The new enterprise. (Madison, Fla.) 1901-1908, 1902-01-23
MORE MEN BY 100000
MASCULINE PREPoNpeRANcE IN THE
UNITED STATES.

I
tion Upset tho Equilibrium OF the Sexes
MEN Most Numerous in the West.
Whatever differences Dame Nature
may have intended between the
spheres Of influence OF men and wom-
en-. she evidently intended that numer-
icnlly 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.
At first sight, perhaps, this may not
seem ut all remarkable But 1t 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 net be sur
prised If the aggregate effect of this
lopsidedness were to produce a con-
siderable excess of men or women In
a 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
a whole. And this law operates upon
many Of the animals as well as men.
On the farm It is found convenient to
preserve a great predominance Of one
sex over the other in cattle and chick
ems.
Curiosity, not to say establishment,
is excited, therefore, by a 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 a 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 fiuctua-
ton in the percentage, for over half
n 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 O. slight gain once more,
though the disparity Of 1860 was not
quite reached, and those for 1890 q
still further increase. The situation
has scarcely changed in the last ten
years. Indeed, the Census Bureau fig
ures out a 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
1890, and has since been enlarged by
254,727; but the bureau finds that the
percentages Of gain are not quite alike,
and that there are faint indications of |
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 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 ffty-one to
forty-nine. Comparison with the
standard, then, make the excess OF
males ih 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
Of 1901. And in the United
States 1t pulled down the male proper
ton of 5l12 in every 10000 in 1860
to 505G 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
i've immigrants who come to the Unit.
ID States are men and ten out OF every
twenty-five people here are Of foreign
birth, 1t is easy to see how important
this factor in establishing the ratio
between the sexes. In 1890, for in