Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-11-27
IMMIGRATION AND
..-.
THE COMMONWEALTH club

! of California has issued a
pamphlet in which is discussed the
the old question Of the causes OF
the decline of the native stock
birth rate, and the conclusion is
reached that it is purely due to
economic causes and not to any
natural development Of the fecund-
ity of the native stock. Discussing
this pamphlets the Springfield Re
publican agrees with the conclu-
sion that if we had received no adj
ditions to population from imml-
grafton our population would be
practically as large as it is today.
It says:
IF the United States had had
no immigration since 1920 would
its population be as great as it is?
This interesting old question is re-
vived by the Commonwealth club
of California, which in a pamphlet
in its series Of published Tran
sactions" answer yes, as the re-
suit Of an analysis of the Goth CEN
sus. Thus it agrees with the late
Gen. Francis Walker, who directed
the census of 1870 and 1880, and
other able students.
Taking the rate of increase OF
population of the period 18l0-1830
as virtually unaffected by immi-
grafton and hence as natural" for
purposes of this study, comparison
is made with the rates in succeed
ing decades. 1t appears that for
the decade 1830-1s40 increase at
this natural rate would have
brought the population gain to a.
oO4,260. The actual figures were
~4,2o3,433, but they included $685.
IFS immigrants. That is the mat
ural" increase declined by 39o,330,
while the artificial increase was
5ee,12 Similar results appear in
the next two decades, while in the
decades 1a1O-183O the total in
crease in population, including i'm
migrants, was only ~10,370,75O, COM
pared with IL ,69o, $50, the figures
which would have resulted if the
natural" rate had been maintained.
This sample will serve to illus
trate the method of analysis. The
fact disclosed is that a decline in
the birth rate prevailing up to a
century or SO ago has been coinci-
dent with a marked increase in i'm
migration; in fact substantially
equal to it. The conclusion might
seem to be that if no immigrants
had come the large families of the
original settlers and their descend
ants Of the early generations would
have prevailed today; that, as an
other immigration expert puts 1T,
the population while fully as large
as it is now would have been ma
time American and Nordlc.'
"The author of the California
pamhlet rejects, as many authori-
ties do, the theory that a lessen
ing of the fecundity Of the native
stock accounts for the decline in
the birth rate, and accepts as an al
tentative the economic interpreted
ton of the phenomenon. He points
out that the birth rate of the por-
ton of the population that is re-
moved but a generation or two
from the immigrant status shows a
similar decline. He might have
added that the phenomenon is also
parallelled in Europe and in Aus
tralia, notably in the Scandinavian
countries and France, but in all
the other northern countries as
well.
Where the decline is the mat
ural" rate is common to countries
with and without large accessionS
by immigration, it seems reason
able to look for some other ex-
PLANTATION of the decline than i'm
migrant "usurpation." AS a matter
Of fact the decline is generally
more marked in the countries
where prosperity is more general,
where the higher standards of liv-
ing are more mmo But if the
immigrants are to be charged after
all with keeping down u birth
rate, are they also to be credited
with increasing our prosperity"
uTVENUE ~DEIJNQUENTS