The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1911-05-04
IMMIGRANT WOMEN IN LEAD
Rural Districts of inc Country Show
the Greatest Number of Births in tN
Decade.-Census Returns Show II
teresting Figures


the division of revision and results Of
the census bureau, has prepared for the
immigration commission a report or
the fecundity of immigrant womer
based on data collected in the census
of 1900. Ills conclusions are that fe
cundity is much greater among white
women of foreign parentage than
among native American women of ma
tive parantage, that it is usually great
er in the first generation of foreign
stock than in the second, and that il
is on the whole greater in rural dis
tricts than IN cities. 1t is shown alst
that a high percentage of childlessnes
prevails among married negro womel
in northern cities.
The sections of the United States Sc
lected for this study were the state o.
Rhode Island, the city of Cleveland, @,
and forty-eight largely rural countie
in Ohio; the city of Minneapolis, MINI.
and twenty-one largely rural counties
in Minnesota. Rhode Island is com
pact eastern state, with a population
largely urban and manufacturing il
character. Ohio and Minnesota ar,
middle western type. Cleveland ant
Minneapolis present urban and manu-
featuring conditions and the selecte,
counties in each state rural and agri
cultural conditions.
The native white married women o:
native parentage, in the districts from
which the returns were taken hat
borne on the average one child ever,
5.3 years, and the women of foreign
parentage had borne one every g.
years. The first generation of tn
white of foreign parentage represent
ing immigrant women, had one cEilt
every years, and the second genera
ton one every SO years. For eacl
foreign nationality the number of year
married per child borne is less in TIN
! first generation than in the second, wit
few exceptions.
Among American white women of ma
tive parentage who had been marie,
from ten to twenty years the averag
number Of children in Cleveland ant
in Minneapolis is exactly the same
and hardly differs from the average il
Rhode Island, 2.5. In the rural dis
tricts OF Ohio and Minnesota the wo
men Of native American parentage il
the second decade of their married lif
had borne OIL the average one NOR
child than the same class in Clerelant
and Minneapolis or in the state o:
Rhode Island.
AS regards the women of foreig,
parentage, as rule, the average mum
Der Of children is highest in rural Min
nesota and lowest in Minneapolis
Cleveland and Rhode Island. But Their
are some exceptions; for the first gen
Grafton of Canadian English the aver
age number of children is as great il
Rhode Island as it is in rural Mime
sofa. For the first generation of Be
hemians it is as great in Minneapoli
as it is in rural Minnesota. The figure
for the first generation of Irish indi
cate that environment has little effec.
upon their fecundity On the othe
hand, the first generations of English
German, and Scotch, like the nativ.
American stock, appear to have fewe
children in cities than in the ountrv.
The percentage Of childless womeI
is much higher among the native whit,
Of native parentage than among tin
white Of foreign parentage. The per
centage bearing no children is highe
in the second generation of the whit
of foreign parentage than in the first
Childlessness among negro women il
the north is one Of the notable fact
brought out in the returns. In Mime
apolis 1911 per cent of the married ne
gro women have no children. Practi
cally the Same percentage, 1876 +
shown for Cleveland In Rhode Islam,
the percentage was 23.1
Of the white women Of native par
entage in Rhode Island 5S.7 per cen
had not more than two children, an,
of the white women of foreign paren
tage the percentage was 26.9: only g.:
per cent Of the white women of nativr
parentage had more than five children
out OF the white women of foreign PAL
eItage 35.4 per cent had more tha1
that number. The percentage o
French Canadians with more than tina
number Of children was 54.2. TIL
French-Canadian immigrants are bea1
ing children two and one-half times
fast as the native american women
The Italian women closely approach
the French Canadians. In the case 0
Bohemian and Polish mothers in Min
neapo1is the proportion having NOR
than Ave children exceeded 80 per cenI
Whom in douht fry the want ada