CHAPTER XI.The Chances of Matrimony.1.—The Numerical Proportion of the Sexes.The usual advice to women to seek their salvation in marriage, this being their true profession, is thoughtlessly approved of by the vast majority of men. But it seems like mockery, that many of those who give such advice and of those who applaud it, refrain from marrying themselves. Schopenhauer, the philosopher, has only the conception of a philistine concerning woman and her position. He says: “woman is not called upon to perform great tasks. Her characteristic is not doing but suffering. She pays her debt to life by the throes of child-birth, care of her child andsubmissiveness to her husband. The supreme expressions of vitality and perception are denied her. Her life should be more tranquil and insignificant than man’s life. Woman is called upon to be the nurse and educator of childhoodbecause she is childish herself; becausethroughout life she remainsa big child, a sort of intermediary stage between child and man,the true human being.... Girls should be reared to be domestic andsubmissive....Women are the most thoroughgoing, incurable philistines.”The work by Lombroso and Ferrero, “Woman as a Criminal and Prostitute”, is also written in the spirit of Schopenhauer. We have never met with an equally extensive scientific book,—it consists of 590 pages,—that contains so little convincing material in regard to the subject it deals with. The statistics from which the most daring conclusions are drawn, are very inadequate. Sometimes a dozen cases have sufficed the author to form a weighty opinion. It is a noteworthy fact that the material contained in the book which may be regarded as the most trustworthy has been furnished by a woman,Dr.Mrs.Tarnowskaya. The influences of social conditions and social development are almost entirely disregarded. All phenomena are judged from a narrow physiological and psychological point of view and much ethnological information concerning various peoples—is interwoven with the argumentation, without any attempt being made to investigate the nature of this information. According to the authors, as according to Schopenhauer, woman is a big child, an incarnate liar, weak in her judgment, fickle in love, incapable of any heroic deed. The inferiority of woman,—so they claim,—has been proven by a great many physical differences and characteristics. “Woman’s love is, at the bottom, nothing but a secondary character of motherhood. All the sentiments of affection that bind a woman to a man are not derived from the sexual impulse butfrom instincts of devotion and submission acquired by adaptation.” But how these instincts were acquired the authors fail to examine. If they did, it would imply an investigation of the social position of woman during thousands of years which has made her what she is to-day. The authors describe the dependence and enslavement of woman among different nations and during various periods of civilization, but being blinded by a narrow conception of the Darwinian theory, they trace everything to physiological causes, and disregard the social and economiccauses that have had the strongest influence on woman’s physiological and psychological development.Among other things the authors discuss the vanity of woman and express the view that among people at a low stage of development men are the vain sex, which may be observed even to-day on the Hebrides, Madagascar and among the tribes about the Orinoco river, as also on many islands of the Polynesian Archipelago and among a number of African and South Sea Island tribes; while among nations of high stage of development, women are the vain sex. But why is this so? The answer is simple. Among peoples at a low stage of development, matriarchal conditions prevail or have been abandoned but recently. Here woman’s position is such that she is relieved of the necessity of wooing man. The man woos her, and for this purpose he adorns himself, he becomes vain. Among peoples at a higher stage of development, especially among all civilized nations, man does not woo woman, but woman woos man. It rarely occurs that woman takes the initiative and literally offers herself to a man; modesty forbids that. But the offer nevertheless is made by manner and dress, the luxury of her personal adornment and her coquetry. Such conduct is forced upon her by the fact that there are more women than men and by the social necessity of regarding marriage as a means of support and as the only institution by means of which she may satisfy her sexual impulse and obtain social recognition. Here again we findpurely economic and social causesbringing forth qualities, now in the man and now in the woman, that we are accustomed to regard as quite independent of social and economic causes. From this we may draw the conclusion that when society has reached a state of development in which every form of dependence of one sex upon the other will cease,vanity and the follies of fashion will disappear as will many other vices that we deem ineradicable to-day, because we believe them to be inherent in human nature.In regard to Schopenhauer it must be said that he, as a philosopher, is as biased in his judgment of women as the majority of our anthropologists and medical men whoregard her only as a sex being, never as a social being. Schopenhauer had never been married. He failed to contribute his share that one more woman might fulfill the purpose in life that he prescribed to women. This leads us to another, no more pleasant phase of the question.It is generally known that many women remain unmarried because they are given no opportunity to become married. Custom forbids the woman to offer herself. She must allow herself to be chosen; she may not choose. If she is not chosen she must join that great army of unfortunate women who have missed their purpose in life and who are frequently subjected to a life of poverty and want, sometimes made more bitter still by ridicule. But what causes the numerical disproportion of the sexes? Many are quick to reply: too many girls are born. The persons who make this statement are misinformed, as we shall see. Others draw the conclusion that if women are in the majority in most civilized countries, polygamy ought to be permitted. But polygamy is not only averse to our customs, it also entails the degradation of woman; although that did not prevent Schopenhauer from asserting that “to the female sex in general polygamy is a boon.” Many men do not marry because they believe that they are unable to supportonewoman and the children who are likely to be born according to their station in life. Only few men are able to support two women, and among these, many do have two or several wives: one legitimate wife, and one or several illegitimate wives. Those privileged by wealth allow nothing to prevent them from doing as they choose.Even in the orient where custom and law have suffered polygamy to exist for thousands of years, relatively few men have more than one wife. We speak of the degrading influence of life in Turkish harems. But we overlook the fact that onlyvery few menbelonging to theruling classcan afford to maintain a harem, while the great mass of men live in monogamic marriage. In the city of Algiers at the close of the sixties of the last century, there were among 18,282 marriages no less than 17,319 with only one wife; there were 888 marriages with two wives, and only75 with more than two. In Constantinople, the capital of the Turkish empire, conditions are probably quite similar. Among the rural population in the orient the conditions favoring monogamic marriage are still more striking. In the orient, as with us, material conditions come into consideration that compel the majority of men to content themselves with one wife.