low vitality and a short life. Where the population is growing with abnormal rapidity this inference may fail, but that explanation does not hold in Porto Rico.

In the following table the age composition of the two races is indicated for Porto Rico, Cuba, and the United States by five-year periods:

Per cent of total population of specified race in age period named.

From the preceding table it appears that below the age of 20 in Porto Rico the colored are more numerous, but from that age to 50 the whites, and in old age, apparently, again the colored. Conceive two groups, one of 10,000 whites, the other of 10,000 colored, and of age distribution the same as that of the average in Porto Rico for these two races. The negro group would have 108 more children under 15, and 17 more elderly persons over 50. The white group would have 125 more between 15 and 50, or in the productive years of life. If we assume that these answers are correct and that persons under 15 and over 65 are dependent for support upon persons between those years, then under present Porto Rican conditions 1,000 self-supporting whites, men and women, must maintain on the average 837 young and old of the same race, while 1,000 colored must maintain 874, or 37 more dependents, the difference being due almost entirely to the larger proportion of children among the colored.

The preceding table also shows by the concentration upon 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90 that the colored in their answers report their ages more often than the whites as multiples of ten, and therefore are more inaccurate in their statements of age. The greater proportion of colored above the age of 50, as shown in the tables, is probably an error. The colored men and women, being more inaccurate in their statements of

age, are more prone to exaggerate it when past middle life, and this tendency more than offsets the probably smaller proportion of colored in the later years.

NATIVITY.

[See Tables V, VII, X, and XI.]

The number of foreign born returned by the census is 13,872, or about 1.5 per cent of the total population. There are few regions in the Western Hemisphere in which the proportion of natives is so high and that of the foreign born so low. Even the southern portion of the United States as a whole had a greater proportion of foreign born, although eight of these states had a proportion slightly smaller than Porto Rico. In the other West Indies the proportion of foreign born ranged from 2 per cent in the Barbados to nearly 45 per cent in Trinidad, while in Cuba it was about seven times as great as in Porto Rico.

Of the total foreign born, 11,422 were white, constituting 1.9 per cent of all the whites, and 2,450 were colored, or 0.6 per cent of all the colored.

Of the total number of foreigners, 5,935, or 43 per cent, were found in the three cities of San Juan, Ponce, and Mayaguez, thus illustrating upon this island the general tendency of foreigners toward the cities.

Of the total foreign born, 7,690, or 55 per cent, decidedly more than one-half, were born in Spain. These were nearly all of the white race. The whole of Spanish America contributed 1,542, of which 1,194 came from the West India islands. The United States contributed 1,069. From Africa were reported 427, of which 258 were colored. This is probably the last remnant of the imported slaves. China was represented by but 68 persons.

MALES OF VOTING AGE.

[See Table XII.]

This table presents the potential voters of Porto Rico, classified by race, by country of birth, and by literacy, with a view of determining the effect upon them of making the ability to read and write a condition of the elective franchise.

The element of foreign birth in Porto Rico is trifling in number and proportion and is quite uniformly distributed. Among the males of voting age only 3.8 per cent were of alien birth, 2.8 per cent being Spanish.

The classification by birthplace and by citizenship shows that the two are practically identical. The people born in Spain or other countries and living on the island have, with few exceptions, retained their alien citizenship. On these accounts it is deemed unnecessary to pub

lish the extended and complicated tables required to present citizenship as well as birthplace.

In the following tables the males over 21 are classified as white and colored, and the whites as born in Porto Rico, born in Spain, and born in other countries. Each of these groups is then classified under the following heads:

Can neither read nor write.

Can read but can not write.
Can read and write.

With superior education.

In the following discussion it is to be understood that illiterates are those who can neither read nor write, the remainder being regarded as literates.

The males of voting age in Porto Rico numbered 201,071. Classified by birthplace and race, they were as follows:

Of the whites of Porto Rican birth 35,397 were literate, forming

29.4 per cent of all this class.

Of the colored, 12,576 could read, or 17.2 per cent of all the colored. Under this educational qualification, therefore, the number of those entitled to vote in the island would be 47,973, or 25 per cent of the native males of voting age and 24 per cent of all males of voting age. Thus the suffrage would be restricted to about one-fourth of the males of voting age.

