il promotes the preponderance OF their |
own in another. Thus, in some European coun- |
tries the proportion of males to females is |
about 4S5 to 80. Now. inasmuch as three out
of every five imm grants who come to the United |
States are men and out of every seventy |
five people here are Of foreign birth, ii is easy |
to see how important is this factor in establish |
ing the ratio between the sexes. In lS!'o, for
instance the excess of males here was made up
in .his proportion: Native born, G2S, 19I; foreign
born Ssh 713. And yet scarcely a seventh OF
the population came from other lands 1t Is
cod