The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-09-01

say what is actually happening. The
excess of births over deaths has fallen
from % per 1000 in 1880 to a calculated
total of only 10 in 1900, SO that the
birth rate must have declined or the
death rate enormously increased, which
last supposition is most improbable.
The Birth Rate on the Continent.
In France the birth rate, EXCEPT In
abnormal years during or after wars
when nature was striving to undo the
handiWork of man, has tended down.
wards, but the fall has not been so
marked as in England, though it start
ed at lower level The French rate
was on an average 25.S for 1S74-S % 2
for 1S94-8 and 21.5 for 1S99-19O0 the
last years for which the returns are ac-
cesslole. The drop was thus 4.3 in
about the same period as that in which
the English rate fell 6. In Italy the fall
was 80, from figure of 81 in the same
period, so that the Italian rate is stiU
much above the English one.
In Germany. perhaps out most for
mldahle competitor in Europe, the de-
cine was AZ in this period, from 4O1
10 35.9, and the German rate is still
higher than was the rate in England in
1876. Moreover, in some German states
OF recent years there has been q slight
tendency Tor the rate to advance, which
is most marked in Bavaria, Wurtten1-
UeFR and Baden.
If the Russian figures can be trust
ed, ana they do not come down later
than 1897, the birth rate there is ad-
vancing. 1t was All in the three years
1891, and 49.5 in the years 1857
rms, however, may be due to the fact
mat nature is compensating for the loss
Of life in famines in her own peculiar
way. But the Russian rate is a very
high one, and Notwithstanding a very
nigh death rate the Russian people is
increasing with amazing rapidity.
The Roots of the Evil.
What are the explanations of the
falling birth rate in the English-speak-
ing countries? Mr.. Coghlan suggests.
in the case of Australia, that it is due
to the love of pleasures, and to the de-
hberate limitation of families. His ar
gument seems to be borne out by some
very striking facts noted by Mr.. and
Mrs. Webb in their work on Industrial
Democracy" They state that there
are many indications that the danger
to be apprehended in Northwestern
Europe during the coming century is
not over population at all, but a DELHI
crate restriction of population by the
more prosperous, more intelligent and
more thrifty sections, brought about
by rise in the standard of life itself"
Ihat is Lafcadio Hearn in other words:
IL is the admission that the superior
race is too expensive to multiply: but
1t means the suicide of that race. and
ITS slow replacement by other human
material.
Yet another suggestion is that. as the
death rate has declined, the relative
proportion Of young men and women
mas declined, and that a corresponding
fall In the birth rate was to be antici-
pated. But this is not very satisfactory.
since the fall in the birth rate is much
greater than the decline in the death
rate, and the fall In the death rate in
Germany has been much greater than
in England, but has not brought such a
diminution in the births
Lastly, the question must be faced
Whether the fall is not to be connected
with the special strains of modern life.
especially of city life. Australia and
England are both states in which the
huge city predominates, and it is at
least noteworthy fact that the mark
ed fall in our birth rate comedies with
the collapse of agriculture, which fore
ed our country population more and
more into the towns from 1878 on-T
wards. .zazs.e.
This may be a mere accident, but
country families are still generally
larger, if only because of the difficuItys
of housing in the towns. No pointxis,
so painful in Mr.. Booths great study
OF London than his repeated reftera-
ton of the fact that large families are
regarded by landlords as nuisance, and
that the large family is too often re-
fused accommodation where the small
family finds no difficulty in obtaining it.
Thus is the devastating torrent OF
children"-most accursed phraseS4re@a
PEELED, and thus is our national position
being imperiled. For in this twentieth
cetury world victory is to the large
unit; the full nursery spells national
and race predominance.