AN A1 NATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 276, 20 November 1926, Page 36

AN A 1 NATION.

SACRIFICE TO MOLOCH.

OUT-HERODING HEROD

(By PERITUS.)

Sir William A. Lane, the London surgeon and writer upon medical matters, has joined the antiprocreationists. So strongly opposed am I to these people that I wish I had words, as it were, of tire, to destroy all arguments in favour oi birth limitation, and impress upon everyone the knowledge of the inevitable fate of nations so selfish and so corrupt that it lias no thought for the future, no care for posterity, and no respect for the words of God. Dr. Lane says: "The anxiety el»wn about the steady decline in our birth rate is an indication that the idea of quantity dies hard. What really matters is the quality and health of the average individual. The death rate is a better tost of a nation's well-being than the Dirth rate. By this test our Dominions stand first in the world. They have the boldness to accept withaut question the latest teaching." Are we really so lacking in intelligence that we accept the latest (and possibly the foolishness) teaching without question? Are you prepared to take at second-hand, and to act upon, the promptings and suggestions of men and women unknown to you, who may be themselves obsessed by a maniacal desire to give the first push which may send us rolling down the avenues of delusion and ultimate annihilation? Xothing so disturbs the mind of casual readers of a newspaper as to have presented to them a serious subject treated with deadly seriousness, and if it is desired to catch and hold the attention of the public it is advisable to conceal the deadly seriousness with a froth of frivolity. A new satirical humorist has been writing at length upon birth control as if this abominable thing were already accepted by Church and State. "A woman," he says, "has rescued us from a plague—a plague of babies, which was a great inconvenience, both in marriage and out of it." Jesting ironically, he says that this woman is worthy of saintship. "A baby," he declares, "is a most unjust accompaniment to the joys of love. Child-bearing interferes with the higher development of women. It is unreasonable to expect a woman to debase herself to the level of a breeding animal like a cow. She has a higher destiny. An unborn baby has no rights." In a vision the sainted woman is informed that the Scriptural injunction to "increase and multiply" should read "dwindle and diminish," and she teaches that procreation is a purely accidental accompaniment to spiritual love, and "the blessing of Heaven should be upon the barren." "It is infamous," says this satirical scribe, "that the poor should breed freely and outnumber the provident and the rich." It is seen that, in thickly populated areas, those with children suffer more than those without." There is but one remedy. To increase their incomes? No, to cut down the families, nf course. It is argued that had the population of England been larger during the war the country would have been starved into surrender, and when an old general said that had England's armies in the field been smaller she would have been forced to yield, the birth control advocates shouted: "Turn him out." It is suggested that the illegitimate child is the child born in excess of the number for which there is already ample provision, and that the mother of "excess" children should merit and receive the same treatment as for many years has been that of the unmarried mother. The humorous author shouts no more babies! Extirpate the embryo! Abolish brats! and so elevate the race." In my humble opinion if those of us who think in this way to-day (and I have in mind more particularly the disciples of Marion Stopes) are the best that the human race can produce it is fortunate that they refuse to breeddisastrous if they do bre.ed. Eugenists have proved that the last child of a "long-" family is generally better than the first, if not, as it sometimes is, the best. What then can be said in favour of the one-child family? It has been said that diseased persons should not be allowed to breed. The rational method of prevention is to cure the disease, and prevent its recurrence in others. There is not one natural function of the body which can be artificially arrested, nor one part of the body which can be unnaturally removed, without the infliction of a penalty, light or heavy, and there is no more deeply-rooted nervous influence than that which has to do with marriage and childbirth. The unfathomable mystery of the whole thing should be a warning not to interfere until such time as there is no longer any mystery, ■when creation is explained, when life is a plaything and eternity no indefinite term. Throughout the whole scheme of nature there is a most wasteful-appear-ing excess of offspring, but nature has her own methods of selection and destruction, striking a balance and adjusting values. This process covers periods extending backwards beyond the evidence of history and forward beyond the reach of human foresight. It is perhaps part of the scheme that some form of selfdestruction should assist, but it is obvious that a sterile people cannot survive in conflict with peoples equal in other respects but productive. The marriage of the mentally and physically unfit should be checked or prevented, disease should be cured and prevented, the standard of national life should be constantly and continuously raised, the human garden tilled, watered and ■weeded, but what will become of a gard< n in which only seedless fruit is grown, or the wheatfield in which each head of corn bears but one grain? Coming down to concrete cases the mother of one child is more often anxious and unhappy tha n the mother of six.'and I stent*™ P ° Verty are never true and ' con " ThP nni T-Vr. ° f earthl y contentment, -l he only child is seldom of as eood and inlueL: la of ge chX y n & Dr. Marion Stopes (who is nnt „ much to counteract the evil already done and the desire most of ue experience to leave the next generation a world better than we found it is an encouragement to attack each evil that we know.