RACE ASCENDANCY AND THE BIRTH-RATE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 100, 21 January 1908, Page 5

RACE ASCENDANCY AND THE BIRTH-RATE.

"The publication of French vital statistics has set the .world thinking," says the ''Broad Arrow." "Tho decline jn 'the birth rate is so marked that it is -becoming a. national menace. ; Not that it is: anything newj but unless it can be arrested Franco must inevitably fall from her place'as one of the leading, Powers;. ''.Urifortiiriately, she does not stand alone.' Only for ithe- alien the'- United-States; would ibein 'even worse case, than France, anil the Australian, birth rate seriously perplexes antipodal statesmen. ' "In England the future is more 'promising, 1 owing to the -fecundity •of the upper and lower-classes. Tt is tho great middlb class, the .very'! backbone, of the country,' whiclj is beginning to limit the family, thereby ..'accounting. for the drop in our.birth rate, from. 30.4' per 1000 to 27 in 15 years.' .If'it continues Germany Will hold the relative position .towards ; us in' population that' France did early in the' nineteenth. century. , For s whereas our annual increase is 500,000, Germany's is 900,000. As Molt-ke. once;said, 'Every year by our birth" rate we'win a battle over France.'' True', but even' in tho Fatherland-the rate has fallen from 35.7 to 84.1' in. four years. There'is, however, no immediate danger. Hence the need'for many to. find elbow-room ;; for her' people.' "With her it must bo 'expansion or exploliou.' "Nor do the problems raised by the birth rate involve only the future'of 'France,"England, Germany,-. and the United States. With it is bound up the existence of the white races. It is surely significant'that, ■ while the birth rate is declining in tho Western world, it- is rising 'in' the': East, particularly in Japan, where in twenty-seven years it has almost doubled. In China' the population - is kept: down' by.- infanticide. Now, -witlr the yellow ' races [growing fast, and the white races jdeolining moro. or less slowly, it is merely a question of time when their relative importance will he reversed. This was prophesied by Pearson long ago, when he was laughed at for a dreamer. Hut the world does "not laugh now. On the whole .it would dp well to consider whether civilisation, as we understand it,-is worth the price; In the multiplicity of our material wants we are losing sturdy simplicity, and with it the moral vigour without which no. nation can stand.. 'The survival 'of the fittest,' wo flatter ourselves, is based on a •Western, standard. . In reality, it is based on the capacity to subsist on-little, which our ovor-civilisation abhors. Hence' tho ..menace of tho birth rate." ' Here are the official returns of the population- of France, -which' show a substantial increase in the number of marriages, an enormous rise in divorces, a continued fall _ m births, and a slight dccline in deaths: — Average 1906. 1896 to 1905. Marriages - ... 30.6,487 295,924 . Divorces ... 10,573 8,105 Births 806,874 839,843 „ Deaths... ■ ... 780,796 783,'379 In 1881 the number of ■ births in Franco was 937,'057, so that the decrease in 25' years is 130,000. ■ ' ' . ' ' Tho woman of tho future will bo justor than tho woman of the present, bccauso she knows moro and thinks more clearly■she will be better because sho'is stronger.; milder bccanso she is wiser. She will bo ablo to take a'broader view of life and its meaning, and in this way she will lose .certain prejudices which are now known as virtue's.—'.'lndependent," New York. . In Germany all institutions aro.based on religion, tho laws as well as education. The pastor tnkes the lead in all ceremonies. And yet, there is, undoubtedly, no nation so indifferent to religion as-tho Germans. Their oliuichw /re only half-filled, and the contrast with the'crowded places of'worship in England ■is (.jji'iking.—" lndependance Beige,'' Brus- p a Ua |iv n<i'