The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-08-27
By NJ. Jacques BertilIon.

mains stationary, while that of all the
other great countries has largely in
creased since the beginning of the CEN
fury. This points ultimately to a GER
tain growing inferiority in military
strength economical prosperity, literary
| prestige and scientific repute, and final
Iy' to a progressive diminution of French
influence upon the march of civiliza-
ton. This depreciation of France comes
! partly from political causes and partly
from its low birth rate.
In the examination of the remedies
which have been proposed to antagonize
this evil we shall begin with a rapid re-
| view of those which appear to be least
! ef1cactous. Then we shall present those
which figure on the programme of the
Alliance Rationale pour Paccroissement
! de la population franchise, a society
whoch should include all French people
| VINO care for the future of their country.
The reforms for which the depopuIation
of France has served as the vaulting
board may be divided, Notwithstanding
the great variety Of them, into four cate
| gortes: o. Various social reforms; ca
! increase in the number of marriages; 60
ammunition Of involuntary sterility, and
| "a reduction of mortality.
We have word to say with respect to
each of these:
l. Social Reforms Proposed for the
| Hypothetical Purpose OF Increasing Ma
! tality-Nobody has ever shown that
! the emancipation of woman. selection in
paternity, the suppression ofdfvorce; or
| the contrary, laws facilitating divorce
would augment natality. Nobody has
| ever given proof, or the beginning of
a proof. in support of these fancies.
Would soctalistic reforms leading to a.
d1minut1on Of the share Of capital, and a
| corresponding increase Of the share of
labor, have any effect upon natality? 1
cannot pronounce upon this question, be-
cause 1 have not sufficient data; never
theleSs, the remuneration of capital has
not ceased to diminish since the begin
ming of the century-we may even esti-
mate that it has diminished nearly one
half for the nominal interest on money
has fallen from 5 to per cent This has
not prevented natality from decreasing
In our country. Would it be augmented
If capital should come to have no re-
Enumeration at all? l have not examined
this difficult and very hypothetical uues-
ton, for, If such a thing should happen
1t could be only in an extremely remote
future. But the supreme struggle of
which our country has always to think
Will have taken place long before that.
The revival Of religious ideas if II
should come about, might have some ef-
feet on natality. Topographic studies
nave shown how great an influence re-
nglon has on habits and on phenomena of
moral pathology Con the frequency Of
suicides, for example), and prove that
men put the prescriptions of their reli-
gion into practice more han one would
believe. All religions direct a man. more
or less tmperatively, to have as numer-
| Gus posterity as possible. There may
therefore exist a relation between natal
1ty and the degree Of sincerity of reli-
g1ous convictions. But it IS manifest
that, whatever we may do, we cannot
change our age nor prevent its growing
more and more incredulous
II. Summary Examination of Measures
Having in View the Increase of the Num-
Der of arriages-Nuptiality is nearly the
same in France as it has been 1t has,
however, diminished during the last
twenty years, falling gradually from
eight marriages to seven marriages a
year per thousand inhabitants. For sew
en- years it has gained a little, and is
now ia fairly satisfactory rate. 1t is
not here that the saddle gals u.s.
1t has been proposed as a measure for
increasing the number of marriages, to
simplify the required formulas l believe
that these formulas are indeed too long
too many and too expensive. The coun-
tries which have been so foolish as to
copy our civil code have taken pains to
strike out this chapter, and they have
done we'll But he is greatly mistaken
who believes that the number of mar
riages could be perceptibly increased by
suppressing unpleasant formulas When
one wants to marry he generally does so
in spite Of the obstacles which maladroft
legislation may have piled up. In case
of need the matter is settled by an irreg-
ular alliance, and natality loses little.
The violent suppression of converts has
also been proposed as measure for pro-
noting the increase Of marriages. A
person who has reflected much could not
speak of such a thing. To what extent
does any one suppose that might aug
ment natality? The converts at this
time contain about $4,000 women Sup
pose they were all as ready as other
women to marry-which is not the case
for the fact that they have retired to
cloister proves that family life has few
attractions for them-a simple calculation
shows that they would afford $500 births
a year. So France needs 5000 infants
every year, and plan IS advanced to
give 1T 1900 or 5000 at most-and that by
means of violent nature, unworthy of
an age of freedomi
Next are the measures proposed for di-
! minishing involuntary sterility. Is invol-
| untary sterility as frequent as it is sup
posed to be? Our respected master, Jules
Rochard, was surprised to find 1000, 600
sterile families recorded in the census re-
ports But the number does not appear
excessive. We cannot compare it with
similar returns abroad, for France is the
only country, except in the case of a few
oft
are inquired into by census takers. But,
according to different gynaecologists-
chiefly German-cfted in the Academy OF
Medicine, the number of sterile families
should be 16 per cent. Now, this is the
exact proportion found in France in the
enumeration of 1896. The really surpris-
ing thing about the matter is not the
number of sterile families, but the linn
tied fecundity of the fertile families.
There are other figures to show that alb
solute steriltty Is not the cause of the
low rate of French nataIity. An inquiry
respecting sterile families was made in
1855, at a time when French natality was
little higher than it is now, compari-
son of the results of which with those of
the enumeration of 1866 shows that the
number of fruitful families had not di-
minished (S36 per cent of the families
having one or more children then. to 1873
in 1856. The factor that has diminished
Is the fertility of the families. It is only
necessary to cite the measures that have
been suggested to counterfeit this sup
posed excessive sterilfty to make their
inanity apparent. Among them are a
reform of the abuse Of tobacco and alec
hol and war upon syphilis. Do not these
scourges exist among other nations than
us? Nothing could be more saIutary
than to war upon them, but to connect
their existence with the depopu1ation of
France is a singular exaggeration of
their Importance. More than this,
the physician of a benevolent IN
stitution in Paris has told me