52o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



any alteration in the age, sex or marital condition of the population; 

 by any refusal or postponement of marriage; or by any of the effects 

 of ' urbanization ' or physical deterioration of sections of the com- 

 munity. The statistical evidence points, in fact, unmistakably to the 

 existence of a volitional regulation of the marriage state that is now 

 ubiquitous throughout England and Wales, among, apparently, a large 

 majority of the population. To verify this inference it seemed neces- 

 sary to obtain direct individual evidence from a sufficiently large 

 number of persons, taken haphazard from different parts of the country, 

 and from different social grades. This the committee of the Fabian 

 Society set itself to obtain. 



The procedure adopted was to obtain a voluntary census from a 

 sufficiently large number of married people who could be relied upon 

 to give frank and truthful answers to a detailed interrogatory. For 

 this information resort was had to between 600 and 700 persons, from 

 whom the committee had grounds of hope that answers would be re- 

 ceived. About half of these persons resided in the metropolitan area, 

 the remainder being scattered sparsely over the rest of Great Britain. 

 In social grade, they included a most varied selection of occupations, 

 extending from the skilled artisan to the professional man and the 

 small property owner; omitting, on the one hand, the great army of 

 laborers, and, on the other (with few exceptions), the tiny fraction of 

 the population who have incomes from investments exceeding £1,000 

 a year. They were, of course, selected without the slightest reference 

 to the subject of the inquiry; so little, indeed, was known about them 

 from this standpoint that more than 20 per cent, of them proved to be 

 unmarried, and thus unable to bear testimony. They were invited to 

 give the information desired without revealing their identity, the form 

 being so arranged as to enable it to be filled up by nothing more easily 

 recognizable than crosses and figures. 9 Altogether 634 forms were 

 sent out. From these there have to be deducted, for one reason or 

 another, 158 — viz., 114 bachelors, 30 duplicates (wives of husbands 

 making returns), five which failed to get delivered by post office, two 

 refusals, five returned blank or incomprehensible, and two relating to 

 marriages abroad. Of the 476 remaining, 174 did not reply. Whether 

 these should be added to the number of those who candidly confessed 

 to having taken steps to regulate the births in their families, or to those 

 who had taken no such steps, or in what proportion they should be 

 distributed between the two, the reader must judge for himself. Sig- 

 nificant replies were received from 302 persons. But as 14 of the 

 returns included particulars of two marriages, the total number of mar- 

 riages of which particulars are recorded is 316. In six cases the papers 

 contain references to second marriages of which insufficient particulars 



9 1 append the questions asked . ( See opposite page. ) 



