Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-07-08
THE POOR MANS FAMILY

Study of unhappy social conditions in the great cities of the world often leads to strained specuations as to possible remedies. The pres sure of population upon subsistence, noted by Malthus, is not more chronic than the pressure of population upon employment, or the means by which subsistence may be gained In either case, the trouble would be minimized by re- duction of population. Overpopulation still ap- pears to be at the bottom of much human mis- cry, just as Malthus assumed it was. although the difficulty of finding subsistence for all is nowadays less than the difficulty of employing everybody at the occupations for which people are fitted and which they choose to follow Nal thus theory was that preventive and positive checks to the increase of population tended to readjust the relation of population to subsis- tence; overpopulation, in sense, was it's own corrective, though at heavy cost in terms of human suffering.
 Some of the positive checks to overpopula- ton enumerated by Malthus, such as disease, epidemics, famine overwork, and unhealthful conditions of employment, have been greatly mitigated or practically abolished by the prog ress of preventive medicine and sanitary sci ence and through the operation of humaner motives in legislation and in the attitude of en- ployerS toward their wOrkmen. The conse- quences, as Malthus would have foreseen, are an increase i'll the numbers of the proletariat and an acute development of the problem of unemployment A recent English writer, Rev. W. R. Inge, declares that the birth rate among sum-dweers is excessive, and attributes it to economic conditions which favor large families, because children earn money. ''In some dis 
 are so much afraid of sterile marriages, on purely economic grounds, that they will not marry until they know that the marriage will be fruitful This simply means that child labor, giving the child value as wage-earner some times in excess of that of his parents, operates precisely as did the old English poor law. which offered money bonus for the birth of every child, to encourage the propagation of large families among the poor A more serious indictment of an industrial system thriving on the toll of children could hardly be brought.
 Dr. Inge intimates that multiplication of the unfit may be dealt with by the drastic method of hurrying the unfit out of the world or, at any rate, he argues that to eliminate undesir- able citizens would not be ont of harmony with Christian ethics which "does not Gas is often supposed teach the duty of preserving and mul- tiplying life at all hazards" There is nothing inconsistent with Christianity, he thinks in m- posing as well as enduring, personal sacrifice. Such a grotesque and impossible remedy con trasts strangely with that offered by Malthus, who advised the restriction of population by means of late marriages and the exercise of moral restraint over the passions. He taught the responsibility of percentage and the wrong H,.1. inss for which there is no room or opportun- ity. Do not marry until you have a fair pros pect of supporting family" was his common sense advice to workngmen. The application of Christian virtues and obvious natural law would, in his judgment suffice to avoid the evil consequences of an undue increase of popula- ton. He would not have approved adtifcial checking of overpopulation by slaughter, any more than Dr. Inge would approve the ordain- ing of pestilence in the East End.