176 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Graduate families are, as these figures show, not only not smaller, 

 but they are larger than those of the native-born American population 

 of all classes, and larger than would have been expected from what is 

 known of the relative fecundity of rich and poor in other countries. 

 The relation of the educated and professional classes to the masses, to 

 the laboring or artisan class, however, is the same as that shown for 

 Copenhagen by Eubin and Westergaard, the total number of offspring 

 born being somewhat larger for the family of the artisan; the real 

 family, the number of the surviving, on the contrary, being somewhat 

 larger for the educated, for the reason of the lower death rate in such 

 families. 



The rate of child-birth has been decreasing in college families, but 

 it has been decreasing throughout the civilized world, slowly in the 

 old world, with astonishing rapidity in the new, that is, among the 

 native American-born of our population, until it has reached a 

 minimum; the number of children to the native American family 

 of all classes (and in this lies the danger) being less than it is in any 

 other country, France even not excepted, which has long been known 

 to be at the point of stagnation. 



These are facts ; the figures have all been elaborated and repeatedly 

 presented so that any hypothesis is unnecessary. The American popu- 

 lation is not holding its own; it is not reproducing itself, and the 

 highly educated do not stand alone in this. 



Important as is the fact of our racial decline, bearing as it does 

 upon our future as a nation, it has not been observed, because of the 

 fair general rate of child-birth, due to the much greater fecundity of 

 the foreign element, which is from 2 to 2^/2 times that of the native, 

 thus bringing the total birth rate of the state to an equality with that 

 of France, — 22.4 per 1,000 living population, or above it. 



This is true of six representative states, for which we have fairly 

 reliable statistics; in some, the birth rate is distinctly higher than that 

 of France, as high as 26 and 28 per 1,000, but even in such states, that 

 of the native-born is far below that of France. So in Massachusetts, 

 with a total birth rate for the state of 27.78, practically 28 per 1,000 

 living population, that of the native-born is only 17, whilst that of 

 the foreigner is over 52 per 1,000. 



The net fertilitv, the total number of children born is 2.1 in 

 France, and for the native population of the above state it is said 

 to be 2.17 for 3,015 graduates from 25 classes 1870-80, in five eastern 

 colleges it is 2.34. But these figures may be ignored, as it is not the 

 total number of children born, but the surviving who add to the popu- 

 lation, and it is these whom we consider: the surviving children 

 of college graduates, 2.7 for Princeton, 2.28 for Yale, 1.86 and 1.88 



