Hunt: College Birth Rate 



53 



na 



iidtely mediocre stock, even though edu- 

 cated in the most approved fashion. 



Fecundity and Intelligence 



There are indications that the per- 

 centage of unusually capable persons is 

 decreasing in the population of the 

 United States. 



Regarding the city of Pittsburgh, 

 Johnson, Popenoe, and Scorer" report : 



"Taking into account all the wards 

 of the city, it is found that the birth- 

 rate 7'ises as one considers the w^ards 

 which are marked by a large foreign 

 population, illiteracy, poverty, and a 

 high death-rate. On the other hand, 

 the birth-rate falls as one passes to 

 the wards that have most native-born 

 residents, most education, most pros- 

 perity — and, to some extent, education 

 and prosperity denote efficiency and 

 eugenic value." 



Catteir" in his study of American 

 scientists finds that their marriage rate 

 is high and the death rate for their 

 children is unusually low. 



Yet he concludes, "A scientific man 

 has on the average about seven-tenths 

 of an adult son. If- three-fourths of 

 his sons and grandsons marry and 

 their families continue to be of the 

 same size, a thousand scientific men 

 will leave about 350 grandsons who 

 marry to transmit their names and their 

 hereditary traits. The extermination 

 will be still more rapid in female 

 lines."* 



Cattell shows (Table IX) that 6-13 

 scientific men, employed in universities 

 and other institutions, have an average 

 of but 2.28 children each. 



Nearing^^ remarks in the course of a 

 study of the birth rates in different 

 sections of Philadelphia, (foot note, 

 p. 635), "Such figures merely confirm 

 in a broad way the fact of common 

 experience — large income, small family, 

 and vice versa." 



Similar conditions appear to exist 

 in Europe. Bertillon (cited from 

 Holmes,'" p. 132), studying the birth 



rate per thousand women between 

 fifteen and fifty years in Paris, Berlin, 

 Vienna, and London, furnishes data 

 which show that the poorer the district 

 of the city, the higher the birth rate. 



A statement from Holmes (p. 13-1) 

 is worth quoting in this connection : 



"Several of Pearson's colleagues 

 found in the laboring population of 

 English towns that there was a fairly 

 liigh correlation between large fami- 

 lies and dirty homes (.41), low rent 

 (.31), poor food (.33), insufficient 

 food (.35), low wages of father (.32), 

 and irregularity of employment. We 

 may explain the low rent and the poor 

 and insufficient food of large families 

 as, in part at least, a consequence of 

 their large size. There seems, how- 

 ever, no good reason to suppose that 

 the possession of a large family would 

 have any eft'ect in lowering the wages 

 of the father. Wages are at least a 

 rough measure of the efficiency of the 

 individual worker, and the fact that 

 the men who are poorly paid have a 

 larger number of children than those 

 who receive better wages indicates that 

 the less efficient types have the highest 

 degree of fecundity." 



A glance at recent immigration 

 statistics is suggestive. Table I shows 

 the relation between fecundity, mental 

 capacity, and numbers of individuals 

 in this country, of several classes of the 

 foreign-born. The data on birth 

 rates are taken from Holmes.'" The 

 army mental tests furnish the ratings 

 of average mental capacity of the 

 various classes presented." Classes A 

 and B include the most intelligent sol- 

 diers, classes D, D-, and E the least 

 intelligent. 



"In general," says Holmes, "The 

 women of native white parentage had 

 2.7 children, while those of foreign 

 parentage had 4.4." 



Without data on death rates it is 

 of course impossible to determine the 

 rates of net increase in these eleven 

 groups. 



* About 75 per cent of the graduates of Harvard and Yale marry ; and about 50 per 

 cent of the graduates of women's colleges marry. 



