The Jennings daily record. [volume] (Jennings, La.) 1900-1903, 1902-01-18
SEX 1ly
u. s. CENSUS FIGURES SNOW n
MALES PREDOMINANT.
Since 1850 There Has Boon Distinct
Numerical Superiority of the Male Over
the Female Element I'm This Country
The Causes.

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. 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
surprised if the aggregate effect OF TINS
lopSidedneSs were to produce a 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 we'll as men.
On the farm it is found convenient to
preserve a great predomlnance OF one
sex over the other in cattle and chick
ems The bull calf is predestined from
his birth to conversion into veal, and
a similarly stern fate consigns the SUI
perauous cockerel to the gridiron or
| chicken pie at tender age. But, so
! far as the natural increase is concerned
| among cattle and poultry, an approx
mately even balance is preserved.
Curiosity, not to say establishment, is
excited, therefore, by a recent an
nouncement of the United States
Census Bureau. The enumeration
OF 1900 shows that there are
more men and boys than women
and girls in the United States, and that
| the difference exceeds 100000 In
| population of 76,303,3S7 The excess
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 fiuctuation in the
percentage, for over half century. AS
long ago as 1850 there was a distinct
numerical superiority of the male over
the female element. BY 1860, the pre-
ponderance was even more conspicu-
Gus, but in 1870 less than for several
decades. The returns for 1880 show a
slight gain once more, though the dis
| parity OIL lSOt Ndo Iob qlltc iSStIiiSh
and those for 1890 a still further in
crease. The situation has scarcely
changed in the last ten years. Indeed.
the Census Bureau figures out a
microscopic falling off in the growth
of the male population as compared
with the female. To be sure, the ex-
cess was only 1.56O.O97 in 1890, and
has since been enlarged by 254,727;
| u, that the norcent-
ages of gain are not quite alike, and
that there are faint indications of a fu-
ture reaction. The state of things here
revealed is the more striking when
compared with that existing in Eu-
rope Both in the United Kingdom
and on the continent the women are
more numerous than the men. 1t Is
possible to detect forces that disturb
the balance in some of these countries
But Mr. Porter, superintendent of the
census of 1890, was inclined to thlnF
that these influences did not operate
perceptibly in Austria and the Neither
>. | lands and hence that normally the fe
male sex outnumbers the male in near
. iy the proportion OF 81 to 40. Comparl
son with that standard, then, make!
: the excess OF males in America strang
or than if Nature exhibited strict I'M
partially. The two forces which ap
pear to be chiefly concerned in upset
ting the equilibrium are war and immi
grafton And of the two the former
5 much the less effective. Still. it wa
: powerful enough to influence the re
i turns in Germany and France after tn
l. famous struggle of 1901. And in tn
i United States it pulled down the NAL
" proportion of SIP in every 10000 /
If 1860 to 1855 in 1870. AS might be eS
3ected the greatest excess of men
% to be found in the far west. in tn
e. great agricultural and mining districts
l. In Minnesota and Nebraska there WEI
d. at least 81 men out of every 100 peopI
d for a long time. from 50 to So in tn
On Dakotas and from so to 6S in most
lie the regions to the west and soutf
s. west. The ratio in Montana was ono
lie as great as 81 out of 100, and even
i. 1890 was 66Es to 331a.
1t