Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-03-28
CHILDREN W ANTED
FAMILIES OF NATIVE AMERICANS
ARE TOO SMALL.
Gloomy Views Of the Future of Our
Race Taken by Students Of
Statistics.
From Harper's Weekly.


ity of babies in the families of native borr
Americans. There is no need to quote sta
tlstics. Every one knows the conclusion
that the statistics lead to, which is that the
native Americans seem less and less In.
clined every year to replenish the earth with
new individuals Of their own species. As
concerns them, the birth rate Is constantly
falling. Writers in foreign reviews-British
reviews especially-comment on it as the
sign Of an awful defect in US and our civil
lization.
Married Americans who ought to raise
eight children, raise four; those who ought
to raise four, raise two; those who ought
to raise two raise none, or content them
selves with a single lonely sample Of off
spring. Also, great many Americans
who ought to marry. don't. The conse-
Quence is that the statisticians take gloomy
thoughtful observers discuss the reason for
American sterility, and possible methods
of alleviating it.
The President Quoted.
President Roosevelt has recorded his
views on the subject Americans, he says,
who are SO cold-hearted and so selfish as
to dislike having children, "are in effect
criminals against the race. and should be
objects Of contemptuous adherence to all
healthy people," 2s-'pt
President Eliot Of Harvard has been
thinking about it, too In his annual re-
port he tells Of looking up the records of
the six Harvard classes which have been
graduated from twenty-five to thirty
years. and finding that the married men,
bers had no more than two surviving chill
dren each, and that twefty-eight per cent
of the members had not married. He
thinks college graduates should marry
earlier In life, and to that end is trying to
get his young men out of college and
through the professional schools sooner
SO that they can earn money to marry on
But men who don't marry until they are
thirty have time enough to raise families as
large as the country expects of them, II
only they and their wives have the will
and the good luck. The trouble is that
both men and women who defer maria sc
until late form habits which they cannot
reconcile to full nurseries and limited in
comes.
Fear Of Want.
Youth is rash and imperfectly provident.
Maturity has more prudence, and in the
matter OF children is apt to have too
much. There need be no regret that peo-
pie who cannot provide decently for large
families do not have them. Such persons
may have too many children as 1t is. The
trouble Is with people who can well at
ford to raise families Of decent size, and
they will come to want, or because they
want to spend their time and their money
on other things.
The great things tina keeps the size OF
cuniary ambition There are a few thrifty
parents in the land-farmers, miners, mill
workers and the like-who look upon chill
dren as potential source of income, and
raise q good many because their keep
costs little and their labor is valuable. We
don't approve of persons Of that way OF
thinking.
Our American feeling is that the parents
should work for the children, but not the
children for the parents, except in cases OF
special necessity. Almost all of us wan.
our children to be better off than we are
ourselves. We would rather have two chill
dren and give them what we consider spe-
ctal advantages of nurture and education
than have five and be unable to do for all
Of them what we want DONE We are i'm
patient of the common lot. Unless our
children can rise above it. we think 1t q
doubtful advantage to have secured them
an entry In this world.
Americans Are Too Selfish.
Now, that Is not altogether a bad char
acteristic It makes for progress to a GER
tain extent, but we carry It too far. We
are too prudent, too selfish, for both our
selves and our offspring. 1t is by no means
the children who have the most "advan-
tages" that do best in the world, but those
| rather who are born with the best brains
and bodies. and are hardest prodded by the
spur Of necessity. For the sake Of PAM
pering two children we forfeit the chances
OF drawing great prize among the three
others that we might have and don't.
1t is too bad about us Americans The
hope of our amendment lies in the posi-
bility that we may come to better APP
probation of the pleasure there is in rails
ing good children as compared with any
other rival interest that attracts us.
We never will raise large families for
the good of the country; never The race
| may go hang, for all Of us. But if more
the right kind OF children pay enormous
ly in love. in entertainment, in all things
that make life desirable, we may come te
raise more of fhouo