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Show OUR DWINDLING BIRTHRATE. In the period between the first and latest Federal census 1790 and 1000 ihe American family has shrunk from au avVrage of 5.8 persons to an average of 4.. Amid a mass of comparative statistics complied com-plied by W. S. Rossiter, of the Census Bureau, it is this fact which specially challenges the attention of the country. Approaching the same fact from various va-rious angles Mr. Rossiter points out that were it not for this discrepancy between the average white American family of today and that of 100 years a"-o the population of the United States would now number 20,000,000 more, than it does. .He also shows that the number of children under 16 years of ffo-e to each family m the Colonial days was -J.8 as compared with 1.5 in 1000; and that the ratio of thildren to women has been cut in half. There are many standpoints from which to view this subject, he admits, but "from one, at least, jt may be claimed that the people of the United States have concluded that they are only about half as well able to rear children, at anv rate without personal sacrifice, under un-der the conditions which prevailed in 1900, as their predecessors proved themselves to be uudr conditions condi-tions prevailing in 1 790." The census officials are said to recognize a distinct connection between the reduction in families and the increasing movement of population toward the citjrs, since "the apartment apart-ment house, flat and tenciueut-ruom do not cu-; cu-; couroe large families." i I . i i |