5 68 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



children is greater for the former, be- 

 ing about 3.31 as compared with 3.14. 

 It may be that Harvard graduates 

 have as large surviving families as 

 those of the same race, but of lower 

 social class. 



It is unfortunate that statistics are 

 not at hand on the marriage rate and 



is 29, in Germany 35 and in Russia 52. 

 In Massachusetts the birth rate was 

 last year 25.07 and the marriage rate 

 8.67. Even if all illegitimate children 

 are attributed to the married, the aver- 

 age size of family would be less than 

 three. The foreign born have a much 

 larger fertility than the natives, and 







SI 



+x 



CCTRVE OP FERTILITY fK MAN. DANES 



birth rate in relation to the conditions 

 on which they depend. The questions 

 involved are of the utmost practical 

 importance and should be taken up at 

 once by the national and state govern- 

 ments. The birth rate in France where 

 the population is stationary, is about 

 22 per thousand. In Great Britain it 



it is quite possible that the New Eng- 

 land stock has a mean family of only 

 two, as President Eliot finds to be the 

 case with Harvard graduates. Presi- 

 dent Eliot appears to be mistaken in 

 attributing the small families of Har- 

 vard graduates in part to postponement 

 of marriage due to protracted educa- 



