Evening star., 1935-05-05

trlct OF Columbia mao DeSt make tnelr
search In other fields. preferably the
Far Western States. a learned expert
on family relations advised yesterday.
Paul Popenoe, director Of the Los
Angeles Institute of Family Relations.
sent word to the American Eugenics
Society. meeting here, that for every
100 marriageable women in Washing
ton there are only II men.
Dr. Popenoe painted a dreary pic
ture Of lack of opportunity for the
girl between 20 and 20 who wants
a husband between Is and "a.
In the whole United States, he
wrote, there are $3.50 single women
in this age group, against 690,730
single men.
District statistics on this situation
show, in 1880, 9,922 men, 6,3l7 women.
There is a deficiency Of marriage
able men in almost every State" DR..
Popenoe wrote in a paper read to the
society, meeting at the Willard Hotel.
Male Surplus in Four States.
"Only four States have an actual
excess of marriageable men. and in
a number of States there is scarcely
more than one potential husband for
every two potential wives.
Evidently some Of the unmarried
women in the States with the most
unfavorable balance of trade would
be well advised to migrate to the States
Of the Northwest, where there Is more
nearly q parity, or in some instances
a large excess, of men who might be
available as husbands"
These happy hunting grounds are
Nevada. with 158 men per 100 women;
Wyoming, l42 to 100; Arizona, 113 to
100, and Montana. 106 to 100. Cali
fornia has "a men for 100 women.
DR.. Popenoe advanced six reasons
for this dilemma, among them being:
/. Most of the good husbands are
married before 80. The median age
Of first marriages for men in the
United States is 25.6 years.
IT have yet to find a person who
could not count on the fingers of one
hand all the single men of his aquaint-
ance, over IS years of age, who were
really good prospective husbands from
every point of view"
2. In four out of five marriages. the
man is older than the woman. While
the median age for marriage Of men
is 25.6 years, that Of their wives is
226 years.
8. AS the men grow older, they tend
to increase this difference between
their ages and that Of their wives.
For this reason DR.. Popenoe strongly
advises college girls to seek a hus-
band as soon as they leave college, or
even earlier, and to let the career
60 by.
4. Women, as they grow older, have
too great q tendency to raise their
ideal of what they expect in q hus-
band.
Standard Hard to Get.
Each year she wants higher
standard Of intelligence. education and
economic and social standing on the
part of her dream hero. Each year,
on the other hand, the number OF
men Of any kind who might marry
her, except in q dream, Is decreasing
with startling speed"
5. Men have a tendency to marry
their intellectual interiors to "pre-
serve the masculine ego from excess
sive strain" while women seek to
marry above their own level In the
social l-economic scale.
This leaves at the bottom Of the
masculine scale q group Of men for
whom there are no wives; but these
men are mostly detectives. It leaves
at the top of the feminine scale q
group of women for whom there are
no husbands; but this group contains
all too many Of the college graduates
and their kind. the most superior
young women whom the Nation pro-
duces.
THE men in the top level marry
the girls in the next-to-the-top level,
and the girls In the top level are left
out on the end of q limb, 50 to speak"
s. There are serious difficulties
connected with the geographical dis
tribution of potential husbands"
"Biologically, marriage In the early
20s is desirable. particularly for a
woman" Dr.. Popenoe declared. "At
20, a young woman has a two-to-one
chance Of surviving for 10 years and
marrying during the interval. At IS,
the odds in her favor are q little bet
ter than even. At 80, the odds are
two-to-one against her living out 10
years and being married In the same
period"
Others Than Grid Captains.
Goods eager for domesticity when
they receive their diploma should in
vite more young-men- -about-town and
fewer foot ball captains to their
sorority dances, in the opinion Of the
Los Angeles doctor, who says:
"The sorority, would do better eu-
genically to exclude most Of its fellow.
students, and issue invitations to the
members Of the 1880 Club and the
Junior Chamber Of Comnaerce-youns
men who are out, lcf college and a.