DISAPPEARING.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 285, 26 August 1908, Page 7

DISAPPEARING.

| DECLINING .POPULATION OF FRANCE, i \ DEATHS EXCEED BIRTHS. : V A UNIQUE POSITION. [BY TEtEgiUPI{-*rEKSS ABSOCUTJON—COPY 1110 HT.) London, August 24. i Router's Agency atates that the latest ■ statistics show flmt ill 1007 the death? in Franco [totalled 794,000, and the births 774,000. This is the first recorded instanco of any country's deaths exceeding the births. FROM BAD TO WORSE, Tnis remarkable trend in the vital statistics in France for 1907 was detected somo weeks ago by'the "Daily News," which pointed out'the. seriousness, of tho position when the decline bfComesMlo longer relative, but actual. The "Pally Jtfetys" states:— : "The population of France, which has been stationary for nearly forty years, is shown, ; . not fop {he |}rst time, by the figures of 1007, to be: actually a declining quantity, Tho following comparison between tho approximate figures for Franc? and Great Britain will show tfo great difference between them; \ 1860. : 1886, 1906. France 38,000,000 38,000,(100 39,000,000 Great Britain... 30,000,000 36,000,000 42,000,000 Thus, for every, hundred Frenchmen, of forty years ago, there are now fewer than a hundred and three, whereag'- every hundred resident Britons then are represented by a hundred and forty now. To enhance'the'comparison we must remember that, far in excess pf France, we supply',emigrants to all parts of tho globe. \ . "But the latest figures show., that France is going from bsd to ; worse, During tho year 1907 she lost by excess of deaths ever births nearly; twenty thousand persons, or more than one in every two thousand. It Is one of the : most jnpjnentQus facts of the time, \lt jneans that the French race has begun; to disappear. The decline is no longer relative, but, actual. Up to now the tendency among her\neighbours has •' been in increase rapidly. \ The United' States, it is true, which; thanks to ' immigration,' has the greatest increase of\all, does not figure well on its death and birth statistics, and the President ha? said sprae severe things about the American jnother. \ "France has not the compensation of a flow K of immigrants from other countries, "With nearly twice the area of Great Britain she is at least five millions behind us in population. She has shown tho world a wonderful lesson in thrift, but a thrift that expresses itself in race, suicide. is far ffpm admirable. There is surely room in France for more Frenchmen than 200 to tile square mile when Great Britain sustains 364, ft is only fair to remem- • b?r that we too are following in France's steps. ■ The phenomenon of a declining birth. . rate : has been with us 'for ye^rs."' Apropos, while the' number of births de- .. clineg, the number 1 of marriages is rising, A Paris advice of July 16 stated:—"Marriages in France last year numbered 314,903, a figure not attained since 1872-3, when many of the marriages delayed by the Franco-Prussian war took place. This sudden growth in the num- ' ber is explained ; by the 'Figaro' as due to a law passed early last year relaxing the stringency of the lepal formalities required before a marriage certificate could be issued and consequently lessening the cost." ' (