The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-27
WHAT OF THE MAN.

in conjunction with the decreased birth rate for the male sex is going to bring about . time in the future when there will be no men. Just how there will be females if there are no males Is not made plain, but perhaps that is merely a detail
 But even if the time does not come when there will be no male chudren and no men, they predict something but little better. They tell us that wo- men are gradually taking the places of the men in practically all of the gainful occupations. This, they tell us, will keep on till woman will be the rul- ing sex in this country. The men will be driven out and back like the Indians have been, and if any of them are left they will become back numbers and of very little account in the Government. If anything Is left for them 1t will be nothing but the most menial tasks. They will become mere hewers of wood and drawers Of water. grubbers and delivers. while proud woman sits at the helm or stands on the quarter-deck and issues orders. It is . bad showing for mere man.
 But when we get down to the hard pan of the subject we are forced to ad- nit that there Is at least a grain of reason for the mournful predictions we hear. An investigation into the vart- ous gainfui ocupations of the country shows that in the ten years from 1890 to 1900 there was an increase of women workers of one million. in round num- bers. We have not the figures to show the increase for the five years since the last census was taken, but have no doubt that the advance since then has been more rapid than it was dur ing the ten years before. In short. the addition of women to the wage earn CTS is more than one hundred thous- and a year. and the per centage Is more likely to grow than to diminish. It is not merely as miliiners, dressmak- CTS and other manual workers that the women are employed. for that would not interfere with the male workers, but it is in what may bc termed intel- lectual pursuits that the innovation is so marked. As stenographers and type writers, telegraphers and bookkeepers. and as clerks in the stores, the women are crowding the men out, and 1t is in these occupations that the innovation is greateest and growing.
 Naturally thera are many kinds of manual labor, and of occupations re- quiring strength. endurance of hard ships, fearlessness of physical danger that are measurably free from this fem mine invasion, at least for the present, though it is hard to tell what woman will do. Leaving these out the female workers are coming forward with rush. All occupations which do not de- posture to great da iger and hardships, but which require skill. aptitude, stead iness and intelligence are open to fe- male workers and they are filling the places. The telegraph and the tele- phone. the oface and the counting room, the salesroom and the stenographer's desk, all are open to the other sex and all htG O0NhA 0NS0RASN' %A6N V AAA1SS e~0 we'll admit the fact that the women are winning their way on their merits.
 What is to be done, and what is to be the end of 1t alI7 As The Sacramento Bee somewhat whimsically observes:
 It has been assumed by some thought less writers that the cares and obliga- tions of motherhood would always be n nhafaRla the FilA Nf woman in business and professional pursuits. But that notion is based on the fallacy that because the woman of the past had sui new woman would do the same thing. But she will not She w''l be too busy. when the feminine regime gets in full women may be designated by lot, through official scientific selection, by an annual draft, or in some other way, to become mothers and care for babies. And the latter task may be frightened by giving the fathers the greater share of the nurserey work. Or babies may be reared in State institutions.
 We don't know how this idea of sci entihc selection" is going to work out in practice, but we suspect that poor man will kick vigorously against the plan. and will insist-as long as he is allowed to-on being permitted to have something to say on the subject. Then, too, if the percentage of males continues to fall off where are the hus- bands to come from, admitting that husbands will still be in demand7 Here, again, The Bee has a suggestion:
 Should there be a serious deficiency of males, in the remote future, through the growing dlsproportion In the birth rate, 1t may easily be met by the insti. :. tuition of polygamy: The expense of six or more women, would be light. and so far as the avoidance of race sui- eide Is concerned polygamy would an swer the purpose The objections have been very much in the nature of trades unlonism. because 1t has been assumed that every woman was entitled to a full interest in a husband. But is only one man to every six women, the tWo-thirds of the female population left unmarried through the continuance of monogromy will find way to break up the monopoly Of husbands.
 These suggestions may be taken for what they are worth as solutions of real or possible difaculties, but there is still one another trouble looming up to set male humanity back with gerater shock. Ever since organized governments existed the man has as- sumed tho right to boss the political and governmental affairs of the nations. whether that has been strictly in ac- cordance with right and fairness we shall not attempt to discuss. That faH h.,k