Arizona republican., 1902-02-10
Is France to follow in the footsteps of decaying Spain? Intelligent French

Is France to follow in the footsteps of decaying Spain? Intelligent French
 men candidly admit the FRANCE decadent condition of FOLLOWING their country, and are SPAIN? eagerly seeking a rem
 edy Indeed, French writers are the most frank of all in pointing out the unpleasant facts which confront the French people. While other nations of Europe (except Spain) are increasing in population. France is at a standstill. According to the con- servative Matin, Figaro and other Paris papers, translations from which are furnished by a London paper, France decreases in native population and increases in alcoholism and crime. French marriages tend more and more to the sterile: the French race tends more and more to become enfeebled and demoralized.
 And writing of the net result of the Figaro, laments that after all we find a renewal of the collapse. In French homes there are more bereavements than joyful births. France has lost 26 900 lives. though the marriages in 1900 were more numerous than in any of the years since 1890. But divorces have also multiplied to the number of 1000. Out of every 200 marriages five have been dissolved by the fault or the consent of the contracting parties to the union. Divorce seems to be an active factor in French depopulation.
 Tn Paris the century ended with an excess of 1900 deaths. In the Rhone de- partment it was worse; the excess of deaths was 3.2O0, for a population four times less than that of the Seine de partment. In the Bouches-des- Rhone the excess of deaths was 1.40o. in population six times less than that of the Seine. Normandy is visibly becom- ing less populous; the province lost 7,5OO inhabitants in 1900. France is los ing ground, not only with other nations. but with her past self. The outlook is terrifying. Malthus did not see what zealous disciples he would find in France"
 The French are perhaps the most in  what is happening. and are scared at it. But they do not react against it; and in a biological sense the loss of the power to react signifies death. What they call les fraudes persist; in a double sense France is becoming de- moralized.
 Alcoholism is alarmingly on the in crease in France, and this effects the population terribly. French statistics show that in Rouen two drunkards had thirty-two children, and every one of the thirty two died before reaching adult age. Out of 500 tested cases of offspring of alcoholic parents 21 per cent died in infancy and childhood. In 215 families traced through three gen. erations. the percentage of similar mor- fality was thirty-two.
 In the Revue des Deux Mondes. NJ. Fouille writes that ''in 1880 free trade in drink was established in France. Since the passing of that disastrous law the consumption of alcoholic drinks had trebled, and during the last thirty years it has sextupled. France has passed from the seventh place in order of consumption of alcohol to the first. The number of drink licenses in the country. including Paris, is nearly 330. 900. In 1880 there was one license for every 113 inhabitants; today it is one for every ninety. In Lower Nor mandy there is one for every twenty five
 The average number of those liable for military service who were rejected because of alcoholism was. from 1861 to 1ss5, at the rate of 300 per year; in 1896 it had risen to $500. In Normandy, where alcoholism has seized the people with a truly alarming intensity, the number of still born children and cases of infant mortality has increased 2S per cent; the number of conscripts re- fused on the ground of health has trebled; marriages have diminished one-eighth: the birth rate, which was 2s per 1000 in 1880. had fallen to IS per 1000 in 1894; the death rate rose from 22 to 2S per 1000.