New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-03-31

have recently returned from TWO
months tour of the industrial centres OF
France. undertaken By the commission sent
abroad by the American Manufacturers kN-
port Association. The evidence which saw
confirmed the impression which residence
of five years in the country had prepared. BY
far the grsvest problem of the war for France
is the additional stimulus which the enforced
employment of women in industry gives TO
the practice OF voluntary sterllity.
If there is 20 be i reduction in the popula-
ton it makes little difference whether it is
chiefly through losses in battle or through a
lower birth rate after the war; in one case the
chief loss 10 the nation is OF soldiers for later
wars; in the other it is OF women who DIE
chldless in industry ! have no authority
upon which 10 estimate the number OF
Frenchmen who have been killed or whose
physical incapacity as a result OF the war
will in one way or another prevent them from
reproducing, but believe that one would not
risk an error of more than trihing char
acter on the side Of exaggeration in putting
it at million; it may be larger, of course.
think that we may assume, on the basis OF
recent Developments and in view of the mill
tary situation, that as many more VIII have
to be counted out before the end of the war.
Now, loss of something ever two million
males in nation possessing, let us say,
about seven million capable of reproducing
is serious loss, because the seven millions.
in the period Immediately before the war, did
not produce as many people as died each
H. ..l,,,
slight decline smaller number of men, to-
gether with the unusual strain Of after-war
poverty, will naturally result in lower
birth rate. But if this decrease has the effect
of reducing the total population by. say, one
hundred thousand persons year, the de-
crease caused by the introduction into in
dustry of large proportion OF the women
who before the war produced more children
than any class in France will certainly be
much larger. If it is only twice as large, and
if no measures can be found to correct the
tendency France stands to have a )pula-
tion Of about thirty millions in 1915
Anxiety Since the War
The French themselves. long familiar with
this problem, have shown more than un-
usual anxiety concerning it since the open
ing Of the war, because they know so well the
government, which can be relied upon to
display remarkable efficiency in keeping
up the birth rate Of its people. In France
there are several conditions which make it
supremacy difficult TO combat decline in the
birth rate. Under republican political in
stitutions il is difficult to impose measures
upon population accustomed TO an extensive
degree Of personal liberty. Alcoholism and
tuberculosis are serious evils. But above all
the long experience and free practice of
voluntary sterility by all classes Of the French
people. which came perhaps chiefly as the re-
suit of the decline Of religious discipline in
the country, have made state control appear
almost impossible.
There are no official figures covering the
extent TO which women have replaced men in
French industry since the opening Of the war.
Observation shows that the number is large,
certainly many hundreds Of thousands. EX-
perience in the plants has destroyed the SUI
perstition of skilled labor. Factory superin-