The effect of such a provision upon the people of the several departments is next to be considered. The following table shows the percentage of males over 21 years of age in each department, classified by birthplace and race:

Percentages of males 21 + by nativity and race.

The last column is formed by the addition of columns 1 and 4 on the

assumption that all the colored are natives, an assumption which is very nearly correct.

It is seen that the whites of Porto Rican birth ranged from 44.2 per cent in Bayamon up to 84.5 in Aguadilla; that the persons of Spanish birth ranged from 1.5 per cent in Humacao up to 5.6 per cent in Bayamon, and that persons of other foreign birth ranged from 0.4 per cent in Arecibo up to 2.1 per cent in Bayamon. The high percentage of persons of Spanish and other foreign birth in this department is due to the fact, of course, that it contains the large and important commercial city of San Juan. The colored ranged from 13 per cent in Aguadilla up to 52.3 per cent in Humacao, the latter department having four times as many proportionally as the former. Including the colored, the proportion of males of voting age who were of native birth was smallest in Bayamon, where it was 92.3 per cent, and highest in Humacao, where it was 97.8 per cent. With the exception of Bayamon, no department contains more than 3.8 per cent of foreign born, Ponce containing this proportion, Mayaguez 3.5, while the other provinces contain less than 3 per cent each.

The following table shows in each department the number of native white and of colored literates, with the proportion which they bear to the total among males 21 years of age.

We see that among the native whites the proportion of literates to all native white males of voting age ranged from 20.5 per cent in Aguadilla up to 35.5 per cent in Bayamon. Aguadilla and Arecibo seem to be together with a low percentage of literates, all the other departments containing 30 or more per cent in that class.

Among the colored the smallest percentage of literates was found in the department of Guayama, where it was 12.3 per cent; or, in other words, fewer than 1 in 8 could read. From this it ranged up to 21.1 per cent in Mayaguez, at the west end of the island. Here rather more than 1 in 5 were able to read.

The fifth column presents the number of literates among those born in Spain and other countries. These figures are given for the purpose of comparison with the literates of native birth, and show that the latter far outnumber them. Indeed, the only department in which. the native literates were not many times as numerous as the foreign

born was Bayamon, and here the latter were outnumbered in the proportion of 3.5 to 1.

The last column gives the proportion which the number of actual voters will bear under a literacy qualification to the total number of native males over 21 years of age. This per cent ranges from 22 in Arecibo and Humacao up to 33 in Bayamon, which department, therefore, has the proud distinction of possessing the smallest proportion of illiterates among its native population.

In the cities of San Juan and Ponce is concentrated a considerable part of the foreign element of the island, and here, if anywhere, will the restriction of the suffrage to literates give the foreign born an advantage. It is well, therefore, to examine the conditions in these two cities. The following table shows in the cities of San Juan and Ponce the number of males 21 years of age and over who could read among the white natives of the island, the whites of Spanish birth, the whites born in other countries, and the colored.

It appears that in the city of San Juan the native whites and the colored each outnumbered the foreign element, while together they outnumbered them nearly 2.5 to 1. In Ponce this proportion was even greater, the native whites being more than three times and the colored twice as numerous as the foreign element.

CONJUGAL CONDITION.

[See Tables XIII-XVI.]

The census schedules classified the population as regards conjugal condition into three groups-single, married, and widowed. Since the Roman Catholic Church does not permit divorces, the class of divorced persons is not represented.

There is, however, another class represented in Porto Rico, as in Cuba, which consists of persons living together in the conjugal relation without religious or legal sanction. This class, which is large not only in these islands but in much of Spanish America, probably owes its existence to the fact that throughout these countries the only legal authority for sanctioning marriage is the Catholic Church, and the expense attendant upon the wedding ceremony has caused it to be waived in large numbers of cases. Such unions by mutual consent, while commonly regarded in the United States as binding, have not been so regarded in Porto Rico, Cuba, or other parts of Spanish America, 8490-00- -5