The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1922-03-23
FIFTEEN MILLION
SURPLUS WOMEN
SHORTAGE OF MARRIAGEABLE
MEN is WORRYING THE
WOMEN.

e&shSO WlidI lle COlLSluCiCu lliC SiSoI
est social evil at the present time
he answered.: "Thc two millions O.
unmarried women in England"
This is not only an English prob
lem but q world problem, as stats
tics show that in the ten larger coun
tries participating in the war there
are 100000 surplus women a:
compared to 100000 prior to 1914
The enormous sacrifice demanded
by the great God Moloch are bounc
to have a serious effect upon the flu
ture of the human race, whether the
question is considered biologically
socially or morally.
Before the war, every twentieth
woman lacked q mate, whereas the
ratio has now sunk to every sixth
or seventh woman. AS far as the
present generation Of adults goes,
the matter is irredeemable; but If
there be any basis for the legend
that after periods of war and famine
more boys are born into the world
than girls, there may be some hope
for the coming generation.
No one has attempted to explain
this mystery, although science has
long been standing On the brink OF
the secret. As to the much-mooted
question of birth control. Nature
still moves in her own mysterious way
in her workship, regardless of all the
scientific formulas of a Schienck or
the fervent prayers Of potential par
ents.
When the birth rate on any coun-
try displays an upward tendency
there is a proportionate increase OF
male births another OF Natures
enigmas- proportion being about
1O6 boys to every 100 girls.
It ruust be clear even tc the mind
cf the laity that nature should wish
to guarantee the propagation Of the
race. Everywhere in the physical
world the masculine germ cells are
more lavishly distributed than the fe-
male, but, while the birth rate is
higher among males so also is the
death rate, and it must be due to ig-
norance as to the "technic of life"
among the human race that this orig
inal male surplus is lost in later years
and indeed just in those years so
vital for propagation.
This preponderance of women in
the world at present is a problem
that is battling scientific men. One
Of the leading Berlin women special
lists says that among her patients are
many women of manageable age
who feel that they have been cheat
ed out of the legitimate privileges
Of wifehood and motherhood by the
ravages of the war. They declare
quite openly that they mean to defy
conditions.
They are by no means to be look
ed upon as pathological or abnormal
cases but represent merely the reac-
ton of the women in war-ravaged
countries to what they consider ma
lures or fate's injustice. Added to
this is the natural craving of the
average woman-particularly in q
country like Germany, where mar
riage and motherhood were consider
e6 a metier!-to bear children, and
under the present circumstances they
feel it no disgrace to fulfill their
mission.
One thing is certain, and that in
ali countries now engaged in adjust
ing sfter-war problems energetic
measures will be taken by the hum
dreds of thousands of new women
voters to seek legislation for the pro-
lection of the child and unmarried
mother.
The frenzied marrying fever Of the
immediate after-war period has some
what abated, after having reached q
point where the futile urge Of the
women and girls to the marriage
market had begun to exert dis
astrous effect upon the character and
morals of the coming generation.
Wilhelmine Mohr, German writer,
thinks that the women of the world
will have to take energetic measures
along sociological and eusenic lines
to counteract the evils resulting from
her pre- mt numerical ascendancy'
A supreme effort should be made to
preserve the male surplus until late
manhood, and this should be done by
conserving the forces OF youth by
increasing protection of illegitimate
children and pregnant mothers, and
by a rational division OF work be-
tween husband and wife.