OCR Text |
Show OLD PEOPLE INCREASING The United States, according to Dr. O. E. Baker of the Bureau of Agricultural Economic.-;, is rapidly turning into a nation of oldsters. Should immigration bars be maintained, says Dr. Baker, a population containing fewer youths and more old people is in prospect for this country. "There are now about 10 p"r cent fewer young children in the nation than there were five years ago, and about 17 per cent more persons over sixty-five years of ' age," according accord-ing to Dr. Baker. lie makes the prediction that a continuation of this trend will bring about a decreased population after the ten-year ten-year period ending in 19-15. Statistics show the birth rate has declined faster in urban than in rural communities. Formerly families having four or five children, says Dr. Baker, were common even in the cities, but now the more common number of children is one to two. But in the rural nonfarm population, he points out, there is about a 25 per cent surplus in births over deaths, and in the farm population neatly a 50 per cent excess. The deficit in births in cities is found principally among the "so-called middle and upper classes," according to Dr. Baker, who says that, in general, families of 'professional classes have 5 to 10 per cent fewer children than those of business men, business men about 25 per cent fewer than skiLled workmen, and skilled workmen 30 per cent fewer than unskilled laborers. He regards this qualitative aspect of the declining birth rate as "fully as significant as the quantitative." United States News. |