26o THE TREND OF THE RACE 



native bom are greatly in excess. Denmark occupies an anoma- 

 lous position in that most of her people were foreign born. We 

 should expect her to come after the Irish and ahead of the Eng- 

 lish, according to Jenks and to occupy a position ahead of the 

 Germans according to the proportion of foreign bom. The 

 relatively large number of out-marriages considering the probably 

 recent arrival of her immigrants is perhaps due to the compara- 

 tively small number of Danes in the city. Where a people is 

 represented by a comparatively few individuals the number of 

 out-marriages would naturally be high. The relatively high 

 fecundity of the Irish, despite their long sojourn in tliis country 

 (as indicated by proportions of their native bom), is probably 

 due to their high percentage of Roman Catholics as is also 

 the case with the French-Canadians. 



Recency of arrival is probably a potent factor in determining 

 the size of the family and the amount of intermarriage in the 

 various stocks represented in the city of Minneapolis. This 

 conclusion is aU the more probable since the birth rate of the 

 foreign stocks in Minneapolis does not show a close correspond- 

 ence with the birth rate of these stocks in their native countries. 

 Those stocks which have the largest percentage of American born 

 of one or more generations show, as a rule, both the highest 

 number of out-marriages and the lowest birth rate. The out- 

 marriages, with a few exceptions due probably to the small 

 numbers represented, are more frequent in all groups among the 

 first generation of American bom than in the foreign born, and 

 greater in the third generation than in the second or first. The 

 most mixed groups, are as a rule, the groups having the largest 

 proportions of older immigrant stock; they are the most Ameri- 

 canized, and their birth rate is also low, not because they are of 

 mixed blood, but because they have become most thoroughly 

 imbued with our traditions. As so frequently happens when one 

 is dealing with demographical statistics, the conclusion which 

 seems at first to follow is not borne out by a more critical ex- 

 amination of the evidence. We have as yet insufficient 

 grounds for concluding that race mixture or the mingling of 



