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FIFTEEN MILLION SURPLUS WOMEN SHORTAGE OF MARRIAGEABLE MEN IS WORRYING THE WOMEN. Recently when Mr. Asquith was asked what he considered the greatest social evil at the present time, he answered: "The two millions of unmarried women in England." This is not only an English problem but a world problem, as statistics show that in the ten larger countries participating in the war there | are 15,000,000 surplus women as: compared to 4,000,000 prior to 1914.' The enormous sacrifice demanded by the great God Moloch are bound to have a serious effect upon the future of the human race, whether the question is considered biologically, socially or morally. Before the war, every twentieth woman lacked a mate, whereas the ratio has now sunk to every sixth or seventh woman. As far as the present generation of adults goes, the matter is irredeemable; but if there be any basis for the legend that jifter periods of war and famine more boys are born into the world than girls, there may be some hope for the coming generation. No one has attempted to explain this mystery, although science has long been standing cn the brink of . the secret. As to the much-mooted question of birth control. Nature J still moves in her own mysterious way in her workship, regardless of all the ( scientific formulas of a Schienck or , the fervent prayers of potential par- , ents. ? When the birth rate on any country displays an upward tendency , there is a proportionate increase of male births?another of Nature's , enigmas?the proportion being about * < Art 1U? Doys K) every rw gins. It raust be clear even tc the mind cf the laity that nature should wish to guarantee the propagation of the race. Everywhere in the physical , world the masculine germ cells are , more lavishly distributed than the female, but, while the birth i-ate is higher among males so also is the death rate, and it must be due to ignorance as to the "technic of life" among the human race that this orig- . inal male surplus is lost in later years J and indeed just in those years so vital for propagation. This preponderance of women in' the world at present is a problem that is baffling scientific men. One of the leading Berlin women specialists says that among her patients are many women of marriageable age who feel that they have been cheated out of the legitimate privileges of wifehood and motherhood by the ravages of the war. They declare quite openly that they mean to defy conditions. Hrey are by no means to be looked upon as pathological or abnormal cases but represent merely the reaction of the women in war-ravaged countries to what they consider nature's or fate's injustice. Added to this is the natural craving of the average woman?particularly in 3 .-t... in.> Carmflnv roliprp Ttlflf l~VUJUVI y UAC VrVAUUMt^ f WW riage and motherhood were considered a metier!?to bear children, and under the present circumstances they feel it no disgrace to fulfill their mission. One thing is certain, and that in al< countries now engaged in adjusting after-war problems energetic measures will be taken by the hundreds of thousands of new women voters to seek legislation for the protection of the child and unmarried mother. The frenzied marrying fever of the immediate after-war period has somewhat abated, after having reached a pcint where the futile urge of the women and girls to the marriage market had begun to exert a disastrous effect upon the character and morals of the coining generation. Wilhelmine Mohr, a German writer, thinks that the women of the world will have to take energetic measures along sociological and eugenic lines v to counteract the evils resulting from her pre mt numerical ascendancy. A supreme effort should be made to j preserve the male surplus until late manhood, and this should be done by conserving the fcrces of youth by increasing protection of illegitimate j children and pregnant mothers, and : by a x-ational division of work between husband and wife. Women have everything to gain by reducing the present disproportion. The scientific fact that the death rate is heavier among male infants, rests not only upon physical laws, but also upon social ones. There should be a fundamental change in the views concerning the duties of women along the lines of physical care and training for motherhood, just S3 there should be in regard to the imperative necessity of providing sound fathers for their children. In the present social system the men marry too early. The majority have won honors, prestige and v x. fortunes at a tremendous expenditure of physical and intellectual strength before becoming fathers. Not the number of people, but the kind of people in the world should be the law governing future propagation. Light on Bonus Question. (By A. Plat Andrew, Member of Congress from Massachusetts, (Sixth District) foimer Assistant Secretary United States Treasury; former Director United States Mint; former Professor of Economics cf Harvard.) Several years ago, in a Harvard examination, the question was asked, "What is meant by the polarization of light?" And one of the students, with unwitting wisd vn, replied, "The polarization of light., as I understand it, is very little understood." With equal truth a similar reply might be made concerning the bonus by many of the financial writers who are opposing it. One hears extraordinary statements about the probable expense involved, and estimates varying all the way from one to fifty or seventy-five billions of dollars. I have received many circular ietters from broking houses, professing to explain the adjusted compensation bill and to