Omaha daily bee., 1902-08-24
DIR. ANDREWS ON n UxMARRrED.
Exaggerated Utterances Tested ON
Scale of Unvarnished History.

Scale of U~nvarnished History.
Philadelphia Press.
President z. BENJAMIN Andrews, who has
a useful but somewhat misleading faculty
for saying things, sometimes wise and
sometimes otherwise, which attract public
attention because they touch on subjects
Of wide public interest which others have
neglected. is having q week or so Of news
paper comment by devoting his "convoca-
tion speech" at the University Of Chicago
to the wickedness Of being unmarried.
Following q long train Of legislators and
teachers through many centuries, DR.. An
drews is unwise enough to ~denounce, with
out exception and without qualification, the
unmarried man or woman as a poor weak
ling who has neglected his duty in life.
There Is enough In history-aud some
thsng5 In current ~life--to prove the ex-
t~ravagance OF DR.. Andrews scoldinE, but
neither he nor those who common on his
utterancss appear to be aware that he is
dealing with a normal social condition
which always has and. so far as one can
see, always will accompany an increase
In the comforts and opportunities OF life.
Whether or no men decay as wealth accu-
mulstes, there 10 no question whatever but
marriages decrease.
NAAN~ W SchAuhy 9BO-Wucu II WAS
a favorite declaration Of political econo-
mists. led by Nautilus, that az wages rose
and food grew cheaper the marriage rate
would increase and births grow numerous.
This was specioOs, and for nearly nifty
years was accepted as true. But the emu.
meration Of population during the last 100
years have settled 1t beyond question thai
the reverse takes place. AS Mr.. and Mrs.
Sidney Webb have shown beyond question
In their works on industrial Democracy
and Trades Unions" when wages rise in
any calling, trade or employment the mar
riage rate tends to diminish and births
tend to decrease. 1t does not need pages
OF statistics TO prove this to anyone who
looks out on society and sees tina the num-
Der OF unmarried women increases as the
advantages Of life increase.
Marriage comes early as a matter of
course to the young woman In the lower
stratum OF the lAbOring class, but as the
family wage increases the number Of I'M
married women also increases. and when
one reaches the average OF families able
to spend 1000 q year or so in educating
their daughters after they become 10 or IL
years old. and who are able to continue
this education through a college course,
about four women put OF ten are left un-
married.
This takes place about equally, whether
the young woman goes to college or not.
Society" as II is called, is one vast array
o. spinsters. Among the favored families
who have some hereditary means, a fixed in
come and the various advantages which come
from social relations prolonged through
more than one generation, in this city and
in all cities, the noticeable fact IL the large
number OF young women who come out"
who stay out for two. three or four years,
gradually fading into the background Of
unmarried women which constitutes a sort
Of fringe In society.
What is true Of this particular set is true
all through the social organism. During
the last nfty years in the United States. in
which the wealth Of the country has enor-
mously increased, growing from three 20
the marriage and the birth rates
have as steadily decreased. This decrease
exists among all classes. II is largest, as
everybody knows, among families whose an
came to this country before the
revolution. Many OF these families are Wis
IDLY dying out. 1t is next apparent in those
whose prosecutors came here before 1850,
and who now figure In the census columns
as children Of parents Of foreign birth>The
only class where births are numerous and
marriage constant is in the last deposit OF
immigration. which IL still engaged in a
hard struggle for life.
History has the same record through all
its course. Always Is nations have grown
In civilization and grown In wealth they
have decreased In marriage and birth rate.
beginning with families me ability of -kess
members enabled them TO get a little the
start OF the rest in wealth. Thus natu .
revenges herself on the deslres OF man to
gain more than his msto.