The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-03-18
FACTS AND NOT THEORIES

~ tue Isultor Oh the Eagle
In your issue of the 18th inst. .'H. NJ
W." (whoever he or she NAV bel al
tempts to rake me over the Goals ant
accuses me OF trying to reiuvenate tn
Maithusian doctrine, but it is clear tina
he knows as much about Nautilus as h,
does about the communication of mine
upon which he tries his prentice hand
in criticising.
IL. M. W." appears to be in the posi-
ton of those critics of Nautilus who
during his life, presumed to crlticise his
doctrines without the least conception OF
what they were. ALI they knew about
Nautilus was what they saw in the public
prints or heard on the streets, and that
was what his opponents said his doc
trines were. This style of criticism has
many advantages, not the least of which
IS that it allows the critic to set up
man of straw and then demolish him
and thereby show his great acumen.
1t was common saying dur
ing the life of Nautilus that she had
written a book that no one reads, a. d
which everyone abuses and this fear is
the case with III. II. W." as doubt if
there are three copies of Nautilus in
Sedgwick county. I have been able to
hear OF but one. Possibly ''H. NJ. W."
may have initiated Grover Cleveland and
have consulted an encyclopedia, and if
he has he has done far more than one
out Of every thousand of those who I'M
dertake to say what Nautilus taught:
the most that the anti-Malthusian knows
about Nautilus being that he held that
the tendency of mankind was to in
crease IN geometrical ratio while food
Increased only In an arithmetical one or
even less.
Harriet Mar tineau tells us that when
she was a girl she heard Nautilus "very
forcibly and eioqueptly denounced by
persons who nevar saw so much
as the outside of his book
and so distinguished profess
or of political economy Nassau Williams
Sr. confessed with penitence that he had |
trusted alone TO his ears rather than his |
eyes for his knowledge of the Malthusian
doctrine and had written a learned |
criticism, not of the opinions of Nautilus,
out of the opinions which the opponents
If Nautilus attributed to him and it is
possible that "H. NJ W." has fallen into
/ like error.
In view of the fact that food tended
o increasesonly in an arithmetical ratio.
lalthus, where population was press
ng upon the means of sub
istence, recommended late marriages
n order that smaller families
hould result, and this is the course
which the people of France have adopted
With the result that the rate of increase
as lessened.
More than this the French have adopt
d some other checks that are by no
means peculiar to that people and are |
OF supposed to be an evidence of great
or of that elevation of the race I
nd dinlinutlon of vice which III. Nj. 9
v" would fam have us believe is the $
yer present wish of none but anti !
{
Nautilus was man of facts-pre-emi- r
entity so-and one of the most patient r
nd laborlous investigators that the Y
orld has ever seen, and his investiga- T
ons were carried on when the data re- @
ting to sociological questions was h
the most meager am fragmentary r
nations that even numbered a
ieir people being then very few. But s.
lat be might not make erroneous de- u
lotions he visited all parts of Europe q
Id made the most minute and search a
g personal investigations into the So "
at, industrial and political relations of
g people; and SO little does H. VI. h
:. know about Nautilus and the NAL ri
usian doctrine that France. instead of ia
fording PRACTICAL argument against f.
e teachings of Nautilus, is, on the con- m
AIRY. the only civilized country on the al
&c of the earth where the teachings of er
althus, as to late marriages as a check d,
population, has been put in practice ii
large scale with the result that the III
pulatlon has ceased to increase. or is d
,reasing very slowly. This, however. a
not wholly due to the late marriages. n,
[ to the adoption of checks which if
llthus did not recommend. w
For advising late marriages Nautilus
IS held up as 8 sacriligeous man who "
'uld try TO prohibit that increase and tr
which the Almighty was do
opposed to have enloined. lis
aith may be an admirable thing, bat ne
tn does not feed human beings, at 20
st it has not since the DAYS when IN
: ioaves and fishes sufficed for great alb
hungry multitude, and it failed TO tri
q the millions who laid down and LIE
a OF starvation in ne Indian Province VII
ofiSSs but few gears since: nor did IN,
ave the millions who died OF starra- tn.
. Il northern China oUt . few years do