MORE MEN THAN WOMEN.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 4925, 15 January 1902, Page 4

MORE MEN THAN WOMEN.

The population of the United States and dependencies was stated recently to be 84,233,069. The population.of the States alone is 76,303,387. The striking feature of the census re- 1 suits, according to the New York ' Tribune,' is the fact that there are still many more men and boys than women and girls in the country, the difference exceeding 1,800,000. The excess appears more distinctly, perhaps, when it is said that there are 512 males and only 488 females in every thousand people in the United States. What is more, this sort of thing has been going on, with some little fluctuation in the percentage, for over half a century. As long ago as 1850 there was a distinct numerical superiority of the male over the female element. By 1860 the preponderance was even more conspicuous, but in 1870 less than for several decades. The returns for 1880 show I a Blight gain once more, though the disparity of 1860 was not quite reached, aud those for 1890 a still further increase. The situation has scarcely changed in the last ten years, and indeed, the census bureau figures out a microscopic falling off in the growth of the male population as compared with the female. The balance of the sexes is frequently disturbed by Bpecial forces that are at work in some countries. Thus a foreign war will deplete the male population, and emigration may affect one sex more than another. Where women are extensively engaged in dangerous or difficult industries their numbers may be reduced, and similar circumstances may reduce the male population. But in Great Britain and in Europe generally the women are more numerous than the men, and experts believe that under normal con> ditions in European countries the female sex outnumbers the male in nearly the proportion of 51 to 49. Comparison with that standard then, makes the excess of males in America stranger than if Nature exhibited strict impartiality. The forces which appear to be chiefly concerned in upsetting the equilibrium are war and immigration. And of the two the former is much the less effective. Along the Atlantic seaboard for at least half a century there has been practically no excess of males, and, on the whole, a very slight deficiency. The superabundance of women in the New England States is due to an influx of factory girls from Canada and elsewhere, while in the mining and agricultural districts of the west the men are naturally greatly in excess.

Why was this great new navy built? Mr Wilson has no doubt upon that head. It was built as a menance to Great Britain. The preamble of the « Naval Act of 1900 ' declares that Germany must have a fleet of such strength that even for the mightiest naval power war with her would involve such risks as to jeopardise its own supremacy. Mr Wilson quotes a speech of the Kaiser made at Hamburg at the beginning of the South African war, in which he said :— 'If naval reinforcements had not been refused me during the first eight years of my reign — refused in spite of my urgent requests and entreaties, refused with scorn and even mockery —how differently affairß would stand to-day. We should be able to guard our thriving trade and commerce over sea. In other words, "If you had given me the ships I wanted, we could have had South Africa as a German market." '

The popular indignation excited in Germany against England by the war in South Africa gave the Kaiser his chance, and the scheme for a big new navy was successfully launched on the rising tide of popular passion. But, although the Kaiser exploited national Bentiment, there was nothing of sentimentality in the way in which he organised his navy. Mr Wilson evidently thinks that the German navy is in many respects superior to our own. Both England and Ameiica have shown grave want of foresight, increasing the number of their ships out of all proportion to their trained seamen. Not so sins Germany. Year by year her personnel will be raised from its present figure of 29,000 till 1920 it will stand at 65,000, with a trained reserve of at least 100,000. The sailors are well organised, and excellently instructed, and the officers are in profession second to none, and they are retired earlier than in England. A vice-admiral quits the sea at 65 m England ; in Germany at 56. Captains are retired in England at 55 ; in Germany at 50. Elaborate arrangements are made for tbe co-oper-ation of the army with the fleet. Even an invasion of England is considered by von der Goltz to be perfectly practicable. Tbe German fleet is made, organised, and controlled by experts, and it is all done on the cheap ; so much so, that tbe pay per bead in the British navy averages £53 per annum, and in the German £28. And yet, says the writer, the German officer and seamen are as good and efficient as the British. But, surely, the difference is largely to be accounted for by the difference between the coßt of compulsory and Voluntary service !