SURVIVAL OF THE UNFIT.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 May 1919, Page 6

SURVIVAL OF THE UNFIT.

WAB WASTAGE OF THE BEST MEN.

(By The Times Medical Correspondent,) London, Feby. 28. War and influenza between them must by now have accounted for some 18,000,000 young men throughout the world, and they must have rendered at least another 10,000,000 young men incapable of earning a living, and so unable or unwilling to marry. The seriousness of thi3 loss is not as yet generally realised. It is not understood, for example, that there is a peculiar tragedy in the fact that upon the heels of the war should have come an epidemic with a selective tendency for young adults, and these not the weak, but the strong, the fittest, the most promising. The war reaped a harvest dhosen for it; the unfit largely escaped. Influenza came and once again, at least in the experience of many, the unfit fared better- than the. fit, the very young and the very old than those of active life. Death in these last years and months has gathered tha flower of the world's young manhood. We are not prepared to say definitely that young women have withstood the epidemic better than young men, but we flunk this will be found to have occurred. For one thing, women have not been crowded .together in camps to the same extent that men have been; they have not been exposed to the same hardships, they have had fewer calls upon their power* of resistance. They have been less exposed to infection, and as a rule had more opportunity of taking care of themselvea Be that as it may. the young man power of the world, and especially of F.urope, is reduced to,a very low figure, and the best of the young manhood is lost. The future of the race is largely with the middle-aged and the unfit. Thousands of women are condemned to go single who, in happier days, would have become the mothers of families. What the economic and social effects lire likel*' to be must, remain a question of dispute. No man can tell. But the pindienl effects are obscure. It is not. for example, probable that unfit {attar* will beget robust sons; nor that-

fathers who by oi\e means or another were able to avoid service m the Army will breed a race of fighting men. The mothers may do something to save the sitnation, it is true; but men of weak stamina do not mate very often with vigorous and brave women. One remedy that suggests itself at once is a greatly increased care of the ■children of our soldiers and sailors. These do in fact represent the hope of the nation. They, and they alone, inherit the traditions of our race which have mq.de our race glorious. Their value is above all computation at this time. Again, every assistance should be given those of our soldiers and sailors who are left to us to marry at once. Economic barriers should be removed; inducement should be held out. The old economic prejudice against married men with families is now no longer merely dangerous; it is fatal. Finally, the unmarried mother must be helped and protected. It is, a matter of national urgency. The public has now grasped the fact that this epidemic has defeated the combined efforts of the world to control it, and has seen that new methods are necessary if similar events are not to take plac* in the future. This is the one good thing in a very bad situation. A few yearsago it was almost impossible to arouse public interest in health matters. To-day public interest is boundless, j Fivery step which is tdken with regard I to the now Ministry of Health is being watched and discussed. Nor will any weakening of the intentions avowed be tolerated for a moment.