FRANCE’S PERIL.

Evening Star, Issue 12101, 6 November 1908, Page 8

FRANCE’S PERIL.

STEADY DECLINE IN NATIONAL BIRTH-RATE. I'he steadily progressive decline in the birth-rate of Fiance is a subject of constant preoccupation among political economists. Certainly, a statistical review of the situation published in ‘Opinion’ by M. Dc Foville, member of the Institute and president of the Academic des Sciences Alorah’s et Politiques, accentuates the national gravity ot the question. The latest figures prove that France as a nation :s slowly but surely dying. In 100 years the birth-rate has ‘fallen from 32 per I.COO to 19.7. and at the present moment, ‘"or (lie first time in history, and in France alone among nations, the deaths exceed the births. Since the twentieth ccnuivy began the decline has continued at the following alarming rate;—Excerr> of births over deaths—l 992. 84.000; 1903, 73.000; 1904. 57.C00 ; 1905, 37.000; 1906. 27.000. bast year. 1907, zero was reached and passes'!. There were 20.000 more deaths than births. The official returns ar" 794.000 and 774,000 under these resiKiLlive heads. The word “ depopulation,’’ Al. De Foville points out, is therefore no exaggeration. is rt, he asks, .the beginning of the end? At this rate France will soon be ripe for invasion. It is the only fate awaiting a country which is capable of supporting 80.000. inhabitants and is content with half that number. In 1875 the population •of Germany surpassed that of France by 6.000. ; it now exceeds it by over 20.000. In another twenty yeaa - s there will be two Germans for every Frenchman, without counting the eons of the Fatherland scattered all over the globe by emigration. " Thus France,” concludes Al. De Foville, “is marching with quickened step to her doom.” As to the causes, the writer contends that they are political and economic as well as moral. The law is lax in regard to certain criminal practices, it has made divorce ikhculorsly easy, and it winks at pernicious teachings.