The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-08-18
AMERICAN BIRTH
RATE DECLINES
Race Suicide Apparent from
Bulletin Issued by Census
Bureau.
BY w. w. Jermane.

--'- -oJ W. o0TWdH0s III. s& 49, |
Washington, Aug. l8.-The census .bu-
reau Of the government has been try
thing in the cry Of trace suicide
now so frequently heard from theorists
and sociologists. The result Of the
bureaus study is not reassuring. It
gives a good deal of point to what the
president has been saying 50 strongly
and will furnish food for a good deal
of effective moralizing on the part of
those good people who fear that this
country is eventually to be put into the
same class with France, whose declining
birth rate affords one Of the most inter |
esting fields for sociological speculation.
by Professor Walter F. Wilcox Of Cor
nell university in the governmental cen
sus bulletin No. %: o..
At the beginning Of the nineteenth CEN
tury the children under 10 years Of age
constituted one-third and at the end less
than one-fourth of the total population.
The decrease in this proportion began az
early as the decade 1910 to 1920, and con-
tinued uninterruptedly, tho at varying
rates, in each successive decade.
By taking the proportion Of children
to women Of collaborating age we are
able to get a more satisfactory index of
the movement Of the birth rate. Between
1850 and 1850. the earliest decade for
which figures can be obtained, his pro-
portion. increased. But since 1860 it has
decreased without interruption. The de-
crease has been very unequal from decade
to decade, but If twenty-year periods are
considered it has been very regular. In
1880 the number Of children under 5 years
Of age to 1000 women Is to 40 years of
age was 634; in 1900 it was only 474. 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 a persistent decline in the birth rate
since 1860.
Decline in North and West.
If this decline were due In large part
to the influx of immigrants, we should
expect it to be greatest in those sections
Of the country to which most of the i'm
migrants have gone-greater in the north
and west than in the south. It is found,
in fact, that In the north and west there
has been a more or less regular decline,
while in the south the change has been
less regular and the decline less marked.
In 1880 the proportion Of children to 1000
women in the north and west was FIVE
sixths Of what it was in the SOUTH; in
1900 1t was less than three-fourths.
The two states with the largest pro-
pOl lAO11 III lSVu WcI0 VOTlu DdhOCa ana
Indiana Territory; the two states with
the smallest were District Of Columbia
and Massachusetts. The proportion In
Massachusetts was one-half Of the proper
ton In North Dakota In other words,
in proportion to the number of women Of
collaborating age, there were twice as
many children in North Dakota as there
were in Massachusetts. "
The proportion of negro children to ne
orn uyNran IL [fN 40 vnorc 0f 700 Woo
largest in 1880 and smallest in 1900. There
has been uniformly a larger proportion
of negro children than of white children.
difference more than doubled be-
tween 1850 and 1880, but in 1900 it was
less than half what it was in 1880 and
less than at any other census except
1860. :
H. Native VS.. Foreign Mothers.
A comparison Is made between the pro-
portion Of children born of native moth
| ers to 1000 native women Of child bear
ing age and the proportion of children
born of ~foreign-born mothers to 1000 for
eign-born women of collaborating age. In
1900 the former proportion was 462, the
latter 10, the difference indicating the
greater ~fecundity of foreigu-born women.
The comparison also indicates that the
total decrease in fecundity Of white
women between 1890 and 1900 was the re-
sui VI a. uSC1cdS0 LUZ 1ldLlVc\"l IlS WOul0u
partly offset BY an increase for foreign
born white women.
In the Atlantic divisions, however,
there was a slight increase in the proper
ton Of children born to native white
mothers, and In the South Central divi-
sion there was but a slight decrease. The
decrease for the whole country, therefore,
was the result very largely Of the great
decrease in the north central and west.
ern divisions.
The decrease In the proportion Of chill
dren born to native white women was
confined chiefly to cities.