[74]But if conditions were equally favorable to all men polygamy could still not be generally maintained because there are not enough women.Under normal conditions the numbers of persons of both sexes are almost equal, which everywhere points to monogamic marriage.The following table which has been published by Buecher in the “General Statistic Records,” proves thisassertion.[75]Number of male personsNumber of female personsEntire populationNumber of women for every 1000 menEurope170,818,561174,914,119345,732,6801,024America41,643,38940,540,38682,183,775973Asia177,648,044170,269,179347,917,223958Australia2,197,7991,871,8214,069,620852Africa6,994,0646,771,36013,765,425968399,301,857394,366,865793,668,722988The result of this compilation may, to many people, be a surprising one. With the exception of Europe where there are, on an average, 1,024 female inhabitants for every 1000 male inhabitants, the male population predominates. Even if we may assume that the information is incomplete, especially in regard to the female sex, and that especially in countries with a Mohammedan population the female population surpasses the given figures,the fact remains that, except in a few European countries, the female population nowhere considerably exceeds the male population. In the meantime the imperial bureau of statistics in Berlin has published a new compilation of the census in European and non-European countries which includes 883,000,000 people. “When we take into consideration the census, not included in this compilation, of Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Costa Rica, Argentine Republic, the Transvaal, Orange River Colony, Cyprus, Formosa and Pescadores, the number of enumerated inhabitants of the earth attains 882,000,000 with a general average of 991 female persons for every 1000 male persons. For the enumerated population of the earth we may therefore assume an almost equal representation of both sexes with a slight preponderance of themale.”[76]In Europe the conditions are different. With the exception of the countries of South Eastern Europe, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Servia, Bulgaria, Rumania and Greece, the female population predominates. The proportion is least unfavorable in Hungary and Italy where there are respectively 1,009 and 1,010 female inhabitants for every 1000 male inhabitants. Belgium comes next with 1013 female for every 1000 male inhabitants. Portugal and Norway show the most unfavorable proportion; next to these Great Britain with 1063 female for every 1000 male inhabitants. France, Germany, Austria and Russia lie in the middle having for every 1000 male inhabitants respectively 1,033, 1,032, 1,035 and 1,029 female inhabitants.[77]In Germany during the last two decades each census has shown a more favorable proportion. OnDec.1, 1885, the female population exceeded the male population by 988,376 persons. The census ofDec.1, 1890, still showed an excess of the female population of 966,806 persons. 1895—957,401; 1900—892,684, and according to the census ofDec.1, 1905 the excess of the female population had sunken to 871,916 persons (1029 female for every 1000male inhabitants). The decline of this difference may be chiefly accounted for by the decline of emigration in which the male sex is mainly concerned. This may be clearly seen from the proportion of the sexes in the United States, into which the stream of emigration is mainly directed, and where the dearth of women is almost as great as the excess of women in Germany. In 1900 for every 1000 men there were only 953 women. This emigration from Germany decreased from 220,902 persons in 1881 to 22,073 persons in 1901 and to 19,883 persons in 1908. The fact, that more men than women emigrate, accounts in the first place then for the difference between the numbers of persons of both sexes. Italy furnishes a good example; for there the male population still predominated at the beginning of the forties of the last century, while at present the female population predominates, owing to the large emigration.Furthermore, more men than women meet with accidents in agriculture, industry, commerce and traffic. Also more men are temporarily absent abroad as merchants, sailors, marines,etc.Another fact that has been statistically proven and that constitutes an important factor is that women on an average attain a higher age than men and that therefore there are more old women than old men. According to the census of 1900 the proportion of the sexes according to age in Germany was the following:AGEMaleFemaleMore maleMore femaleExcess of femalepopulationUnder 10 years6,904,7326,871,59933,133——From 10 to 15 years2,925,9182,912,57313,345——“15“21“3,179,8133,162,44817,365——“21“30“4,251,2044,293,775—42,571—“30“40“3,669,6563,731,556—61,900—“40“50“2,770,4512,923,228—152,777—“50“60“2,053,0852,320,273—267,188—“60“70“1,300,6371,545,808—245,171—“70 years up681,751868,671—186,920—27,737,24728,629,93163,845956,527892,684This table shows that up to the twenty-first year the number of boys exceeds the number of girls.[78]This excess of boys is due to the fact that everywhere more boys than girls are born. The following number of boys and girls, for instance, were born in the German empire:Duringtheyear1872for100girls106.2boys“““1884“100“106.2““““1900“100“106.0““““1905“100“106.3““““1907“100“106.3“But the male sex dies younger than the female sex; especially during infancy more boys than girls die. Ourtableshows that from the twenty-first year on the female population exceeds the male. The following figures show the death-rate of male and female inhabitants in Germany:During the yearsMaleFemale1872–187529.526.31876–188027.824.51881–188527.324.21886–189025.823.11891–189524.622.11896–190022.620.01901–190521.018.8[79][79]Hygienic and ethnological conditions of the German Empire. Berlin, 1907—During the year 1907 for every 100 female deceased there were 109.3 male.Thetable on page 159furthermore shows that at the true marriageable age, between the twenty-first and fiftieth year the female sex exceeds the male sex by 257,248 persons (in the year 1890 by 422,519) and between the fiftieth and seventieth year by 699,279 (in the year 1890 by 566,400). In Germany as in England the number of old women increases each year. A great