DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



275 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



THE QUESTION OF RACIAL 

 DECLINE. 

 To THE Editor: I have read in your 

 June issue the article entitled ' Race 

 Decline ' by George J. Engelmann, 

 M.D., of Boston. The writer states 

 'The American population is not hold- 

 ing its own, it is not reproducing itself,' 

 etc., and quotes statistics of college 

 classes and of Massachusetts to prove 

 it. When a young man thirty years 

 ago I heard the same story, and people 

 predicted that the American people of 

 native stock would be extinct in a few 

 generations. The census of 1900 flatly 

 contradicts the gentleman's statements. 

 It shows that the rate of natural in- 

 crease is not exceeded by any nation on 

 the face of the globe. What has 

 doubled the population (white) of the 

 states in the south since 1870? There 

 is but little immigration to that sec- 

 tion. Also what causes the great in- 

 crease of population in states like In- 

 diana where the foreign born are de- 

 creasing? 



The fact is that the native population 

 is increasing very rapidly and is not 

 ■dying out, not even in Massachusetts. 

 We hear a great deal about the j^rolific 

 French Canadians and their great nat- 

 ural increase. It may astonish some 

 people that the native Americans are 

 increasing just as rapidly and in the 

 south much more so. I will quote a 

 few statistics taken from the recent 

 ■census.* 



Native born white native 



parentage 41,053,917 



Under 20 years of age 19,556,558 



Percentage under 20 47.6% 



* Vol. 2 — Population, part 2, page 2, 

 Table 1. 



In the province of Quebec (French 

 Canada) the 1901 census shows that 

 49 per cent, of the population were 

 under twenty years of age, or a little 

 more than 1 per cent, more than the 

 native Americans. If we omit those 

 under five years of age the percentages 

 will be as follows: 



Native American from 5 to 19 



inclusive 34.3% 



French Canadians from 5 to 19 

 inclusive 34.6% 



This indicates a greater death rate 

 among the French Canadians under 

 five years of age. Now for figures for 

 typical native states I take Indiana in 

 the north, and North Carolina in the 

 south. In the former the foreign-born 

 are but 51/0 per cent, of the population 

 and in the latter less than half of 1 

 per cent. 



Indiana. 



Under 20 years of age 46.3 % 



From 5 to 19 inclusive 34 % 



North Carolina. 



Under 20 years of age 51.7 % 



From 5 to 19 inclusive 37 % 



Notice how much larger the per- 

 centage of children in North Carolina 

 is than in French Canada. This is 

 typical of all the southern states. 

 Among the mountaineers the percentage 

 of children even exceeds this, and a 

 comparison of the number of children 

 among these people and the French 

 Canadians would make the latter look 

 like a decadent race. It is true that 

 in Massachusetts and some of the ad- 

 joining states the foreign element in- 

 creases in the natural way more 

 rapidly than the native, but this does 

 not hold good as to the whole country. 



But the showing made by Massachu- 

 setts is not as bad as indicated by Dr. 

 Engelmann. I quote from Vol. 3 of 



