Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/425

 CA USES OF DECREASE OF HA W All AN PEOPLE 409

the causes of the decrease in the population have now ceased, and almost all the others are gradually disappearing.

1. In the first place, the transition from the old conditions to the new have in large measure been effected ; and, perhaps as a result of this, the birth-rate, as compared with that of sixty years ago according to the testimony of observers at that time has increased in a remarkable manner. In the table of maternity statistics for 1896 the percentage of mothers to females over fifteen years of age was : for Hawaiians 59.36, for part Hawaiians 52.34, for Americans 49.56, and for Hawaiian-born foreigners 34.68 ; and the average number of children to each mother was : for Hawaiians 4.82, for part Hawaiians 4.45, for Americans 3.20, and for Hawaiian-born foreigners 3.54.

2. Again, since the election of Kalakaua, 1874, but par- ticularly since the revolution of 1893, the archaic theology of Ezra and Calvin has been losing ground. And with the accom- plishment of annexation when, it has been said, " the mis- sionary had rendered his account" the laissez-faire theory of economics received a double shock, through the abolition of the contract-labor system and the application to the islands of the Chinese exclusion law. Moreover, educational ideas are broad- ening. The kindergarten, manual training, domestic science, social settlement work, the boys' brigade, experimental work in agriculture, etc., are making headway. With better education, the people are becoming more efficient industrially, and give more attention to matters of sanitation, hygiene, and the laws of nature, thus improving life on the one hand, and lengthening it on the other.

3. Furthermore, the diseases of civilization are dying out. By the process of the "survival of the fittest," the Hawaiian constitution has become hardened, and is now not nearly so susceptible to disease as formerly. Hence, although smallpox visited the islands in 1881, cholera in 1895, an< ^ plague in 1899, they caused a comparatively small number of deaths. Leprosy, too, for some years past, has been steadily on the wane. It is true, among Hawaiians, particularly in Honolulu, the death-rate is still high. According to the mortality report of the board of