The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1898-05-21
QUE DOOM PRONOUNCED.
French Statesman Foresees the Extine-
tion of Native Americans.

french statesman Eoreeees bnS ESStxtes
tion of Native Americans.
From the Washington Starr Sure
ly a Frenchman ought to be recog-
nized as an authority on the question
of a declining birth rate. France is
the one nation where the birth rate has
steadily decreased until at last the
deaths outnumber the births. Since
1890 there has been an annual loss of.
something like 10000 population I'M
France. 1t is FTenchman Of SCIENCE
ATsene Dumont, who predicts the de-:
structiOn of the American people. In
the Journal of the Paris Statistical so
ciety he reports the result of his study
of the vital statistics of Massachusetts.
In spite of the efforts made in New
York and other states, it is an exas-,
perating fact that Massachusetts alonei
collects trustworthy and comprehens-
i've vital statistics, and it is on these
that foreign statisticians rely for in-
formation as to the tendencies Of
American life. Yet Massachusetts isl
hardly representative. She has an un-.
common proportion of foreign born!
people, and they are more absorbed in
the manufactures than the people of
other states. The proportion of the
two sexes in that state is unlike the
proportion of the west and south, and
many important conditions are pecul-,,
lar. Mr.. Dumont's study of the BIRTH
rate in Massachusetts is not encourag-
| ing as to the future of Americans. He
says that marriages among "AmerLcanI
born" reveal steady diminution Of
the birth rate. The cause of this he
| finds in the principle of democracy.
! This develops individualism-th de-
sire of each person to live his own life
for himself to obtain all the pleasure
there is in life, whether intellectual or
| material He maintains that as they
do not propose to miss the chances Of
personal development, Americans, or
any republican people, will not burden
themselves with children. He says
there is poison in republican civiliza-
ton, and the more intense republican
ism becomes the more acute individual
ism is. Eventually, he asserts, this
must destroy the race and it's culture
He says republics might escape this
fate if they would submit to the rule
of science. Perhaps it is this determ.
nation not to sacrifice any of the
pleasures of life for the pleasure o!
children that is the cause of the de.
cline of the birth rate in France. il
is more reasonable than the eXplana'
ton commonly given-that in the alb
sence of law of entail French parents
are led to limit the number of theil
children. The code Napoleon does no
allow a man to leave the bulk of hi
fortune to his oldest child, as in Eng
land. 1t is hardly reasonable to thinl
that in order to bestow an estate on
single child a man would deny himsel
the pleasure of rearing a number o
children. But in order to find large
, amount of liberty and pleasure TO
himself he might be willing to go child
less. It is strange that French sci
enlist should dwell on the Declining
birth rate of Massachusetts, and max
So no reference to that of his own country
At the beginning of the century Their
were thirty-three births for each 90
of population in France. In 1850
had declined to twenty-seven, and Il
1898 to twenty-five At the same tim
the birth rate Of Germany and Austri
remained at thirty-eight, that of Eng
land at thirty-three, and that of Ital
had increased from thirty-seven t
thirty-eight. The decrease is genera
throughout France, and Mr.. Bertillo
: says it means the disappearance OF tn
81 |