Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-01-10

loN, Jdh. "
most prolific people in the United
States, when they are CLASSIFIED, ac-
corling to occupation, are foremen,
| overseers and inspectors of mines.
The wives of these men bear on an
average 4.6 children per wife n
each of them has on an average OF
3.9 children nov living.
These interesting figures on the
pr~oliferation of MN foremen have
just been issued by the Bureau OF
Census as a par- of a long tabula-
ton of the American birth-rate &C
cording to occupation. 1t is a most
inter estinS tabulation and bewilder-
ing in a way 1t upsets our precon-
ceived notions as to what kind OF
people have the most children and
why. 1t also sheds some light on
| that much discussed question as to
whether the native population OF the
United States is maintaining itself
or slowly dying out and leaving the
! country to the immigrants.
/ But before we proceed to general
izations, let us note some of the as
! tonishing figures which the Census
| Bureau has brought out. Next to
mine foremen, we find that the most
prolific occupatic nal class in the
| United States is that of foremen and
overseers on steam and electric rail-
roads. The wife of a traction fore
man bears on al average AZ chill
| dren of which 3.S survive. This ave-
rage morality of less than one-half
a child per family is especially cred
liable to the transportation business.
Foremen and overseers of all
kinds seem to have q lot of chill
dren any they seam to have good
luck in raising them. Perhaps this
is not surprising. A foreman or
o~verseer is apt to be a workman OF
more than usual intelligence who has
worked his way up. and who receives
a good income. Naturally, having
lived IN day wages for a long time,
his standard OF living will not be as
| high as that of q lawyer or doctor.
He will mo- spend as much on lux
uries, and so will be more inclined
to raise children.
The JanitOr's Family
So much for the foreman. The
next most prolific occupational class
we find to be that of j%anitors and
sections. The janitors' wives aver
g Al cLildre,- per wife, and no
less than "a of these children on
| an average. survive to cry at night,
steal milk bottles and put dead cats
in the dumb waiter. Why-as many
an apartment dweller has doubtless
asked before-should janitors be so
philoprogenitive? OF course, they
get rent and heat free and they
have the whole basement for the
kids to play around in. But 1t is
surely surprising to find that in the
whole United States, only these two
kinds of foremen, j%anitors and SEX
tons and one other class succeed in
| begetting al average of four or more
| children per family. In all of the
other occupational classes listed, the
| average number CT children born Is
less than four, and III none of them is
| the average number of children hv-
ing as much as four. The mine
foreman, with his 3.9 smiling babes,
has the largest average family in
the country. For the registration
area of the United States the average
number of children born per mother
was 3.S and the average number OF
children living per mother was 80.
What we have always heard about
the birthrate is that the population
is dying at the top" by which 1t is
meant that people of wealth n
| people in the professions have small
| families. willie the laborerS and very
poor people generally have large
families. We are usually told that
the average woman must raise three
| children in order TO keep up the
population and increase it q little. III
this is true, the population of the
country as Il whole IS just barely be-
ing maintained by the people in it,
and the increase is due wholly to i'm
migration. This study shows once
more that the problem of restricting
and regulating is the real popula-
ton problem in tho United States
and one which seem3 nowhere near
solution.
The surprising thing in this tabu-
lation is that 1t fails to discover any
| class which is highly prolific, and
reveals, fer instance. that road
workers and clergymen run a neck
and neck race in the production OF
children, while garbage men n
scavangers have on an average only
7-10 of a child more per family than
lawyers, justices and judges.
1t is true thai this tabulation
shows the professional classes as
| averaging about one-third less pro-
life than the people who work for
wages in a city; but it gives. n very
strongly the impression that the poor
mans huge family. which is always
held up to Us as such an unfortunate
and common thing must~be much
less common than is supposed. III