480 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



could all survive, this evil would in time correct itself. But, under 

 ordinary circumstances, forty per cent, of the race die before reaching 

 that age. So of this increase beyond monogamic rates all is a present 

 loss, and forty per cent, an absolute loss. But this is not the worst. 

 The ratio of consumers to producers must in any case vastly increase 

 before any of the young become self-supporting. Hence a much 

 smaller surplus, a smaller ratio to each of what sustains and cheers 

 life, and less to bestow upon the weaker, who have extra needs ; con- 

 sequently a stronger pressure by the whole community on the means 

 of subsistence, a sharper struggle for existence, and a considerably 

 greater mortality among the feeble children. This in turn increases 

 the dead loss set forth above ; and thus polygamy causes the loss be- 

 yond recovery of a part of the productive energy of a people appre- 

 ciably greater than is lost in monogamy. This it is, doubtless, which 

 causes much of that large infant-mortality in Utah, which so many 

 have noted, and which has often been mistakenly attributed to the 

 purely physiological effects of polygamy. It is not that children are 

 born with weaker constitutions, but that too many of them are born 

 for the productive strength of the community to carry. 



This position will be best appreciated by a comparison with any 

 locality in the Central West say, a rural region in Ohio. There 

 about one-fifth of the whole community are producers. One-half are 

 childi*en, one-half the remainder women (whom political economy does 

 not consider as producers), and a small proportion infirm and aged. 

 Given freedom, monogamy, and natural conditions, this proportion 

 will maintain itself with almost perfect constancy. There will always 

 be a certain proportion of unmarried women. Families will average 

 four or five children each, and the annual increase will be such as the 

 productive capacity of the Commonwealth can carry, and leave a slight 

 surplus to add to its funded wealth. 



Now, introduce polygamy, apportion the single women, and possi- 

 bly import a few more. Give every fifth man two wives and two sets 

 of children, every tenth man three, and every fiftieth man from four 

 to twenty this is about the condition in Utah and what then ? In ten 

 years, instead of one-fifth, only one sixth or seventh of the whole popu- 

 lation will be producers ; and the number of the helpless will be greater 

 than the aggregate strength of the community can provide a proper 

 surplus for. Inevitably, then, the whole population will press harder 

 on the means of subsistence, there will be less abundant nourishment, 

 and a weakening of vitality among the poorest, and, in^no long time, 

 a marked increase of mortality among the children thus imperfectly 

 nourished ; for thus does inexorable Nature restore the balance with 

 a stern justice untempered by mercy. That Utah polygamy causes 

 more children to be born is unquestioned ; whether it would result in 

 a greater permanent increase of the population is very doubtful. It 

 certainly is not true that the polygamous races increase faster than 



