THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 133 
Number of Children per 1,000 Married Women in Different Urban 
Districts 
Paris Berlin 
Very Poor Districts......... 142 214 
Poor Same eee ar 128 198 
Comfortable “  ........., 109 192 
Very “ Meer anne 96 172 
Rich ss a es Oy 94 145 
Very Rich ae ee eee 65 121 
That similar conditions prevail in American cities is indicated 
by statistics of the birth rates of different classes in Philadelphia.? 
In expensive residence districts the rate is 18; in the well-to-do 
districts, 21.4. per thousand; among the American born factory 
workers it is 24.5, while among the worst paid immigrants it is 
41.9. The death rate in the expensive wards is 14.5 per thousand; 
while it is higher in the slums, viz., 20.5, it does not nearly make 
up for the difference in the birth rate. 
It is not easy to compare the eugenic worth of the American 
and foreign born elements of our population, and it would be a 
great error to measure the eugenic value of a stock in terms of 
wealth or social position. Many people of the most desirable 
types of inheritance can boast of very little of either of these 
desirable possessions. No small proportion of poverty in our 
present economic régime is due to accident, illness or other cir- 
cumstances for which the unfortunate victims are in no way to 
blame. Nevertheless, it is undeniably true that many people are 
poor because their innate shiftlessness, mental inferiority, and 
unreliability makes them practically unemployable. Such 
persons, and a good share of their progeny, tend to remain in the 
ranks of the poverty stricken classes, unable to seize any oppor- 
tunity that may present itself for improving their condition. It is 
not uncommon to find pauper pedigrees extending through several 
generations. People of good stock unless hampered by ill fortune 
1S. Nearing, North American Rev. 197, 629, 1912. 
