Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-08-18
BIRTH RATE FALLS
Startling Statistics Made Pulp lie by the Census Bureau.
DECREASE IS LARGE IN CITIES.
Most Noticeable In the Central West. Foreign Born Women Have More Children Than Those Born
 Tn America.

WASHINGTON. Aug. 1S.-That there birth rate in the United States since 1860" Is the conclusion reached in bulletin issued by the census bureau.
 The bulletin was prepared by Profess or w. F. Wilcox of Cornell university. The result of his study shows that at the beginning of the nineteenth cen tury the children under ten years of age constituted one-third and at the end less than one-fourth of the total population. In 1860 the number of children under five years of age to 1000 women, fifteen to forty.nins years of age, was 6S4; in 1900 it was only 474. The proportion of children to potential mothers in 1900 was only three-fourths as large as in 1860.
 Considered sectionally, 1t is found that in the north and west there has been q more or less regular decline. while in the south the change has been less regular and the decline less mark cd. In the general decrease between 1890 and 1900 not a single state of the north Atlantic division took part. In seven other states. also. there was 10 decrease.
 Tn 1900, for the United States as a whole, the proportion of children was only two-thirds as great in cities as in the country districts. In the north A$lsr sSo dtrisi1,, h~-arar it -as sl- most as great in the cities as in the country. In the southern divisions it is hardly more than half as large in the cities as in the country, while in the far west the difference is inter- mediate h amount. This. 1t is ex- plsined. is probably due in [ large measure to the fact that the immigrant population have been swarming ints the northern cities.
 A comparison is made between the proportion of children born of native mothers to 1000 native women of child bearing age and the proportion of chil- dren born of foreign born mothers te 1000 foreign born women of child bearing sge Tn 1900 the former pro portion was 462. the latter no the difference indicating the greater fe- cundity of foreign born women. The bulletin continues:
 The comparison also indicates that the total decrease in fecundity of white women between 1890 and 1900 was the result of a decrease for native whits women. partly offset by an increase for foreign born white women.
 'sIn the Atlantic divisions. however. there was a slight increase in the pro portion of children born to native white mothers Tue decrease for the whole country. therefore. was the result very largely of the great decrease in the north central and western divisions.
 The decrease in the proportion of children born to native white women was confined chiefly 10 cities.-
 The proportion of negro children to negro women fifteen 10 forty-nine years of gre vas largest 10 lsoo and smallest in 19co. There has been uni sormIy larger proportion of negro children thsn of white children That difference more than doubled between 1s6o and isso. but in 100p fl was les than half what it vas ia 1e9n as1 Iess than at sny other census except 1Soo.
 Thoueh the negroes have | IarE0 proportion os children than the vhites. it has ben noticed that the whises of the soush have Izre>r proportion cnno the whitss in ssher secttsos sf sno opuarrv.