The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-12-13
BLACK or GREEN.
DEPoPuLATION IN FRANCE.

4 IA Renewal Of Proposals to Check IT..
The revival of the old proposal for
the taxation Of bachelors and spinis-
tiers in France, with the addition of q
plan for the assessment of married
couples. who. after five years of welded
4 life, have no children is giving rise to
much discussion, both serious and face
tiious. The caricaturists are already
busy with the matter, and show very
elderly matrons trying to obfuscate the
tax collectors as to the ages of faded
4 unmarried daughters we'll on the way
to fifty. On the other hand, some re-
Receive persons see great things in the
( bill, which was laid on the table of the
senate last week by M. Plot, who rep
fesents the Cote dor in the upper
house. NJ Plot is animated by the pa
triotic desire to check the depopulation
of France which has of late years as
Euned alarming proportions
To provide a remedy for this state of
! affairs M. Plot has brought in the fol-
lowing draft bill, which he wants to be
made low on and after January /, 1901.
4 First clause: Unmarried persons of
both sexes, who are thirty years of age
i and upward will be subject to a tax
equal to the fifteenth part of the
amount of the four direct imposts paid
by them. Persons married for five years
at least, will pay twentieth part of
The amount of direct taxes for which
they are assessed if they have no off
SHEpring, and they will continue to pay
this tax until the birth of child The
second clause provides for the opening
of a credit of 20000000 francs to enable
the minister of the interior to reward
prolific parents, and M. Plot also clear
ly sets forth the manner in which the
claims for such remuneration are to be
obtained. The money, he points out
SHOULD be distributed equally to the
Fathers, or, in the event of the deaths
of these to the mothers, who have more
than four children living.
The senator is dreadfully in earnest
about his BILL and he is not afraid of
facetious or acrimonious criticism He
will defend his bantling with all the
energy and eloquence at his command.
His argument practically is that pro-
lection should be domestic as well as
political. If M. Meline and his school
show themselves to be ardent APOSTLES
IOl LIE tdISlul plOleCllOn OI the SeeQS
scattered by the peasant over the soil
of France which is to produce the
bread that is the staff of life for the
citizens, why should the government
and parliament hesitate to help and to
encourage the fathers of children who
will add to the strength of the nation?
For this reason the patriotic senator
has prepared his bill which, arithme-
tically considered, means that BACH
elor or spinister paying, say, an aver
age of G12 annually by way of contri-
Buttons directes, or direct taxes on real
and personal property, doors windows
and so on, would have to stand an adj
ditional impoit of twenty francs, or the
fifteenth part of the 300 francs for
which he or she is assessed In the case
OF married persons without children.
and paying direct taxes to the amount
of 400 francs, or SIC, the increase would
be twenty francs. M. Plot, by the way.
is not to be considered as animated
with fierce intentions toward Unmarried
persons or to those who, legally con-
COINED in wedlock, have no children.
according to a recent writer, who has
published some statistics on the sub
Ject, the birth rate in France has been |
steadily decreasing for q century. On |
the other hand the populations of Rus
STA, Germany, England and several
other nations are rapidly increasing. 1t |
was true that at some period the popu-
lation of France showed small in /
crease; but, as the writer points out,
At was due to immigration, and not to !
any rise in the birth rate. NJ Plot. bv
fI,fay i- h.
been endeavoring to propose remedies /
against the depopulation Of France
There are also the members of CALI
ance Rationale" among whom are
some very notable men. These are bat
Ting for the modification of succession
duties, for the exemption from direct
taxation of families with more than
three children, and for the augmented
assessment Of married persons unburd-
ened. or unblessed, as the case may be.
with any offspring. Another group of
philanthropic persons have set them
selves the task of preventing as much
as possible mortality among the child
rem of the struggling classes, which has
also to be reckoned with as cause of
depopulation. These good persons all
women, have banded themselves into
an association called the Solidarite des
Meres. They were astounded and !
frightened at, the record of infant NOR
tality. No less than 10000 children of
the poor persisted annually through !
want of care and medical attention
They therefore opened an establishment
for the help of poor women about to be
confined, and the institution has been
working well for several years near l
Paris. Appeals are now being made {
for the creation of similar institutions | /
al over Eranee@-.London Telegraph. +