NATION’S SLOW DECAY

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 285, 29 August 1935, Page 9

NATION’S SLOW DECAY

German Minister’s Gloomy Picture POPULATION PROBLEMS By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright Berlin, August 27. A gloomy picture of the position of Germany as regards population and tlie evils of overcrowded cities was painted by Dr. Wilhelm Frick. Minister of the interior, in opening an international congress for scientific investigation of problems of population. The gradual decay of the German nation, which at present was concealed by tlie sinking death rate, must arouse concern. The people who represented the slight remaining excess of births over deaths were either greybeards or persons for whose maintenance the workers had to provide. The uncontrolled growth of great cities was encouraged without realisation that they were mass graves of the best blood, while cheap labour, often foreign, filled the gaps in the country population. Moreover, it could not be overlooked that the standard of living of large families on a basis of equal wages lagged behind that of unmarried people and childless or small families.

It was the task of the State to make an adjustment. The desire to found a family must be kept alive. Sterilisation iaws, marriage loans, the‘adjustment. of agrarian debt, and tax remissions for large families all contributed to stimulate tlie birth rate from sound stock. The State must concentrate more on those whose children were most likely to become useful members of the community. Thus marriage loans should be dependent on medical examinations so that the marriage of persons with hereditary diseases was not encouraged. It must not be forgotten that the healthiest men and boys of the nation gave up their lives on the battlefields before they reached the stage of reproduction, leaving to the unhealthy and weak increased possibilities of reproduction. This realisation had made the Nazis opponents of war u though the natiou must be able and willing to defend itself. The Nazis regarded the incorporation of foreign peoples as weakening their own national power.