Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-15
Mr.. fREER CONSENTS
Agrees to Conditions Imposed
on His Request.
MEN MORE NUMEROUS
sexes ARE NEVER EVEN IN POP
ULATION.
Exception in Paraguay1Waste in
Government Printing-Great Brit
ain Might Be Initiated.
BY WILLIAM e. CURTIS.

BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
Written for The Star and the Chicago Record
Herald
Mr.. Charles K Freer OF Detroit. who has
! offered his valuable collection Of pictures
and bric-a-brac to the government OF the
United States as legacy after his death,
| is now in Washington, and has had several
conferences with the regents of the Smith
sonian Institution, whom he proposes to
make the trustees of the bequest. The par
ties were brought together by the President,
whose guest Mr.. Freer has been at the
White House. and who is taking an active
interest in the matter. The regents were
invited to meet Mr.. Freer Wednesday even.
ing and several of them lunched with him
there on Thursday. Al these social gather
ings the conditions of the proposed oequest
were discussed freely, and Mr.. Freer ex-
pressed his willingness to comply with the
wishes of the regents in every particular.
To avoid any possible understanding
with his heirs or executors after his death
Mr.. Freer will give the regents deed of
trust upon his art collection as soon as the
details can be arranged, and will prepare
for their approval the conditions and regu-
lations under which he desires the collection
to lie exhibited to the public He will also
make the money bequest for the erection of
the building and its perpetual care in the
same form. so that before accepting the
gift the regents will know exactly what
they are to receive and the terms under
which 1t is left to their charge. The Ioca-
ton of the building which Mr.. Freer pro-
poses to erect for the collection will also be
settled in advance, and will be made a fea.
tufe OF the plan which MesSrs. Burnham
Mcklm, ST Gaudens and Olmstead have
submitted to Congress for the beautifica ton
of Washington.
The matter may thus be considered SET
tled, and the papers viii be drawn, subject
to the approval of Chief Justice Fuller. at a
very early day. Mr. Freer has promised to
SEND a portion of his collection to WASH
lngton within a few weeks in order that
the PUBIC may get an idea of its character
ana arrangements are now being made with
iAe National Museum for it's exhibition
Men More Numerous Than Women.
There are 1,s40. $50 more men than women
IN the United States, and the same propor-
tion prevails in almost every other coun-
Try. sexes are never even in population
NOTWITHSTANDING the fact that SO many men
are Killed in battle and engaged in hazar-
dous employments and are continually ex
posed to dangers from which women are
protected. The only exception IA in Para
e g where there are more than twice
as many women than men. This Is due to
the fact that some years ago, in a. political
revolution and a war with Brazil and the
Argentine Republic, the men were almost
SAlci Aiihdleu Wuen the war closed there
We're four or five women to every man in
the country, and while that excess has been
reduced considerably since, Inc proportion
OF women is still great and will continue
to be until the next generation. There Ia
an excess of men even in Maine, Vermont
and all New England, except Massachu-
sets and New Hampshire In Connecticut
the sexes are more nearly even than any
where else, there being only 1853 more men
than women. In New Hampshire there is
an excess of $50 women, and in Massa-
chusetts there are 7o,S9S more women than
men, which seems to prove the axiom an
nounced by soclologists that the higher
the civilization the closer the proportion
of sexes.
In France, Switzerland, Germany and Den
mark. where civilization is supposed to
have reached the highest standard the
sexes are very nearly equal, and several
times, for a year or two, the women have
actually outnUm5ered the men. On the
other hand, among the Indians negroes
Arabs, Mongolians and all savage and semi
barbarous tribes the excess of men is very
noticeable. and the rule seems to prevail
that the preponderance of men increases as
culture and refinement decrease.
Women in Majority in Cities
Taking the whole world together there
are les men to every 100 women. In cities
women are most numerous; in the rural
districts and among the farming population
generally there is the greatest excess of
men. In only six out of every hundred
counties in the United States the women
are in the majority, and each of those six
counties contains a large city. We have
1851 cities in the United States with more
than $500 inhabitants. Taking them all
together there are POI $50 more women In
them than men. This proportion has held
good at every census except in 1890, when
1,490 cities of more than 800 Inhabitants,
taken together, showed 1929 more men than
women, although there was an excess Of
1,519,559 men in the entire country.
These facts are the basis of a remark
able monograph by Prof. Simon Newconlb
the eminent astronomer and mathemati-
clan on The Probability of Causes of the
Production of Sex In Human Offspring"
which has been published by the Carnegie
Institution of Washington
DR.. Newcomb says that the preponder-
ance of male over female births is remark
ably uniform in all European and Ameri-
can countries, where Complete statistics Of
birth are available. Mulhall finds the ratio
to be 1852 male to 1000 female births In
Europe generally. Since Mulhalls
births, 51.3 per cent are males and 4s.7
per cent are females, the number express
ing the excess would be 20 per cent"
Prof Newcomb states that the recent
Japanese census shows an excess OF males
practically the same as In European coun-
tries 1t would seem. therefore, that there
is no difference In this respect between
the Semitic and the Monaghan races.
He gives some interesting statistics and |
deductions. For example. he shows that
the first born child is more often boy
than a girl. In the proportion OF about
smaller preponderance in the case of the
second child, but there Is no conclusive evil
dence that. after a mother has had two
children. there is any change On her ten
denotes"
His tables indicate that after the second
child there is a remarkable uniformity
in the number of male and female births.
Women Live Longer Than Men.
The census experts show that women live
longer than men and that there are two
periods of life at which the number of
women is greater than the number of men.
One of them extends from eighty
years of age to the end of life. and is prob
ably due mainly to the longer average life
of women. The other, from sixteen to
twenty-five years, they insinuate is due
mainly to Misrepresentation by those wom-
en- who prefer to be under than over twen-
a., So