The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-10-31
NEGRO GAIN IS RAPID
CENSUS SHOWS RACE MORE
 THAN HOLDS ITS OWN.
Stir Thought of Future-Surprising Increase of Black Population Suggests New Problem
 for the Country.
Walter wellman's Washington Special t,

Walter wellmans Washington Special to The Record-Herald.
 | Some rather startling figures have been
 made public by the Census Bureau. Ac- | cording to an official statement just is-
 sued the negro race in the United States | IS at the very least holding its own in
 the natural rate of increase compared with the native whites.
 There has been a widespread impress
 sion that on account of the social and industrial inferiority of the negroes, their | poverty, their unhygienic conditions of living due to poverty and the ensuing | high death rate the negroes were fast | falling behind in the race. The official figures just made public refute this idea. | In fact, the negroes are shown to be null l tiplying at such rate that 1t Is only
 the influx of white population from Flu ropean countries that prevents them gaining in numbers at a more rapid rate
 than their white neighbors.
 | Study of the statistics leads to the con- clusion that were 1t not for the vast
 scale on which the white stock in the | United States has been replenished by | immig- -'ation during the last half cen tury the black stock would now be gain | ing relatively over the white. Another highly important deduction from the off, cial data now made available is that henceforth the negro may be expected to
 the past due to continued high birth rate and smaller mortality ascribable to
 improved conditions of living. while the | character of immigration is so changing | as to make it probable that the rate of | increase among the whites will become | so diminished as to lead to an actual | greater rate of increase among the ne-
 groes.
 l Should the development of the Philip
 pines and our other colonies then lead | to large emigration of whites, and im-
 migration fall off for the same reasons | the United States may be confronted with the problem of a slow though gradual l Africanization of its population.
 Under present conditions the negroes are holding their own surprisingly well. During the last decade they have in- creased in number from LASS, 7SS to S.S40,- 7S9 an increase of 1S.1 per cent. The total
 population has increased just 21 per cent The increase of white population. immi- grafton includedt has been PA per cent. It will thus be seen that notwithstanding the large immigration of whites the ne- groes have nearly held their own. Not withstanding that the total immigratio during the last decade amounted to 3,6S7,- | GOO, the percentages of the whole popula- | tion as between white and black has re- mained nearly stationary, as follows:
 Percentage of whites. s7'5 iSs5 isos g's Percentage of negroes. II .6 The negroes have lost only three-tenths
 of l per cent in the ten years. During the | decade the white population of the United
 States increased by 11.S24,61s, or G.4 per
 cent. The negro population increased [ l,352OOl, or lS.1 per cent. But of this in
 crease of the white population 1.113. .aSi was due to the net increase of foreign | born whites through immigration. De- | ducting this part of the growth of the
 white population the following results | appear:
 Increase of whites. 10, no 6S4 194
 Increase of negroes........ 1,352,0O1 1S.1
 Between 1890 and 1900 the native white
 population increased 23.3 per cent against
 an increase of 1S.1 per cent among the | blacks. On the face of these figures it
 seems that the whites are naturally in-
 creasing faster than the blacks, apart
 from the influences of immigration. But | on analysis this is seen to be a state
 ment needing modification. The increase | of the native whites of native parents
 was 1S.9 per cent. or only eight-tenths of | 1 per cent in excess of the negro increase. | The increase of the native whites of for
 eign parents was 36.2 per cent, showing almost twice the rate found among peo- | pie of native birth.
 Here again it is necessary to take into | account the greater fecundity of the for | eign-born people who come to America | to make their homes. Were it not for l this fecundity in families of foreign ori- | gin, but returned in the census as of ma | tive birth. the rate of Increase among | the white natives would be smaller than 1 that among the ngroes. It is the greater | increase of these families. foreign in the second generation back, that enables the native rate of increase to keep barely ahead of the negro rate of increase. A summary of the conditions pertaining
 to our growth of population during the
 last decade is found in the following fig ureS:
 Per Cent of Whole Population.
 Native white ...................7so 7ssc 74oq 7l4
 Native white of native parents. .5i,7 53.S
 Native white of foreign parents. .lS.S 20.S
 Negro ;. ......; ;:,.............'. id'6
 FOreign-b born white ................l4.5 l5.4
 In other words, the natural inchease of
 population is greatest In native born of
 foreign parents. 'econd in native born
 were foreign third in negroes; fourth in native-bUrn whites of pure native an-
 cestry, and fourth in foreign-born whites.
 If immigration and other present con
 ditions continue indefinitely twenty years
 hence will probably show the native-born white population of native parents to comprise less than one-half the whole population. The foreign stock and the
 original white stock.
 That a change has come in the Condi- tion of the negro race in the United States is shown in the rate of increase during the two last decades. From 1880 to 1890 the negroes increased only 135
 per cent and the whites 26.7 per cent.
 But from 1890 to 1900 the negroes increased
 lS.l per cent and the whites 21.4 per cent.
 In the first of these two decades the
 white stock grew just twice as fast as the black. But in the decade just ended it grew only 3.3 per cent. faster. These figures show that the negro race Is at last finding its level in freedom. In
 the three decades, Just previous to the rebellion, under slavery. the growth of the negro population was respectively x, 26 and 22 per cent, the last being be tween 1850 and 1860. Between 1850 and
 1870 the census made the increase only ID per cent, and between 1870 and 1S%! the census made it B per cent This last
 figure greatly alarmed the South. But tha
 census officials admit that the figures between 1860 and 1880 are utterly worth essl due to faulty enumeration.
 IL IS considered note worthy that the
 rate of increase among the freedmen has at last appl oaC he'd very nearly that which existed when they were in bondage. Nov that the negroes are thrown on their own resources and have had a third of a cen tury in which to find their place, they present general social condition which
 the socloloSlsts find approXimaung that oi the superior race m so far as 1t can
 be JudS d by tEe natural increase ot population.
 Of the SSi0.7s9 persons of negro descent
 in the United States S.000,00O are still
 found in the Southern and border States and the District of Columbia. The negro population of the Northern States ap-
 pears to be concentrated in a few spots. There are l51, ,oo0 negroes in Pennsylvania, .9UOO in New York, 97,000 in Ohio 5000 in
 illinois, 5I000 in Indiana, 52,0OO in Kansas
 32 O00 in Massachusetts and 19,WO in Okla homa. The remaining Northern States