The New York herald., 1921-09-04
SUICIDE CRY BELIED BY COLLEGE STATISTICS

rate at this age period was more than twice
as high--610 per 1000.
These favorable figures seem to be due
to several important causes. First there is
the selective effect of the secondary and col
legiate educational process Those physi-
cally unfit to pursue studies usually drop
from the rolls. College women also come
from superior home environment the pre-
sumption is that for all of them economic
and domestic circumstances have been such
as to conduce to better health than the aver
age. These women during their lives in a
college environment also benefit from Pc
riodical medical examination and from pre-
scribed physical exercise much more than
women in the general population. After
graduation many Of them enter professional
pursuits where the risk of death is at a
minimum. Less than one-half of them
marry and are not, therefore, exposed to
the grave risks of child bearing. Not less
important Is the favorable effect of the
whole of college education on the right con-
duct of life.
The favorable death rate of graduates of
women's colleges clearly indicate that the
prevailing mortality among women in the
general population is far in excess of what
it should be. An excess of nearly 100 per
cent. in the death rate of women in general
over the rate for this special group is indie
ative of numerous factors of life wastage
which could be controlled by intelligent
effort
In any discussion of the birth rate among
college graduates 1t must be considered that
they fall into a group of the population
which, more than any other, aims to uphold
high living standards Educational and cul-
tural ideals emphasized and small
number of children bred in the home en-
vironment created by these ideals and in
fuenced daily to live up to the ideals incul-
Gated in them are looked upon as greater
contribution to the State and the race than
a larger number raised under less favorable
home conditions.
It must be remembered also that this col
lege group must bear the brunt of large
amount of economic pressure. College grad
uates are for the most part saaried and
professional people earning incomes not by
any means overwhelming in size. Their
living standards are high, and their ideals
stimulate them to keep up their standards,
yet their incomes are seldom sufficient to
permit them to do so. This, of course, tends
to reduce the average size Of families in this
group.
Late Marriages the Rule
Among College Graduates
The late marriages which are character
istic of the college graduate man or woman
are not a drawback, but rather an advan-
tage. Although there may be fewer children
in the families. they are usually of a higher
order of intelligence and better equipped for
life than children Of parents married at an
earlier age
William Hard in his Women of To-mor-
row" writes that Havelock Ellis made a
study Of British men of genius and dis
covered that the average age of the fathers
Of great men when they were born was 81.
while the average age of the mothers
was 81.
Mr. Hard also quotes a study made by
r. S. Holway of the department of educa-
ton at Stanford University on Age Of
Parents: It's Effects Upon Children" The
conclusions were: In most physical qualities
the children Of mature parents tend to come
out best In mental ability the children of
young parents show best at an early age
but rapidly lose their precocity. The elder
children who show best tend to be the chill
dren of mature and older parents. The
children of elderly mothers show tendency
to superiority throughout.
After hearing these facts and figures the
situation seems to be not so alarming after
all. The college graduate at least reproduces
himself or herself. and the tendency Is
toward a higher birth rate rather than
.ower one. Among college women there 10
quite apparently a higher birth rate than
twenty OF thirty years ago. hott SIlS 30
to college in the present day than ever
before. 1t has become matter Of course
in families where any children go to college
to send the girls as well as the boys. 1t
thus naturally follows that among the in
creased number of women attending our
colleges there is larger and larger number
who do not set a career against marriage
as in the earlier days and who marry much
sooner after leaving college than in the
case OF the older women graduates
1t is probable that as time goes on there
will be a steadily increasing rate of mar
riages and births among the college group
Tor the tendency seems to be in that direc-
ton according to the available figures.
The college men and women also are the
leaders In a movement which is slowly per-
colating throughout the general population
to apply standards OF quality rather than
standards of quantity in the matter of race
continuance The greatest good Of the race
depends upon it's constant evolution TO
higher standard of civilization. and this
cannot be accomplished by mere numbers
Of population, but by a population educated
and enlightened and always progressing
onward