Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/668

 652 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

(without mentioning Canada and Australia) is made exceedingly easy ; as, in fact, an Englishman can scarcely regard his emigra- tion to North America as a change of country. The United Kingdom is one of the nations furnishing the greatest per cent, of emigrants, the others being Norway, Sweden, Germany, and Italy : between the years 1877 and 1886 it was ascertained that, on an average, 32.7 per cent, of the natural increase of the Brit- ish population left their country, mainly for the United States. The proportions for Italy and Germany were 22 and 20, respectively." Leaving all comparison of nations aside, the general fact remains that overmultiplication takes place especially among the poor ; and, as mortality is ordinarily greatest among children, it must be, and is, greater in the lower than in the higher classes of all communities. The cause of this excess is twofold : in the first place, there being many children among the poor, disease will be more common ; and this is one reason for their greater absolute mor- tality ; in the second place, the poor having at their command very few means to either prevent or combat disease, their hygienic conditions and their habits being very favorable to sickness of all kinds and to the spread of epidemics, disease is necessarily more fatal among them ; and this accounts for their greater rela- tive mortality. To what extent the unavoidable neglect of chil- dren influences mortality among the poor can be approximately judged from estimates made by Professor Conrad. According to him, of every 1,000 persons who die in the working classes 479, or about 50 per cent., die during the first five years of life ; while among the higher classes the proportion is only 241 per 1,000, or about half as many.'' The difference in the total

'See figures given by G. B. Longstaff, Studies in Statistics (l^on&oxiy 1 891), chap. V, p. 49; also, Geoffrey Drage, "Alien Immigration," m Journal of the Royal Society of Statistics (London, 1895), Vol. LVIII, p. 7 ; and MuLHAl.L, s. v. "Emigra- tion." It appears that of late years the emigration from England has decreased, probably, among other reasons, on account of the business depression in this country. It is also to be noticed that between 1881 and 1888, when the population increased fastest, the wave of emigration reached a very high mark (170,000 emigrants — from England alone — in 1888; the annual average between 1853 and 1889 having been 92,950).

'MULHALL, Op. cit., s. V. " Deaths," p. 177. Still-born children, or those that are born dead, are here included. Among the rich they number 28 per 1,000 dead; among the poor, 53.