The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-02-16
NEW HAslPsHIRE DEaENERAox.
CAnsed by the Shifting of Population an
 Less of Native Stock.

Caused by the Shifting of Population and
 Literary Digest.
 Divorce, drunkenness and irreiigion are so
 on the increase in New Hampshire that one
 of Is pastors declares that it's religious work
 today must be largely of a home mission
 ary nature" The picture he draws is rem
 deFed more psthetic by a comparison of the New Hampshire of today and of an ear- Her generation. By the shifting population,
 this State has lost heavily of It's native stock. Tn 1870 the total population oe the State was sIs.0oo. says Rev. D. 6. Taaker, writing in Zion's Herald (3oston). Of these 2Ts.0eo were native Americans and A5,0oo
 were of foreign birth or DarsntaTe. In le0e the native population had fallen to
 sts,o0o and the foreigu population had rls- con to 16s.0oa Today it is estimated that
 nesFly # not quite. 'one-haIf of the popula- tion of foreign birth or parentage. These
 facts fuFnish.o according to Mr. Taslsr, one cause for the intellectual and moral retro 1 gression of the State. Another cause is the weakening of the native stock. New Hamp-
 shire. he recalls, "once occupied the proud l place of third in the Union for literaey;
 now she has fallen to the twenty-eighth.' .'' | Speaking of the decadance in the moral life | of the State, he writes:
 Perhaps the most glaring indication of this ia found in the recent growth of the l divorce evil which has psrmeated city and Db widespread as to make it . delicate subject. | The record of our State on this question | is anything but an envtAble one. In 1870 | we had i4s eases of divorce in New Hsmp- | shire. and there has been ( steady and rapid increase, until, in 1904. we had 525 cases. This is the shameful record for one year. Indications are that the public con- | science in our state has been dsadened by | Familiarity with moral looseness This nor
 al evil may not be laid at the door of our
 foreign population. The Roman Catholic | Church, of which the foreigners are largely membsrs is proverbially strong and true on the divorce question. The fault. then.
 must be found largely in the moral haxity of our native population.
 Another sign of the times is found in the | increase of drunkenness during the past few years since the overthrow of the prohfbito- ry system. since the present loS@f opt4on license law went into effect the commit ments to our county houses of correction, for | drunkenness. have increased from 473 in | 1903 to 2ls2 in 1906. An there is e grow | ing conviction that drinking is on the in- | crease among the young men of the state. Some of our best citizens are expressing in l strongest terms their horror at the situation l and calling for some change in the law that may help to better conditional A large share of the blame for our degradation in | this respect may be attributed to the
 foreigner, who, with his drinking customs, | stands for the license system.
 | Another sign of our present condition is | to be found in the growing spirit of ire ligon. Our nonchurchgoing element is on | the increase. In the thirty-seven towns al- | ready referred to the religious census yield | ed the following results: Out of . total pop | utation of about 32,000, s000--or one-fourth l claimed to have no church affiliations | whatever, and 1S.0oO-or over one-half-
 had never received the rite of baptism. !. l Now if this proportion is the same
 throughout the State, 1t indicates a lament
 able condition of irrehgion in 6 supposedly Christian commonwealth. It has been tru- l lv said of rural communities that the char | actAr standing is essentially the religious
 standing of village, for intellectual or | moral life is generally expressed through | the church should be the center of moral | and spiritual life. but 1t Is a fact that in | many of our communities the church is a | waning influence in the life of the people. | The congregations are small, the interest fin church work is meager. and the outside
 looks with scorn upon the church"
 'The prospect of a small village in the | road to moral decay is most dispiritins De- | generate country settlements have none of | the influences to elevate and strengthen the | moral life that exists in the city, even where abundant examples of vice and crime | abound '"The conflict between the good | and evil is so intense that the very battle | tends to clear the moral atmosphere" but | the small village lacks all these influences | for good Some statistics of this States 'degensrate' districts are given by the | writer. thus: Here is the record of an av- | craze country town for one year: Twenty nine marriages, twenty-five births, forty l deaths. Nothing very promising here foI | inc future population of that town! In q | canvass of thirty-seven towns in one sec | ton of our State. made within two or three | years, it was found that the population wal | decreasing in twenty-seven of them. and in | tbis Wame region, containing cora dwelling | houses, 1,0s4-or almost one-eighth of then | were found to be deserted places. These | Ogures are suggestive of the loss tn popu- | Iation of some of our rural sections In ! stiu other regions the loss in numbers na. @ Keen made good by the occupancy of the Abandoned farms by the incoming foreign
 srs."