The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-11-19

war the annual birth rate in France
was nearly one million, and subse-
! cuently to the aimee terrible 955,OOO
births on an average were registered,
until the year 1886, when an appre-
ciable diminution became apparent.
l can recall in fact at that PERIOD,
the emotion occasioned by this de-
! crease which continued, and became
more accentuated in subsequent years.
Indeed, during the last quarter OF a
century the downward tendency has
| been steadily maintained. From over
| 100000 births annually registered the
total has fallen to 100000. and since
1906 this total has dwindled, the sta
tistics for the last three years giving
the figure of 100000 on an average
annually. of living children born into
the world.
In 1909 births in France were
slightly superior to the number of
Deaths but this fact, it is remarked,
may be accounted for by the fortUit-
Gus circumstance that last year the
summer was particularly temperate,
and abnormally cool.
This kept the death rate extremely
low. owing to the comparative absence
of what are termed hot-weather corr
plants brought on by the use and
abuse of iced beverages. of fruit and
the like. Had the death rate of 1903
been normal, it is pretty certain to
use a popular expression, more cof-
fins than cradles would have been re-
CURED" A depopulated country is a
country on the high road to ruin, is
a trite but true remark, and period
ically within the last twenty-five years
legislator economists and eminent
nh ictc cftt al
how to avert what threatens to become
an obstacle to the prosperity and well
fare of France, and perhaps eventu
ally the cause of her decadence.
All manner of suggestions and prop
ositions, some sensible, others fan
tastic have been brought under the
notice of parliament and leagues
have been formed with the commend
able object of encouraging wedlock,
and rewarding parents of large fam
lies At one time, not long ago, it
was proposed in the chamber of dep
uties to increase the taxes of single
men, and decrease those of married
men, the said decrease being accen-
tuated in proportion to the number of
of children born to a taxpayer. The
proposal, however, when examined
was found to be of no practical value
presented by deputies and senators,
most assuredly well intentioned, but
incapable of suggesting real remedy
for the evil.
1t is proved fact that in France,
as in probably certain other countries,
the poor are generally more prolific
than the rich. In populous Partisan
faubourgs, the home of the working
man and laborer, the juvenile ele-
ment is noticeably larger than it is
in fashionable parks and squares
where smartly- dressed nursemaids
have one or two little ones at most
to look after. DR.. Bertillon. who has
long years of experience behind him,
gives it to be his opinion that were
the state to hold a helping hand to
the working man, the rag-picker, the
street sweeper, whose slender earnings
are inadequate to the task of filling |
the mouths of half a dozen little ones, /
a step in the right direction would be |
made, and infant mortality would be
lessened. A fund. he believes, set
apart for the assistance of married /,
couples or widows in straitened cir /
and with several children |
to support, would be of incalcula BILE !
use in increasing Frances population |
BY decreasing the death rate among |
children of the poor who succumb in |
such numbers to disease due to i'm
proper food. and a lack of sanitation
n their squalid dwellings.
A league was founded not long ago
n France to cope as far as possible
With the terribly high rate of infan-
lie mortality At a recent meeting.
IL esided over by member of the
government, the startling statement
vas made that $4,000 infants per-
shed annually in France during the
irst year of their existence for lack
# proper care. City-born infants of
)oor parents, as a rule, are placed out
o nurse. Before the newborn child
s week old it is entrusted to the
are of mercenary baby-farmer, who
arrieS it off to some remote village 4
where its fragile hold on life speedily II
and unless it be unusually Il
obust, it drops out of existence 1t II
,oes without saying the state is sup 4
,osed to look after these musings
\ system of medical supervision, it
S true, exists; but the periodical
lists paid by doctor to inspect the
of infants put out to nurse
re few and far between. Moreover, as
he date they will be made is known
the peasant woman in
barge of several infants takes care to
e prepared for a cufsory inspection of
er cottage and her little charges