CHAP. I attacks the saloon and prunes away its worst features. In the wake of women come schools, churches and shops to help them make homes which will attract more than the bar room.

Chivalry Springs up Quickly when Men Greatly

Out

number Women

The economic law that the value of anything is inversely in proportion to the supply seems to hold true of the sexes. Old societies with an excess of women are ungallant. Men keep their seats before standing women in public conveyances, oppose coeducation, bar women from the professions and tolerate human hyænas who prey on defenseless women. On the other hand, in societies like our Mountain commonwealths, which suffer from a dearth of women, men pay chivalrous homage to women, raise the age of consent, let them hold property, give them the ballot, grant them facile divorce, open to them all doors of educational opportunity, admit them to a share in the management of churches and societies and make them jurors, school directors and trustees of charitable institutions.

Much Can be Read from the Age Com

position of

AGE

The age make-up of a population is significant. A heavy proportion of young, if it does not mean a short average term of life, indicates rapid increase. Of extremely prolific peoples, such as a Popula- Russians and Bulgarians, near two-fifths will be under the age of fifteen. A people moderate in fecundity and skillful in saving child life will have a third under fifteen. A stationary people like the French will have only a fourth in this age group.1

tion

A structure like that of the native whites of Oklahoma in 1900 indicates that people have confidence in the future and are multi1 Thirty years ago I found the streets of the old German towns fairly swarming with children. From the ruins of a thousand-year-old castle of Henry the Fowler near the Harz I counted 28 children and 4 old women weeding turnips in a single field. What a contrast to the French provinces! This blind fecundity was encouraged by the Kaiser and the military caste as a great prop of their design of world conquest. His maxim that woman's existence should be bounded by the four K's (Kinder, Küche, Kleider, Kirche, i.e., children, kitchen, clothes and church) perfectly expresses the militarist and capitalist attitude toward proletarian increase. It is no great hardship for the wealthy, with servants to care for their children, to have large families, but the poor, many of whom are forced into misery or even die untimely owing to excessive prolificacy, have to be hounded or wheedled to produce enough "cannon-fodder." So the clergy preached that God sends children and He will provide for them, and the professors taught that the Germans are the one "noble" race, while the French are degenerate and the Slavs "incapable of culture"!

plying freely. But that of Vermont for the same year shows by CHAP. I its narrowness toward the bottom that the economic outlook is not bright and married people are cautious.

Rapid shrinkage up thru the early age groups signifies excessive mortality among the young. The figure for the negroes in 1880 shows clearly that the bulk of them were poor hands at bring

ing up their children. The steep sides of the figure for negroes in 1910 may mean that birth control has just come among them, or that many negro women are infertile owing to the ravages of venereal disease. The latter is undoubtedly true.

negroes

1880

The Blight
Fertility

on Negro

cance of

portion of

In general about a fifth of the population will have reached the Signif age of 45 years. Ireland, however, has a fourth in this age group the Proowing to the heavy emigration of young men and women. France Children shows near 29 per cent. above 45 years because her children Where, as in Brazil, Ceylon and Cuba,

groups are not well filled.

and of

Aged

CHAP. I only a seventh or an eighth of the population reaches middle age, the masses are ignorant of hygiene and do not know how to attain a normal term of life. Comparison of the population for native whites of native parentage in the United States 1890 and 1910 suggests that in the intervening twenty years great strides had been made in overcoming disease and improving hygiene.

Males Pre

dominate

nomic Im

Flight from religious, racial, or political persecution abstracts in an Eco in due proportion from all the age groups. But a migration migration prompted by economic motives withdraws those in the earlier productive years who are least burdened by dependents. Comparison of the figures of the foreign-born in the U. S. 1880 and 1910 suggests that in the intervening thirty years immigration had become more economic in motive. The structure of the negroes

of Delaware, Mississippi and Nebraska in 1900 exhibits the age distribution of normal, emigrant and immigrant communities.

The concave sides of the figure for Mississippi show that she has lost not a few of her young adult negroes, while the small proportion of children in Nebraska shows that the negro element there is largely of recent immigration.

In a people losing by an economic migration the ratio of dependents to supporters becomes unfavorable, while a people absorbing such a migration gains in industrial and military potentiality.

CHAP. I

Psyche of

munity Re

flects Its Age Com.

Age composition may reflect itself very clearly in the collective The prit. The community with a large proportion in the early pro- a Comductive years, e.g., young and rapidly growing settlements and towns, displays unusual fluidity, energy, initiative and adaptability. On the other hand, an excess of young children and of the elderly lessens venturesomeness and makes for pessimism, timidity, and want of prompt decision.

position

How the

Age of the

Element

colors

Communities in which there is a large number of young voters are less swayed in their political choices by partisanship and preju- Dominant dce, more critical of party management, less governed by feelings from the past and more hospitable to progressive ideas. A community dominated commercially by men from 20 to 45 years of age will reflect the money-making spirit and will sympathize with every form of legitimate enterprise and individual initiative. If,

Politics ness

and Busi

Money
Makers