THE CHURCHES AND RACE SUICIDE

New Zealand Tablet, 14 October 1909, Page 1621

THE CHURCHES AND RACE SUICIDE

T long last the non-Catholic religions bodies are beginning to wake up to the gravity of the peril involved in the increasing prevalence of race suicide, and are beginning to realise the pressing need of taking active steps to stem the evil. At the Synod of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, which has just concluded its sittings at Melbourne, a resolution was carried affirming the Assembly's ' protest against •'jhe use of patent medicines and other means adopted by many, to sap and destroy the best interests of our national life ' ; and a paßtoral letter on the- subject was prepared and laid upon the table of the Assembly, and ordered to be read in all the churches. The letter, with over-profuse apologies for venturing to speak on such a ' delicate ' matter, denounces ' the cowardly and selfish refusal of parenthood as a crime against both humanity and against God, 9 urges the promotion of necessary remedial legislation, and exhorts ' all .Christian men and women to stand by the Word of God, by the highest principles ofancientrChristian morality, and by the voice of nature in this matter, to deal with laxity of thought in regard to~ it as intolerable, and to sternly separate themselves from all who defend or practise. rach evil things.' ■ » The Rev. Principal Harper, of Sydney, who made much ihe best speech on the question, frankly admitted that they had allowed themselves to become lamentably lax n this matter.' How lax they had become is painfully Uustrated by an incident "which he himself quotes. 'He vas sorry to say that a Christian worker had actually dis-

tnlmted among mothers of all classes a pamphlet which it was estimated had caused the loss' of- a million children to the population of the- several States. That worker distributed it for the express purpose of delivering mothers from the burden of children. That worker was of their "Church; she was a Christian worker.' Nor -was it pretended that it was lack of evidence or want of knowledge as to the extent of the evil that "had kept the churches silent. One Melbourne' ministef^not, indeed, a member of this particular Assembly — said' recently that 'the Chief Commissioner of Police had told him ' that he knew of one woman, who boasted that she had successfully treated '2ooo young girls and women, and another who claimed 3000 successes.' A speaker at the Presbyterian Assembly pointed out that ' according to the evidence of some" 60 druggists, recently given, there were but five or six of .them who did not sell the things referred to' day .by day.' With suchfacts before them, little wonder that Prinpipal Harper , should have reminded the gathering that the Church, in its earliest ages, had spoken on .this subject without reference to foolish scruples of false ' delicacy,' and that they could not do anything at all to combat this evil unless they said what -they meant. „ , * Other non-Catholic bodies on the other side beside iho Presbyterians have also taken the matter up, and during the same week in which the Assembly, issued its pastoral - letter an exceptionally representative deputation waited on the Premier of Victoria to, ask that legislation should- be' introduced to cope with this growing vice.. ' Seldom, if ever,' says our contemporary, the Melbourne Advocate, ' has a deputation so widely representative ' of the community waited upon any Minister of the Crown in Australia. Men and women forgot, for the time, all differences of opinion upon religious and political subjects, and joined hands in a great protest against practices ' which threaten to wipe out our very race in this country. • AH "the Christian de- ' nominations, the bodies directing commerce and. manufactures/the public schools, young men's and young .-women's associations, the National Council of Women, the Australian Women's National League, and one of the Refuges for Fallen Women were all represented. on the occasion.' His Grace Archbishop Carr was known to be absent from Melbourne owing to ill-health, but Dean Phelan, V.G., wrote to one of the organisers of the deputation expressing his - full sympathy with its object, and pointing out that his Grace the Archbishop had years ago' exposed -the nefarious work in which some influential persons were engaged, and - had established a body of knights who pledged themselves to promote purity of life and recognition of the sanctity of marriage. The deputation asked that newspapers which allow their advertisement columns to be used- by the vendors of deadly wares should be suppressed , or reformed by a system of licensing," and that legislation should be introduced absolutely prohibiting any person from advocating the restriction of limitation of human offspring; and. the Premier (Mr. Murray) gave a very sympathetic and encouraging response. ' . ■ * .- The Catholic Church, as is well known, has neverwavered in her attitude on this -question, and in season and out of season, through evil report, and "good report, -has i denounced alike those who batten by the sale of the' drugs and instruments of race suicide and those who use them. In this matter, as_ in the twin evil of "divorce, her f hands are absolutely clean, and if this social plague has - obtained a footing here and is extending its ravages, she at least has no share in the responsibility. Whilst heartily welcoming the multiplying signs of a much-to-be-desired activity amongst our non-Catholic friends, we hope it will not be considered ungracious if we express the hope that the newly-awakened zeal will not spend itself in mere ' deputationising and pastoral letters, but that one or two very practical matters that come directly within their 'special 'sphere of influence' will receive immediate andeffective attention. For example, there is that insidious and detestable incitement, to race suicide—^-the ' without encumbrance ' advertisement. At the : very.time that the Australian Presbyterian Assembly were issuing their pastoral letter the following advertisement was appearing in the Christchurch Press of date September 29: ' Wanted for Y.W.C.A., 135 Madras street, competent working housekeeper, no child. ~ Apply Secretary.' " _, The italics are ours, . and we need - hardly explain that ' Y.W.C.A.' stands for Young Women's Christian Association. Advertisements' of this class, especially those in connection with married couples for stations, inserted by rich and sometimes pious jsquatters, are" becoming so common as to be almost typical.- Such advertisements are in reality far more deadly arid reprehensible than the mere theoretical advocacy of Malthusianism which the Victorian deputationists asked their Premier to prohibit, because they amount to a practical intimation that the ad-

vertiser will-inflict the heaviest -penalty in his power unless there is complete abolition of offspring. ' How much " prevention " and abortion arise,' says- an outspoken Sydney paper, -not at all given -to- moral .squeamishness, 'because a careworn little -woman dare not become a- mother lest the " without encumbrance" squatter should- throw her and her husband and her infant- out on the highway, no one knows, but the evil must be considerable. Balfour, M.L.C. [spokesman of the Melbourne deputation}, and his flock of servile proachers carefully avoided any allusion to this aspect of the case; but if the, proposed Bill passes every effort will be- made to see that it is alluded to by somebody.'

And we further, hope that in due time our new allies will come to take higher and firmer ground in their campaign against this great evil. The cardinal "defect of the Presbyterian ' pastoral letter ' is its apologetic tone, and f its failure to sound a clear note as to the inherent and essential sinfuluess of the deliberate interference with nature ' resorted to by married people to evade the burden of parenthood. • The evil is denounced because of its ' cal-lous-selfishness,' because ' a continuance and spread of it will bring about the decay and ultimately the ruin of our race and nation,' and because ' if the higher and Christianised races of the world take and keep this path, then inevitably the non-Christian races will displace them.' These social and economic aspects of the subject are real and important, but they, are not the highest aspects. It is the moral standpoint , that really dominates the whole qxiestion. The radical and indispensable cure for this moral cancer is to retrace our steps to the old Catholic principles, to saturate the minds of people with the conviction of their personal responsibility to a Creator Who sees and judges, and to bring home to them right teaching as to the sacred nature and~ true purpose of the marriagebond. That way only lies the remedy. And licensing of newspapers, ' badges of motherhood,' prohibition of Malthusian teaching, -and such-like palliative measures, however desirable and useful they may be as subsidiary reme- . dies, can never, of themselves, suffice to stay the plague.