RACIAL SUICIDE

Evening Star, Issue 23496, 9 February 1940, Page 11

RACIAL SUICIDE

DECLINE OF POPULATION INTERFERENCE WITH NATURE’S LAWS LECTURE BY DR HALLIDAY SUTHERLAND Racial suicide —the decline of population through indolent living created by the comforts of civilisation and by methods of birth control in opposition to Nature’s laws—was the subject of a provocative address entitled! ‘ How Nations Die ’ by Dr Halliday Sutherland, M. 8., Ch.B., M.D., noted British physician, author, and lecturer, in His Majesty’s Theatre last night. Dr Sutherland spoke to a crowded hall, his address being listened to with close attention. Mr J. J. Marlow was in the chair, and on the stage were Mr C. M. Greenslade. Drs S. L. Geerin and C. E.de La tour, Messrs A. G. Neill, J. C. -Mowat, B. A. Quelch, and A. J. Dowling. His Lordship Dr Whyte was present in the hall. Dr Sutherland began by stressing the importance of his subject to the British Commonwealth of Nations. There had been great civilisations of the past—Babylon, Greece, Rome, "Islam—but they had died because the Weariness which pervaded a civilisation . brought them ■ into line for racial suicide, which was the immediate but not the ultimate cause of national decline. A point which was not realised, especially when the present civilisation was spoken of as going from strength '■to strength, was that civilisation had .a period of growth andl a period of decline. Biologically, human beings began . 'to die once they obtained the power to ■ reproduce their kind, and if any species was not reproduced in numbers sufficient to replace those who had gone ihefore it became obvious that the road

to extinction lay open. ■ Malthus taught that population tended to'increase iii geometrical pro■portions—that is, 1-2-4-8-16. By that reasoning, said Dr Sutherland, population would soon reach astronomical heights. Malthus also propounded the 'theory that food increased in arithmeti;cal proportions—that is, 1-2-3-4. He ‘held that population would be held_ in check by disease, and vice, and where these did not prevail he isuggested that people should not marry or mse marry late in life so that there would be no children born. This teaching was repugnant to all, andl was soundly condemned from every pulpit in Great Britain-Catholic and Protestant alike: That teaching was. however., described .by some authorities as an truth, but it was now known to be a myth. It was food, said Dr Sutherland,, which increased! in geometrical proportions. That was ■ shown by the enormous quantities of fish, coffee, cereals, etc., which were . often dumped “ because of over-pro-duction,” but actually that could not . .be over-production if people were sufr fering from insufficient nutrition, as was the case.. The trouble, at present was the system' of distribution. There was no tendency for population to in- ' crease geometrically except in newlyfoundedl and newly-settled countries.

DEATH AND REPRODUCTION. * 4 v •Dr , Sutherlffnd' I Said-thafffin 1922*''Juv had restated the laws of Doubleday expounded in 1827 so that the meaning be- " • came that under conditions of'hardship birth rate tended to rise, but under op- ■ posite conditions it tended to decline.. That was a law which knew no exception throughout. Nature. .Among in- ■ stances quoted he said that the Board of Fisheries in Scotland had in the course of research into the lives of sal- ' mon noted that when salmon suffered heavy depredations in one year through birds, disease, or other causes, the following year the salmon came in bursting with ova. No one had found an ex- . planation for. that beyond the facrt that it was a natural function. Evidence all favoured Darwin’s conclusion that the chances of death regulated the rate of reproduction during the course of many generations. For instance, said Dr Sutherland, the conger eel, which had many enemies, laid 7,000,000 eggs' a year, and by reason of its great fertility it survived. In the southern seas there was the farmer petrel, which, so far as was known, had no enemies. It laid only one egg a .year, but .it survived. Further indicating how the law operated, Dr Sutherland said that between 1800 and 1820, when famine prevailed in many parts of England and wheat rose from £4 to £6 a quarter, the population increased by 14 per cent, in the first 10 years and by 17 per cent, in the next 10 years. Conversely a falling death rate was accompanied by a falling birth rate. The removal of malaria from the Buev. Canal zone had not brought the overpopulation that had been expected to ensue. Although the death rate between 1901 and 1910 felf from 30 to 19 each 1,000 of the population, and infant mortality was reduced, when the social conditions were improved and feverstricken towns became health resorts, the birth rate fell entirely of its own •" accord, and that among Mohammedan people who did not practice contraception. Left to Nature that decline in • population was a proper balance, but when contraceptives were used to aid in that check a country was in danger of reaching a parlous state. CHANGING SOCIAL CONDITIONS. Commenting on changing social con- ; ditions in England, Dr Sutherland said that in his father’s day, when a man bad made his money, the desires of comfort considered space and peace, but to-day the majority of the well-to-do preferred tiny fiats and restricted living. This, however, showed that density was ■not a principal influence on fertility, for just as there were heavily populated West End quarters there were also heavily-populated poorer quarters. Doubleday’s laws and the experience ' of breeders proved that an overfed and indolent animal was less fertile than one which was just adequately fed and exercised. A high birth rate iu a densely populated poor area was therefore explained, because the poor worked -harder and there was less over-nutri-tion. When women consulted him on the matter of sterility he not infrequently advised they should try to lead a life more in keeping .with that of a peasant. Great Britain, continued Dr Sutherland, was in danger of under—rather than over—population. Warnings of falling birth rates had been issued for 50 years—that tho proportion of old people was becoming larger. In 1850 the majority of the population was aged between 15 and 25. to-day th»,t age period was between 45 and 55. Life could not be prolonged beyond a certain point, and consequently an era; of increasing death rates was approaching. Unless this was counteracted by rising birth rates national decline must sot in. It was estimated that by 1954 there

