Note 259-10 — Chapter III

Against real over-population, the emigration of women would be much more effective than that of men; and yet the emigration of the latter occurs much less frequently in large numbers. Thus, between 1853 and 1858, 3,694 males emigrated from Saxony and only 2,609 females. Between 1866 and 1874, there were 1,754,231 male immigrants to the United States, and only 1,147,446 females. According to Rümelin (Allg. Ztg., December, 1865), the large emigration from Württemberg produced by the years of scarcity—1850 ff.—left such a preponderance of women that 1/6 of all the young women who have reached a marriageable age at present, would remain unmarried, even if all the marriageable young men were to engage in matrimony. Thus negative emigration does very little to cure the social disease of involuntary celibacy.