The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-08-17
CENSUS SHOWS RACE SUICIDE.
PERSISTENT DECLINE ~ THE
HIRTH RATE SINCE 1850.

HiRTH RATE SINCE 1850.
Foreign Born Women OF Child Hearing Age
Show Larger Percentage Of Births
Than Natives Massachusetts Il the
Least prolino Of All the states.
WASHINGTON, Aug. ia bulletin OF
particular interest to students CT President
Roosevelt's race suicide theory has been
Issued by tho Census Bureau. 1t Is entitled
Proportion OF Children In the United
States" and although II does not attempt
to compute the birth rate Ia this country,
1t does give the proportL,n OF children to
adults at various periods Ia the country's
history.
Prof. Walter F. WILCOX Of Cornell Uni
versity, who IL the author Of the bulletin,
says no cansus can furnish all the informa-
ton needed to compute the birth rate. or
number Of births In year to each thousand
persons, nor has this information been
obtained for the United States or any CON-
siderable part Of 1t by any other agency.
'The proportion Of children. says Prof..
Wilcox, is an approximately accurate
and a significant Glue to the amount OF new
blood that u being brought into the country
w natures processes Of reproduction and
growth
The method used In the census bulletin
Is comparison by periods. by States and
geographic divisions and by races OF tho
proportions the number Of children bears
to the total population or to tho number
Of women Of child bearing ago. Tho num-
bef Of children under Year, OF age and
the number Of women Is to 40 years OF age
are given by the census Of 1860 and all sub
seouent cenSises, while the number OF
children under 10 Is given - far back as
the census Of 1880. 1t Il possible. also.
to estimate the number OF children under
10 years Of age for the earlier oensuses
Some OF the conclusions reached may
be summarized as follows:
At the beginning Of the nineteenth cen
tury the children under 10 years Of age CON"
stituted one-third and at tho end less than
one-fourth Of the total population. Tho
decrease in this proportion began a. early
a. the decade 1910 to 1920, and oonti nued
uninterruptedly, though at varying rates.
In each successive decade. This Of Itself.
however, IL not enough to prove declining
birth rate, as the decrease In the proportion
of children In tho total population may
indicate merely an increase In the average
duration Of lie and the consequent sur
vival Of larger number OF adults.
But by taking the proportion OF children
to women OF child bearing age We arc able
to get more satisfactory index OF the move;
ment Of the birth rate; Between 1850 and
1890, the earliest decade for which figures
can be obtained, this pro portion increased.
But since 1890 1t has decreased without
interruption. The dec rease has been very
unequal from decade to decade, but II
twenty year periods are considered IL mas
In 1890 the number Of children under
years Of age to 900 women 10 to 40 years
Of age was ga; In 1900 1t was only ~. IN
other words, the proportion OF children
to potential mothers IN 1900 was only three
fourths as large as In 1880. One is thus
led to the conclusion that there has been q
persistent decline in the birth rate since 1890
No attempt ID made by the author OF the
bulletin to determine the probable causes
Of this decline. An extended argument
by Gen. Francis A. Walker Is given, suggest.
foreigners and the resultant shock 70 the
population instinct Of the natives.
There was an unusual decrease IN the
proportion OF children between 1850 and
1870, which must be attributed TO the direct
and Indirect results q the civil ~ var ,a ne
Is probably due both to the great number OF
omissions in the census OF 1870 and the
return Of settled conditions after the war
and reconstruction.
The States with an increase In the proper
tion Of children in the decade 1890 to 1900
include all the Atlantic States except Mary
land and Georgia, the District OF Columbia
and also Alabama. Louisiana. Oklahoma
and Nevada.
The two States with the largest proper
ton In 1900 were North Dakota and Indian
Territory; the two States with the smallest
were District Of Columbia and Massa-
chusetts. The proportion In Massachusetts
was one-half OF the proportion In North
Dakota. In other words. In proportion to
the number Of women OF child bearing age,
there were twice Is many children IN North
Dakota as there were in Massachusetts.
In 1900. for the United States as whole,
the proportion OF children was. only two
thirds as great in cities as In the country
districts. In the North Atlantic division,
however it was almost as great In the
cities as II the country IN t me ba
large In the cities as in the country, while
in the Far West the difference Is inter-
mediate In amount.
A comparison Is made between the pro-
portion Of children born OF native mothers
and the proportion Iof children born Of
foreign born mothers to 100 foreign born
women OF child bearing age. In 1900 the
former proportion was 4e2, the latter no.
the difference indicating the greater fe-
cundty Of foreigG, born th woT ,Ss to The
decrease in fecundity Of white women
between 1880 and 1900 was the result OF q
decrease for native white women, partly
Offset by an increase for foreign born
white women.
chiefly to cities.