The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-26
BaseballToday Little Rock
 yS.
 Montgomery. Game called 4 pm.
A VAIN SPECULATION
AS TO RELATIVE NUMBER OF
 NEG0Ro BIRTHS AND DEAHS.
The Only Reliable Data obtainable on Which to Base Any Such Cal- culation are the Statistics of
 the Census of 1eOO for | a Few Cities.


 Washington Special to Charleston News.
 Is the negro population of the cities of the United States, except as 1t Is re- cruited by new arrivals from the coun- try, decreasing as a result of an excess of deaths over births? c.
 This Is a question that has been an- swered affirmatively in some of the re- cent discussions of the race problem, but in no case have statistics been given tending to support the answer. All that has been written on the subject seems to have been based on assumption and personal observation, which would neces- sarily be narrow in scope. It Is unfor- tunate that no absolutely reliable sta- tistics bearing on the question can be obtained. In many of the cities efforts are made to secure accurate statistics of birthts and deaths. The death statistics are in many cases approximately accur- ate, but in no case can implicit reliance be placed upon the birth statistics. The reason for this is obvious In the case of death there is a corpse to be dis posed of and the public health authori- ties require the filing of a proper resort before 1t can be removed or buried. There is no such way of compelling the filing of birth reports.
 Such statistics as there are, however, seem to point in the direction of con- firming the theory that the death rate among colored people who reside in cities is considerably in excess of the birth rate. The vital statistics of the twelfth census are the most reliable of the kind that have yet been compiled, but 1t is recognized and admitted by the census officials that comparatively little reliance can be placed on the figures for births. They are given for only those parts of the country and those cities that have registration systems. The cen- sus office was able to check the registra- ton figures and supplement them to some extent by adding the number of children of less than 1 year of age found by the enumerators and the number of deaths during the census year of children under year of age. If the enumerators had been able to gather exact statistics un- der these two headings the number of births in the census year could have been accurately reported.
 Allowing for the imperfection of the figures, when 1t is found that a great mass of statistics, collected in widely separated parts of the country, and based on different systems of registration, all point in one direction, there would seem to be justification for passing conclusions upon them. If this Is true there is no doubt that the negro population of the cities, if not recruited by new arrivals from the country, would rapidly dimin-
 
 the census, in all parts of the country, North, East and West, the death rate among the negroes is found to be greater than the birth rate in fifty cities. The remaining six cities are nearly all places with very small negro populations, where
 the small excess of birth rate reported might be accounted for by an accidental falling off in the death rate for that particular year.
 There is no part of the country in which the registration of vital statistics is so nearly perfect as in New England. For this reason the figures for Boston are particularly interesting. They show that during the census year there were 13991 births and I1,2T deaths among the white population, making an excess of 2,n4 births. Among the negro population of Boston in the same year the births num- bered 240 and the deaths 327, making the excess of deaths ST. In Greater New York there were 96,16 births, 7O,326 deaths among the white population, mak- ing the excess of births 15.9S5. Among the negro population there were 1870 deaths and 1,4S0 births, making the ex- cess of deaths $40. In Buffalo there were 9.227 births and 5,137 deaths among the white population, making the excess of births 4,070. Among the negro population there were 9 births and 60 deaths. mak- ing the excess of deaths 3l. In Chicago there were 43,096 births and 2,533 deaths in the white population. making the ex- cess of births 13,563. Among the colored population there were 3S9 births and 679 deaths, making the excess of deaths 29O. In St. Louis there were 12,96O births and 10,320 deaths among the white population, making the excess of births 2.64O. Among the colored population there were 594 births and 1,135 deaths. making the ex- cess of deaths 541. In New Orleans there were 5,224 births among the white pop ulation and 4.9T deaths, making the ex- cess of births A7. Among the colored population there were 1,736 births and 3,210 deaths, making the excess of deaths 1,575.
 About the same proportions were shown in the other cities, but the above exam ples are sufficient to demonstrate that if the births among the negro popula- tion of the registration cities are re- corded with any approximate degree of accuracy the colored population in those cities is not increasing through the birth rate.
 Some interesting light is thrown on this subject by the per eentages of increase for the various elements of the popula- tion shown by the census reports. It is shown that. while the rate of increase for the entire population from 1890 to 19OO was POT per cent, that for the negro population was but IS per cent. If a comparison is made for the decade from 1880 to 1890 the result is still more strik- ing. For that decade the increase of the total population was reported to be 24.9 per cent. while the increase of the ne- gro population was reported to be but 13.5 per cent. It is unfortunate that the census figures of population for 1890 can