The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-03-30
WHY The RACE
is DYING OUT
Prominent Educator Assigns
Overwork by People as
the Reason.

BOSTON. Mass, March 29-Presi-
dent G. Stanley Hall, of Clark univer-
s1ty, created no little surprise by his
address to the Sons of the Revolution
at the Society's annual banquet this
week. DR.. Hall said in part:
L listened a short time ago to an adj
dress which was entirely composed of
figures, and which yet was one of the
most fascinating things 1 ever heard
The paper was compiled from the CEN
sus, and showed our development as a
nation, in many industries, to be
thing that has never been paralleled in
the history of the world
But L confess that for myself the
figures were not entirely cheerful for
has not our race, as shown by the fig
ures, been putting into life more than
1T can afford? AS a biologist, l know
that the best test of nations or animals
is their productivity. How many Off
spring do they produce? This is also
the best test of domesticity, for only
those animals that will reproduce in
captivity can be called domesticated
So we must consider, with these fig
ures of prosperity, what has been the
that highest of all products of earth,
human offspring.
Sees Danger to the Race.
Excessive development of the indi-
vidual beyond a certain point always
means impairment of the breed, speak
ing as a biologist.
so it is quite time to inquire if our
Puritan ancestors did not overdraw on
the stock of strength they should have
transmitted to others. The inhospit-
able and difficult soil, the scanty diet,
the excessive work, don't these explain
the dying out of the Yankee race? This
is the region of the Abandoned farm
where families that three generations
ago had eight, ten, twelve children, are
now totally extinct. The great spirit
of biology that broods over human life
is to be reckoned with.
What OverdraWS human energy ?
OVerwork, for one thing. There is a
tive powers and the brain. There are
1000, 100000 cells and fibers in the av-
erage brain, each one exceedingly in
tricate and containing twelve to twen-
ty-four parts.
Mill OoNOplC SLOWS
these cells transparent, their nuclei
rich in the morning, at night they are
black, full of decayed substance. And
the brain is most intimately connected
with the provocative powers.
Every biologist knows that the
whole human organism seems to be
constructed with reference especially
to this function Of passing OH the sa-
cred torch of life.
Teaching of New Morality.
"And the new morality teaches that
the best test of any human institution.
whether church, school, or nation, is
whether or not it educates the person
up to the point where he can best per-
form the duties of parenthood in the
highest sense Of the term.
The papers have made much lately
of the speech of President Eliot in
which he declared that the four classes
of Harvard had not reproduced them
selves. But this is not peculiar to
Harvard; 1 have made study of
this same question, and have collected
statistics for two years. 1t Is just as
true in other institutions, in differing
degrees.
"It is far truer of girls colleges; only
one-half of the girls who graduate
from college marry; those that do pro-
duce only IA children apiece, and
there is a great deal too much mortal
ity among those they do produce. So
it is evident that there is something
wrong.
"And here is problem we must face;
where would have been all this pros
perity we boast but for the immi-
grants? How long would the native
population have maintained itself? 1t
is on a steady decline. There is some
thing in American life, or food, or soil
or air, that puts us ON our nerves.
and when we live on our nerves we
have probable cause for our decline.
Mans Place in World Small.
MAN, physically speaking, occupies
small place today in the world! Prof.
Macomber has tried to estimate the
volume of animal life in the world,
and says that the human race, if fed
as food to the rest of animal creation
would last just four months and a
half.
This question is everybody's; it per-
tainS to both sexes and, in fact, has
a religious side. Remember the prom
Use made to the patriarch Abraham,
that his seed should not fail if he
obeyed the law. He was an old shiek,
and like them all was a breeder-of
sheep and cattle.
"It seems as though women, from
their peculiarly altruistic natures, have
peculiar temptations to take out of
the balance more than it will stand.
They overdraw on the resources of their
systems and SO too often we find ster-
ility among them. Sterility is due
eight times as often to the woman as
to the man. 1t is first seen in a loss
Of vitality, a lassitude, and then comes
in the only child system. We find that
the only child is in grave danger of
being spoiled from too much care.
when my children get through COL
lege I want them to fall in love with
the smell Of the soil, or the wheel
grease of the railway if necessary, to
have the instinct to begin so low down
that every change will mean a rise.
ct may be that this decadence is
the law Of the world, that nature or
Providence didn't design any one race
to retain the supremacy. 1t may be
essential for the wheel to turn. 1t
depends on whether we have the in