F. L. Hoffman. Sociology and Eugenics.337
children was 17.9 for the native-born, against 34.2% for the foreign-born.
The proportion of native-born mothers having eleven children and over was
only 1.9%, against 7.0% for the foreign-born. The actual and relative
figures are extremely suggestive, and are given in sufficient detail in the three
tahles referred to; but the complete statistics for each year of life are given
in Tables IV. and V., which are self-explanatory and require no discussion.
It needs no argument to prove the practical utility of statistical inquiries
of this kind. Vastly more important than the multitude of general social
and economic facts are these statistics of what, for want of a better term,
may be called human production, and which disclose what must needs be
considered the most alarming tendency in American life. Granting that
excessively large families are not desirable, at least from an economic point
of view, it cannot be questioned that the diminution in the average size of
the family, and the increase in the proportion of childless families among
the native-born of native stock, is evidence of physical deterioration, and
must have a lasting and injurious effect on national life and character.
TABLE I.
Maternity Statistics of Rhode Island, 1905* : Number and Proportion of
Married Women without Children.
Ages. i5-24
2 5-34
35-45
All ages
15-24
25-34
35-45
All agesNative and Foreign-Born.
Total Married. No. of Children.
9,567
28,976
3M93 69,736 5)331
i5>798
i5»647
36,776Native-born.3»78i 6,942 5.477
16,200 2,277
4.589 3.581
10,447
Foreign-born.Per Cent.
Childless. 39*5 24‘0 i7’6 23-2
427 29‘0 229 28'4
15-24 ... 5,505 ... 1,829
25-34 ... 11,909 2,028
35-45 ••• 15.546 ... 1,896
All ages ... 32,960 ... 5,753
* Extracted from the Twenty-first Report of the Commissioner of Industrial Statistics for the
State of Rhode Island. Providence, 1908.Z 33‘2 i7‘o 12 "2 I7'5
