Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1907-01-18
RACE SUICIDE-A BRITISH VIEW.
Improved Conditions of Life Is Held to Pro-
duce Sterility.

Improved Conditions Of Life Is Held to Pro-
duce Sterility.
A writer in an English magazine on
" The Race Suicide Scar." comforts
US with new law, discovered or in.
vented by him, which he styles "the
law OF fertility" and which he AYERS
explodes the idea of race suicide.
All who read his piece should be
comforted. There is nothing like a
scientific law to stir up fear or to lay
ghost. On the principle of extermi-
mating microbe by An anti .microbe,
the way to do, when one scientist has
made life miserable for you with his
representations, is to get another
scientist to crack his skull, or, at any
rate, the skull of the particular mi
crobe with which you are observed.
James w. Barclay is such an oblig.
ing scientist or statistician, and, after
perusing his figures, you are likely to
feel ashamed that you were frightened
by the race suicide bogie.
at may be natural to assume" he
writes, that improved conditions Of
life would tend to increase the birth
rate, but that is not natures way, for,
instead OF tending to increase the birth
rate, increased well.being has the op.
posite effect. With improved condi-
tions of life the fertility of plants and
animals Gncluding man) declines. and
increases when they are exposed to
such unfavorable conditions as would
threaten the extinction OF the species. /"
He notes that "an exposed tree,
growing on infer:ile soil, is covered
with seed, whereas thriving tree,
growing in fertile soil and in shel.
tered locality, bears very little" He
also notes that "the breeder who, to
improve his stock, mus. keep them in
great comfort on abundance Of food,
finds his greatest difficulty in their
tendency to sterility."
And he dares the following deduc.
ton: "Seeing, then, that this law of
fertility governs not only the animal
but also the vegetable kingdom, may
we not safely conclude that human
volition has little to do with the birth
rate, and also hold that the birth rate
Of q nation is inversely proportional
to the well-beiug of its people?"
Which, il lrue, will relieve the rich
Of the consciousness Of guilt in not
producing more children, and also the
poor Of the responsibility for having
too many children. Thus are con.
founded the President of these United
States and the Chicago Superintendent
OF Compulsory Education.
The English writer shows that, while
tho birth rate has decreased in the last
twenty-five years in every country of
Europe save Russia, the populations
have increase, owing to the decrease in
the death rate caused by greater pros.
perity and larger knowledge. And the
increased Russian birth rate, he holds,
is evidence of the evil conditions in the
unhappy empire.
Mr.. Barclay observes that in accord.
ance with his law OF fertility families Of
the well'to-do or rich disappear by in.
fertility or degeneration, and are re.
placed by others. Balzac, who was a
closer social observer than any doctri-
naire. declared that the greatness of the
English aristocrscy in comparison with
the degenerate continental ones was
due to the fact that it had renewed it.
self for hundreds OF years "from be.
low" And even in our brief American
national existence we have witnessed q
continual renewal from below" the
children OF penniless immigrants be.
coming rich and powerful in the land.
Whether we believe that race suicide
or overpopulation lie the evil TO be
avoided doesen't make any difference
to nature, says Mr.. Barclay. Then he
adds: "Lets us leave nature and the
natural instincts OF the English people
to regulate the birth rate. and let US
take better care OF the babies vouch-
safed to u.s."