El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-12-28
Aliens Help Birth Rate
TabulatfOns Show Rural Districts
Lead Over Cities in the
Number of Births.

By Frederic ]. HasI&in

ASHINGTON,. D. c., Dec. Is
M Much has been written in re-
w cent years about race suicide,
but most of it with only superficial
facts at hand upon which to base con-
illusions. Next to nothing was known
of the conditions which produce it, Of
its relative extent in urban and rural
life, and of its existence among dir
ferent Municipalities OF people When
the twelfth census was taken, data
was gathered as to the number of
years wives had been married and the
number of children they had borne
Country Districts Lead.
TabulatiOns demonstrate beyond
question that if America is to continue
to grow and wax more powerful it will
have to look to the country 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 families among
women of native parentage who live
under urban conditions As "a matter
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
to adult estate and have children Of
their own In fact, the probability is
that this statement is far on the side
of conservatism, as is shown by the
fact that out of 100000 children born,
about 10000 die before they reach the
= T. IL
sidered that out of every 100 mar
riages in the country about seven are
childless, 1t will appear very conserva-
tive to say that the family which does
not have three children stands little
show OF directly adding to the perma-
nent population of the country.
And yet the Investigations Of the
immigration commission disclose the
fact that the average American wife
whose parents are both native born
N in ri
has only "a children. Her sister in
the rural districts has "a children, or
one more child than her city sister To
put it another way, where city women
of native parentage have "A children,
their country sisters have "a.
Children of Immigrants.
But although the country woman OF
native parentage has one more child
in her family than her city sister, the
immigrant 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 cOun-
try, but fewer children than the 1mmI-
grant woman in the country. This lat
ter class of women has the largest
number of children of any of the
classes of women investigated n
rural Minnesota we find her with an
average of five and a half children.
In nearly every case women OF
foreign birth show a much higher
percentage Of children than women
who are the children of native Ameri-
cans. For all the territory studied the
Immigrant women had an average Of
two children more than the native
women of native parentage. The
French Canadian women In Rhode IS
land had families more than twice as
large as the women OF native American
parentage, and very few of the immi-
grant women of the different nation
alities 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 vet
average English and Scotch mothers
had one more child than the American
parentage mothers.
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. 49, The Austrian Danish,
German, Irish, Italian, Norwegian and
Swiss women who were immigrants,
averaged more than four and half
children each
Size of Families Decreases.
But the children of the immigrant
women are not the pOssessOrs Of as
big families as their mothers. While
the immigrant women themselves ave-
rage Al children, their daughters who
have been married the same length Of
time average only 3.9 children The
tendency Of the daughters of immi-
grant women toward smaller families
applies to every nationality While
among none Of the natiOnalities inves-
t1gated did the daughters OF lmmi grant
women have as many children as the
mother on the other hand, in not
single nationality did the average
number of children among women Of
immigrant parentage fall as low as
that of women of native parentage.
Usually the family of the immigrant
wOman's daughter was a medium be-
tween the big family of the immigrant
woman and the small one of the woman
OF native parentage.
These figures are all based upon
women who are less than 40 years old
and who have been married from 10 to
10 years. No matter whether the
figures are taken from pOpulous Rhode
Island, from rural Minnesota, rural
Ohio, Cleveland or Minneapolis, they
all show the same relative tendencies
OF large families among the women Of
foreign birth, medium families among
women who are the daughters of i'm
migrants and smaller families among
women Of native parentage- The ave-
rage city living daughter of an immi-
grant woman has about the same
sized family as the average country
living woman of native parentage.
Many ChiIdIess Marriages.
No matter among what class or what
nationality of women the investigation
leads, the uniform lesson it teaches IS
that urban conditions tend to restrict
the size of families. They affect the
woman of native parentage most OF
all, then the women of native birth but
immigrant parentage and least of all
the immigrant woman herself.
Not only do city conditions tend to
cut down the size of the average fam
lily, but they tend to produce a large
number of childless marriages. For
instance, in Rhode Island one married
woman out of every six who has been
married more than 10 years and whose
parents are native born, has had no
children. In Cleveland the ratio is
about one out of seven, and in Mime
apOlis il is about one out of eight On
the other hand, the women of native
parentage in the rural districts OF
Ohio and Minnesota show only one
marriage out of 20 without children
Here again the immigrant woman
excels her daughters and the daugh-
tiers of native American parents. In
Rhode Island only one married imIni-
grant woman in Is has had no children, /
in Cleveland one in 10, in Minneapolis |
one in 16, and in the rural districts il
is about one in 20. And here again /
the daughters of the immigrant women