SUNDAY MAGAZINE
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, SUNDAY, JUNE 4, 1922
EDUCATION AND RACE SUICIDE
(By II. A. 19.) The Problem of the American College mentally, and aa Paul Popenoe sug-
allege graduates persist in gests (probably with a smile) such a
arriage, when by so doing marry at some age, and in most states has risen and broadened from eight specimen of the male is exceedingly
the development of racial before they reach the age of 40 years. to thirty years in 1200 a.d., to fifteen rare, so the female intellectual is
e answers seem to be In the majority of cases the non-col- to 67 years in 1900. doomed to a manless existence. It is
upon human whims and lege woman is married long before the also not seldom that a young man will
woma ismariedlon beorethe Coeducational colleges, especially object to marrying a womao who is
ness, but convicting evi- fortieth milestone "is reached. For the large universities of the west, et suprr.
form of reliable statistics, example, 30 per cent of Massachusetts -show approximately nine per cent s mental superior.
such a condition exists. women have married before the col- more marriages among women be- Now, if you have had the courage
'ranklin Shull, of the, zoo- rege wopen of their- own ages have tween twenty-five and thirty years of or endurance to read thus far, you
ment, has procured from graduated. age than do the strictly women's col- will vociferously demand that the
dal sources, .data which Phi Beta Kappa contains a greater leges. The alumni register of Oberlin shortcomings of the man student be
d the timorous, antagonis- number of spinsters than the ordinary College (coeducational) shows the held up to light. Whatever animos-
ferent attitude which col- majority of average womn students. marriage rate to have decreased ten ity may have arisen within you must
take toward assuming the It would seem that the higher she per cent in the short period of fifteen be shortlived, for the record of the
s. Other figues which fol- climbs on the intellectual ladder, the years. man graduate is, on the whole, satis-
lited to a work on Applied more loath is the woman to take up Although coeducation may seem con- factory.
y Popenoe and Johnson. home making as a profession. ducive to "getting a man" it is not Htrvard, Yale and Syracuse statis-
eutage of marriages over If we invade the privacy of the fam- so, broadly speaking, for we find that tics show that .the graduate main-
country has increased fly circle, we discover- that the col- of the women graduates of Ohio State, tams a comparatively high and con-
ing the last two decades. lege woman's non-college sisters, Illinois, and Wisconsin Universities, stact birth rate.
y the birth rate has in- cousins and friends marry at an ear- only ,jfty-three per cent have mar- One of the much flaunted reasons for
has also been noted that . the celibacy which does exist among
y at earlier ages than they men, is the necessity of long periods
years ago. To the casual EDITOR'S NOTE: The article on this page brings home with of study and apprenticeship before the
is may seem satisfactory, force and clarity the evil which is growing rapidly in this country, es- graduate is permitted to enter his
scrutiny discloses an pecially among the intellectuals that of race suicide. It is a fact which chosen profession. If a man remais
sence of marriages and has been amply proved that in America at least, the more education single betwees the ages of twenty-dye
g the people whom we may the fewer children. This has become so much a mttter of crmimon and thirty-five years, will it not he
 superior to the average, knowledge that people are prone to believe that the higher developed conducive to life-long celibacy?
college graduates may be human beings are incapable of frequent reproduction. This, however, But men are not the center of at-
uperior individuals might . tention in this quastion. It follows
mperir inividals ight is not thecas, but for reasons best known only to themselves, those tnini hsqeto.I olw
but in the following data ~ ntteae u rraosha nw nyt hmevs hs from the "infrequency with which co-
bse n he upans such. - exposed to higher education are tending more and more to cease bear- lsome m rry th bih rat-
stganhed a she recordof ing children altogether, and even to forego the marriage relation. The g a o th at excttioal-
normal birth rate is between three and four children for each marri-
allege. The percentage of age, and when this rate commences alarmingly to decrease -among ly and alarmingly low, Eugenists
who marry within ten those who are conceded to be intellectually the best the country can have fixed 1.7 children per college
grarnation, is I per cent. graduate as the minimum figure. Wel-
gra-uaton;is 5 pr cnt. produce, thinking people are-perforce alarmed at the prospect..gdutashemnmmfgr.W-
per bent of the graduates prlesley women average only .86 of a
n 20 years. child each.
