Go West, Young Man: Coast Promises More for Your Money in Wife Mart

Harvard men are not replacing themselves. (This from the Population Reference Bureau of Washington, D. C.) Barring late entries, when the Class of 1924 returns to Cambridge next week it will be forced to report that it has been able to produce only 1.74 children per man.

This doesn't look too bad at all; but since it takes two to produce one, the average '24 man and his wife are .26 below scratch. And, if a Harvard man were to marry the average Radcliffe girl, (who seems to be able to produce a measly 1.35 children) the danger, or extinction point, might well be approached. A Vassar girl might help matters somewhat: they're batting a fat 1.49, or tops among eastern college women.

However, if Harvard men really wish to maintain their prestige, they might investigate the nubile lady graduates of Brigham Young U. of Utah, currently setting the pace with 2.45 offspring per graduate reporting. Rating them off their Class of 1924 performance, a Harvard-Brigham Young alliance could conceivably produce 2.10 children, give or take a few percentage points.

Don't blame Harvard indifference; the whole thing is geographic. Fecundity increases in a westerly direction, and the fertile crescent appears to be the Rocky Mountain-Pacific area. Naturally coeducational schools are more prolific than bachelor or spinster academics.

There's even some help for the Radcliffe girl. You guessed it: the men at Brigham Young U. love children too--up to 3.47 per man.

The outlying precincts of Yale and Princeton have not yet reported.