Woodruff County news., 1901-12-07
PREPONDERANCE OF MEN.
There Are Twenty-FOur More Males Than Females in Every One
 Thousand of Our Population.


 Curiosity, not to say astonishment, is excited, by the recent announcement of the census bureau. The enumera- tion of 1900 shows that there are more men and boys than women and girls in this country and that the difference exceeds 1,S0O,000 in a population of 76,3 ,3S7. The excess appears more distinctly perhaps, when it is said that there are 512 males and only 48S fe- males in every thousand people in the United States, says the Chicago Trib- une
 What is more this sort of thing has been going on, with some little f1uc- tuation in the percentage, for over half a century. As long ago as 1850 there was a distinct numerical superiority of the male over the female element. By 1860 the preponderance was even more conspicuous, but in 1870 less than for several decades. The returns for 1880 show slight gain once more, though the disparity of 1860 was not quite reached, and those for 1890 a still further increase. The situation has scarcely changed in the last ten years. Indeed, the census bureau figures out microscopic falling off in the growth of the male popula- tion as compared with the female. To be sure, the excess was only 1,560, ,097 in 1890. and has since been enlarged by 254 4,727; but the bureau finds that the percentages of gain are not quite alike, and there are faint indications of a fu- ture 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 women are more numerous than the men. It is possible to detect forces that disturb the balance in some of these countries. But Mir. Porter, su- perintendent of the census of 1890, was 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 51 to 40. Comparison with the stand ard. then, makes the excess of males in America stranger than if nature ex- hibited strict impartiality.
 The two forces which appear to be chiefly concerned in upsetting the equilibrium are war and immi gra ton. And of the two the former is much less effective. Still, it was powerful enough to influence the returns in Germany and France after the famous struggle of 1S7071. And in the United States it pulled down the male proportion of 5,112 in every 10000 in 1860 to 5,O56 in 1870.
 Migration, of course, works in two ways. The majority of immigrants are men. The departures from one coun- try, therefore, leave the other sex in excess in one part of the world while they promote the preponderance of their own in another. Thus in some European countries the proportion of males to females is about 4S5 to 515. Now, inasmuch as three out of every five immigrants who come to the Unit ed States are men and ten out of every seventy-fve people here are of foreign birth it is easy to see how important is this factor in establishing the ratio between the sexes. In 1890, for in- stance, the excess of males here was made up in this proportion: Native born, 62S,797; foreign born, SS4,713. And yet scarcely a seventh of the pop ulation came from other lands. It is to this fact, no doubt, that immigra- ton has experienced a slight check in the last few years and that the recent slight falling off in masculine ascend ency here is due
 But people migrate not only from one country to another, but also from one part of the country to another. This is peculiarly true in the United States. In consequence, there is de-