disproportion, that constantly increases, is furthermore met with among widowed and divorced persons.According to the census of 1890 and 1900 there were the following numbers of widowed persons in Germany:18901900Men774,967809,238Women2,157,8702,352,921More women than men1,382,9031,543,683These widowed persons were of the following ages:18901900MenWomenMenWomen40 to 60 years222,286842,920225,191900,35760 years and older506,3191,158,712537,1161,299,905The number of divorced persons were during 1890, 25,271 men and 49,601 women. During 1900, 31,279 men and 60,738 women. These were of the following ages:18901900MenWomenMenWomen40 to 60 years13,82524,84216,97630,38560 years and older4,9177,2445,7138,452These figures show us that widowed and divorced women are excluded from remarriage, even during the age best suited to marriage. For during the years 1890 and 1900 there were respectively 46,362 and 46,931 widowed men up to the fortieth year of age, while during the same years there were respectively 156,235 and 152,689 widowed women. There were divorced men in 1890 and 1900 respectively 6519 and 8590 and divorced women 17,515 and 21,901. Here the disadvantage of divorce to the women is proved by figures.The following shows the proportion of unmarried persons during 1900:MenWomen15 to 40 years6,700,3525,824,46440 to 60 years426,388503,40660 years and older141,416252,134[80]Among the unmarried persons between the fifteenth and fortieth year there are, as above table shows, 875,888 more men than women, which appears to be very favorable to women. But men between the fifteenth and twenty-firstyear of age,—at which age there are 3,175,453 men to 3,064,567 women,—are, with very few exceptions, unable to marry. The same may be said of men between the twenty-first and twenty-fifth year of age, the great majority of whom are unable to support a family, while women of this age are all marriageable. When we furthermore consider the fact that for diverse reasons a great many men do not marry at all,—the number of unmarried men over 40 years were 567,804,—we find that the position of women in regard to marriage is a highly unfavorable one. A great many women then, under present-day conditions, are compelled to deny themselves the legitimate satisfaction of the sexual impulse, while men seek and find satisfaction in prostitution. The position of women would become a far more favorable one, as soon as a transformation of social conditions would abolish the obstacles that at present prevent hundreds of thousands of men from becoming married.As already mentioned the disproportion in the numbers of the sexes is due to a great extent to emigration. Obligatory service in the army also drives many young men, frequently the strongest, to seek their fortune abroad. According to official reports of the army, 135,168 men were convicted of illicit emigration, and 13,055 more cases were being investigated. These figures include men up to the forty-fifth year. This illicit emigration of men from Germany causes a considerable loss. Emigration is especially large in the years following great wars; that was seen after 1866 and during the years 1871 to 1874.We furthermore have great losses of life among men by accidents. In Prussia during the period from 1883 to 1905 no less than 297,983 persons were killed by accidents; of these there were, during the one year 1905, 11,792 men and 2,922 women. From 1886 to 1907, 150,719 persons were killed by accidents in industry, agriculture and state or municipal employment; only a small fraction of these were women. Another considerable portion of persons employed in these occupations become maimed or crippled for life and therefore unable to maintain a family. (There were 40,744 of these from 1886 to 1907.) Others die young leaving their families in the neediestcircumstances. Much loss of life among men is also connected with navigation. From 1882 to 1907, 2,848 sea-going vessels were sunk, entailing a loss of life of 4,913 members of the crew,—almost all men,—and 1,275 passengers.Only when the highest valuation of human life has been established,—which will be the case in a Socialistic community,—will society be enabled to prevent a great majority of accidents on land and sea. At present many persons are killed or maimed as a result of illapplied economy of employers. In many other cases accidents are due to excessive speed or over-fatigue of workers. Human life is cheap. When one workingman has been killed there are many others to take his place.Especially in navigation many preventable accidents occur. By the revelations of Plimsoll in the English parliament during the seventies, the fact became generally known that many owners of unseaworthy vessels, impelled by criminal greed, insured these vessels at a high rate and then sent them with their crew to almost certain destruction, in order to obtain the amount of insurance. These are the so-called death-ships that are not unknown in Germany either. Every year the marine bureaus are called upon to pronounce their verdicts in connection with a number of marine accidents, and those verdicts usually show the accidents to be due to advanced age or overloading or improper condition of the vessel or insufficient equipment, or a number of these causes combined. In the cases of many sunken ships the causes of their sinking can never be determined, because the disasters occur in mid-ocean and no one survives to tell the tale. Many crimes are committed in this way. The stations for saving ship-wrecked persons established at the coasts, are also very insufficient because they are chiefly maintained by private charity. An organized society that will regard it as its highest duty to provide equally for all its members, will succeed in making all these accidents of extremely rare occurrence. But under the present predatory system, where human lives areregarded as mere ciphers and the sole aim is to attain the highest possible profit, a human life is sometimes sacrificed in order that a dollar may be gained.[74]Throughout India polygamy exists in only a moderate form. According to the census of 1901 which includes all religions, there were for every 1000 married men, 1,011 married women. According to this the monogamic equilibrium is not seriously interfered with.—D.v.Mayer.[75]Karl Buecher, on the distribution of both sexes upon the earth; lecture delivered onJan.6, 1892, before the Geographical and Statistical Society of Frankfort on the Main. General Statistic Records published byDr.Georgev.Mayer.Vol.II. Tubingen, 1892.[76]G.v.Mayer—Dr.G. Schnapper Arndt in his book of Social Statistics arrives at the same conclusion. “Taken all in all the proportion of both sexes is approximately equal.”[77]According to G. Schnapper Arndt; founded on recent census figures, around the close of the century.[78]According to the census of 1890, there was an excess of boys only up to the tenth year of age, and according to the census of 1895, up to the sixteenth year.[80]Statistics of the German Empire. Census ofDec.1, 1900.
