RACE DECLINE. 



173 



To present this properly, and demonstrate the part taken by 

 each group in the movements of population, it is essential to consider 

 class reproduction ; not alone fecundity and size of family, but marriage 

 rate as well must be taken into account. In both the status of the 

 college graduate as a class is most creditable, and at variance with 

 all that has been assumed, though conditions differ greatly in indi- 

 vidual institutions. 



The marriage rate is surprisingly high for the highly educated, or, to 

 be precise, for 4,408 college graduates, even if the 88.7 per cent, of 

 Brown '72 and the 87 per cent, of the Bowdoin classes of 1875 and 

 '77 is above the average, which is 79.4 per cent, for 16 Yale, Brown, 

 Bowdoin and Princeton classes, and 75.4 per cent, if we include the 9 

 Harvard classes '72- '80 with their low marriage rate of 71.4 per cent. 



My investigations show that the college graduate, the academic grad- 

 uate (conditions differ for scientific graduates), marries 7-7^ years 

 after leaving college, at nearly 30 years, so that we can compare him 

 with the age group 30-39 of the native American male, with a mar- 

 riage rate of 68.8 per cent., closely approximating the Harvard 

 average. 



Table I. 



Marriage Rate. 30 Ciasses, 4,408 Graduates.* 



Group J^O — Jf9 years of age, approximately. 



Group 20 — 29 years of age, approximately. 



This table is arranged according to rate of marriage. 