Holyoke College, the old- The most proficient students among
ountry of institutions for lier age, and with much greater ire- ried within ten years after graduation, their numbers show even a worse rec-
education for women, the quency than the college graduate her- The three named universities have ord. Wellesley members of Phi Beta
graduates marrying, de- self. practically none of the sex barriers Kappa do not average even .86 of a
n 85.4 per cent to 50 per The marriage rate among the grad- which supposedly exist in some of the child; their record shows but .65 of a
period of 50 years. Those ates of Washington Seminary de- other universities,-and still only one-1 child per member.
A to remain single in- creased from 78 per cent to 55 per half of their women graduates are Byrn Mawr graduates show .84 of a
n 14.6 per cent to 50 per cent over a period of'55 years. Those invited or desire to become wives! child per married alumna, or .37 of
the same period, who took up business and professions Is it the desire for a career which a child per graduate.
rr's figures show only 165 increased nineteen per cent, during a is responsible for celibacy among col- Low marriage rate and low birth
;raduates, from the senior like period of time. Those who, either lege women? Or dothey, with the ac- rate may be due to a number of per-
888 to 1900 inclusive, who through choice or misfortune, neither quisition of aso-called "knowledge of son ally concocted trumperies, such as
d they were allowed 25 worked nor married, constituted only the world" become cynical and suspi- objections to marriage as an obstacle
ich to find a suitable mate. six per cent. However, if one per cent cious of men and marriage? to a career, the high cost of support-
g relegated- to spinster- equalled one woman, the celibacy of Those who remain single in order fng a family, interference with social.
that six per cent would mean a loss to pursue a career are probably less duties, and an artificially produced
liege graduates have - ap- of 22.2 children to the total births, ac- desirable at the outset than the stu- aversion to marriage.
aided upon a compromise cording to the figures set as the nor- dents of home making and mother Whatever may he the attitude of the
lightly less than one-half mal birth rate by eugenists. craft. And again, when a woman seg- generations of college people to come,
ating classes marry. The girls of Washington Seminary regates herself, she usually- does so we must realize that here in America
entire country, 45 per cent who marry usually do so within five for a length of time sufficient to in- we face a condition of race suicide
romen marry before they or six years after they receive their sure the passing of her physical at- unsurpassed even-in France, to whose
of age, which is approxi- diplomas, but the number who marry tractions in the eyes of men, statistics we usually point with a
ge at which child bearing ten years afterward is very little less. The college woman who has spent "holier than thou" attitude, and that
a wide contrast to this fig- C. S. Castle in the Popular Science more time at academic work than at the evil is being perpetrated and per-
he women in the country, Monthly reports by centuries, show- the weekly dance feat, desires a man petuated by a class of people who
d uneducated, 90 per cent ing that the range of marriageable ages who is her equal, if not her superior ought to know better.
Looking Down from Lofty Places
NOTE: The following "The Metric System as a Cure for know, to chase up on top of some- quarters the distance up the moun-
written by a former mem- Spring Fever" or some such title. But thing and look around. tam. It was a magnificent ride, pass-
Daily staff, who is now it has been more than two months Well, to start with, seven days out ing garden after garden of vari-col-
n Europe. It will be of now since I walked down State street of New York our good ship the R. M. ored flowers, quaint little huts with
only to his many friends, and I got to thinking that I really S. Adriatic landed at the picturesque white walls and red tile roofs, then
who can feel the joy of should try to write a word or two island of Madeira at its chief city, between the houses were magnificent
p on top of things." about the trip, for many, almost too Funchal. The place has been called vineyards carefully cultivated on the
,_many interesting things have hap- an enchanted fairyland, and well it steep mountainside. Arriving at the
pened. The field is almost too vast deserves the title, for looking back end of the railroad, we walked up a
Huston M. MeBsin) , to pick out individual happenings-It on the various countries we've been little farther and found a very beau-
s, I had to get out of Ann certainly would not bear a lengthy re- In, it stands out as one place I'd love tiful restaurant which commanded a
fbe editor of this little view. But then, after all, I've had to revisit, perfect view of the little village in the
as after me rather strenu- great sport climbing on top of vari- Our second day there we took a lit- valley and our ship, appearing like a
ite an article for him on ous things. It's sort of fun, you tle funicular railway about three- (Continued on Page 7)