CHAPTER XI.The Chances of Matrimony.1.—The Numerical Proportion of the Sexes.The usual advice to women to seek their salvation in marriage, this being their true profession, is thoughtlessly approved of by the vast majority of men. But it seems like mockery, that many of those who give such advice and of those who applaud it, refrain from marrying themselves. Schopenhauer, the philosopher, has only the conception of a philistine concerning woman and her position. He says: “woman is not called upon to perform great tasks. Her characteristic is not doing but suffering. She pays her debt to life by the throes of child-birth, care of her child andsubmissiveness to her husband. The supreme expressions of vitality and perception are denied her. Her life should be more tranquil and insignificant than man’s life. Woman is called upon to be the nurse and educator of childhoodbecause she is childish herself; becausethroughout life she remainsa big child, a sort of intermediary stage between child and man,the true human being.... Girls should be reared to be domestic andsubmissive....Women are the most thoroughgoing, incurable philistines.”The work by Lombroso and Ferrero, “Woman as a Criminal and Prostitute”, is also written in the spirit of Schopenhauer. We have never met with an equally extensive scientific book,—it consists of 590 pages,—that contains so little convincing material in regard to the subject it deals with. The statistics from which the most daring conclusions are drawn, are very inadequate. Sometimes a dozen cases have sufficed the author to form a weighty opinion. It is a noteworthy fact that the material contained in the book which may be regarded as the most trustworthy has been furnished by a woman,Dr.Mrs.Tarnowskaya. The influences of social conditions and social development are almost entirely disregarded. All phenomena are judged from a narrow physiological and psychological point of view and much ethnological information concerning various peoples—is interwoven with the argumentation, without any attempt being made to investigate the nature of this information. According to the authors, as according to Schopenhauer, woman is a big child, an incarnate liar, weak in her judgment, fickle in love, incapable of any heroic deed. The inferiority of woman,—so they claim,—has been proven by a great many physical differences and characteristics. “Woman’s love is, at the bottom, nothing but a secondary character of motherhood. All the sentiments of affection that bind a woman to a man are not derived from the sexual impulse butfrom instincts of devotion and submission acquired by adaptation.” But how these instincts were acquired the authors fail to examine. If they did, it would imply an investigation of the social position of woman during thousands of years which has made her what she is to-day. The authors describe the dependence and enslavement of woman among different nations and during various periods of civilization, but being blinded by a narrow conception of the Darwinian theory, they trace everything to physiological causes, and disregard the social and economiccauses that have had the strongest influence on woman’s physiological and psychological development.Among other things the authors discuss the vanity of woman and express the view that among people at a low stage of development men are the vain sex, which may be observed even to-day on the Hebrides, Madagascar and among the tribes about the Orinoco river, as also on many islands of the Polynesian Archipelago and among a number of African and South Sea Island tribes; while among nations of high stage of development, women are the vain sex. But why is this so? The answer is simple. Among peoples at a low stage of development, matriarchal conditions prevail or have been abandoned but recently. Here woman’s position is such that she is relieved of the necessity of wooing man. The man woos her, and for this purpose he adorns himself, he becomes vain. Among peoples at a higher stage of development, especially among all civilized nations, man does not woo woman, but woman woos man. It rarely occurs that woman takes the initiative and literally offers herself to a man; modesty forbids that. But the offer nevertheless is made by manner and dress, the luxury of her personal adornment and her coquetry. Such conduct is forced upon her by the fact that there are more women than men and by the social necessity of regarding marriage as a means of support and as the only institution by means of which she may satisfy her sexual impulse and obtain social recognition. Here again we findpurely economic and social causesbringing forth qualities, now in the man and now in the woman, that we are accustomed to regard as quite independent of social and economic causes. From this we may draw the conclusion that when society has reached a state of development in which every form of dependence of one sex upon the other will cease,vanity and the follies of fashion will disappear as will many other vices that we deem ineradicable to-day, because we believe them to be inherent in human nature.In regard to Schopenhauer it must be said that he, as a philosopher, is as biased in his judgment of women as the majority of our anthropologists and medical men whoregard her only as a sex being, never as a social being. Schopenhauer had never been married. He failed to contribute his share that one more woman might fulfill the purpose in life that he prescribed to women. This leads us to another, no more pleasant phase of the question.It is generally known that many women remain unmarried because they are given no opportunity to become married. Custom forbids the woman to offer herself. She must allow herself to be chosen; she may not choose. If she is not chosen she must join that great army of unfortunate women who have missed their purpose in life and who are frequently subjected to a life of poverty and want, sometimes made more bitter still by ridicule. But what causes the numerical disproportion of the sexes? Many are quick to reply: too many girls are born. The persons who make this statement are misinformed, as we shall see. Others draw the conclusion that if women are in the majority in most civilized countries, polygamy ought to be permitted. But polygamy is not only averse to our customs, it also entails the degradation of woman; although that did not prevent Schopenhauer from asserting that “to the female sex in general polygamy is a boon.” Many men do not marry because they believe that they are unable to supportonewoman and the children who are likely to be born according to their station in life. Only few men are able to support two women, and among these, many do have two or several wives: one legitimate wife, and one or several illegitimate wives. Those privileged by wealth allow nothing to prevent them from doing as they choose.Even in the orient where custom and law have suffered polygamy to exist for thousands of years, relatively few men have more than one wife. We speak of the degrading influence of life in Turkish harems. But we overlook the fact that onlyvery few menbelonging to theruling classcan afford to maintain a harem, while the great mass of men live in monogamic marriage. In the city of Algiers at the close of the sixties of the last century, there were among 18,282 marriages no less than 17,319 with only one wife; there were 888 marriages with two wives, and only75 with more than two. In Constantinople, the capital of the Turkish empire, conditions are probably quite similar. Among the rural population in the orient the conditions favoring monogamic marriage are still more striking. In the orient, as with us, material conditions come into consideration that compel the majority of men to content themselves with one wife.[74]But if conditions were equally favorable to all men polygamy could still not be generally maintained because there are not enough women.Under normal conditions the numbers of persons of both sexes are almost equal, which everywhere points to monogamic marriage.The following table which has been published by Buecher in the “General Statistic Records,” proves thisassertion.