estimate the burden which it will place upon the business of the country, but I have yet to l-eaci one such ciitmlar letter, or to read any financial letter in any important newspaper of the country, which gives anything but a grossly exaggerated statement of the probable cost involved. In a recent market letter of Jules Bache & Co., it was stated that it would place upon the taxpayers of the country a burden of one billion dollars annually; in a financial article from the Public Ledger which was sent me the other day, it was stated that the soldiers' bonus will require two billions of dollars initially; and in the last circular letter by the Irving National Bank, of New York, one reads that it will divert some three billions, three hundred millions of dollars of tax funds. This seemed bad enough, but Washington Star last week stated the total cost would not improbably range somewhere between fifty billion and seventy-five billion dollars. What are facts? If the bill were adopted ,in the j form in which it was introduced in j the house by Mr. Fordney, and in the senate by Mr. McCumber, it might, in case all veteians choose cash compensation, cost $1,500,000,000 in the course of the next three years, and that would be all that it would ever cost. If on the other hand all veterans were to select as their option | the alternative of paid up insurance,' it might cost a little over $50,000,- ] 000,000 at the ena 01 twenty years, when the insurance matures. Those are the maximum and minimum costs involved in the present bill, and the actual cost will depend upon the choice of the veterans as between the different alternatives. According to the estimates made by Secretary Mellon, based on the supposition that half the veterans would take cash and half insurance, it would cost about $400,000,000 for each of the first two years, and very little thereafter un-' til the expiration of the insurance. These are indeed formidable sums, but taking the maximum payments for the next three years, of $1,600,000,000 on the assumption of every, soldier choosing cash, the total would j not amount to half as much per capita for our people as the bonus which Canada paid to her soldiers involved for her population. I How, you may ask, is this great sum to be paid? i | It should be noted in passing that, the suggestion cf levying special, taxes to meet a special expenditure has never been raised before in con-, nection with the adjustment of com-1 pensation for any other war claimants. When the Dent Act was passed, which arranged for settling claims of war contractors, no particular revenue measure was provided, al-1 though the actual compensation paid under that act amounted to nearly ,000,000,000. No prejudice was created against these claimants and I there was little protest against them,; because they were paid out of the' general sources of the treasury, and; no definite taxes were assigned forj their settlement. The same is true of the adjustment of the compensation of the railroads amounting to $500,000,000 for the losses incurred under war administration. It is true also of the $40,000,000 voted to compensate mine owners for losses incurred merely in getting ready to produce minerals, for chemical warfare, but without actually supplying them. It is true of the many millions voted for the relief of Shipping Board contractors. If, as has been suggested, we now incorporate new taxes in the act adjusting the compensation of the veterans, we shall discriminate in a manner quite without precedent against the claims of those who offered to their county, not property, but their youth and their lives?claims amounting to only a fraction of those already met for property. We shall help to turn what is intended to be, and what ought to be, an expression of giatitude, into a source of criticism and disparagement of those same veterans. This has, in fact, already resulted from the agitation of such proposals. But can these claims for back pay i for the veterans be adjusted without ruin and disaster to the business interests, and without over burdening the taxpayers of the country? I am confident that the necessary revenue can be provided without further borrowing. If the results of the recent conference for the limitation of armaments are anywhere near as substantial as we have been led to believe, the resultant economies in the appropriations for the aimy and navy will amount to at least $200,000,000 yearly. These are economies that were rot contemplated and taken account of in next year's budget. The war finance board ( which, according to present legislation, will begin liquidation on July first next, has many millions of govLight on Bonus Question continued? < ernment money which will be releas- j ed. We are continually told of new j economies being accomplished by the budget committee; and that there arc other economies in prospect. But j even if these sources did not exist, | merely the interest already accrued, ^ or which is annually accruing on the j British debt, alone would be suffi- < cient to meet the soldiers' claims, . I mention Great Britian specifical- i ly, because her solvency does not de- . pend to the same degree as that oi ( France and Italy upon reparation j payments from Germany, and because } tbe British government has already ( begun to reduce its own domestic debt. Within the past week, in fact, announcement has been made that payment of 50,000,000 pounds (over $200,000,000) in interest to the United States has been arranged for in 1 next year's British budget. In one > or another of these ways, our com- i bining several of these ways, our veterans can bs compensated with- < out