Editorials The Salt Lake Tribune Monday Established April 15, 1871. Issued every morning by The Salt Lake Tribune Publishing Co., Salt Lake City, Utah Bursting of Popular Illusions About Utah Points Out Need for Realistic Program Some popular illusions about family and population changes and trends in Utah suffered a mortal blow as a result of a ten year study and revealed in the thirteenth annual Reynolds lecture delivered in Salt Lake City this week by sociologist Henry H. Frost Jr. Utah, with few exceptions, said Dr. Frost in his scholarly address entitled To Have and to Hold, has had a divorce rate as high or higher than the U. S. average ever since the late 1880s. Warning his listeners to keep in mind the limitations of a year by year comparison and gaps in registration data, the sociologist expressed the conclusion that Utah marriages on the average can claim no unusual degree of permanence. In the early 1900s, divorces averaged about one to every ten marriages. By the mid 1920s the ratio had risen to one for every six. It held this level until 1942, at which time it rose to almost one for every four. From then it continued upward to high points in 1945 and 1946, when the ratio was in excess of one divorce to every three marriages. Nineteen forty seven found the ratio decreasing slightly. This report should shock Utahns into increased effort to preserve the foundation of our society. Utah, said Dr. Frost, has experienced less change in the family than much of the rest of the nation, but if the coming era is to be one of industrial development, the trend toward smaller families will further increase. (Without industrial development future population and wealth increase of the state is doomed.)The early Utah family, expressing the ideal of family solidarity, was a potent instrument of population increase. Nevertheless it is clear that this familys having and holding powers have long been undergoing reduction. Reasons for this are too many and complex to review here, but Dr. Frost pointed out that in the modern world life has become highly competitive and impersonal. The drive to succeed means increasing wants with a never adequate income. The child ceases to be an economic asset and becomes an item of cost alternative to other often more effective, means and symbols of success. Opportunity to rise in the success scale frequently means moving to new communities. Family tradition and local solidarity give way to the call of new experiences and occupationally determined social relationships. In other words national trends sweep Utah along. What has been happening to Utahs population? The census bureau estimated it at 655,000 as of July, 1948, about 105,000 over the 1940 census or a gain of a little more than 19 per cent. This is high compared with many states, but not as high as on the Pacific coast where migration contributed heavily. Utahs increase, however, was largely due to the excess of births over deaths. In the seven years there were about 127,000 births and 37,000 deaths. Thus, births exceeded deaths by 90,000, which is 15,000 less than the actual increase in population. This means that by 1948 Utah had a net gain by migration of 15,000 persons . The state, which had a peak of 1056 children per 1000 women in 1860, counted less than half in 1940 459. The rate of decline, said Frost, was just as rapid as that of the nation, although the latter started and ended markedly lower. The Utah birth rate went up sharply in 1942 to a peak in 1943, dropped back to the 1940 level in 1945, and then rose to a new peak in 1946-47. The speeded up marriages and births of the war years likely will be followed by a slump in both, as already indicated in 1948 trends. The exodus of Utahns is highly significant. Apparently few persons left the state before the 1870s, according to Dr. Frost, but thereafter the outflow of natives continued increasing to a peak of over 50,000 for the 1920s. The number dropped slightly during the 1930s. Movements both in and out of Utah have been slower than most other western states. It is also significant that Utah, which held so tenaciously to agrarian life for so long, now has 55.5 per cent of its inhabitants living in cities and towns. This follows closely the national pattern. The 27 page booklet in which Dr. Frosts lecture has been published is too lengthy and technical to receive adequate comment here. It well could become an important well of facts to guide future studies. The implications of some of the revelations are alarming. Why is Utahs youth leaving the state in droves? There is evidence that lack of adequate opportunity within the state is the answer. That calls for forthright, definite action to expand means of employment. High hopes are attached to projected reclamation projects which will open more land to farming. Even more important is rehabilitating thousands of acres of abused and damaged farm and range land. Developing the extensive natural resources through industrialization is imperative and calls for an intelligent program and an enlightened attitude. Utah cannot advance economically as long as its material and human resources remain undeveloped, or are sent elsewhere for development.