would be biit half the present number of children under 15, and only a quarter of the present number ot people between 15 and 45. There would bo 5,000,000 tewer people in Britain. At the present stage Britain’s falliun death rate rather hid the fact that national decline had begun. Present school population was falling at the rate of more than 100,000 a year, atjcJ; school children were the citizens of to-mor-row. SIGNIFICANCES OVERLOOKED. Few, said Dr Sutherland, were prepared to face the economic and political changes implied. They did not face up to the incompatibility of expanding markets and failing populations. How, he asked, were New Zealand’s primary products to fare if England’s population fell so that the market receded? If the power of Britain were to be prolonged there must be a vast awakening of national consciousness. The next generation would have to support an increasing number of old people, unless those old people “ were knocked on the head.” “ Oh. those intellectuals in the thinking racket would call the step euthanasia. or some nice name like that.” Dr Sutherland exclaimed. “ Those thinking intellectuals have the people in a kind of stupor, and their teachings should not be tolerated for one moment in any right-thinking country.” The British nations' overseas were under-populated, and if they wished to retain British stock they had to cheek falling birth rates or attract young settlers, preferably boys and girls, from the Mother Land. Yet he had already pointed out that these potential settlers were declining by more than 100.000 a year. WARNINGS IN NEW ZEALAND. Citing the warnings of decline in New Zealand, the speaker said that, although New Zealand’s population had doubled since 1899. the natural increase during the first 36 years of this century had! been but 147.015, which, on a percentage basis, represented a pronounced decline. From the beginning of the century the crude birth rate each 1,000 of the population had receded from 26.34 to 17.29 (in 1937). The number of children each 1,000 married women of child-bearing ages fell from 246.2 to 136.6 .in 1936. That meant the apparent fertility of men and women in the Dominion had fallen by more than 44 per cent.' in 36 years. New Zealand was confronted with the dangers of an ageing population. There were over 22,000 fewer children under the age of nine in 1936 than in 1926: hut; adults. 60 and over, had increased in the same period- by over 50.000. “ And what is the cause of this?” Dr Sutherland asked. “ I say the use of contraceptives and the practice of abortion. Of abortion the first thing that should be publicly known —and the medical profession would only be doing its duty of its members let it be known —is that no abortion is safe. It does not matter if it is carried out under most aseptic conditions in the best; nursing home in the country ; it is not safe. In 1933 in New Zealand 70 mothers died from blood poisoning following full-time child birth. In the same period 17G. mothers died from blood poisoning following abortion. “ Investigation in England has proved that in New Zealand there are 4.000 eases of abortion—criminally-in-duced abortion—in one year. That means that while you are in this the-, atre between the hours of 8 and 11 one New Zealand woman has. had criminal abortion. Every day l(j or 11-women havp crimiqpl 3 abortion, j ’‘‘Suppose some" foreign country— Japan, for instance—came here andi you knew what, war was suppose 4,000 ; children were ,killed —rvvouldn’t you squeal about that?- Yet every year 4.000 women kill their unborn children and you say nothing. If a woman killed her six-months-old child you would at least say she was cruel, though that; child might have a chance of calling 1 out and so bringing rescue. Yet' mothers kill their unborn children which have no chance of crying out. J say in ethics and in the sight of God both these things are murder!” DRASTIC REMEDIES SUGGESTED. The situation was drastic and needed a drastic remedy, continued Ur Sutherland. The sale C;f contraceptives should be made a criminal otteuce. No member of the B.M.A. would support that statement; no “intellectual gangster ” would spread that truth about the world, but nevertheless, contraceptives should not be sold. The law regarding abortion should be rigidly enforced. Dr. Sutherland quoted instances of cases in New Zealand in which juries refused to convict for criminal abortion. “ You should demand then that these cases should be tried not by a jury but by a judge, and the law administered through him.” No democracy that prided itself on being a democracy should tolerate aud condone such subversive movement as criminal abortion. The time was coming when, the British Government and the Dominion’s Governments would have to take action against the poison of race suicide which had permeated almost all classes. Legislation should be introduced, riot for the ideals of the people only, but for what people were. Dr Sutherland criticised the basic wage in this country, saying it was a direct encouragement for small families. He criticised the Social Security Act, and said that no one could expect to get something for nothing. At present the social security of everyone in the British Empire rested on God and the British Navy. The German marriage loans and French plans of family allowances had proved successful and had led to a reduction in contraception and abortion. New Zealand employers could pay a weekly allowance to an employee according to the size of his family, and that would provide for the replacement of men who worked the machines. Dr Sutherland concluded by saying that we knew not very much about Nature’s “ stupendous laws in respect to reproduction of species,” but at least we could refrain from sabotaging those laws and causing inevitable trouble. History repeated itself and past civilisations had djed. Tho speaker was introduced by Mr Marlow, who said Dr Sutherland came with an advance reputation as a physician and author, and tho distinction with which he had moved in social, medical, and political spheres was not unknown. He had como into prominence by his research into cerebrospinal fever and tuberculosis, and he had written three standard works on the latter subiect. Ho had been president of the Tuberculosis Society, and after distinguished service in the Great War acted as deputy-commissioner of medical services for South-western England and Wales from 1920 to 1925. Mr Neill moved a vote of thanks at the conclusion of tho address, this being carried vociferously.