1926 Fails of Reproducing Itself, Alarmed Population Office States

Blush, '26. You are failing your family trees, according to the Population Reference Bureau of Washington, D. C.

You will "report for your 25th reunion with the knowledge that your families are so small that your class is falling to replace itself."

For the last six years, the Bureau has urged college men to have more children. Otherwise, it fears, the "impairment of the quality of our future leaders may well lead to an intellectual decline among future generations."

It figures that every graduate must have 2.1 children for the class to replace itself. But Harvard '26 has had only 1.89. And the national average is even worse--1.81.

"If these percentages are applied to this year's graduating class of over 450,000," says the Bureau, "their children will number only about 364,000--a loss of approximately 86,000 potential good citizens."

1926 should hide for shame when they look at their virile contemporaries at Wartburg College in Iowa. Wartburg has 4.13 kids apiece, which the Bureau says is an all-time high.

'41 Tops All

On the other hand, Seton Hall University of New Jersey has produced a puny .39 of a baby per alumnus, after 35 years of trying. But 21 of Seton's class of 38 men became priests, and perhaps Hampton Institute of Virginia, where 81 percent married and came up with only .71 of a child should get the booby prize.

The Bureau says it is still optimistic. The Class of '41, with only ten years to try, have done better than any of the classes before them. Already they show 1.42 children per alumnus and 1.19 per alumna. Harvard men are slug-a-beds, though, with only 1.23.

"Keep it up, '41," the Bureau urges in its nation-wide release. "Don't let your A. B. mean 'Abolish Babies!'"