A drop from twenty-one to nine in forty years!
And if you can't escape, in any numbers, from the law which
reigns in your vicinity, neither can you escape, in any numbers,
from the law which reigns in your social set.
Here's Bailey's book on "Social Conditions":
Live in England and be a girl and belong to the class of people
that miners come from: Your age at marriage will be, on the
average, twenty-two. But belong to the class of people that
professional men come from: Your age at marriage will be, on the
average, twenty-six.
This difference exists also in the United States. It is in the
direct line of social and economic development.
The professional man is a farther developed type of man than the
miner. It takes him longer to get through his educational
infancy--longer to arrive at his mental and financial maturity.
The professional man's wife is a farther developed type than the
miner's wife. She has much more economic value (if she works)
before marriage and much LESS economic value (in any case) after
marriage.
Where these two lines of development, male and female, come to a
meeting point; where the man's infancy is longest and the woman's
economic value as a wife is least, there is, necessarily,
altogether apart from personal preferences, the greatest
postponement of marriage.
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