SATURDAY. AUGUST. 23, 1913. DISINCLINATION TO MARRY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1836, 23 August 1913, Page 4

SATURDAY. AUGUST. 23, 1913. DISINCLINATION TO MARRY.

One does' not usually expect a discussion of great social and moral problems in suoh aa the reports of assurance societies. It is true that the facts brought to light by tho operations of institutions of this character often have an important bearing on the social life of a community, and are helpful to tho statesman and sociologist from various points ofview. Still, the main object for which these societies exist is business; their statistics are collected and analysed for business purposes, and it is generally left to others to emphasiso the insight such facts and figures may afford into the social habits and moral tendencies of tho people. But tho statisticians of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of New York have ventured out of the beaten track, and, according to a cablegram which we published yesterday, they havo thought fit to incluclo in their latest rop.ort soma interesting commcnte on

the marriage problem in tho United States. If the officials of other similar institutions follow tho example of the statisticians of this wellknown American Socicty their annual reports will form a very interesting class of modern literature which should prove of considerable value to tho politician, the historian, and the-social reformer, besides supplying the ordinary man and woman with food for reflection regarding the manners and customs of their day and generation. It does not require any exceptional gifts of imagination to conceive how the statistics of other commercial and industrial establishments might provide equally interesting information regarding the development of national character, and in tho future tho consideration of tho social as- j pects of business enterprises may receive a great deal more prominence than in the past. The comments of the statisticians of the Equitable Life Assurance Society are deserving of careful attention. _ They state that the men of America are lacking the moral courage which matrimony demands, and on the one hand we have an army of selfish single men who are developing extravagant and often vicious habits and on tho other a great number of young women who aro forced to toil in factories and business houses for the necessaries of life. This is. certainly an unnatural and undesirable state of affairs, and unless something is done to remedy the evil the stability of the nation's lifo will in the course of time be endangered. Perhaps there is no country in the world in which the sex problem is causing more anxiety to thoughtful people than in the United States. There is, no doubt, a growing disinclination on tho part of the men to take upon themselves the responsibilities of marriage, and "this is intensified by the increasing competition of women in those occupations- which wero formerly regarded as exclusively masculine work. It is therefore quite as reasonable to hold that the employment of so many women in factories and business houses is the cause, as' it is to contend that it is the result of the disinclination of American men -to marry and establish homes of their own. If'the competition of female workers reduces the demand for male labour, the marriago rate is boumKto go-down, and the army of bachelors must increase simply because fewer men will be in a position to get married and bring up families. This is a serious matter from tho national point of view. There are no doubt some classes of employment outside the home for which women are more fitted than men, but, broadly speaking, it is in the bes't interests of the community that the home should bo -regarded as woman's natural sphere. It is by accepting tho honoured position of mistress of her own household, and as wife and mother, that woman can confer the highest benefits upon any nation.

industrial competition is not tho only cause of the increasing army of single men and unmarried women which is having such an evil influence on the national life of the United States and other countries. There is a new sex morality abroad which is undermining the old ideals of marriage, and divorce is increasing at an alarming rate. It is a strange thing that some of tho most ardent advocates of the so-called "advanced" views arc women, and in America somo of these "reformers" have so completely broken away from traditional ideas as to the fitness of things that several of the States have found it necessary to pass laws to restrain immodest tendencies in the matter of dress. Only a day or two ago a cablegram announced that the Mayor of Portland (Oregon) had instructed the police to arrest any woman wearing what is known as the "X-ray" dress in the. streets. It is easy to laugh at such eccentricities, but they have a very serious aspect, and threaten to upset the nation's moral balance. It would be an exaggeration .to say that these tendencies are tho forerunners of tho decline and fall of the American people, for tho United States is a great and vigorous country, and such evils as those we have referred to are probably nothing more than a passing phase in its social history; but it is nevertheless true that if this laxity in matters relating to/ marriago and divorce, and the consequent undermining of family life,, is allowed to go on unchecked disaster must come sooner or later. A similar state of affairs preceded the downfall of tho Roman Empire. Matrimony fell into disrepute, and we are told that "the largo majority of men never married at all," to do so being considered as a sign of something approaching imbecility. Such a state of affairs cannot be paralleled either in tho United States or any other civilised country at the present time, but there. are similar tendencies at work, and whether it be in ancient Rome or modern America, like causes must in the long run h&vc like effects.