The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-01-31
MORE MEN BY 100000
MASCULINE PREPoNDERANcE m THE
UNITED STATES.
1wouty-four Extra AIniosin Every 1000 OF
the Population - War and Immigrn-
tion Upset. the Equilibrium OF the Sexes
Men Most Numerous fn the yVcat

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-
ically mt 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 at 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 not be sur
prised If the aggregate effect Of this
lopsidedness were to produce n con-
siderable excess Of men or women I'm
q 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, byaa 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 q poulation Of 763O3,3S7. The ex-
cess appears more distinctly, perhaps,
when it is said that there are 512
males and only 4SS 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
q century. AS long ago as 1850 there
was q distinct numerical superiority
! Of the male over the female element
By 1860 the preponderance was even
for several decades. The returns for
1880 show a 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 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,O97 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
a 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 il
nearly the proportion Of 1ifty-one tt
forty-nine Comparison with the
standard, then, make the excess Of
males in America stranger than il
nature exhibited strict impartiality.
The two forces which appear to bC
chiefly concerned in upsetting the
equilibrium are war and immigration
And Of the two the former is mucl
the less effective. Still, it was power
full enough to influence the returns il
Germany and France after the famous
struggle Of 1901. And in the United
States it pulled down the male proper
ton OF 5112 in every 10000 in 1861
to 5056 in 1870.
Migration, OF course, works in tw
ways. The majority Of immigrants ar
men. The departures from one coun
try, therefore, leave the other sex Il
excess in one part Of the world, Will
they promote the preponderance o
their own in another. Thus, in som
European countries the proportion 0
males to females is about 4S5 to oil
Now, inasmuch as three out OF ever
five immigrants who come to the Uni
ed States are men and ten out of ever
! snvpntv-fivp DpOpln here arc Of fOTpip
birth, it is easy to see how importar
is this factor in establishing the rat
between the sexes. In 1890, for il
stance, the excess Of males here wa
made mp in this proportions: Natiy
born, G2S79T; foreign born, SS4,71