Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 63.djvu/365

Rh shall be eliminated as much as possible? Otherwise the upper classes would tend to be obliterated by the competition of the lower classes.

To sum up, then, we may say that the study of the statistics available in the light of recent theories of population gives us a reasonable understanding of the natural increase of the population. Statistics show that in Massachusetts at least the native population which includes the upper classes is losing ground. That this loss is due to the effort necessary to maintain or raise the social position caused by strong competition is shown by the fact that the marriage rate as well as the birth rate is low. This competition is caused 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. If the increased population came wholly from within the state, the population would tend to regulate itself automatically, but when the increase is largely imposed upon a state from without, and this foreign element reproduces itself rapidly it may have a serious influence upon the native population without being very apparent. 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.