204 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



business his father has followed and consequently of his father than do 

 children in the United States. Here the children are taught to learn a 

 trade or to follow a profession superior to that of the father. The boy 

 who from childhood is taught to think that his father's trade of brick- 

 laying is not good enough for him, but that he is to become a physician, 

 is not likely to think his father a great man. Every man in America 

 urges his son to do something better than he himself has done and this 

 is wise. It is the glory of the American national Hfe that the children 

 are filled with the ambition to rise higher than their fathers have risen, 

 but it comes at the expense of that respect which is almost veneration 

 in countries where the son does not try to rise above the level attained 

 by his father. 



Since the invention of machinery has opened to women various 

 industrial opportunities, they have become less dependent and the age 

 at which marriage takes place is more advanced. The effect of this is 

 a diminution in the marriage rate of nearly all countries for which sta- 

 tistics are available. ' Hence, the importance of the family has been 

 somewhat lessened. Women prefer marriage to industry, but since they 

 are able in industry to make a Uving for themselves, they use greater 

 care in the acceptance of a husband than was the case when they were 

 more dependent. There is some advantage in this as the result is a 

 more wholesome family hfe. There is every reason to beheve that the 

 family hfe of today is greatly superior to any that existed at any previous 

 time. 



Another reason for the dechne in the importance of the family is to 

 be found in the fact that marriage is an economic drawback. As a rule 

 when a bachelor marries he finds that the expense of living is multipHed 

 about two and one-half or three fold. Rents are very high and to 

 maintain a home is an expensive luxury. While a home is worth all it 

 costs, it is simply beyond the reach of the young man working in the city 

 for sixty dollars a month. Then, too, the benefits resulting from 

 increased salary due to marriage are scarcely worth considering as but 

 a small percentage of firms will raise the salaries of their employees 

 when they marry. From a purely financial point of view the young 



' Bailey, Modern Social Conditions, p. 139. For statistics of marriages in Massachusetts, see Mass. 

 Labor Btdletin, No. 44. P- 459 (December, 1906). 



