EUGENIC, CACOGENIC AND SOCIALLY INADEQUATE TEND- 

 ENCIES IN OUR POPULATION 



J. H. LANDMAN 



College of the City of New York 



The total continental United States population as recorded by the Fif- 

 teenth Census of the United States for 1930 is 122,775,046. The aggre- 

 gate numerical increase in the continental United States population in the 

 last decade is larger than for any previous decade, —an increment as large 

 as 17,064,426. However, the percentage increase in the last decade is the 

 smallest in our census history, except for the period that includes the Great 

 War, —an increment as low as 16.1 per cent. The percentage increase 

 between 1790 and 1800 was 35.1. 



Are we to infer that in the light of the diminishing percentage of decennial 

 increase in our population the menace of the growth of the United States 

 population will solve itself? Observe that the numerical increase of the last 

 ten-year period was twelve times as great as the period between 1790 and 

 1800 and more than four times the entire population in 1790. 



The real importance of the growth of the United States population turns 

 about the resulting lowered standard of living for the individual which is 

 inevitable because of the constancy of the United States area and the dimin- 

 ishing natural resources of the country. Should our population continue to 

 increase numerically, regardless of diminishing percentage rates, in seventy- 

 five years the country will have to maintain twice as many people as at 

 present. 



What quality of our mankind is multiplying more rapidly? Are our 

 superior people multiplying more rapidly than our inferior people? What 

 effect has or will the growing struggle for existence in a growing adverse 

 environment have upon the quality of our population? 



A number of vital factors present themselves in our statistics which 

 seriously affect the nature and quality of our population. There is the 

 decline in birth rate and a constancy in the death rate. The birth rate was 

 23.7 in 1920; 22.5 in 1922; 20.6 in 1927 and 18.9 in 1930. The death rate 

 remained fairly constant during the same period. It was 13.0 in 1920; 11.7 

 in 1922; 11.4 in 1927 and 11.3 in 1930. Thus the distribution of the age 

 groups of the population is greatly altered. There is an increase in the 



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