forests and minerals or on the soil. Agriculture is more hospitable to women than lumbering and mining. grate Far Women Less hedged about than women, men are readier to break home Men Mities and try their fortune in a strange land. In our earlier foreign ther than immigration males were to females as three is to two; but in the new immigration, coming for high wages rather than land, they were three to one. Districts which have lost by emigration have more women than men. South Carolina shows 25 women to 24 Foreign form while men, Massachusetts 20 women to 19 men and, for the native stuck, 11 women to 10 men. Cities are magnets as well as new regions and cities with their ter of security and the opportunity of self-support lure more women than the rude frontier. Hence, men preponderate in the fow to new regions, while women often outnumber men in the currents to the cities. Very Commer- Attract More Men, Cities Cities, however, differ greatly in their attraction for women. Commercial cities abound most in opportunities for men. naturally Minneapolis has 115 men to 100 women; Portland, Oren, 150; Seattle, 153: San Francisco, 144. No wonder such More ches are marked by energy, daring and prompt decision! Be- Women cause of their demand for personal or domestic service, residence cities show an excess of women. Washington, Richmond, Cambridge and Nashville have from 113 to 116 women for every CHAP. I hundred men. Manufacturing cities lure now men, now women, according to the character of their industry. Metallurgical cities like Bridgeport, Birmingham, Pittsburgh and Detroit draw more men; while textile cities like Lowell, Fall River and Paterson draw more women. All this is not to suggest that comparative Love equalizes the sexes in number when Work does not economic opportunity dominates the sex composition of any community. The numerical inequalities between the sexes in different cities are but a residue which has not been overcome by sex attraction. Cupid abhors "he" towns and "she" towns, so that automatically an excess of men sets up a demand for women, and vice versa. We have no means of knowing what traits a female community would develop, but we do know that the male community has a character of its own. In case it is too remote or rude to attract home-making women—e.g., in the Far North or on the rim of cvilization its population is a continual flux, for the men tire of a womanless life and presently return to "God's country" to marry and settle down." Such a community becomes the theare of a ruthless greed, for its denizens treat it not as home, but as merely a place for making money. Since they do not think of as their children's country, they butcher the land, waste its reurces and maltreat the indigenous population. No one cares for the future of the country. Each is in haste to gather the spoil and return home. This is why, "There runs no law of God nor man to the north of Fifty Three." In the male community law is weak, public opinion scarcely exists, and each does what is right in his own eyes, save in so far as he is checked by respect for the other man's weapon. Lifeone's own as well as another's- is held cheap and is staked on sight issues. Suicide is frequent since often "nobody cares." The daredevil spirit prevails. Men resort gleefully to a saloon which calls itself" The Bucket of Blood." Few pay any attention to religion. It used to be said in the Northwest, "No Sunday west of Bismarck, and west of Miles City no God." Every one ths of making his "pile" and getting away. There will be me enough then to look after his soul. Make Homes and the Home and a Sense of Responsi bility With the coming of women, homes and children, the temper of Women the community changes. The sense of responsibility for his dependents makes the man slower in risking his own life or in taking hat of another. A new-born appreciation of security causes bral and duel to be stamped out. Men begin to lay deep foundations for law and morality when they expect to rear their children in the community. Intemperance ceases to be a joke after the women teach their men folk to look upon it as deliberate selfXoning. The adventuress, queen of the male community, is As wned and becomes the "fallen" woman as wives and mothers make their influence felt. From women, who love security and abbor the wanton creation of risk, emanates a sentiment against the furious gambling by which the male community relieves its enui Unable to use the saloon for sociability and recognizing this demoralizing male resort its deadliest enemy, the home 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 Outnumber 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 multi 1 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"! pying freely. But that of Vermont for the same year shows by is 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 Signin. 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 groups are not well filled. Where, as in Brazil, Ceylon and Cuba, and of Aged |