[39] "The number of negro, Indian, and Mongolian children under 5 years of age to each 1,000 women 15 to 44 years of age was 759 in 1880 and 585 in 1900, showing a decrease of 174 [23 per cent.!] in twenty years. The number in 1880 was 173 greater, and in 1900, 77 greater than the corresponding number for the whites." Census _Bulletin 8, Negroes in the United States_, p. 14a. But another fact is illuminative. The chief statistician, William C. Hunt, remarks (Population, Part II., p. lviii.): "The decrease in the relative proportion of children among the negro element is due for the most part to the greater infant mortality of the negro race as compared with the native white population, although it may be due in part to _the decrease in the proportion of negro women who are or have been married, for each age-group_ except that from 15 to 19 years, as shown by the statistics of conjugal condition for 1890 and 1900." We have just observed that the first explanation does not explain. "Greater infant mortality" might cause a smaller "relative proportion of children among the Negro element," both in 1880 and in 1900; but it could not cause a "decrease in the relative proportion" from 1890 to 1900, unless that mortality was not only great, but actually becoming greater. But such is not the fact; if it were, it would mean ruin to the Negro race. On the contrary, it is precisely in these years of infancy that the mortality has been reduced. Nor could even a huge mortality, extending up to the tenth year, of itself bring about the relatively small number of babes under one year. It is the second fact, which we have italicized, that throws light on the situation. Except very young girls, whose marriages are largely transient or nominal, the Negro women are beginning to shun marriage. This is a part of the general moral and social declension, which no unbiased observer of the race can fail to notice. Here are the numbers per thousand, male and female, of the single and married and widowed, of those over fifteen years of age, in 1890 and 1900: 1900 1890 1900 1890 Single (M) 392 398 Single (F) 299 300 Married (M) 540 555 Married (F) 537 546 Widowed (M) 58 43 Widowed (F) 154 147 And for native Whites: Single (M) 397 401 Single (F) 310 306 Married (M) 549 554 Married (F) 577 582 Widowed (M) 45 40 Widowed (F) 106 107