THE SELECTIVE FUNCTION OF RELIGION 359 



through the acquisition of new converts, and (3) through the 

 birth rate. In the United States the growth of the Catholic 

 church is mainly through the first and third of these methods. It 

 is evident that the Protestant constituents of our population are 

 not increasing so rapidly as the Catholic, if indeed their own birth 

 rate would provide any increase at all. Should present tendencies 

 continue, and if the Catholic church resists the agencies which 

 tend to undermine the faith of its adherents, the majority of our 

 population will soon come under the sway of this great religious 

 organization. 



We shall not discuss the social and political consequences which 

 would follow from such an event. Undoubtedly they would be 

 great, and they would indirectly have a decided influence upon 

 the course of our racial development. The immediate conse- 

 quence to the race would be the replacement of the Nordic 

 stocks, such as the English, Scotch, Scandanavians, Danish and 

 northern German elements, by peoples from southern and middle 

 Europe. Many of the latter stocks are of good native quality, 

 but there are others from the more southern and southeastern 

 parts of Europe whose relative inherent worth is at least open to 

 suspicion. At any rate, the stocks which promise to gain ground 

 in the United States are different in many features of natural 

 temperament and disposition, if not in intellectual development, 

 from the present average of our population. Their relatively 

 high birth rate, while dependent to a considerable degree on other 

 circumstances, such as education, economic status, traditions, 

 etc., is undoubtedly influenced strongly by their religious beliefs. 

 We must therefore reckon upon religion as one of the potent 

 forces which are changing the racial composition of the inhabit- 

 ants of this country. 



It is scarcely necessary to point out that among people such as 

 the Japanese in whom the duty of fecundity is impressed with all 

 the force which religious sanction can bring to bear, religion 

 becomes a powerful factor in racial expansion. Among the 

 Japanese, religion has a peculiar potency because of its close 

 association with patriotic feeling. Where religion lends its sup- 



