The sun., 1908-01-06

AneTo IL something very mucn Lh0
matter with New Hampshire, according
to the Rev. E. 8. TAsKER Of Tilton, who
sounds a warning in ZiOn's Herald. From
third place for literacy in the Union New
Hampshire has fallen to twenty-eighth.
Whereas in 1870 there were l40 cases OF
divorce in her courts, in 1904 there were
62S, the population having increased
from S1s, 800 to 425, 900 in round numbers.
Whereas in 1902 there were 473 COM
mitments for drunkenness, in 1905 there
we're 2,ls2 The churchgoers are rapidly
dwindling. In thirty-seven towns -in
one section Of the State" with 80 900 peo-
pie, one-fourth Of them, according to a
recent inquiry, had no church affiliations
whatever and $1,000 had not even re-
ceived the rite Of baptism. In twenty
seven Of these towns there was a steady
loss OF population, and Of their S.073
dwelling houses l,OS4 had been aban-
doned. In one year in an average
country town in New Hampshire there
were forty deaths, twenty-nine mar
riages and twenty-five births. How it
could be an average town we fail TO
understand, for each census since 1870
has shown an increase, although not
large one, in the States population. Be-
tween 1890 and 1900 in BellInap and Car
roll counties only was a loss recorded.
There were considerable gains in Coos,
Grafton and HillsbOro.
"The old stock" says Mr.. TAsKER,
has been dying out, and what is left has
become sadly degenerate. But while
It is dying out new stock is coming in.
IL is estimated that almost One-half
the inhabitants in 1907 are Of foreign
birth or parentage.' In 1870 the State
had a population Of $4,000, divided into
273.OOO native Americans and a, 200 Of
foreign extraction. A great change had
occurred when the census of 1900 was
taken: it showed that l6S, ,924 inhabitants
were Of foreign birth or parentage and
243, 900 were native Americans; in thirty
years the native Americans, who may
be supposed TO have gone on marrying,
had suffered a loss Of 10000. Since 1900.
il the native stock and the foreign are
almost equal now, there must have been
a great influx Of the foreign element. or
the latter Mr.. TAsKER, while admitting
the decay OF the old stock, has a poor
opinion:
II one knows the character OF the vast majority
Of these newcomers no can easily one cause for
our intellectual and moral retrogressIon State
Who are these newcomers? or all
climes and races, but the last census
returned almost half OF them as French
Can adams. Certainly they and others Of
foreign extraction in the aggregate can
not be charged with filling the divorce
courts, for the great majority of them
are Roman Catholics. This brings us to
a pathetic feature of Mr.. TAsKER's story
the struggle OF the ministers Of his own
denomination, the Methodist, to keep the
wolf from the door and the devil out of
the hearts of their charges. Seventy
two Of las churches pay their pastors less
than $500 a year, and Of the seventy
two underpaid ministers mot reckoning
others undoubtedly in that category
thirty-four preach in more than one
place and most of them must keep a
horse. With feed high and the pastures
sterile we pity the horse too. Our own
Methodist Episcopal churches, says Mr..
TAsKER, ARE making a heroic struggle
to stem the tide Of immortality" He adds
that our work to-day must be largely OF
home missionary nature.
The increase in drunkenness is said to
be a result Of the new local option law.
We are inclined to think that as time
goes on and the novelty of the law wears
of Mr.. TAsKEB will be encouraged'by a
proportionate decrease in commitments.
Vermont is having the same experience
with her local option law. The present
tendency to tipple may be construed as
a reaction against the restraint of long
period Of prohibition. Educational in
fiuences will gradually assert themselves
and the option Of abstinence will make
its appeal.
We should like to know where are the
thirty-seven towns whose moral credit Is
90 low. The presumption is that the
mountainous districts Of Carroll and
Belknap must claim them. Their farms
were long ago worked out, manufactures
are few and paltry, and it Is a hand 70
mouth existence for those who have
lacked the motive and resolution to leave
the husks. Naturally their morals de-
cay and Hope eItinguishes her beacon
Rural New Hampshire away from the
valleys will go on degenerating unless
the abandoned farms are taken up by
q new order Of settlers who bring scien.
tito methods to the cultivation OF the
soil, and It In q question whether any one
has the hardihood to try the experiment
We doubt whether the leavings Of the
old stock suffer much by contact with
the foreign born and descended, and Il
Ia certain that IL the proportion Of the
latter continues TO rise like an incoming
tide there will be in two generations 1
scant resduum Of the old stock.
A Yale WOrshipper Of MOiOch.