[75]Number of male personsNumber of female personsEntire populationNumber of women for every 1000 menEurope170,818,561174,914,119345,732,6801,024America41,643,38940,540,38682,183,775973Asia177,648,044170,269,179347,917,223958Australia2,197,7991,871,8214,069,620852Africa6,994,0646,771,36013,765,425968399,301,857394,366,865793,668,722988The result of this compilation may, to many people, be a surprising one. With the exception of Europe where there are, on an average, 1,024 female inhabitants for every 1000 male inhabitants, the male population predominates. Even if we may assume that the information is incomplete, especially in regard to the female sex, and that especially in countries with a Mohammedan population the female population surpasses the given figures,the fact remains that, except in a few European countries, the female population nowhere considerably exceeds the male population. In the meantime the imperial bureau of statistics in Berlin has published a new compilation of the census in European and non-European countries which includes 883,000,000 people. “When we take into consideration the census, not included in this compilation, of Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Costa Rica, Argentine Republic, the Transvaal, Orange River Colony, Cyprus, Formosa and Pescadores, the number of enumerated inhabitants of the earth attains 882,000,000 with a general average of 991 female persons for every 1000 male persons. For the enumerated population of the earth we may therefore assume an almost equal representation of both sexes with a slight preponderance of themale.”[76]In Europe the conditions are different. With the exception of the countries of South Eastern Europe, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Servia, Bulgaria, Rumania and Greece, the female population predominates. The proportion is least unfavorable in Hungary and Italy where there are respectively 1,009 and 1,010 female inhabitants for every 1000 male inhabitants. Belgium comes next with 1013 female for every 1000 male inhabitants. Portugal and Norway show the most unfavorable proportion; next to these Great Britain with 1063 female for every 1000 male inhabitants. France, Germany, Austria and Russia lie in the middle having for every 1000 male inhabitants respectively 1,033, 1,032, 1,035 and 1,029 female inhabitants.[77]In Germany during the last two decades each census has shown a more favorable proportion. OnDec.1, 1885, the female population exceeded the male population by 988,376 persons. The census ofDec.1, 1890, still showed an excess of the female population of 966,806 persons. 1895—957,401; 1900—892,684, and according to the census ofDec.1, 1905 the excess of the female population had sunken to 871,916 persons (1029 female for every 1000male inhabitants). The decline of this difference may be chiefly accounted for by the decline of emigration in which the male sex is mainly concerned. This may be clearly seen from the proportion of the sexes in the United States, into which the stream of emigration is mainly directed, and where the dearth of women is almost as great as the excess of women in Germany. In 1900 for every 1000 men there were only 953 women. This emigration from Germany decreased from 220,902 persons in 1881 to 22,073 persons in 1901 and to 19,883 persons in 1908. The fact, that more men than women emigrate, accounts in the first place then for the difference between the numbers of persons of both sexes. Italy furnishes a good example; for there the male population still predominated at the beginning of the forties of the last century, while at present the female population predominates, owing to the large emigration.Furthermore, more men than women meet with accidents in agriculture, industry, commerce and traffic. Also more men are temporarily absent abroad as merchants, sailors, marines,etc.Another fact that has been statistically proven and that constitutes an important factor is that women on an average attain a higher age than men and that therefore there are more old women than old men. According to the census of 1900 the proportion of the sexes according to age in Germany was the following:AGEMaleFemaleMore maleMore femaleExcess of femalepopulationUnder 10 years6,904,7326,871,59933,133——From 10 to 15 years2,925,9182,912,57313,345——“15“21“3,179,8133,162,44817,365——“21“30“4,251,2044,293,775—42,571—“30“40“3,669,6563,731,556—61,900—“40“50“2,770,4512,923,228—152,777—“50“60“2,053,0852,320,273—267,188—“60“70“1,300,6371,545,808—245,171—“70 years up681,751868,671—186,920—27,737,24728,629,93163,845956,527892,684This table shows that up to the twenty-first year the number of boys exceeds the number of girls.[78]This excess of boys is due to the fact that everywhere more boys than girls are born. The following number of boys and girls, for instance, were born in the German empire:Duringtheyear1872for100girls106.2boys“““1884“100“106.2““““1900“100“106.0““““1905“100“106.3““““1907“100“106.3“But the male sex dies younger than the female sex; especially during infancy more boys than girls die. Ourtableshows that from the twenty-first year on the female population exceeds the male. The following figures show the death-rate of male and female inhabitants in Germany:During the yearsMaleFemale1872–187529.526.31876–188027.824.51881–188527.324.21886–189025.823.11891–189524.622.11896–190022.620.01901–190521.018.8[79][79]Hygienic and ethnological conditions of the German Empire. Berlin, 1907—During the year 1907 for every 100 female deceased there were 109.3 male.Thetable on page 159furthermore shows that at the true marriageable age, between the twenty-first and fiftieth year the female sex exceeds the male sex by 257,248 persons (in the year 1890 by 422,519) and between the fiftieth and seventieth year by 699,279 (in the year 1890 by 566,400). In Germany as in England the number of old women increases each year. A great disproportion, that constantly increases, is furthermore met with among widowed and divorced persons.According to the census of 1890 and 1900 there were the following numbers of widowed persons in Germany:18901900Men774,967809,238Women2,157,8702,352,921More women than men1,382,9031,543,683These widowed persons were of the following ages:18901900MenWomenMenWomen40 to 60 years222,286842,920225,191900,35760 years and older506,3191,158,712537,1161,299,905The number of divorced persons were during 1890, 25,271 men and 49,601 women. During 1900, 31,279 men and 60,738 women. These were of the following ages:18901900MenWomenMenWomen40 to 60 years13,82524,84216,97630,38560 years and older4,9177,2445,7138,452These figures show us that widowed and divorced women are excluded from remarriage, even during the age best suited to marriage. For during the years 1890 and 1900 there were respectively 46,362 and 46,931 widowed men up to the fortieth year of age, while during the same years there were respectively 156,235 and 152,689 widowed women. There were divorced men in 1890 and 1900 respectively 6519 and 8590 and divorced women 17,515 and 21,901. Here the disadvantage of divorce to the women is proved by figures.The following shows the proportion of unmarried persons during 1900:MenWomen15 to 40 years6,700,3525,824,46440 to 60 years426,388503,40660 years and older141,416252,134[80]Among the unmarried persons between the fifteenth and fortieth year there are, as above table shows, 875,888 more men than women, which appears to be very favorable to women. But men between the fifteenth and twenty-firstyear of age,—at which age there are 3,175,453 men to 3,064,567 women,—are, with very few exceptions, unable to marry. The same may be said of men between the twenty-first and twenty-fifth year of age, the great majority of whom are unable to support a family, while women of this age are all marriageable. When we furthermore consider the fact that for diverse reasons a great many men do not marry at all,—the number of unmarried men over 40 years were 567,804,—we find that the position of women in regard to marriage is a highly unfavorable one. A great many women then, under present-day conditions, are compelled to deny themselves the legitimate satisfaction of the sexual impulse, while men seek and find satisfaction in prostitution. The position of women would become a far more favorable one, as soon as a transformation of social conditions would abolish the obstacles that at present prevent hundreds of thousands of men from becoming married.As already mentioned the disproportion in the numbers of the sexes is due to a great extent to emigration. Obligatory service in the army also drives many young men, frequently the strongest, to seek their fortune abroad. According to official reports of the army, 135,168 men were convicted of illicit emigration, and 13,055 more cases were being investigated. These figures include men up to the forty-fifth year. This illicit emigration of men from Germany causes a considerable loss. Emigration is especially large in the years following great wars; that was seen after 1866 and during the years 1871 to 1874.We furthermore have great losses of life among men by accidents. In Prussia during the period from 1883 to 1905 no less than 297,983 persons were killed by accidents; of these there were, during