The Idaho recorder. [volume] (Salmon City, Idaho) 1886-1927, 1920-01-30
Europe's Drop in Birth
Rate Causes a Scare

sate. A prominent medical man has
Just written In the Times: "What we
are witnessing Is the death Of the mid
die class" Upon the coffin of TINT
class Will be inscribed the epitaph. "A
class that died because II could not
i've" Not because 1t would not but
because It could not Are we going to
see Europe given over to the working
clnssf Aud then?
The once great middle class. In Its
last struggle for survival. viii be
forced into one of two things: either
to sell out and go over bodily to or.
gnniZed labor. or to form European
middle class trade union, both for of.
Tense and defense. II will say To
Europe: III you want doctors, law.
ycrs. clergymen. you must pay for It.
or we won't serve you"
But Europe. alasl Is beginning to
do without the clergyman. The state
lawyer IL beginning to supplant the
private practitioner. Only the doctor
IL left. and he. poor devil, is being
nationnllzed under national health reg
ulatlons.
Here In England the middle class
family OF four or five has become
two or three. Medical men, without
exception. are united In their opinion
that during the past ten years the
birth rate Of that class has been going
headlong 10 perdltlon.
Now come the figures OF the mar.
riage nge. published few days ago.
Between lOll-14 30 per cent of all
bachelors married; m lol7 only 376
per cent. In iSSG-90 80 per cent mar
ricd. The proportion of bachelors who
marry at over thlrty.tive ms been
steadily rising. with swift upward
climb In 1916 and 1917. Only SIS
per cent of spinsters marrying during
l0l7 were under twenty-five years of
age.
Among the middle classes the age IL
rising at nm alarming pace. II looks
ms though within comparatively
short time here IN England the MIDI
die class will, with The Increased age
~ Nt''NfEts EtNf w tiif TWtt WHY
those slunted specimens of child life
which are so often. though not always
the fruit Of hate unions
II Is significant that no single per.
son has come forward 10 contest the
above. II cannot be contested. We
IRE looking on the passing of class.
Members Of parliament are begin,
ming 70 ST. NJ and take note.
Babies Fewer In Germany. Even.
Even Germany, the nursery OF Eu-
rope. which produced it's million babies
NJ the bidding of the war lord ms
food for his cnnnons. Il fast depopn.
iating. The war has done this. The
Germans of The cities refuse To have
children. ave cannot feed them"
they shy, 1--WE cannot even feed our
selves"
During the war the German prafes.
sorS solemnly debated polygamy rs n
remedy. Some OF them approved II.
But Germany Is no Utah and Berlin
No Salt Lake City, Today's Father.
lpnd Is strictly homogeneous. Econ
oiny Is the father of morality. The
modern German finds II hard enough
to keep one wife. lie does not want
half dozen.
For ten wears before the war Eng.
land. like the rest of Europe. had be.
gun to- Yield herself To the pleasure
craze, With the war and that frantic
desire 20 forget which became cult.
that craze passed into frenzy Today.
over - months after the war the
music halls and picture palaces are
crowded to the doors. have made
the experiment Of listening t. the con.
vrrSation OF II couples of business
girls IN the early trnms and tusses. or
this number no fewer than II used the
expression: where are you going to-.
nighty' hut what has ali this to do
With the birth ate.
Everything. Pleasure tn the English.
man, as to the European. has heceme
n narcotic as essential rs tobacco ar
alcohol Pleasure casts money. pieas.
ure cNcessful means selnShneSs pie.s-
ure means effort and effort nbsorhs
vitality. Pleasure means the hreakun
az the home. The modern European
las tn choose between pleasure aud
children. He chooses pleasure.
The Unborn Suffers.
Then comes the Gust Of iiyinr ~
Europeans nightmare. The war has