FRENCH BIRTH RATE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 884, 9 December 1916, Page 8

FRENCH BIRTH RATE.

TO REPAIR LOSSES.

FOUR BABIES BY EVERY MOTHER.

RECORD MUST BE MAINTAINED FOR 25 YEARS.

[By Carolyn Wilsons in the "Chicago Tribune."]

PARIS, October 2.—Of course you hear all the time that even in times of peace France was going down hill so fast in population that under present conditions, with all the young men, future fathers, being killed, there will be no France left to light for.

Alarming statistics are quoted to show you the ever increasing differences, even before the war, between the birth rate and the death rate.

You philosophise over the rareness, "the preciousness." to take its most literal translation of the French genius, combining the more formal Latin culture with the wholly distinctive Gallic. You say that these men can never be replaced, that German or Anglo-Saxon races reproduce quickly, but that the French w'll die out.

Well, won't it? And even suppose you admit it as a possibility, what is to be done about it? French orators, statesmen, authors all have spoken and written interminably on the subject.

Extinction in 90 Years?

Only recently M. Paul Bezanet, member for lTndre, calling up a list of statistics, certainly long and imposing enough to prove something, staled to a large audience that the present rale of repopulation taken into consideration with the present and oast low birth rate, would mean annihilation for France in 90 years.

French people do not readily marry foreigners. They do not travel as much as other nations; they do not colonise as easily. They do not go out and start a business, marry, and come home and superintend if from Paris. There is seemingly no way for fusion of foreign blood into French veins.

It is perhaps too much to say that foreign marriages arc frowned upon, but it is cc; tain that they are not

welcomed in most French families, art! since the consent of the parents is demanded, even for a man 40 years old, if his mother doesn't wish a "stranger" in the family the match is settled. f hnve a friend, an American, who has been married for nine years to a Frenchman. To this day she is referred io in Ids family as ihe stranger :/r th? foreigner—"Petrangerc"— ami her children are often spoken of, over; in front of them, as "les enfanis de I'etrangerc." Bonuses Are Suggested. '.hat can be done about it? There are various suggestions. Professor Maurice Lrtulle of the Academy of Medicine and M. Be7anet suggest a bonus ->f -!!!.') apiece for the first two children born to any mother; §2OO for the third, and $!0(i for ihe fourth, with *2i;o for every child after that, a!; these sums to be paid when the child is a year old. thus guarding against carelessness of treatment during Ihe iirsl and most delicate year, To keep her place among the naiimis France must ask her mothers Io supply her with four children apiece during the coming 25 years. «There is, of course, a large illegitimate birth rale, and this was even larger before the old "tours." or bas-k;.'i-iurnsiiles Acre abolished. They us-. J !o have Ibese baskets on the doors "!' chiii'i lies and of charitable institutions. The unmarried mother, or the mother Io whom [lie child was a burden, came up and left the child Ihere without Ihe complication of red In nc and without Ihe obligation of giving her name. Mam ice de Waleffe believes this system should be taken up again. There are thousands of women, he insists, who would be willing that the State should bring up their child ami that thev should not be embarrassed with it. Many Babies Sacrificed. Rut the idea of long years of scrimping and saving for the child, She necessity of admitting to the world her disgrace by the constant presence of the child frightens her, and she resorts to methods for preventing the birth of the child. From Marseilles alone the doctors of public health affirm that there are !X,(U.") such births lost to France. M de Waleffe, judging from these ligi.'ics, counts that ihere are thus !.t-in.(iu(» lives lost to France a year —jc;) enough, he says, to make up ihe difference between the German and ihe French populations. {lis ■ tmlio is. "'' child liifii i.« found is :!tc iclii! no! Ihe !,a kei.s on ihe doorThe lie certainly doesn't seem cotrstruclive, since Stale homes and charily education and upbringing is rarely good. Nor can these children be adopted by childless families. Several of my friends, who are without children, have been very anxious to take some of the orphans who come into us from the invaded districts. There are still hundreds of them arriving every week, poor little bewildered kiddies who haven't had a bath in two years or any clothes either, but whose bright, intelligent eyes gleam encouragingly at you as you explain what fun they are going to have in the camps. Is it possible to adopt one of these children? So completely is that out of the question that the only fittingly strong retort to the question seems to be, "Not on your life." IJed Tape Enters Problem. Th,. n'Unial wrniinod nr> in milnc

unci miles of red (ape murmurs the numbers of various articles of the French law. They mean nothing to von nnri yon ask for an explanation. "Well, matfame et monsieur, article 315 forbids to adopt minors if you arc still of an age to have children vourself. 0, you already have chilli en? Well, article 310 forbids you to adopt a child until you are 50, and Ihen the ward must be at least 15 years younger. And, anyway, even if all these obstacles didn't exist, you'd find your way so hemmed in with complicated and expensive formalities that probably you'd never finish what you set out to do." It is an attempt to make a change in this law thai Du Prey and Durrafour, deputies, have opened a discussion in the Chambers trying to do away with these laws so that any child of a fallen soldier may be taken into the house without question or formality. There are many similar inconsistencies in French laws which work directly against the end to be attained. For instance, according to the new ruling for increased pay to noncommissioned officers, the unmarried man gets an increase of 100 francs, the man with an independent income gels the same increase, but the married men with or without children lose by it