the one year 1905, 11,792 men and 2,922 women. From 1886 to 1907, 150,719 persons were killed by accidents in industry, agriculture and state or municipal employment; only a small fraction of these were women. Another considerable portion of persons employed in these occupations become maimed or crippled for life and therefore unable to maintain a family. (There were 40,744 of these from 1886 to 1907.) Others die young leaving their families in the neediestcircumstances. Much loss of life among men is also connected with navigation. From 1882 to 1907, 2,848 sea-going vessels were sunk, entailing a loss of life of 4,913 members of the crew,—almost all men,—and 1,275 passengers.Only when the highest valuation of human life has been established,—which will be the case in a Socialistic community,—will society be enabled to prevent a great majority of accidents on land and sea. At present many persons are killed or maimed as a result of illapplied economy of employers. In many other cases accidents are due to excessive speed or over-fatigue of workers. Human life is cheap. When one workingman has been killed there are many others to take his place.Especially in navigation many preventable accidents occur. By the revelations of Plimsoll in the English parliament during the seventies, the fact became generally known that many owners of unseaworthy vessels, impelled by criminal greed, insured these vessels at a high rate and then sent them with their crew to almost certain destruction, in order to obtain the amount of insurance. These are the so-called death-ships that are not unknown in Germany either. Every year the marine bureaus are called upon to pronounce their verdicts in connection with a number of marine accidents, and those verdicts usually show the accidents to be due to advanced age or overloading or improper condition of the vessel or insufficient equipment, or a number of these causes combined. In the cases of many sunken ships the causes of their sinking can never be determined, because the disasters occur in mid-ocean and no one survives to tell the tale. Many crimes are committed in this way. The stations for saving ship-wrecked persons established at the coasts, are also very insufficient because they are chiefly maintained by private charity. An organized society that will regard it as its highest duty to provide equally for all its members, will succeed in making all these accidents of extremely rare occurrence. But under the present predatory system, where human lives areregarded as mere ciphers and the sole aim is to attain the highest possible profit, a human life is sometimes sacrificed in order that a dollar may be gained.[74]Throughout India polygamy exists in only a moderate form. According to the census of 1901 which includes all religions, there were for every 1000 married men, 1,011 married women. According to this the monogamic equilibrium is not seriously interfered with.—D.v.Mayer.[75]Karl Buecher, on the distribution of both sexes upon the earth; lecture delivered onJan.6, 1892, before the Geographical and Statistical Society of Frankfort on the Main. General Statistic Records published byDr.Georgev.Mayer.Vol.II. Tubingen, 1892.[76]G.v.Mayer—Dr.G. Schnapper Arndt in his book of Social Statistics arrives at the same conclusion. “Taken all in all the proportion of both sexes is approximately equal.”[77]According to G. Schnapper Arndt; founded on recent census figures, around the close of the century.[78]According to the census of 1890, there was an excess of boys only up to the tenth year of age, and according to the census of 1895, up to the sixteenth year.[80]Statistics of the German Empire. Census ofDec.1, 1900.
The usual advice to women to seek their salvation in marriage, this being their true profession, is thoughtlessly approved of by the vast majority of men. But it seems like mockery, that many of those who give such advice and of those who applaud it, refrain from marrying themselves. Schopenhauer, the philosopher, has only the conception of a philistine concerning woman and her position. He says: “woman is not called upon to perform great tasks. Her characteristic is not doing but suffering. She pays her debt to life by the throes of child-birth, care of her child andsubmissiveness to her husband. The supreme expressions of vitality and perception are denied her. Her life should be more tranquil and insignificant than man’s life. Woman is called upon to be the nurse and educator of childhoodbecause she is childish herself; becausethroughout life she remainsa big child, a sort of intermediary stage between child and man,the true human being.... Girls should be reared to be domestic andsubmissive....Women are the most thoroughgoing, incurable philistines.”
The work by Lombroso and Ferrero, “Woman as a Criminal and Prostitute”, is also written in the spirit of Schopenhauer. We have never met with an equally extensive scientific book,—it consists of 590 pages,—that contains so little convincing material in regard to the subject it deals with. The statistics from which the most daring conclusions are drawn, are very inadequate. Sometimes a dozen cases have sufficed the author to form a weighty opinion. It is a noteworthy fact that the material contained in the book which may be regarded as the most trustworthy has been furnished by a woman,Dr.Mrs.Tarnowskaya. The influences of social conditions and social development are almost entirely disregarded. All phenomena are judged from a narrow physiological and psychological point of view and much ethnological information concerning various peoples—is interwoven with the argumentation, without any attempt being made to investigate the nature of this information. According to the authors, as according to Schopenhauer, woman is a big child, an incarnate liar, weak in her judgment, fickle in love, incapable of any heroic deed. The inferiority of woman,—so they claim,—has been proven by a great many physical differences and characteristics. “Woman’s love is, at the bottom, nothing but a secondary character of motherhood. All the sentiments of affection that bind a woman to a man are not derived from the sexual impulse butfrom instincts of devotion and submission acquired by adaptation.” But how these instincts were acquired the authors fail to examine. If they did, it would imply an investigation of the social position of woman during thousands of years which has made her what she is to-day. The authors describe the dependence and enslavement of woman among different nations and during various periods of civilization, but being blinded by a narrow conception of the Darwinian theory, they trace everything to physiological causes, and disregard the social and economiccauses that have had the strongest influence on woman’s physiological and psychological development.
Among other things the authors discuss the vanity of woman and express the view that among people at a low stage of development men are the vain sex, which may be observed even to-day on the Hebrides, Madagascar and among the tribes about the Orinoco river, as also on many islands of the Polynesian Archipelago and among a number of African and South Sea Island tribes; while among nations of high stage of development, women are the vain sex. But why is this so? The answer is simple. Among peoples at a low stage of development, matriarchal conditions prevail or have been abandoned but recently. Here woman’s position is such that she is relieved of the necessity of wooing man. The man woos her, and for this purpose he adorns himself, he becomes vain. Among peoples at a higher stage of development, especially among all civilized nations, man does not woo woman, but woman woos man. It rarely occurs that woman takes the initiative and literally offers herself to a man; modesty forbids that. But the offer nevertheless is made by manner and dress, the luxury of her personal adornment and her coquetry. Such conduct is forced upon her by the fact that there are more women than men and by the social necessity of regarding marriage as a means of support and as the only institution by means of which she may satisfy her sexual impulse and obtain social recognition. Here again we findpurely economic and social causesbringing forth qualities, now in the man and now in the woman, that we are accustomed to regard as quite independent of social and economic causes. From this we may draw the conclusion that when society has reached a state of development in which every form of dependence of one sex upon the other will cease,vanity and the follies of fashion will disappear as will many other vices that we deem ineradicable to-day, because we believe them to be inherent in human nature.
