122 S. J. HOLMES 



tively more destructive to the Negro than it is to the white man. In the 

 north the Negro seems destined to remain predominately urban for a long 

 time to come. He will, therefore, be subjected to the biological destructive 

 agencies that have acted as such powerful checks to the natural increase of 

 urban populations in the past. The climate is against him, but with proper 

 care he may eventually overcome this handicap. On the other hand, he 

 will probably have, for a considerable time to come, the biological advan- 

 tages of an inferior social status. By and large, his race will occupy the 

 stratum in our society which is characterized by the highest birth rate. If 

 he competes successfully with the whites in the north it will only be through 

 the maintenance of a birth supply high enough to offset a number of other 

 disadvantages. By maintaining a fairly high birth rate northern Negroes 

 can doubtless survive and increase in numbers in the nothern states. 

 Whether a high birth rate will be maintained is open to question. The 

 Negro birth rate has declined greatly since the period of super-fecundity 

 which prevailed in the 70's and 80's. The decline has followed a course 

 similar to that of the whites, and doubtless for much the same reasons. 

 There can be no doubt as to the extensive practise of birth control in our 

 Negro population, especially in the cities. As the birth supply is brought 

 more and more under voluntary control, it is subject to the influence of 

 psychological factors in which it is quite conceivable that racial attitudes 

 might exercise a potent effect. Students of the Polynesian and Melanesian 

 races have not hesitated to attribute to psychological factors a strong 

 influence leading to the gradual disappearance of these races in several 

 islands of the Pacific. Our American Negroes appear to be of a more 

 buoyant and cheerful disposition than many other native peoples and they 

 have borne their portion of adversity with unusual fortitude. Nevertheless 

 Negro literature reflects the impress of the oppression and unjust discrimina- 

 tion to which the Negroes in this country have been subjected. People 

 feeling keenly the injustice and humiliation of their lot in a society domi- 

 nated by the white man may be loath to bring children into the world, who 

 will have to face the same kind of an unfavorable environment. A recent 

 number of the Birth Control Review devoted to the Negro and containing 

 several articles contributed by Negroes gives voice to the attitude I have 

 mentioned and leads to the suspicion that birth control propaganda may 

 effect a very considerable further reduction of the Negro birth rate. 



The greatest influence of birth control propaganda will naturally be among 

 the more intelligent and enterprising members of the race. In all prob- 

 ability the American Negroes are coming into a period of highly dysgenic 

 propagation. The mulatto elements will be gradually bred out and re- 



