THE SELECTIVE FUNCTION OF RELIGION 359 
through the acquisition of new converts, and (3) through the 
birth rate. In the United States the growth of the Catholic 
church is mainly through the first and third of these methods. It 
is evident that the Protestant constituents of our population are 
not increasing so rapidly as the Catholic, if indeed their own birth 
rate would provide any increase at all. Should present tendencies 
continue, and if the Catholic church resists the agencies which 
tend to undermine the faith of its adherents, the majority of our 
population will soon come under the sway of this great religious 
organization. 
We shall not discuss the social and political consequences which 
would follow from such an event. Undoubtedly they would be 
great, and they would indirectly have a decided influence upon 
the course of our racial development. The immediate conse- 
quence to the race would be the replacement of the Nordic 
stocks, such as the English, Scotch, Scandanavians, Danish and 
northern German elements, by peoples from southern and middle 
Europe. Many of the latter stocks are of good native quality, 
but there are others from the more southern and southeastern 
parts of Europe whose relative inherent worth is at least open to 
suspicion. At any rate, the stocks which promise to gain ground 
in the United States are different in many features of natural 
temperament and disposition, if not in intellectual development, 
from the present average of our population. Their relatively 
high birth rate, while dependent to a considerable degree on other 
circumstances, such as education, economic status, traditions, 
etc., is undoubtedly influenced strongly by their religious beliefs. 
We must therefore reckon upon religion as one of the potent 
forces which are changing the racial composition of the inhabit- 
ants of this country. 
It is scarcely necessary to point out that among people such as 
the Japanese in whom the duty of fecundity is impressed with all 
the force which religious sanction can bring to bear, religion 
becomes a powerful factor in racial expansion. Among the 
Japanese, religion has a peculiar potency because of its close 
association with patriotic feeling. Where religion lends its sup- 
