The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1916-10-28
JUDICIOUS BIRTH
CONTROL is NOT
RACE SUICIDE
Declared DR.. S. Adolphus Knopf at Meet
ing of American Public Health Asso-
citation in Cincinnati-With an In
crease in Family Rarely Is There
an Increase of Income.

Cincinnati, o., Oct. 27--"Judicioui
birth control is not race suicide, but rae,
preservation" said DIR. S. Adolphu,
knopf. professor of medicine at the New
York Post Graduate Medical school anc
hospital, in an address here to-day before
the American Public Health association
Vigorously urging repeal of federal and
state laws prohibiting circulation of in
formation as to birth control, DR.. Knopf
pleaded for the establishment OF free
clinics directed by regular physicians of
high repute, paid by the city or state,
who would be competent to give infor.
nation as to birth limitations in cases
where they deemed such instruction ad-
visable.
At the conclusion of his paper DIR.
Knopf gave the answers to a number Of
letters of inquiry sent to leading clergy
men, jurors, sociologists and political
economists and their opinions were, he
said, almost unanimous with these ex-
pressed by him.
DIR. Knopf pointed out that in the ma
jority of cases the larger the family the
more.congested will be the quarters they
live in and the more unsanitary the en-
vironment..
with the increase of the family" he
said, "there is rarely, if ever, CORE
spending income of the earnings of the
father or mother, and as a result, NAL
nutrition and insufficient clothing enter
as factors to predispose to tuberculosis
and other diseases. In the larger fam
lilies it is usually the latter born who
contract tuberculosis most frequently.
Fifty thousand children die annually
from tuberculosis in the United States
and the morbidity and mortality from
this disease is highest among the poor,
where the number of children is greatest.
"The economic loss to families and
communities by the deaths of wives and
children because of transmitted infectious
diseases, cardiac and renal affections, to
which has been added excessive child
bearing, goes into millions. These vast
sums and untold physical sufferings could
have been saved by judicious birth con- |
troll as exercised in Holland, where, since
the establishment of birth control clinics, |
the population has increased in physical
stature and we'll being. The average |
birth rate in three principal cities of Hol-
land was 1871 per thousand in 1881 when
birth control clinics were started In
1912 it had fallen to 25.3 per thousand.
The general death rate, however, had
dropped during the same period from 242
to Ill per thousand"
The records of the charity organiza-
tions prove that, as a rule, the larger
the families are that apply for relief,
the greater is their distress, according to
DIR. Knopf. The larger the family of the
poor, the more there is child labor, the
more disruption and irregularity, and the
more frequently one finds a lower stand
ard of life and morals in general, he said.
In Holland, among families of the labor
ers, there is better personal and general 6
hygiene and finer moral and intellectual /
development since the establishment Of
birth control clinics, he asserted; young q