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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 12, 1905)
- ........ . " " ; r : n . (- ... ... . ..... MAGAZINE ' SECTION THREE I MAGAZINE SECTION THREE V V ; . ' v: -vS"- . -r-- t . . - ' v.'.'.- " . ," ;;'- ,-.V--';? ' ' , . ", tortlaniy Oregon, : Sunday-"-morning; ; November-. Itx i9os.x.' ! l y.'v Z' ) .V')'--;.'"'; ' ' i 1 :-:--r '11.' ;; --mK . ' ' - i ;. " 1-' 1 iw and ew cuuArea - Yiitrict of Columbia districts of the no- WFAtz&iaUfyisriPmidtnrwhfo the Dish kiosevelttihi'kshe raisejjhis voice had the smallest. Rural disi JgaitMtithedanzer, of face, suicide. tion inxre raising one-third more children than A careful study.-of statistics recently (torn-? the cities.' . k v'ij pietea by tnegovrrnment Bureau. of census, ; : Kotnce tiaoo inc proportion of-negro -cnu- bears him out. M'f ' ;' .'v' "'Jfen"has decreased rmor 7e rapidly, than "those r .'V. the early years of the last 'century . .Kof white persons. Foreign-born parents if the proportion of children in the . United is found, contributed more freely to ' Uncle -States, it is : asccrtaincdby the investigation, V Sam's asset'of population than natives. : has decreased almost uninterruptedly at the ' And what it the 'cause of this decrease V. , average JUIC V uiVUf i unii ' vi inc prvjut nun v , jnituJi in 'c iiji 0 late years the percentage jjf decrease has pf Jiving is 'given as-one cause. !- Moreover,.' been growing. tSoo, children junder 10 years of age constituted- more - than one-third the - entire population of the country the end of the century they were less than one-fourth. . When the last census was fiken, in 1900, the proportion of white children under 5 years O' & - ' ' ' , . ' 7 'J young .women are becoming imbued with the J Civil Wr, although de fects in the collecting of the census in the latter idea that marriage . and motherhood are, noi rr cmef oojecfj in itfCf iney rcgara noase work, so the.investirators concludei as d sort ; of ' domestic slavery, thq to fndurcwhch they - be somewh t responsiote ior toe snowing. Taking up statistic roneerang 1 child; A prefer to earn their "own livelihood.' These facts have, been ' presenUdto the n nvt was tTmrrd'lu be ubont-three-fiftln-of Department oLCammercejind Labor in a sta- what it was in J 8 30. There. had Veen, a steady tistical discussion prepared "by Professor decrease, except during the 'decade of 1850- Walter F. Willcox, of Cornell . University, jS6o. V ; '" ' " ''' . ' - . special agent for the Census Bureau. The North Dakota and Indian Territory had study is based upon age and sex figures con- the largest' proportion of childrinZin tgoo; tained in the twelfth and preceding censuses. : . -: ,'.. -. COMPLETE set of vital statistics has never been taken in America. , Some states com ; pile fairly accurate figures upon the birth rate, while others make little or no at tempt in that direction. . 1 , As an actual fact, the birth rate in the United States, past or prcsont, is unknown. ': , . - Professor Willcox, however, has delved into Mum, rnnnrin for the entire centilrv' iust nassed. nd has broucbt to liffht an important and iustruot- . cent. ire mass of information. . . - Between 1840 and I860, and As the heat available substitute for an accurate between 1880 and 1890, the great birth rate during the latter, half of the nineteenth est decreases in the relative pro century, the professor has taken the ratio of living , portion occurred It is believed children under 5 years of age to each 1000 women ox ' that this faot was due to - the the- years .wherein it is - possible for , them to be enormous tide of immigration , mothers. " during those periols, when the The proportion of children under 10 years of.- adult population of the country agto the entire population is ascertained from .increased with leaps and, bounds, census reports teaching back to 1800 - - The next largest - decrease," . Throughout the entire country, then, there rere " during the decade, from 1860 to " figures giving the number of children under 10 years r-1870,-. is - attribud largely - to of age upon which to base an investigation. After ... direct and indirect effects of the 1850, figures were Also given for children under S years. Since that date, too, it has been possible to ascertain, for each decade, tho number of women who were within the age limits of motherhood. 'When the census of 1800 was taken, children under 10 years of age constituted 83.5 per cent, of the total population. During the century this P'o. portion dropped almost steadily, until at its close the number of such little ones was only. per der 6 yeara of age dur- .' ing the last half of the " .nineteenth century, it is learned that in 1900 there. were only three fourths as many living little ones to each group of 1000 possible mothers ' as in 1860. . In 1860, the ium- ber was 634; in 18T0, 672; in 1880, 659; in "1890, 485; in 1900, 474. As an example of -the manner in .which the ratio of children un . der S.years.of age of the white population has decreased ; Since 1830, " the following figures are', given!-In 1830 he per-, oentage was 18; in 1840, , 17.4: in1 1850, 14; in 1860, 15 A', in 1870r14.1; in 1880, 1S.4: in 1890, 12, and in 1900. 