The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-09-19
Nv.

NJ. dc Coubertin insists that analysis Of this
subtle, complex. delicate being should precede
every study Of France. Foreign sociologists
who neglect this indispensable torch go astray
in the edidce which they have forgotten to
illuminate. They lay their hands upon accus-
ing documents and brandish them trium-
phantly; the table OF statistics on population. for
instance. stands for them as the criterion of a
certainty; between its lines Of figures they find
room for all the vices of which the great social
decadences OF the pat have transmitted the
memory: they call attention to the fact that the
decrease in the excess of births over deaths Is
not in France an accidental phenomenon which
one can assign TO secondary and transitory
causes. because that decrease is accentuated in
a fairly regular manner. We are reminded that
at the beginning OF this century France occu.
pied, in respect of population. the second place
among the nations OF Europe; to-day. she stands
in the fifth rank. Germany. which, in 1870. had
the same number of Inhabitants now reckons up
$4,000. 900 more, in spite OF emigration which
every year has deprived her of a large cont:n-
gent; finally. England. the area Of which
represents only thrce.ffths that of France. and
which furnishes colonists to an immense empire,
surpasses the French total by about 800. 600.
How is such infcriority TO be explained Even
admitting that the life OF peoples exactly repro
~ ~ vi III hhu passes through me
stages OF youth. manhood, and old AEGEAN in
g%enious but untenable hypothcsis-can we say
that the old age of France hes be.
gunl How could a nation in its decline
draw from a catastrophe such as that Of
1870 such elements Of renovation. 1t Is not on
the threshold Of decrepitude that one s~ustains
such an effort and performs such q task. Still,
the statistics are there. and they do seem to in
dictate that the French race is stricken with rel
alive sterility. In 1881, for the last time, tho
excess OF births over deaths in France sur
passed 100000. In 1882 1t fell to 81. 900. and
declined in 1883 to i.772. Then. for the space
OF three years 1890, 1891. 1892, the deaths ex-
ceeded the births by 3 5000. 10000, and &c. 600.
Then the excess of births over deaths reappears,
but only to a small extent. Numerous authori.
ties have been consulted with regard to this
phenomenon. but their diagnoses do not agree.
Some lay the blame on immortality; others
on alcoholism; others on the civil code
and the law of inheritance. As we have
seen, NJ. de Coubertin is one OF those who main
tain that immortality remains superficial in
France, and finds the true antidote in the
family. As for alcoholism, IL does not stop tho
progress OF population In other countries where
its ravages are ostensibly more profound. Why
should II have more fatal results In France .
There remains tho forced partition which the
law imposes in every generation upon private
property. Those who have not read the works
OF lie Play will have Difficulty in conce,vinr
how a legal enactment can cause in the ljfc n, =
people the perturbations which that writer as
cribes to 1t. Reasoning however, will explain
partition F" system. according to which tho No.
erty must be divided among ma,y he,rs dos,r
mated by law, has never been applied in such an
exaggerated form as it was in France in 1913
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