Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-30

Much has been writer in recent years
about race suicide, but most Of 1t with
only superficial facts at hand upon Wnlch
to base conclusions. Next to nothing was
known of the conditions which produce
it, of its relative extent in Urban ana
rural life. and of its existence among dif-
ferent ne tionalities of people. Fortunate
ly, when the twelfth census was taken.
data were gathered as to the number OF
wears wives had been married and the
number Of children they had borne. But
these figures were never tabulated by the
census authorities with a view to snow
ing the bearing immigration has upon
the tendency Of the American people To-
ward a lower birth rate. That task was
undertaken by the immigration commits
sion with data taken from the state or
Rhode Island as representing a COM
pactly populated state Of the old east
dwellers; from the city Of Cleveland as
being a typical American city; from the
rural counties Of Ohio representing
typical rural conditions among the ma
tive population: from the city or MIN
neapolis representing the old fmmigra-
ton under urban conditions, and from the
rural districts Of Minnesota as typical or
the northwest.
The results Of these tabulations demon
strate beyond question that If America
is to continue to grow and wax more
powerful it will have to look to the coun-
try districts and to the immigrants for
the supply Of children who VIII make
this growth possible. The story told by
the figures is one OF very small Iamlnes
among women of native parentage VINO
live under urban conditions. AS mat
ter of fact. such families scarcely have
enough children to replace themselves.
1t is probable that out OF every three
children born not more than Two grow
their own. In fact, the probability is
that this statement is far on the side OF
conservatism. as is shown by the Iact
that out of 10000 children born. about
10000 die before they reacn the age o.
twenty-four And when it is further con-
sidered that out of every hundred mar
riages in the country about seven are
childless. it will appear very conserva-
tive to say that the family which does
not have three children stands little snow
Of directly adding to the permanent
population of the country.
And vet the investigations OF the lmmi-
grafton commission disclose the fact tnat
the average American wife whose parents
are both native-born Americans. and who
lives in the city. has only "a children:
Her sister in the rural districts has ID
children, or one more child than her city
sister, To put it another way. where city
women of native parentage have twenty
four children, their country sisters have
thirty -four.
But although the country woman of
native parentage has one more child in
her family
Immigrants 0utnumber than her
Rural Women in Family the immi.
grant mother shows even a larger family
than the country woman. The immigrant
woman in the city has larger number
of children than the native parentage
woman in the country, but fewer children
than the immigrant woman in the coun-
try. This latter class of women has the
largest number Of children of any of the
classes of women Investigated. In rural
Minnesota We find her with an average
of five and half children.
In nearly every case women of foreign
birth show a much higher percentage OF
children than women who are the chill
dren of native Americans. For all the
territory studied the immigrant women
had an average of two children more
than the native women of native parent
age The French-Canadian women in
Rhode Island had families more than
twice as large as the women Of native
American parentage, and very few OF
the immigrant women of the different
nationalities failed to show at least two
children more than the average Ameri-
can woman could claim. The English
and Scotch came nearer to approx
mating the American standard than any
other immigrant races, and yet average
English and Scotch mothers had one
more child than the American parentage
mothers. 49,
The Polish women embraced in the
enumeration had the champion anti-race-
suicide families in the United States, with
more than six children to the family.
The Bohemian women had more than five
children in the average family, and the
same is true Of the French Canadians,
the Finnish and the Russian women. The
Austrian Danish. German. Irish, Itallan,
Norwegian and Swiss women who were
immigrants averaged more than four and
a half children each.
;: x
But the children of the immigrant wom-
ar - e.