Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-07
DEPOpULAT|ON OF FRANCE
EXCESS OF DEATHS OVER
BIRTHS GREAT PROBLEM.
At Present Rate Germany May
Soon Have Double the Popu-
lation Of France.

Frederic CORTLAND Penheld, in North American
Review.
Present-day France is confronted by
many political and administrative prob
lens: but the problem overshadowing all
these is that of her gradually diminishing
birth rate, for never in modern times have
vital statistics conveyed a fact that
should be more disquieting than the rec
ords of the last decade that prove inois-
putably this waning of population in
grand country.
And in ironical contrast does the science
of statistics show that the nation which
was once the foe, and Is destined ever to
be the rival, of France is increasing so
positively in numbers that there may
soon be two Germans to every French
man. To have the fact Of racial decay
published to the world must be hun
dred-foid more CALLING than loss of ter
| ritory through even inglorious warfare,
and the true significance of this mon
StrouS curbing of natures law is that tho
cruelest enemies of glorious France are
today, as they have always been, her own
sons and daughters.
Growth Of the Germans.
Alas, proud France! She who has blaz-
oned history with envied achievements in
civilization and culture, and signal tri-
uIHpHS III SCleHCe anu dTl Is now the uISt
| in the family of nations to show q death
| rate in excess of the number of births.
Twenty years ago the average number of
births per marriage was three; 1T Is now
scarcely two. And while the vigorous
| Teutonic blood has increased the Ger
man race until the fatherland averages
| 90 souls to the square mile, the average
for France is but 1885,
| Winging time has exploded no theory
| having better semblance of concrete law
than that of Thomas Robert Nautilus,
| whose essay hundred years ago on the
principles of Population" attracted the
| widest possible attention. This divine's
! insistence that the tendency of popula-
| ton to increase In higher ratio than the
means of subsistence-this is the Malthu-
ism of the British Isles. II not the star
walton of their people; but Nautilus made
the fatal blunder of not taking into con-
sideration the ability Of the British to
levy upon the food supply of the outside
| world in exchange for the products of
| their workshops and mines. which policy.
when adopted. made the nation rich and
powerful. What remained of the scholar
| ly Eng .ishman's theory is now hopelessiy
destroyed by the lessening birth rate of
France coincide emily with the augmenta-
ton of the soils productivity through
scientific tfllage and the employment of
machinery.
Significant Statistics.
Unpopular as it is for Frenchman to
herald national calamity. NJ. de Foville.
president of the Academic des Sciences
Morales ct Politiques. has recently accen-
tuated the gravity of his country's posi-
ton in style so plain that the Latin
countries are discussing what students Of
international affairs have long known
that the French race is slowly but surely
dying For twenty years the birth rate
has been waning; two years ago it was
on a parity with the death rate. and last
year it fell 900 behind. In hundred
years it has decreased from 81 per thou
sand to 1877; and in the twentieth century
the decline has followed this alarming
pace: Excess of births over deaths 1902,
1000; 1903. 3D. 900; 1904. 1000; 1905. 81
OO0; 1905. $1,000. In 1907 zero was reached
and passed, for there were 10000 more
deaths than births. as has been stated
The official returns are -794OO0 and ia. 900
under these respective heads. The word
"depopulation." NJ. de Foville points out
is, therefore, no exaggeration. lis it," he
asks. with pardonable apprehension, the
beginning of the end?'
At this rate the Gallo republic may soon
be ripe for invasion, for this will be a
danger frankly menacing a country which
is capable of supporting SO.000OO0 inhab-
itants, but which is content with less than
half that number. In 1875 the population
of Germany surpassed that of France by
only 6OOO,OOO; 1t now exceeds it by over
%, 100000. In another twenty years there
may be two Germans for every French
man. without counting the subjects of the
kaiser swarmng in Brazil. Argentina and
the United States. NJ. de Foville has thus
had the courage to tell his fellow coun-
trymen that their nation is marching
with quickened step to Its DOOM