Evening star., 1927-08-07
WEALTH INCREASE SEEN
in IMMIGRATION POLICY
DIR. Gabriel Expects Only Slight Rise
in Population of U. S., With Plenty
Opportunity for All.

we could have such a growth of pop,
ulation as to greatly lower our present
| high standards of living"
Suppose We had not restricted inn
migration, how great would be our
population by, say, the year 2000?" l
asked.
THE present birth rate is about %
per 200 and the present death rate is
about IL per 1000 each year. There
Is thus natural increase of II per
| thousand people each year If this
rate were continued without let.up,
our population would double itself in
about 60 years without any further
additions from immigration. This
would mean population Of over
200.000.000 by 1880"
And will immigration restriction
simply cut down extra additions to
our population from other parts of the
world?" 1 asked.
1T will do better than that 1t will
shut out from the United States the
prolific breeding stocks that have been
responsible for the great increase in
our population in the last few genera
tions. The increase in our numbers as
people in the last half century has
been due in large measure to immi-
grafton and the results of immigration
Since 1900 over 100000 foreigners
have entered our country. The great
bulk of these arrived here during their
reproductive years. and they produced
large numbers of offspring shortly
after their arrival Now, in the case
of native Americans decline in their
birth rate began as early as 1910 and
has continued ever since. The old CO.
lonial family Of Is or 90 children has
practically disappeared. The most
marked decline has been in the last
two or three decades. Small families
are among the native American
breed"
Smaller Families.
Moreover. the tendency to have
smaller and smaller families has been
transmitted to our immigration popu-
lation. Two investigators have found
in the present generation in the Mid
die West, where there are plenty of
immigrants, a shrinkage in the family
size from 5.4 to 3.3 children in one
generation of 80 years"
How do you account for this de-
cline in the birth rate of our foreign
population" asked
The immigrant came to the land of
plenty poor-very poor. He soon OBJ
tanned much better economic status
than he had in the Old World. AS his
wealth grew and luxuries for him in
creased his birth rate fell off. That
Is a law of population. AS prosperity
advances among people new inter-
ests develop by the fact that people
are raised above the brute struggle
for existence and they live for other
things than just to have children.
Take the case of the French inva-
sion of Algiers. Before the French
~ or11n tn u
the highest birth rates in the world.
The native Arab seemed to live for
nothing except sex indulgence. The
French greatly increased the material
welfare of the country, and at once
the birth rate of the Arabs began to
drop. Accordingly, the American i'm
migrant has only followed out this
often observed tendency Of cutting
down his birth rate as his prosperity
advances
Then you see stationary popula-
ton or only very slowly increasing
one in the United States, and Ger.
tainly no menace of overpopulation
because of our restriction of immigra.
tion?" / asked.
II do" replied DR.. Gabriel.
What would have happened in
America If we had not checked our
rapid growth of population" asked.
Standards of Living,
standards of living would have de-
clined, opportunity to get ahead in
life would have decreased, labor
troubles would have grown, radical.
ism and political unrest would have
mounted, and sooner or later we might
nave been forced into an aggressive
policy of Imperialism and any number
OF wars. AS we became dependent on
foreign countries for food we would
nave begun to reach out and attempt
70 gran additional parts of the earth's
surface and to embark on a career of
conquest that would have risked our
life as free nation"
tCopyright. 1927