Putnam patriot., 1912-07-12
French Grow Fast Under Canada Law.

Marshaling as corrobatiNe evidence i pictures of French Ganadian families with children in every stage Of infancy and adolescence and in number rang ing from twelve to nineteen, Eugene Rouillard in the July number Of EX- tension tells of the gratifying results Of the policy adopted In some of the Canadian provinces of pensioning families after the arrival and survival of the twelfth child. The success of the Canadian experiment, he declares, made possible the exclamation of the late NJ. Leroy Beaulieu:
 "Give Us 10000 French Canadians and we will repeople France.'
 After pointing out that in I754 the French in Canada numbered only 55, o00 persons, Mir. Rouillard declares;
 eGuitless of any race suicide tend encies, this number has doubled every twenty-five years, so that now the | French. Canadians number 3,300,0 ,0O0. Of this number 500, ,000 are in the |
 province of Ontario, 60, 900 are scattered through the western Canadian prov inee, and 200, GOO Aeadians inhabit the | Maritime provinces of the Dominion.
 About l,200 ,o00 have settled in the | New England states.
 | "When We compare the increase as | regards numbers among the French | Canadians with the situation in | France, there Is but one explanation to | be made The French Canadians have
 kept the Faith. Thus spiritually forti- | fled, the French. Canadians have vic | toriously withstood the forces that | weakened others The French-Cana' dians as A race have preserved their purity and integrity and in proof of this it is but necessary to point 10 the big birth rate among them,
 "ln 1890 the government of the prov ince of Quebec passed law granting a piece of land 10 every head of family that could boast of twelve or more children. This grant was later changed to cash premium. Until 1905 total of 5,414 families received this premium Of this number l50 families had fourteen 10 eighteen living children; in some eases, where one or the other of the parents was married twice, the number of living children ranged from eighteen to twenty-seNen en children. Since the foundation of Quebec. in I60S, there have been en- tered upon the parish registers up 10 lSs3 A total of 2,9O0, GOO births, CT SIPS per ,0oo population. French-Canadian families of eight and ten children are not uncommon. The average size ot family is five ehildren-an average that win be maintained. one should think, unless alcoholism, which is be- ginning to plague our race, pervades the rural districts.
 "rhe fact that the French'Canadisn families have not yielded to any eX- tent to the tendencies ot the times, one cannot repeat often enough, is due en- tirely to their splendid Catholic faith. The fear of God has actuated them in their lives. The dread Of poverty, so frequently associated in the minds of some with the existence of large family, has mol influenced them to thwart the laws of nature or to outrage the laws of God. Their reward has been progeny that is physically, mentally and morally equal, if indeed not superior, to any people on the face of the earth. The boys are manly, the girls womaniy, for the very existence of many children Tn family helps to develop traits and characteristics that raise them, in many respects, above the rampered children Of the rich.