The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-01-20
70 CHECK THE FALLING BIRTH RATE ~..


Literary Digest: At the November
election Colorado took the initial step
in this country in one long agitated re-
form. 1t passed a referendum vote on
the subject Of endowing motherhood,
thus aiIylng itself with Australia,
whose parliament has been considering
the same project. In the latter case
the bill provides an allowance of $25
to any mother of a new born baby.
The Christian Work, New York, is led
by these facts to consider various other
efforts made for encouraging the in
crease of population. Australia, it is
pointed out, has become alarmed over
her falling birth rate. and is taking this
means of promoting the growth of her
population. Her anxiety may be real-
lied when one reflects that in an area
as extensive as the United States there
are only 4,500,0 900 people, This journal
reviews some efforts elsewhere directed
to the same end:
ssThe whole civilized world is awak-
|ening TO the danger of the decline of
the birth rate, which lis common to all
countries, and efforts are being made
to relieve the obstacles which modern
industrial conditions have placed on
the rearing OF children. AS Mr.. Fore
man showed recently in The %Independ-
ent, the factory legislation of England
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the number of children it was designed
to protect. When children cease to be
profitable the tendency is to cease their
production. The chancellor Of the ex-
chequer, Lloyd-George, in the insur-
ance bill now pending in parliament,
provides a maternity allowance of $3.50
for the wife of an insured working
That the situation is serious is
evident from the vital statistics of
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ending Sept. 80, last, when the birth
rate was 10 per cent less than the av-
erage of the last decade, and the births
exceeded the deaths by only S1,6A5.
THE French, being a most economi-l
cal people, have gone further in cur
failing expenses by dispensing with
the luxury of children. AS q result. the
population Of France showed an ex-
cess OF 34,S6g deaths as compared with
births during the year 1911. There is
no decrease In the marriage rate. M.
Messimy, former minister of war, adj
vises the government to pay a premi-
tlm for every child born OF the same,
mother beginning with the fourth,
since it requires more than three chill
dren per married pair to keep UP the
population. The premium he puts at
500, half to be paid to the mother at
the birth of the child and half put into
a fund to provide her a pension for
life. no raise the money he proposes
a special tax on bachelors or on the
heads OF families without children or
with only one. This is certainly a fair
thing. Another attempt to solve the
same problem without state aid is the
erection in a suburbNo of Paris Of work
ingmen's flats where the birth OF a.
child relieves the family OF the pay
ment of rent for the following week.
This is different from some New York
tenements where the birth Of a child
is penalized by eviction. The advent
of a new soul into the world should not
be the occasion of despair, rs it is now
to SO many poor mothers, to whom the
burden OF self support looms monster
like at d time when she requires all
her vitality. Any country considering
itself civilized and christian cannot do