24 THE FALL OF THE BIRTH-RATE 



Two rates were then calculated from the births so 

 classified (i) the rate per thousand males in the same 

 occupation, 10 years of age and over (without respect 

 to their being married or otherwise), and (2) the rate 

 per thousand married males in the same occupation, 

 under 55 years of age including in each case those 

 classified as retired from a given occupation with 

 those still occupied therein. Taking the first column, 

 we see that the rates for classes i and 2 do not differ 

 appreciably : there is an abrupt rise to class 3 (skilled 

 labour), a hardly material fall to class 4, and then 

 again an abrupt rise to class 5 (unskilled labour). 

 Textile workers and agricultural labourers show very 

 low figures, little above those for the upper and 

 middle classes: miners swoop above all others. 



These figures are a measure, not of married fer- 

 tility, but of the fertility of the class as such: if it 

 marries little or late its fertility thus measured will 

 be low. The figures of the second column are an 

 approximate measure of married fertility, though not 

 a good measure as it is impossible to make any cor- 

 rection for ages of wives. In this column the rise of 

 the fertilities from class i to class 5 is continuous and 

 unbroken: textile workers would fall in between 

 classes i and 2; agricultural labourers would come a 

 good deal lower on the scale (higher in fertility) than 

 on the figures of the first column, in between classes 

 4 and 5 ; and miners, as before, would stand well at 

 the top. With all their imperfections I do not think 

 the figures, even if they stood alone, would leave 

 much doubt that there were great differences between 

 the social strata as regards married fertility ; that occu- 

 pational differences, e.g. as between textile workers 

 and miners, were sometimes quite as large; and that 

 the differences between married fertility were often 

 emphasised by differences between the tendency to 



