Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-10-08
OUTSIDE POINT OF VIEW
Natures New Work to Reduce Surplus
Foundation

Natures New Work to Reduce Surplus
Population.
one of the first things the school boy
learns is of the successful operations
of nature to reduce the surplus. 1t
never has been and never will be sat
isfactorily explained to him why ma
ture is so (apparently) pyodigal in pro-
oucing an entirely (fron1 our point Of
view) unnecessary quantity Of seed
and then proceeds to put in operation
memorable laws to destroy the result
ant life from the seed. The quantity of
eggs spawned by the female Goldfish, 1t
is claimed, II allowed by the processes
Of nature to reach full maturity, would
in a short time make all of our oceans
Il sohd mass of Goldfish. If every seed
thrown off by the maple trees an ger
| minated and became In turn seed pro-
ducers it would be only u question of a
very short time when all of the tenn
perate zone would be one vast maple
grove. And our school books and other
sources of education show in many
other cases this unusual prodigality and
true in the processes OF propagation of
| animal life, including man. Many emf
nent writers from Matthew down to the
magazine writer's of today have COM
rlented upon and offered solutions of a
problem of how to prevent the human
family from increasing at such rate
as will render the food supply INSULT :
cient to support those already oceupy-
ing the earth. To such writers the eff
forts of those who oppose race sui
eide" are worse than useless. And ma
ture herself has not ceased in her eff
forts to keep down the population of
the world by causing at regular inter
walls wars. pestilence and famine. New
ertheless by mans study into the
causes of these terribly devastating
agencies, and consequently reducing
the number and frequency of them, this
in addition to the better kind of living
sanitary and otherwise. the population
Statistics show that the average length
of human life is now about three years
longer than 100 years ago. The object
of what follows is to notice the new
efforts nature is making to combat and
destroy the scientific work in this line
by the citizen of the twentieth century.
For instance, science today saves the
lives of thousands of infants that 100
years ago would have died at child
birth, or certainly within year or two
The modern physician is the most for
midahe antagonist of the doctrine of
the survival of the fittest. By the aid
OF scientific treatment the weakling,
the crippled and the deformed now is
nursed into life, and nursed into wom-
anhood or manhood. But Mother Ma
ture can not be defeated or her plans
changed. She kills the following gen.
Grafton, the offspring of the weakling at
birth, or causes impotency in the sci
entificauy saved. Many close observ
ers claim that the lowering birth rate
in France is not so much caused by
race suicide" as by the physical In
ability of both sexes in France to re-
produce their species. IN other words.
the child begetting and the race pro-
ducing men and women of France are
today, speaking in general terms. the
emasculated result of the higher ctvili-
zation with all tina. the word implies.
Again mans Inventions, oftentimes
blessings in themselves and frequently
aids to longevity, are nevertheless the
landmarks of nature to remove the
surplus population. We are told by in
disputable figures that the railroads of
this country caused the death of more
individuals in 1902 than those resultant
of the Spanish and Philippine wars
~ odd III
those deaths, already in the thousands.
of the trolley line and the still later
automobile. Electricity in all forms and
uses, and more close at hand is doing
much to add to the comforts and con-
veniences of life, but nature caused
the death of three persons the other
day who unwittingly stepped into an
electrically charged mui puddle Ma
ture allows man to invent comfortable
forms of heating our homes, but at the
same time there implants the seeds of
consumption. and so while man saves
the life of the infant thus protected it
carries off the mother. And the scien-
.ific world has always had to face the
problem of the prolific Irish peasant.
Until within a few years these people
lived almost without modern sanitary
rules. They were frequently scourged by
famine and pestilence. Yet in spite of
ali, living closer to nature than any
English speaking race, they increased
and multiplied faster than any other
nationality. Well may students of the
race problem inquire, Can and does
man improve on the work OF nature =
~ y