Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1916-11-04
MAY BE.
PERMITTED when .
GREAT WAR ENDS
100000 Surplus Women
Offers Big Problem for
Europe to Solve
IRn Associated Pressl


VIENNt Whether or not Europe
will be obliged to change It's
marriage laws as the result OF the war
is a question which has recently
occupied sociologists in the central
states. Most of them are OF the opin-
ion that material notifications must
ensue: q few think that iesaliZed
polygamy must be established in order
to provide for the surplus Of women
which two years of warfare has made
one of the problems of all Europe.
The total population of the states
at war, the non Arian elements OF Rus
STA excepted, is roughly 313,O0o,OOo. Vi
which, according to best sources, 49,
900. 900 are women and lSo,ooV,ooV
men For the countries OF Europe
where exact statistics are availahle,
the proportion is 105 males to lOf re-
males. For Europe this leaves III nor
NAL times an excess of three million
females. of which number one-thlrd
would me marriageable.
II 10000 To Be MateIess
To this million of women who at
present can find no husband for the
reason that nature, while insuring an
excess in the birth of males permits
more of them to die in infancy. VIII
he added at least eight millions Whom
deatb on the battlefield and incapaci
Eating wounds has also deprived OF
mates Europe, therefore, is face 10
face with the question of how THESE
nine million women are to be carep
for ..... "*
Economically the problem has peeh
solved by the women themselves py
showing that in many departments Oh
industry they are able to I'LL a pidce'
But the sociologists point out tnat' eA-
cent the state makes provisions teEu,
inc tn avert this. a certain natural
law would increase greatly the rate w
iIlegitimacy of children. which even
now is a serious matter ,.
At the conclusion OF the thirty
Years War, similar conditions pre-
vailed. 1t was met in many OF Tie
central European states by making
nolygamy legal. When the proportion
of males and females had been re-
adjusted by the coming of later gen
erations these laws were repealed.
For the time being the European
parliaments are too occupied with
matters affecting the continuation OF
the war, but expressions on the sub
ject agree that some sort OF legisiS,
ton will be necessary.
Two Generations to Recover
Several writer's point out that it Will
take two generations before the old
social equilibrium is reestablished.
The tendency of men to marry women
younger than they themselves are is
held responsible for this. Usually the
man married a woman from three to
five years his junior, and some at-
thorities fear that greater choice,
which the excess of women will give,
will decidedly foster this inclination.
so that only the girl who today is from
IL to 13 years old can hope to be the
subject of competition among men
which her mother was.
This would be a matter of only
seven to eight years for most OF EIl-
rope; provided the end of war comes
soon. Should the war continue an
other wear or two and so cause the
loss of many young men who are now
from 10 to 16 years old, the problem
would be much harder to meet In
that case the excess of women over
men would be no less than eleven
millions, SO that for every male u
marriage age during the next 10 years
there would be almost two single
women.
1t is impossible to say just how
European legislature will meet the
situation. Legal polysamy is 50 un.
welcome to Europe's social system and
religion that opposition TO it will be
great. The belief is held, for. this
reason, that legally at least illegiti-
macy will be abolished and that laws
will be passed giving the child born
out of wedlock every right upon the
care and property of its father. 1t is
argued that this measure of ex-
pediency would meet the situation
easily and that it would violate no So
cial arrangement now in force, giving
in its most extreme application moth
| ing but an expression to tendency
which has manifested itself in Europe