[57] The following clipping taken from an American newspaper in 1893 gives an adequate description of a “she-town”: “A singularity that is met with in the factory towns of Maine, is a class of men who may rightly be called housekeepers. Any one visiting some of these workers’ homes shortly after the noon hour, will find the men, wearing an apron, washing dishes. At other hours of the day they may be seen making the beds, dressing the children, scrubbing or cooking.... These men do the housekeeping for the simple reason that their wives can earn more in the factories than they, and it is more economical for them to remain at home while the women work.”
[58] “Mr. E., a manufacturer, informs me that he employs only women at his power-looms. He prefers married women and especially those who have a family at home depending upon them. They are much more attentive and docile than unmarried women, and are obliged to exert themselves to the utmost in order to earn the necessary means of subsistence. Thus the peculiar virtues of woman’s character are turned to her own detriment, and the gentleness and decency of her nature become a means of her enslavement.” From an address by Lord Ashley on the ten-hour bill, 1844.—Karl Marx, “Capital,” second edition.
[59] The Prussian census of 1900 has shown that in Prussia there are 3,467,388 persons not related to the families in whose midst they live. In the entire state about one-quarter of these non-related members of the households consisted of strange boarders and lodgers; in the rural districts they constituted only one-seventh, but in the cities one-third, and in the capital, Berlin, more than one-half.—G. v. Mayer, “Statistics and Social Science.”
[CHAPTER X.
Marriage as a Means of Support.]
[1.—Decline of the Marriage Rate.]
When we consider the conditions enumerated above, it requires no further proof to recognize that a growing number of persons do not regard the wedded state as a desirable goal, but hesitate to enter into it. This explains the phenomenon, that in most civilized countries the marriage rate is stationary or declining. It was a matter of old experience, that an increase in the price of grain had a detrimental effect on both the marriage and birth rates. With the growing industrial development of any country the marriage and birth rates are influenced more and more by the ups and downs of the market. Economic crises and a lowering of the general economic standard have a lasting unfavorable influence. This may be seen from the marriage statistics of various countries. According to the latest census, 12,832,044 marriages were contracted in the United States during the period from 1887 to 1906.
| 1887 | 483,096 |
| 1891 | 562,412 |
| 1892 | 577,870 |
| 1893 | 578,673 |
| 1894 | 566,161 |
| 1902 | 746,733 |
| 1903 | 786,132 |
| 1904 | 781,145 |
| 1905 | 804,787 |
| 1906 | 853,232 |
These figures show that as a result of the crises during 1893 and 1894, the marriage rate declined by 12,512. The same phenomenon recurs in 1904, during which year the marriage rate declined by 4987. The following table shows marriage statistics gathered in France:
| 1873–1877 | 299,000 |
| 1878–1882 | 281,000 |
| 1883–1887 | 284,000 |
| 1888–1892 | 279,000 |
| 1893–1897 | 288,000 |
| 1898–1902 | 296,000 |
| 1903–1907 | 306,000 |
The marriage rate attained its highest figure, 321,238, during the year 1873. From that time on the marriage rate declined only to increase again with times of prosperity. In France the highest marriage rate since 1873 was attained in 1907 when it reached 314,903. To some extent this increase was due to a new law that went into effect on June 21, 1907, by which the legal formalities required in order to become married were simplified. This increase was especially noticeable in the poorer districts. The following table shows the number of marriages contracted for every thousand inhabitants in various European countries: