The Wahpeton times., 1915-05-06
RAoE su,o,oxT

ssOe OSUSS3i5 73s3 ~
The lamentable truth is now
revealed that the good old New
England stock, whose sons helped
found this nation, and whose sons
and daughters gave permanent
successful existence to the Unit
ed States of America, has dwindl-
ed to comparative nothingness.
The first strong note of alarm
over this situation was struck ten
years ago by FRANC N. Hagar in
his book entitled 1.-The American
Family" In the chapter headed
"Decadence of Northern Yankees p
Mr.. Hagar wrote:
There seems to be one central
cause that strikes at the family
that is nurtured here, and which
the foreigner reared abroad has
escaped-it is a theory that ig-
nores reproduction, that violates
the principles of love and domes-
tic association, and that began
more obviously in fearing child
hood and avoiding parenthood. -
Since that time statistics on the
subject have multiplied. In a re-
cent number of the Journal of the
American Statistical Association
Frederick S. Crum analyses the
figures with startling results. His
analyses are based upon twenty
two genealogical records of the
American families. Prior to- the
year 1900 the wives in those ia
miles totalled 276, with a total
of 1904 children, the average
number of children per wife being
1877. Up to 1849 the members OF
those families multiplied steadily.
In that year the total number of
wives was $3.50, with a total of
1880 children; but the average
number of children per wife had
declined to AGA.
From that date on into the gen.
Grafton preceding the present one
the date given being 1879, the
latest upon which complete sta
tistics are available-there was a
steady decline. In 1879 the total
number of wives in those twenty
two families was 1886, with a
decline in the total number of
children from 1880 to 3,oO4,
and the average number per wife
being only 2.77.
In 1897 Mr.. Crum investigated
the birthrate of Massachusetts,
during the period 1850 to 1890.
He found that 20.2 per cent of the
native married women were
without children, as against 1913
per cent Of the married women of
foreign birth. And the census OF
1885 showed the average number
OF children living per each native
married woman to have been 1 .92,
against 3.01 for the married wo-
men of foreign birth. Mr.. Crum
writes:
''This table reveals most clearly
the decadence of the original
stock, which with almost bound
less energy cleared the, forests
CLEANED the uneven fields from
the glacial stone drift, built in
quick time their homely cabins,
and, moving from tract to tract
like collective army of nature 5
life, even as the animals and
plants, spread with their increas
ing sons and daughters. AS Mr.
Hagar truly says:
'They would have laughed to
scorn at the modern task of do
ing so simple a thing as to raise
a child. Their women, in addition
to the work of their large families
and of ordinary housekeeping
without modern improvements,
pei formed nearly all the labor
that is now done in factories and
shops in fitting raw material for
use as clothing and food
Nowadays even the children il
American families exhibit curiosi-
ty on beholdlng more than one or
two children in family. This
summer at boarding house
where several families were STOP
ping" writes Mr.. Crum, ''only one
American mother had as many as
two children. The little girl of a
one-child mother innocently in
quired if the mother with two
children was an Americana