Evening star., 1921-08-22
:.'UBT THE GROWTH
Of RACE SUICIDE
rc,aed Increase Among COL
I,,ge Graduates Questioned
by Educators.
9 Associated Press.

=" Associated Press.
pSTON, August els race suicide
easing among college graduates?
"s.rice Kicker Of the United States
,Iic health service says it is and
tes statistics. Some college presi-
ITS are inclined to doubt the con-
.;ions drawn by the health service
=, .cial and think his figures give
onE impression. Others say that
-,,m lack Of statistics of their own
ry are not prepared to discuss the
oject. They admit that Mr.. Rickers
=, ures are startling and that they
", sent a disquieting view of the fu-
Addressing the recent convention of
. National Educational Association
.- Des Moines. Iowa, Mr.. Kicker was
noted as follows: Investigation by
.,c federal public health service over
~ogeny Of one thousand graduates
ON such Institutions as Harvard.
ale, Princeton, Vassar and Smith
IL not exceed afty in 100 years from
,w" He proceeded to compare re-
Its of similar canvass among Il
..erate foreigners and said it indi-
al thousand would be multiplied at
last a hundred times.
Harvard Omciars Views.
Frederick L. Allen, secretary Of the
Harvard University Corporation, pro-
The Harvard records. He said:
"Mr. Ricker's assertion would seem
at first reading to give the impress
ion that college students have on
This is not so among Harvard gradu-
ties, at any rate. Among the classes
isS1-s0 at Harvard. the last ten
classes whose statistics are available
f4i
piets. the average number Of men per
class was 24S, of whom 1873 married
and had 372 children. an average OF 2.06
children per married graduate. or 1.55
children per capita for the whole class;
The Yale figures for the same period
are similar.
No figures on the subject are
available from Wellesley College,
but President Ellen s. Pendleton gives
1t as her impression that as far as the
aiumnae of Wellesley are concerned.
the number of marriages and the num-
ber of children per marriage have In
creased rather than decreased as the
years have gone by. Some twenty
or more years ago." said Miss Pen
dleton. The Association Of Col
elaborate statistics comparing the
health. number of marriages and num-
of children per marriage of college
women with similar statistics of,
their sisters who did not go to college
or their cousins nearest their age.
These statistics showed that there
was very slight differences between
the two classes. but such difference
as there was. was in favor of the COL
lege-bred women.
Smith College Figures.
An article for the Smith Alumnae
Quarterly and based on The QuinQuen-
nial Catalogue of 1915 is offered as
the latest available Information re-
garding the graduates of Smith Col
Iege and their children. This gave
the average number Of children for
each of the total number of alumnae
t5962, with the class of 1915 omit
ted. as So. Tho average Of
children for each marriage in the
classes '7s to 's6 was 2.15. This de-
creased with later classes until the
average for each marriage from
1879 up to 1915 was only 1.34. The
compiler. Florence Homer Snow of
the class Of 1904. suggests that II the
figures seem small, arguments for
the defense include the facts that the
youngest classes are the largest and
that many college women marry late.
so that the figures regarding them are
not available until they have been
many years out Of college.