tendency to increase? In the
District of Columbia there has been a gradual decline in the death rate
of the Negro population from 40.78 in 1876 to 29.54 in 1896.[26]

Again, Mr. Hoffman's statistics will show a steady improvement in
Southern cities for the last twenty years.

_Death rate among Negroes in Southern Cities._[27]

Death Death
City. Periods. rate. Periods. rate.

Mobile, Ala. 1876-1880 39.74 1891-1893 30.91
Charleston, S. C. 1876-1885 43.83 1886-1894 44.06
Savannah, Ga. 1876-1880 51.66 1891-1894 32.26
New Orleans, La. 1880-1884 52.35 1890-1894 39.42

A recent report of the Labor Bureau throws much light on the subject.

_Annual Death Rate of the Colored Race for three quinquennial
periods._[28]

City. 1880-1885. 1885-1890. 1890-1895.

Atlanta 37.96 33.41 32.76
Baltimore 36.15 30.52 32.47
Charleston 44.08 46.74 41.43
Memphis 43.01 29.35 21.11
Richmond 40.34 38.83 34.91

This table shows an unmistakable decrease in the death rate for the
successive quinquennial periods.

All of which tends to prove that this high death rate is due to
condition and is subject to sanitary check and control.

In further confirmation of the fact that the death rate among Negroes is
on the decline, the Army records will afford valuable testimony.

_Death rate of Colored Soldiers in the U. S. Army._[29]

Average from 1883 to 1892 9.07
Average in 1894 6.26
Average in 1895 5.03

In 1895 it is lower than that of the white soldiers. The same general
law of a gradually decreasing death rate is here revealed.

If the death rate of the Negro population in cities is not higher than
that of corresponding classes of whites; if the records of the census
for the country at large do not show it to be in excess of other
classes; if the highest rates are not above those of the whites a half
century ago, nor higher than those of other civilized communities of the
Caucasian race at the present time; and if this rate is constantly
decreasing under more favorable sanitary appliances--it is hard to
justify the author's position as to the low vital powers of the race, or
to reach the conclusion that extinction will be its ultimate fate.

THE NOR