SUNDAY MAGAZINE
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, SUNDAY, JUNE 4, 1922
EDUCATION AND RACE SUICIDE
(By H. A. D.) The Problem of the American College mentally, and as Panl Popenoe sug-
Why do college graduates persist in gptA r Celtsgen
shunning marriage,'when by so doing marry at some age, and in most states has risen and broadened fron eight pecimen of the male in exceedingly
they impede 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
quality? The answers seem to be In the majority of cases the non-col- to 67 years in 1900 doomed to a manless existence. It is
conditioned upon human whims and lege woman is married long before the also not seldom that a young man will
shortsightedness, but convicting evi- fortieth milestone is reached. For the large universities , eI object ts macrying a woman who is
dence in the form of reliable statistics, example, 30 per cent of Massachusetts shoe approximately nine per cent' hI mental superior.
prove that such a condition exists. women have married before the col- more marriages among women be- Now, if You have had the courage
Prof. A. Franklin Shull, of the zoo- lege women of their own ages ilve tween twenty-five and thirty years of or endurance to read thus far, you
logy department, has procured from graduated, age than do the strictly women's col- will vociferously demand that the
various official sources, data which Phi Beta Kappa contains a greater leges. The alumni register of Oberlin shortcomings of the man student be
demonstrated the timorous, antagonis- number of spinsters than the ordinary College (coeducational) shows the held tup to light. Whatever animos-
tic, or indifferent attitude which col- majority of average women students. marriage' rate to have decreased ten ity may have arisen within you must
lege people 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
marital vows. Other figures which fol- climbs en the intellectual ladder, the years, man graduate is, on the whole, satis-
low are credited to a work on Applied nuore loath is the woman to take utp Altoug coeducation ay seem co factory.
Eugenics, by Popenoe and Johnson. home making as a profession. dtucive to "getting a man" it is not It.rvard. Yale and Syracuse statis-
The percentage of marriages over If we invade the privacy of the fam- so, broadly speaking, for we find that tins show that the graduate main-
the entire country has increased ily circle, we discover that the col- of the women graduates of Ohio State tains a comparatively high and con-
steadily during the last two decades. lege woman's non-college sisters, Illinois, and Wisconsin Universities, stant birth rate.
Subsequently the birth rate has in- cousins and friends marry at an ear- only fifty-three per cent have mar- One of the much flaunted reasons for
creased. It has also been noted that tie celibacy wbic does exist among
people marry at earlier ages than ihey men, is the necessity of long periods
did twenty years ago. To the casual EDITOR'S NOTE: The article on this page brings ben , with of study and apprenticeship before the
observer this may seem satisfactory, force and clarity the evil which is growing rapidly in this country, es- igraduate is permitted to enter his
but a close scrutiny discloses an pecia'ly among the intelectuals ,that of race suicide. It is a fact which chosen profession. If a man remainis
alarming absence of marriages anti has been amply provei that in Antrica at least, the more edacetin single between the ages of twentytn-e
births among tme people swhot s may the fewer children. This has become so much a mttter of common and thirty-use years, will it not be
assume to be superior to the average. kinowledge that people are prone to believe that the higher developed coniducive to life-long celibacy?
Whether college graduates may me human beings are incapable of frequent reproduction. This, however, But men are not the center of at-
classed a superior nividuals might is not thecase, but for reasons best known only to themselves, those tention in this question. It follows
exposed to higher education are tending more and more to cease bear- front the infrequency with which col-
they have been held up as such. Ing children altogether, and even to forego the marriage relation. The lege women marry that birth rates
uet is first glance at the record of normal birth rate is between three and four children for each marri- among their numbers are exceptional-
Wellesley College. The percentage of ly and alarmingly low. Eugenists,
al tdnsnhiar wti e ge, and nvhen thin rate commenc'en alarmingly to decrenase among 1hvfre-37childrenul5 olg
all students who marry withi hn hose who are conceded to be intellectually the best the country can per college
years after graduation, is 35 per cent. produce, thinking people are perforce alarmed at the prospect graduate as the minimum figure. Wel-
Forty-nine per cent of the graduates lesley women average only .86 of a
marry within 20 years. -hild each.
At Mount Holyoke College, the oli- The most proficient students among
eat in the country of institutions for Her age, and with much greater fre- Tied within ten years after graduation. their numbers show even a worse rec-
the higher education for women, the quency than the college graduate her- The three named universities have ord. Welesley niembers of Phi Beta
number of graduates marrying, de- self. practically none of the sex barriers iKappa do not average even .86 of a
creased from 85.4 per cent to 50 per The marriage rate among the gradu- which supposedly exist in some of the child; their record shows but .65 of a
cent, over i period of 50 years. Those ates of Washington Seminary de- other universities, and still only one- child per member.
who decided to remain single in- creased from 78 per cent to 55 per half of their women graduates are 1Byrn Maisr graduates show .84 of a
creased from 14.6 per cent to 50 per cent over a period of 55 years. Those invited or desire to become wives? itilnl per married alumna, or .37 of
cent during the same period. who took ip business and professions is it the desire for a career which 'mu child per graduate.
Bryn Mawr's figures show only 165 increased nineteen per cent, during a is responsible for celibacy among col-) Low marriage rate and low birth
out of 376 graduates, from the senior like period of time. Those who, either' lege women? Or do they, with the ac- rate may be due to a number of per-
classes of 1888 to 1900 inclusive, who through choice or misfortune, neither quisition of a so-called "knowledge of sonally concocted trumperies, such as
married, and they were allowed 25 worked nor married, constituted only the world" become cynical and suspi- objections to marriage as an obstacle
years in which 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-
before -being relegated to spinster- equalled one woman, the celibacy of Those who remain single in order ing a family, interference with social
hood. that six per cent would mean a loss to pursue a career are probably less duties, and an artificially produced
Vassar College graduates have ap- of 22.2 children to the total births, ac- desirable at the outset than the stu- aversion to marriage.
parently decided upon a compromise cording to the figures set as the nor- dents of home making and mother Whatever may be the attitude of the
of 50-50. Slightly less than one-half mal birth rate by eugenists. craft. And again, when a woman seg- generations of college people to come,
of the graduating classes marry. The girls of Washington Seminary regates herself, she usually does so we must realize that here in America
.Over the 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
of college women marry before they or six years after they receive their sure the passing of her physical at- unsurpassed even in France, to whose
are 40 years of age, which is approxi- diplomas, but the number who marry tractions in the eyes of men. statistics we usually point with a
mates the age at which child bearing tern years afterward is very little less. The college woman who has spent "holier than thou" attitude, and that
ceases. As 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-
tre, of all the women in the country, Monthly reports by centuries, show- the weekly dance fest, desires a man petuated by a class of people who
educated and 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
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following "The Metric System as a Cure for know, to chase up on top of some-, quarters the distance tip the moun-
article was written by a former mem- Spring Fever" or some such title. But thing and look around. tain. It was a magnificent ride, pass-
her of The 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-
travelling in 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
interest not 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
but to all 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
"climbing sup 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 I steep mountainside. Arriving at the
pened. The field is almost too vast deserves the title, for looking back I end of the railroad, we walked up a
(By Huston if. HcBahi) to pick out individual happenings-it on the various countries we've been little farther and found a very beatu-
The fact is, 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
Arbor, for the editor of this little view. But then, after all, I've had to revisit. perfect view of the little village in the
magazine was 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
ously to write an article for him on ous things. It's sort of fun, you tle funicular railway about three- (Continued on Page 7)