In regard to Schopenhauer it must be said that he, as a philosopher, is as biased in his judgment of women as the majority of our anthropologists and medical men whoregard her only as a sex being, never as a social being. Schopenhauer had never been married. He failed to contribute his share that one more woman might fulfill the purpose in life that he prescribed to women. This leads us to another, no more pleasant phase of the question.
It is generally known that many women remain unmarried because they are given no opportunity to become married. Custom forbids the woman to offer herself. She must allow herself to be chosen; she may not choose. If she is not chosen she must join that great army of unfortunate women who have missed their purpose in life and who are frequently subjected to a life of poverty and want, sometimes made more bitter still by ridicule. But what causes the numerical disproportion of the sexes? Many are quick to reply: too many girls are born. The persons who make this statement are misinformed, as we shall see. Others draw the conclusion that if women are in the majority in most civilized countries, polygamy ought to be permitted. But polygamy is not only averse to our customs, it also entails the degradation of woman; although that did not prevent Schopenhauer from asserting that “to the female sex in general polygamy is a boon.” Many men do not marry because they believe that they are unable to supportonewoman and the children who are likely to be born according to their station in life. Only few men are able to support two women, and among these, many do have two or several wives: one legitimate wife, and one or several illegitimate wives. Those privileged by wealth allow nothing to prevent them from doing as they choose.
Even in the orient where custom and law have suffered polygamy to exist for thousands of years, relatively few men have more than one wife. We speak of the degrading influence of life in Turkish harems. But we overlook the fact that onlyvery few menbelonging to theruling classcan afford to maintain a harem, while the great mass of men live in monogamic marriage. In the city of Algiers at the close of the sixties of the last century, there were among 18,282 marriages no less than 17,319 with only one wife; there were 888 marriages with two wives, and only75 with more than two. In Constantinople, the capital of the Turkish empire, conditions are probably quite similar. Among the rural population in the orient the conditions favoring monogamic marriage are still more striking. In the orient, as with us, material conditions come into consideration that compel the majority of men to content themselves with one wife.[74]But if conditions were equally favorable to all men polygamy could still not be generally maintained because there are not enough women.Under normal conditions the numbers of persons of both sexes are almost equal, which everywhere points to monogamic marriage.The following table which has been published by Buecher in the “General Statistic Records,” proves thisassertion.[75]
The result of this compilation may, to many people, be a surprising one. With the exception of Europe where there are, on an average, 1,024 female inhabitants for every 1000 male inhabitants, the male population predominates. Even if we may assume that the information is incomplete, especially in regard to the female sex, and that especially in countries with a Mohammedan population the female population surpasses the given figures,the fact remains that, except in a few European countries, the female population nowhere considerably exceeds the male population. In the meantime the imperial bureau of statistics in Berlin has published a new compilation of the census in European and non-European countries which includes 883,000,000 people. “When we take into consideration the census, not included in this compilation, of Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Costa Rica, Argentine Republic, the Transvaal, Orange River Colony, Cyprus, Formosa and Pescadores, the number of enumerated inhabitants of the earth attains 882,000,000 with a general average of 991 female persons for every 1000 male persons. For the enumerated population of the earth we may therefore assume an almost equal representation of both sexes with a slight preponderance of themale.”[76]
In Europe the conditions are different. With the exception of the countries of South Eastern Europe, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Servia, Bulgaria, Rumania and Greece, the female population predominates. The proportion is least unfavorable in Hungary and Italy where there are respectively 1,009 and 1,010 female inhabitants for every 1000 male inhabitants. Belgium comes next with 1013 female for every 1000 male inhabitants. Portugal and Norway show the most unfavorable proportion; next to these Great Britain with 1063 female for every 1000 male inhabitants. France, Germany, Austria and Russia lie in the middle having for every 1000 male inhabitants respectively 1,033, 1,032, 1,035 and 1,029 female inhabitants.[77]In Germany during the last two decades each census has shown a more favorable proportion. OnDec.1, 1885, the female population exceeded the male population by 988,376 persons. The census ofDec.1, 1890, still showed an excess of the female population of 966,806 persons. 1895—957,401; 1900—892,684, and according to the census ofDec.1, 1905 the excess of the female population had sunken to 871,916 persons (1029 female for every 1000male inhabitants). The decline of this difference may be chiefly accounted for by the decline of emigration in which the male sex is mainly concerned. This may be clearly seen from the proportion of the sexes in the United States, into which the stream of emigration is mainly directed, and where the dearth of women is almost as great as the excess of women in Germany. In 1900 for every 1000 men there were only 953 women. This emigration from Germany decreased from 220,902 persons in 1881 to 22,073 persons in 1901 and to 19,883 persons in 1908. The fact, that more men than women emigrate, accounts in the first place then for the difference between the numbers of persons of both sexes. Italy furnishes a good example; for there the male population still predominated at the beginning of the forties of the last century, while at present the female population predominates, owing to the large emigration.
Furthermore, more men than women meet with accidents in agriculture, industry, commerce and traffic. Also more men are temporarily absent abroad as merchants, sailors, marines,etc.Another fact that has been statistically proven and that constitutes an important factor is that women on an average attain a higher age than men and that therefore there are more old women than old men. According to the census of 1900 the proportion of the sexes according to age in Germany was the following:
This table shows that up to the twenty-first year the number of boys exceeds the number of girls.[78]This excess of boys is due to the fact that everywhere more boys than girls are born. The following number of boys and girls, for instance, were born in the German empire:
But the male sex dies younger than the female sex; especially during infancy more boys than girls die. Ourtableshows that from the twenty-first year on the female population exceeds the male. The following figures show the death-rate of male and female inhabitants in Germany:
[79]Hygienic and ethnological conditions of the German Empire. Berlin, 1907—During the year 1907 for every 100 female deceased there were 109.3 male.
Thetable on page 159furthermore shows that at the true marriageable age, between the twenty-first and fiftieth year the female sex exceeds the male sex by 257,248 persons (in the year 1890 by 422,519) and between the fiftieth and seventieth year by 699,279 (in the year 1890 by 566,400). In Germany as in England the number of old women increases each year. A great disproportion, that constantly increases, is furthermore met with among widowed and divorced persons.
