Johnson: Marriage Selection 

 GENERATIONS 



103 



THREE 



FOUR 



ONE 

 CENTURY 



THE EFFECT OF LATE MARRIAGES. 



Given a population divided into two equal parts, one of which produces a new genera- 

 tion every 25 j^ears and the other every 33^ years, the diagram shows that 

 the former group will outnumber the latter two to one, at the end of a century. 

 The result illustrated is actually taking place with various groups of the popula- 

 tion of the United States. For economic reasons, many superior people are 

 postponing the age of marriage. The diagram shows graphically how they are 

 losing ground, in comparison with other sections of the population which marry 

 only a few years earlier, on the average. It is assumed in the diagram that 

 all persons in the two groups marry, and that each couple produces four 

 children. (Figure 3.) 



differ from the others in any important 

 respect, sexual selection is very impor- 

 tant. Or if we can alter the percentage 

 of the unmated in different classes, 

 sexual selection may become very po- 

 tent. 



It is obvious that the innately medi- 

 ocre individuals are most numerous, 

 and that both the markedly superior 

 and inferior by nature are far less com- 

 mon. I mean by superior those who 

 are individually happier and socially 

 more useful than the average. The 

 mental characteristics, at least in such 

 a category, are too complex for a unit 

 character treatment, even if such super- 

 iority is built up by unit characteris- 

 tics. 



WHY MEN DO NOT MARRY. 



We must consider then what causes 

 the failure to mate and what 's the 

 quality of each of these classes. Taking 

 the men we have : 



1. The cultivation of a taste for 



sexual variety and a consequent un- 

 willingness to submit to the restraints 

 of marriage. 



2. Infection by venereal disease. 



3. Pessimism in regard to women 

 from such experiences. 



4. Deficiency in normal sexual feel- 

 ing or perversion. 



5. Deficiency of one kind or another 

 causing difficulty in getting an accept- 

 able mate. 



The persons in these five groups are, 

 as a class, inferior. This inferiority is 

 in part innate and in part the result of 

 bad environment. But since innate in- 

 feriority is so frequently a large factor, 

 we can conclude that the group as a 

 whole will average innately inferior. 



Then there are two other classes, 

 largely superior by nature : 



6. Those who seek some other end 

 so ardently that they will not make the 

 necessary sacrifice in money and free- 

 dom to marry. 



7. Those whose likelihood of earlv 