increased taxation, without in- ] creased loans, and without even touch- i ing the principal of the debts which 1 ore owing us. Congress ought, in justice to the veterans, to pass the adjusted compensation act without an- i nexing special revenue measures, and " it not only ought to do so, but it can do so without fear of serious emhanrassment to the treasury. < There is another aspect of the < problem which merits thoughtful at- 1 tcntion. We can very well admit * that the debt which our government ( owes the veterans is very like all debts for services long since rendered. The feelings of many of our people toward it are akind cf our individual feelings toward the bilfo of lawyers and doctors fcr services which they may have performed in the past. We face them peifunctoril.v, and with a not unnatural desire to find some possible means of escape, but like all such obligations long overdue, this debt, If neglected, will only grow more heavy with the lapse of time. If we leave our veterans with this obligation unsettled, and with the feeling that the country has dealt unjustly with them, their restlessness may grow not only more j insistent, but more extensive with the j passage of the years. Let those who ; selfishly and shortsightedly oppose the settlement today take warning. If this debt is not settled now, in time, instead of pushing the present claim for back pay, the effort may be made to revive the extravagant, much abused, ana unsau.raacu ajotem of general service pensions, which it has been the worthy purpose of our war risk insurance and our compensation acts to forestall and avoid. It is not only fair and just, but it will be much more economical in the long run to settle the obligation now. We sanction hospitalization end training for our disabled veterans. Wc have provided aid for the dependents of our dead. We have adjusted the compensation of our war contractors to the tune of $3,000,000,000 under the Dent Act. Wc have adjusted the compensation of the railroads to the extent of $500,000,000. We have settled the war bills of the Shipping Board for countless millions. There remains only one more war debt to pay. If we pay it now, I can not see that the soldiers and sailors (except those suffering from ailments incurred during the war) will have any other claim that ought to be recognized either now or in the future. T?- Jc, /mi,. intPT-Pst to DP.V it nOW, j and as Washington said, one hundred ' and forty years ago of the bonus j proposed for the soldiers cf the Rev- j olution: "It is a debt of honor which j can not be canceled until it is fairly discharged." DR. FRANK 0. LENTZ DENTIST Office Over Baggett'a Jewelry Store. Main Street OFFICE HOURS: 9 a. m. to 1 p. m. and 2 to 5 p. m. The County Record is mailed to j subscribers at $1.50 the year, invariably payable in advance. A Ghost Pat to His Proof. In taking up the hunt fcr the "Ha'nt" which has driven the McDonald family from their farm at Caledonia Mills, Nova Scotia, Dr. Walter F. Prince of this city has adopted, apparently, a r.ew line of scientific approach. He has put the burden of proof on the ghost In this respect he differs from the ordinary agent of psychical research who sets cut to establish conclusions cr to test theories of his own. With Dr. Prince the ghost is the thing. With the investigator of the other type any wandering spirit caught in the act would serve but as an active argu ~ont for an already elaborated ..ypothesis in the supernormal. The ghost on the McDonald place is alleged to have slapped one bold seeker of the truth fairly in the face. Dr. Prince desires nothing so much as to be he who gets slapped in the next instance of spooky wrath. He has provided bells to be rung, rattles to be shaken, knockers with wliich His Ghostship may rap?every sort of plaything with which a romping visitor from elsewhere may divert himself in his own uncanny way. A "ha'nt" that varies his tricks from arson to a merry dance and from bell-ringing to assault and batt? ry is likely to be of a capricious temperament. Certainly he will not perform till he feels good and ready. Concerning the possibility of his not appearing at all we have this to say: \ny ghost which fails to exhibit his appreciation of Dr. Prince's courage, :ourtesy and intended hospitality wifl je simply not playing the game, and r?e shall move for his permanent ex:lusion from the best psychic circles. ?New York World. NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC. I have again taken charge of the fCingstree Shaving Parlor?will give t my best attention. My motto is still "Service First" You can always find a clean up-tolate barber shop. Again I thank the people for their patronage given me n the past and I hope you can continue to do so. GEO. H. DALLAS Located in Wee Nee Bank bldg. S-16-2tc. ANNOUNCEMENT. F. R. Hemingway begs to announce that he has commenced the practice >f law in his own name, with office in the Nexsen Building, Kingetroe, S. C. l-16-2tc. 566 cures Chills and Fever. i jii Typewril I We are r 1 T ypewritt J Papef. C I need of th iWe car T ypewritt and Yello> rtifrn tfAll n, ywu ii' We ca grades sui | from the \ j to a cheap ? I 6 \ UAVEIT MADE TO MEAJURE |"*sssss^-' WOOL Quality and Price Go Hand in Hand / f" You cannot find quality where the price is not sufficient to warrant, quality. When the attempt to reduce the price below what is commensurate with good materials and workmanship is made, the quality is sacrificed. In International tailoring you find the best allwool fabrics with the most skilled workmanship. This is all that can be put into any garment. 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