According to the census of 1890 and 1900 there were the following numbers of widowed persons in Germany:
These widowed persons were of the following ages:
The number of divorced persons were during 1890, 25,271 men and 49,601 women. During 1900, 31,279 men and 60,738 women. These were of the following ages:
These figures show us that widowed and divorced women are excluded from remarriage, even during the age best suited to marriage. For during the years 1890 and 1900 there were respectively 46,362 and 46,931 widowed men up to the fortieth year of age, while during the same years there were respectively 156,235 and 152,689 widowed women. There were divorced men in 1890 and 1900 respectively 6519 and 8590 and divorced women 17,515 and 21,901. Here the disadvantage of divorce to the women is proved by figures.
The following shows the proportion of unmarried persons during 1900:
Among the unmarried persons between the fifteenth and fortieth year there are, as above table shows, 875,888 more men than women, which appears to be very favorable to women. But men between the fifteenth and twenty-firstyear of age,—at which age there are 3,175,453 men to 3,064,567 women,—are, with very few exceptions, unable to marry. The same may be said of men between the twenty-first and twenty-fifth year of age, the great majority of whom are unable to support a family, while women of this age are all marriageable. When we furthermore consider the fact that for diverse reasons a great many men do not marry at all,—the number of unmarried men over 40 years were 567,804,—we find that the position of women in regard to marriage is a highly unfavorable one. A great many women then, under present-day conditions, are compelled to deny themselves the legitimate satisfaction of the sexual impulse, while men seek and find satisfaction in prostitution. The position of women would become a far more favorable one, as soon as a transformation of social conditions would abolish the obstacles that at present prevent hundreds of thousands of men from becoming married.
As already mentioned the disproportion in the numbers of the sexes is due to a great extent to emigration. Obligatory service in the army also drives many young men, frequently the strongest, to seek their fortune abroad. According to official reports of the army, 135,168 men were convicted of illicit emigration, and 13,055 more cases were being investigated. These figures include men up to the forty-fifth year. This illicit emigration of men from Germany causes a considerable loss. Emigration is especially large in the years following great wars; that was seen after 1866 and during the years 1871 to 1874.
We furthermore have great losses of life among men by accidents. In Prussia during the period from 1883 to 1905 no less than 297,983 persons were killed by accidents; of these there were, during the one year 1905, 11,792 men and 2,922 women. From 1886 to 1907, 150,719 persons were killed by accidents in industry, agriculture and state or municipal employment; only a small fraction of these were women. Another considerable portion of persons employed in these occupations become maimed or crippled for life and therefore unable to maintain a family. (There were 40,744 of these from 1886 to 1907.) Others die young leaving their families in the neediestcircumstances. Much loss of life among men is also connected with navigation. From 1882 to 1907, 2,848 sea-going vessels were sunk, entailing a loss of life of 4,913 members of the crew,—almost all men,—and 1,275 passengers.
Only when the highest valuation of human life has been established,—which will be the case in a Socialistic community,—will society be enabled to prevent a great majority of accidents on land and sea. At present many persons are killed or maimed as a result of illapplied economy of employers. In many other cases accidents are due to excessive speed or over-fatigue of workers. Human life is cheap. When one workingman has been killed there are many others to take his place.
Especially in navigation many preventable accidents occur. By the revelations of Plimsoll in the English parliament during the seventies, the fact became generally known that many owners of unseaworthy vessels, impelled by criminal greed, insured these vessels at a high rate and then sent them with their crew to almost certain destruction, in order to obtain the amount of insurance. These are the so-called death-ships that are not unknown in Germany either. Every year the marine bureaus are called upon to pronounce their verdicts in connection with a number of marine accidents, and those verdicts usually show the accidents to be due to advanced age or overloading or improper condition of the vessel or insufficient equipment, or a number of these causes combined. In the cases of many sunken ships the causes of their sinking can never be determined, because the disasters occur in mid-ocean and no one survives to tell the tale. Many crimes are committed in this way. The stations for saving ship-wrecked persons established at the coasts, are also very insufficient because they are chiefly maintained by private charity. An organized society that will regard it as its highest duty to provide equally for all its members, will succeed in making all these accidents of extremely rare occurrence. But under the present predatory system, where human lives areregarded as mere ciphers and the sole aim is to attain the highest possible profit, a human life is sometimes sacrificed in order that a dollar may be gained.
[74]Throughout India polygamy exists in only a moderate form. According to the census of 1901 which includes all religions, there were for every 1000 married men, 1,011 married women. According to this the monogamic equilibrium is not seriously interfered with.—D.v.Mayer.[75]Karl Buecher, on the distribution of both sexes upon the earth; lecture delivered onJan.6, 1892, before the Geographical and Statistical Society of Frankfort on the Main. General Statistic Records published byDr.Georgev.Mayer.Vol.II. Tubingen, 1892.[76]G.v.Mayer—Dr.G. Schnapper Arndt in his book of Social Statistics arrives at the same conclusion. “Taken all in all the proportion of both sexes is approximately equal.”[77]According to G. Schnapper Arndt; founded on recent census figures, around the close of the century.[78]According to the census of 1890, there was an excess of boys only up to the tenth year of age, and according to the census of 1895, up to the sixteenth year.[80]Statistics of the German Empire. Census ofDec.1, 1900.
[74]Throughout India polygamy exists in only a moderate form. According to the census of 1901 which includes all religions, there were for every 1000 married men, 1,011 married women. According to this the monogamic equilibrium is not seriously interfered with.—D.v.Mayer.
[75]Karl Buecher, on the distribution of both sexes upon the earth; lecture delivered onJan.6, 1892, before the Geographical and Statistical Society of Frankfort on the Main. General Statistic Records published byDr.Georgev.Mayer.Vol.II. Tubingen, 1892.
[76]G.v.Mayer—Dr.G. Schnapper Arndt in his book of Social Statistics arrives at the same conclusion. “Taken all in all the proportion of both sexes is approximately equal.”
[77]According to G. Schnapper Arndt; founded on recent census figures, around the close of the century.
[78]According to the census of 1890, there was an excess of boys only up to the tenth year of age, and according to the census of 1895, up to the sixteenth year.
[80]Statistics of the German Empire. Census ofDec.1, 1900.