11.9 per cenl ' : " , ; ; I . For every 1000 women, the number -of chil dren under 6 years decreased 62 from 1860 to 1870; 13 from 1870 to 1880; -74 from 1880 to 1890, and 11 from 1890 to 1900. Between 1850 and 1860 it increased 8. The decreases of the other decades were not nearly' uniform, but in variably the balance was j to be found on the wrong aide of the population ledger; ' . . Figures vary somewhat in different sections;-, of the country. In the North and West the pop ulation of children increased during the decade ' of 1850 to 1860, and decreased steadUy after the ; ' latter date. The decline has been less marked in the Southern States --.- '- . - Th facts D resented in this - connection, it - 'must be borne in mind, are based upon the ratio of children under 0 years Qf age to eacb .lUW women within the age limits of motherhood,- - According to the figures for 1900, New Eng land, next to the District of Columbia, made the .smallest contribution to the nation's popula tion; and- in thafc. section Massachusetts pre sented the most meagre showing of all. ofthe Nr EcAad- fitates-'hadJfewer than 1 ' 400 children to 1000 women. In the same class, ChoweerTwere New York. Ohio and California. K . . i rtrv 1 mr U "X Ti V, ,w lux neiween w mu uw uui . " t4 Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, , Nevada, Washington and Oregon. This chain forma a belt across practically the centre 01 the coup try, from ocean to ocean, broken lower average, and Utah, 3 Hm fitatea havintr beCween I ttTeach 1000 womenw aire 'the 'two .Vkginia9,-JCti-tucky, TennesseejViaconsin, Minnesota,, Nebrkaka, .Wyoming, Itontana, Florid and Louisiana and ,;'Arizcma,rrit6ry.';::-,-,:'::LJ tZlU'-y , '1 With more than 600 each are all the Southern ; 1 States, except those already named, together with , the two Dakotas, Idaho, Utah, 'Hew Mexico, Indian Territory and Oklahoma. . - For the. entire country the average I 471 fa -1000 women.' From Maine to California aJCsd of . . . Sutes, broken only by Kansaa and- Utah i' to be r found having a proportion below tus aytrage. On . the South, from Virginia to AxitomC and. on th North, from Wisconsin to Idahq thia band ia Z flanked by .States and Territories averaging than 500. v - . .V"";.'' " Y'.'T- Irf the Distnot of Columb the lowest in pro- portion, children under 6 ' yeara of age- - number hardly more than 25 per cent, the number of poa aibU mothers: while in 'North Dakota, .and tha -.Z: Indian Territory they amount to moret Jhan'two""" '.thirds.'"r,"--'-T-'7'"'- r -', Ten vears before, in 1890. the minimum was in , ' ::'rthe District of Columbia and New Hampshire, - 1 a a ktr 'il i i - while maximum credit waa neia vj Jit qno jjbkoui In 1880 the largest proportion Vwere in Utah - and Idaho; in 1870, Utah and Washington; in 1860- - - and 1850, ,Utah and. Oregon. i 1 f .1 ''- -'At each of these four censuses TSitw Hampshire , Zm one of the two States with the Smallest propor tion, the others being JVlasaachusetts at two censuses ana .ttnoae jsiana at two. - 7 Onlr in 1890 and 1900 did t the District of Columbia take lowest rank for the number of its , .children. Thia may be due'to the fact that most of , the population i of the District is hi the city of "Washington, and everywhere cities add to the num ber of children less rapidly than the rural districts. . . , It waa ahown in 1900 that to every 1000 women the District of Columbia had 165 fewer children than Maryland, that it waa 283 behind Virginia : 1 and 834 behind West Virginia lj' practically con- tiguoua territory. . . ' . 'Figures for six States- stretching across th centre of the land shew a atr iking decrease within fifty years in the number of children under S years) ''of age proportioned to each ,1000 women. -In 1900, compared with 1850, Maryland had 168 fewer children; Kentucky. 206; Michigan, 227 1 -Ohio, 277; Illinois, 309, and Indiana, 840. . - "The decrease in the prdpbrtion of children be tween, 1890 and 1900 in the country as a whole,": write Professor Willcox, ,-waa due mainly to tha controlling influence of changes west of the Alio ghanies. ; , 7 1 t' "In all the StatesAif the Atlantio diviaiona nrronTMaineioTrorth'Xal'aTtHaTT UJeiaware, Jkiaryiana ana we xnsxrict ox wuimuu, the proportion of children was greater in 1900 than in 1890 , , But almost everywhere else in the country, tWrAverge waa true, the exceptions Oklahoma. New Mexico, Montana ana JN evaaa naraiy Dre ax ing the uniformity of the role. , :' ' "The increase of children in every Stat of th North Atlantic division, 1890 to 1900, was probably, a result of the heavy immigration of 1880 to 189( and of the high birth rate among the 'immigrants shortly after their arrival" In 1890 the number of children under 5 year of age to each 1000 native women was 475, while it was 666 to foreign women, a difference of 191 in favor of the latter. Ten years later the difference had increased to 243, as the number was 463 chil dren, for. native women , and 710 for, foreign-born women. - - ' . ' That the births of children are not so numer- ous in the cities as in the rural districts is amply' demonstrated. According "to , the last census the . proportion of children in cities, for the United States as. a whohvwas about two-thirds the pro portion in the country districts. . There was. little difference, in the "North, be tween the proportions for city and country, but in t the South the city proportion was scarcely more than half that of the country. In-the West the ratio of proportionrfor city and country was be tween these two extremes. ft (CONTINUED ON ' INSIDE PAOE) ..... .--'-'X. A S. .... V 1 x I