Omaha daily bee., 1917-02-05
B1rth-Cmtrol and ce-Sulcide
Literary Digest

the chair OF economies and SOCIOLOGY III MdSsd-
chusetts Agricultural college, tells us, IN an ar
tcle contributed to The Journal OF Heredity, that
our wealthy classes need more births and our
poorer fewer-"b "birth-release" in the former case
and control in the latter Control he thus CON
siders simply phase of the general problem
of population, and he urges the adoption OF
program for eugenics" that shall include this
and many other things. The survival OF the
| merely strong Prof. Sprague says, may result in
the survival Of "the strong hog Pressure OF
population develops brutality, selshness, and dis
regard for human life; it crushes leisure, gener-
osity, and art and makes impossible some of the
finer virtues of On the other hand, race
suicide is destroying the social balance and is be-
coming a real menace where this pressure is not
felt He goes on:
"For one great section of the population we
need birh-control and for the other brth-release.
Massachusetts, is the only state that has tor many
decades taken birth statistics on basis OF ma
tvity and these show that the birth-rate OF her
foregn-born population is about three times the
birth-rate of her native, mostly Anglo-Saxon,
people, the birth-rate being IA per 1000 and the
death-rate l8 per 1000 in the same native group.
There are many reasons to believe that practically
the same situation holds in other states among
the people of the same class. Merely to sustain
the population and not to increase it, every mar
ried woman capable of bearing children must as
an average, bring to maturity at least three chill
dren. OF the graduates of our womens colleges
only one-half ever marry and the average NUM-
Der of children per graduate is less than one
"Brth-control among the poor is needed tor
themselves, but birth-release among the upper
classes is great necessity, both for their own
welfare and the salvation of the nation. Ex-
cessive birth-control by those well able to have
families sufficient for the nations growth weakens
the nation at every point, necessitates the i'm
portation of ndigestible foreign elements, good
people in themselves but poorly adapted to
American life, weakens patriotism, and brings
about mixture of races which makes confusion
of morals, dearth of art and literature, and con-
ficts between classes. Birth-control among the
poor is problem, but race-suicide among the mid
die classes is racial menace which threatens by
its influence to defeat the highest ideals of the
nation.
There ought to be reasonable brth-control by
all classes based upon high ideals for the nation
and family, responsibility for offspring, and re-
fnement of soul and character of the. parents.
Gradually man has been reducing his life from
world OF chance to one of human control and
order. Finally his children will be the result of
foresight, plans, ideals, and self-control Birth
control does not necessarily mean smaller fami-
lies, but it does mean better families, brought
forth and developed according to the right ming
ling of reason and love- America needs at pres
ent higher quality Of population more than she
families Of the successful classes, not larger fami
lies of the unsuccessful. The number Of children
reared into decent citizenship, not the number
born in poverty, is what makes the American fam
lily happy and the nation strong"
Birth-control, however, must not stand by it.
self for it is only one important factor in the
problem of population and vitality How is our
population to increase in the future? Race-sui-
eide is decimating the middle classes of the in
dustrial regions. If the radical birth-control ad-
vocates are to prevail, there will be no pressure
e .f.ks1 ktxa.
that we shall surely need must therefore come
from the poverty-strcken classes of the Russians,
Italians. Syrians, Portuguese, Mexicans, and
negroes
The writer GOES on: "If the insufficient birth
rate of the upper classes were to continue and we
were obliged to get our increase in numbers either
from the overhowing poverty stricken families of
foreign countries or from the poor classes of
our own population, should say, from the point
of view of national welfare, let the increase
come from our own people, reared under our
own flag language, and customs, even though
in poverty. The adoption of birth-control by
poor families to the extent that it is practised
by the economically higher classes will condemn
this continent forever to be not only the mixing
bowl Of the world, but the scrap-heap of the
races. These people may be themselves as good
as any of us, but forever mixed together from the
ends of the world, they cannot make a nation.
Nations composed Of mixed races are weak in
most OF the things tnat make Tor national strength
and progress. Lacking the unity of traditions,
idealsm. and national spirit, they are liable to
have excessive indivdualism and turn to ma
terialistic goals.
"If in America we are to develop national
unity, great American art and literature, full
realization Of American genius for all classes
and races already with US, and respectable posi-
ton of influence in the worlds progress and af-
fairs, we must have brth-rate among all classes
sufficient to maintain increase, and unity the
people Of the United States into one great social
and national body.
This nation must set up goal of the normal
American family and racial independence. 1t must
idealize the family instead of the individual and
work for its success by all forms of legal social
and economic readjustments that are necessary
for the accomplishment of these ends.
"If we are ever to ripen and perfect our civili-
zation we must not depend upon the pauperized
villages of Europe the deserts of Asia, and the
junges of Africa for our population We must
determine to rear our own population from our
own best stock, and so organize and utilize the
resources Of the country that all classes may
bring their families up to the high standards that
are possible to u.s.
America was founded on great principles
which the world needs to have preserved, but
without sufficient birth-rate the old population
will pass away and her mission to the world will
not be fulfilled"