Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/610

 5Q2 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Some of the most important items in the agreement are substantially as follows : Each employers' association and each union shall elect two arbitrators, all of whom taken together shall constitute a general board of arbitration, to which shall be referred certain special questions and all disputes not settled by the special boards of arbitration. These special boards shall be organized by the executive committee of the general board, which committee shall consist of an equal number of employers and employees. A special board shall be organized for the settlement of each dispute as it shall arise, and the employer and union or unions concerned shall be allowed to designate such, members of the general board to act as their representatives on the special board as they may see fit, provided only that such designated arbitrators shall not be concerned in the trade in which the dispute occurs. Arbitration papers, stating the grounds of the dispute and containing the agreement of the parties to abide by the decision of a majority of the board, or by that of an umpire who may be selected, shall be drawn up. Union representatives on the arbitration boards are guaranteed re-employment by their firm or corporation when the special case on which they have served has been disposed of. The members of the Employers' Association agree to employ only union labor, except where the number of such union laborers is insufficient, such insufficiency to be passed upon by the board of arbitration of the particular trade concerned. Non-union men hired under such circumstances shall become members of the union if competent. All existing trade agreements remain in full force, except in so far as they may conflict with the above arbitration plan. New York Department of Labor Bulletin, September, 1903.

E. B. W.

The Declining Birth-Rate and its Cause. Recent statistics show pretty con- clusively that the birth-rate among families of college graduates, at least in the East, is not large enough to keep up their numbers, and the question at once arises whether this tendency is confined to the intellectual classes, or whether it applies to others as well. In either case it is of the utmost importance to under- stand the cause of the phenomenon. But statistics put the whole of the native population of Massachusetts in the same position as the college graduate, and the question accordingly seems to be one of the upper class or of the older part of the population, and not simply a question of the educated classes.

To social causes, primarily, are due the differences in the fecundity of civilized peoples. Among progressive peoples a strong tendency exists for men to im- prove their condition, and in a democratic country society yields somewhat to efforts in this line. If competition is severe, it will be necessary for men to make great effort to raise their standard of living, or sometimes even to main- tain the accustomed standard. Population is regulated by the intensity of the effort made. The loss in the native population in Massachusetts is due to the effort necessary to raise or maintain the social position caused by a strong com- petition brought on largely by the influx of foreigners who tend to compete with the natives, but do not share with them the dread of lowering the social standard. The economic question is by no means the most important one to consider in the problem of immigration. It is a race-question, and the birth-rate shows the racial group that is to survive. If, however, it is found that the stratum of society which has the highest development tends to be blotted out by the increase of the lower strata, the cause of progress will demand that the course of natural selection be interfered with by removing the continual external pressure on the native stock. FREDERICK A. BUSHEE, in Popular Science Monthly, August, 1903.

T. J. R.