ALUMNA'S CHILDREN. 45 



ALUMNA'S CHILDKEN. 



By AN ALUMNA. 



HHHE latest publication of vital statistics in Massachusetts has 

 -■- again called attention to a subject often discussed in this maga- 

 2ine and elsewhere — the decreasing number of children in native Amer- 

 ican families. According to the majority of opinions given, this de- 

 crease is due mostly to 'social ambition.' This means that the women 

 who should be, in a real sense, the pillars of our society prefer other 

 things to bringing up their own children. If this is true, it seems a 

 very serious indictment of the American woman. 



But is the case settled yet ? While social ambition may be operative 

 in many cases, perhaps peculiarly among those coming to the notice of 

 a specialist in medicine, may there not be some data that the statis- 

 tician can not collect — some pertinent facts which in the nature of the 

 case are not within reach of the investigators? 



Among all the talk by learned men and high officials, it is strange 

 that no member of the class under discussion has spoken to the ques- 

 tion. On further thought the reason is obvious; the case is necessarily 

 of great delicacy and incapable of proof. But because the charge seems 

 to me in many cases so peculiarly unjust, hereby do I rush in where 

 angels have feared to tread. 



Dr. Engelmann in his especially interesting article spoke particu- 

 larly of the college graduates, that 'group having a lower birth rate 

 than any other. ' There may be no need to separate alumna from the 

 rest of her racial group for consideration, for the body of college women 

 now is made up of nearly all the elements of what may be called the 

 middle class. But because narrowing a subject makes it easier to view; 

 because the birth rate of the alumna? is the very lowest ; and, especially, 

 because I happen to know more of the conditions among college girls, 

 I confine myself to that group. 



There is no need to question the figures — that 1.8 children is the 

 average family of an alumna wife; but let us consider in the begin- 

 ning just what that 1.8 children mean. Incidentally, we may think 

 a moment of the marriage rate among college women. Both these 

 relatively low numbers are inspiring in one respect — in the thought of 

 the elements which have been eliminated. If less than 50 per cent, of 

 college women marry, yet of that number few take husbands 'for a 

 home' or because they have nothing else to do. Perhaps there are as 

 many happy marriages of companionship among a hundred college 



