Omaha daily bee., 1902-09-05
oEL1BAox AND MARRIAGE.
Chancellor Andrews' Remarks Dis
cussed and Analysed.
Portland oregonian.

Portland Oregonian.
DR.. e, B. Andrews, chancellor Of the
University of Nebraska, in a recent address
before the University of Chicago denounces
without exception and qualification the
unmarried man or woman as a poor weak
ling who amounts to almost nothing, has
no place In society. He asks US to look
at our great men-Washington, Lincoln,
Grant and so on. This kind Of reasoning
is worthy OF a man who was shallow
enough to preach the gospel Of free silver,
for how easy 1t is to ask DR.. Andrews to
look at Copernicus, Newton, Hume, Glib
bon, Swift, Pope, William Pitt, Brougham,
Cowper, Goldsmith, Gray. Charles Lamb,
Macaulsy, Herbert Spencer. Lord Kitch-
ener. Pope Leo. Among notable Americans,
Thoreau, Tilden, Phillips Brooks and Pres
ident Buchanan were bachelors. Among
English women who led single lives were
Jane Austen. Queen Elizabeth. Harriet
Martineau, Joanna Baillie, Adelaide Proc
tor, Miss Milford. Jean Ingelow, Miss
Edgworth, "ouida," Frances Power Cobb,
Jane Porter, Florence Nightingale, Emily
Faithful, Sister Dora and Miss Gladstone.
Among American women we find the
names of Dorothea Dix, Susan B. Anthony
and Maria Mitchell. It is fair to. presume
that these eminent persons abstained from
marriage for respectable reasons, for none
Of them was deficient In energy of mind
or body, and nearly all Of them led lives
that, were eonsecrated to high public or
private duty. 1t is easy to understand how
a man or woman of high intelligence and
sensibility might decide to lead a single
life. Feeble health, or q sense Of duty to
a dependent mother and younger children,
disappoint d affection, enthusiastic devo-
ton to toilsome and all-engrossing scien-
tihc or literary pursuits, deep devotion to
some all-absorbing cause OF moral or So
cial reform, would probably explain the
decision Of most OF the persons whose
names we have cited.
1t is fair to presume tina II these mo-
tives have constrained these eminent per-
sons to refrain from matrimony there must
be a very large number of intelligent but
comparatively obscure men and women
who have been Influenced by equally re-
spectacle motives not to marry. From this
point OF view the argument of Dr.. An
drews that the celibate is a weakline
falls to the ground On the contrary. II
would be easy to show that 1t is the weak
ling not seldom who marrles in haste. 40
reckless, Of his responsibility that he is
really a breeder Of immortality. and the
founder OF a family Of wretched paupers. A
writer in the London Mail says that there
are In London $4,000 married persons who
are 20, years Of age or under. There are
s71 wives and widows aged IS, 2,712 aged
10 and 6,672 wives and widows at 20 years.
There are 1877 husbands from 16 to 10 years
old and 2,022 Just 20 years Of age. The
majority of such marriages are contracted
In absolute poverty. The girl-wife can
neither cook nor sew. she will not sweep
nor scrub. The boy husband wants
a cook and a washerwoman, and
he marries to find he has got neither. The
latest census OF London showed 1000 hus-
bands under age VIII were not living with
their wives. Poverty and crime had d.
vorced most OF them. Among the inmates
Of London's' warehouses are husbands.
wives, widowers and widows OF 10 and Is
years OF age. Out OF q total of $50 persons
under age IN London prisons, more than
200 are married, and out OF 1884 under rs
years OF age, 576 are married. There are
66,S98 married persons under age In Eng
land and Wales, and It Is the Judgment of
English observers that beyond contro-
versy these early marriages strew social
life with wreckage. while the doctors speak
ominously Of the new generation that these
child marriages will produce"
There is no question but marriages de-
crease. Nautilus held that as wages rose
and food grew cheaper the marriage rate
would increase and births grow numerous,
but the enumerators of population during
the last 100 years have shown that the re-
verse takes place; that when wages rise in
any calling, trade or employment, the mar
riage rate tends to diminish and births
tend to decrease. Marriage is almost uni
versal among the young women at the bot
tom Of the laboring class, but as the family
wage Increases the number Of unmarried
women also increases. and when the family
is able to educate its daughters to the fullest
extent the number of unmarried women in
creases as the advantages Of life increase.
This means that when women are
tempted II not forced to marry for a home
there will be fewer unmarried women than
when women are not obliged to marry for
q home or have been trained TO earn a liY7
ing on easier terms than severe and ill-paid
manual toll. Within the last nifty years
the wealth Of the United States has enor-
mously increased, growing from three to
four-fold, but the marriage and the birth
rates have as steadily decreased. This de-
crease exists among all classes. The only
place where births are numerous and mar
riages constant is among immigrants who
are still struggling at the bottom to work
their way to the top.
The testimony Of history Is that as ma
tions have grown in civilization and wealth
they have decreased In marriage and the
birth rate. Marriage is the normal eondi-
ton, but II has In a wide sense always
been controlled by economic consideration
lTather than by romantic feeling. There was