Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1902-05-02
MORE MEN BY 100000
MASCULINE PREPcNDERANcE IN TIE
UNITED STATES.

Whatever differences Dame Nature
may have intended between the
spheres of influence of men and wom-
en-, she evidently intended that numer-
ically at least the two sexes should
stand on nearly the same footing. The
world over, except where recognizable,
| and what might be called artificial
causes interfere, the male and female
elements of the population are about
equal. raa->..s .':,s II, ,sS.. lis.
At first sight, perhaps, this may not
seem at all remarkable. But it is to
be remembered that in many families
large ones, too-the great majority
of the children are of one sex or the
other. And one should not be sur
prised IL the aggregate effect of this
lopsidedness were to produce con-
siderable excess Of men or women in
nation. The fact that such is not the
case, then shows that there is some
potent and mysterious law Of COM
pensation at work upon the race as
whole. And this law operates upon
many of the animals as well as men.
On the farm it is found convenient to
preserve great predominance of one
sex over the other in cattle and chick
ems.
Curiosity, not to say astonishment,
is excited, therefore, by recent an
nouncement 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 poulation of 76,3o3,3S7. The ex-
cess appears more distinctly, perhaps,
when it is said that there are 512
males and only ass females in every
thousand people in the United States.
What Is more, this sort of thing has
been going on, with some little fuctua-
ton in the percentage, for over half
a century. AS long ago as 1850 there
was n 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 fig
ures out microscopic falling off in
the growth OF the male population,
as compared with the female. To be
sure, the excess was only 1,560,097 in
I, ct, hJr
254 727 but the bureau finds that the
percentages Of gain are not quite alike,
and that there are faint indications of
a future reaction.
The state of things here revealed
is the more striking when compared
with that existing n Europe. Both
in the United Kingdom and on the
Continent the women are more numer-
Gus than the men. 1t is possible to
detect forces which disturb the bal
ance in some of these countries. But
Mr.. Porter superintendent of the cen
sus OF 1890, was inclined to think that
these influences did not operate per-
ceptibly in Austria and the Neither
lands, and hence that normally the
female sex outnumbers the male in
nearly the proportion of 1ifty-one to
forty-nine. Comparison with the
standard, then, make the excess Of
males in America stranger than If
nature exhibited strict impartiality.
The two forces which appear to be
chiefly concerned in upsetting the
equilibrium are war and immigration.
And of the two the former is much
the less effective. Still, it was power
full enough to influence the returns in
Germany and France after the famous
struggle Of 1S70-71. And in the United
States it pulled down the male proper
ton of 5112 in every 10000 in 1860
to 5056 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 4So 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 proportions: Native
born, 62S,797; foreign bora, SS4,713.
And yet scarcely seventh OF the pop
ulation came from other lands. 1t is to
this fact, no doubt, that immigration
has experienced slight check in the
last few years that the recent slight
falling off in the masculine ascendency
! here is due.
But people migrate not only from one
country to another, but from one part
| of Il country to another. This is pecul-
| iarily true in the United States. In
! consequence, there is depletion in
| the ranks of the sterner sex in the
| East, and strong Reinforcement in
! the West. Indeed, in the latter quar-
| +o,. 4haro ic a 5oulla ir,ro