Palisadian. [volume] (Cliffside Park, N.J.) 1906-current, 1920-01-17
Europe's Drop in Birth
Rate Causes a Scare

safe. 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 that
class will be inscribed the epitaph: "a
class that died because it could not
i've" Not because it would not, but
because it could not. Are we going to
see Europe given over to the working
class? And then?
The once great middle class, in its
last struggle for survival, will be
forced into one Of two things; either
to sell out and go over bodily to Or
ganized labor, or to form European
middle class trade union. both for Of
tense and defense. 1t will say to
Europe: eff you want doctors, law
yers, clergymen, you must pay for it.
or we won't serve you"
But Europe, alas! is beginning to
do without the clergyman. The state
lawyer is beginning to supplant the
private practitioner. Only the doctor
Is left, and he, poor devil, is being
nationalized under national health reg.
ulations.
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 to perdition.
Now come the figures of the mar
Fiage age, published a few days ago.
Between 1911-14 80 per cent of all
bachelors married; in 1917 only 376
per cent. In 18S6-9O so per cent mar
ried. The proportion Of bachelors who
marry at over thirty-five has been
steadily rising. with a swift upward
climb in 1916 and 1917. Only 54.8
per cent Of spinsters marrying during
1917 We're under twenty-five years Of
age.
Among the middle classes the age is
rising at an alarming pace. 1t looks
as though within a comparatively
short time here in England the mid
die class will, with the increased age
Of marriage, give to the race only
those stunted specimens of child life
which are so often, though not always,
the fruit of late unions.
1t Is significant that no single per-
son has come forward to contest the
above 1t cannot be contested. We
are looking on the passing Of class.
of 10
ming to sit up and take note.
Babies Fewer in Germany, Even.
Even Germany. the nursery of Eu-
rope, which produced It's million babies
at the bidding of the war lord as
food for his cannons, is fast depopu-
lating. The war has done this. The
Germans of the cities refuse to have
children. "We cannot feed them"
they say. 1--WE cannot even feed our
selves"
During the war the German profess
sors solemnly debated polygamy as
remedy. Some of them approved 1t.
But Germany is no Utah and Berlin
no Salt Lake City. Today's Father
land is strictly homogeneous. Econ
omy is the father of morality. The
modern German finds 1t hard enough
TO keep one wife. He does not want
half a dozen.
For ten years 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 to forget which became a, cult,
that craze passed into frenzy. Today,
over IL months after the war, the
music halls and picture palaces are
crowded to the doors. I have made
the experiment of listening to the con-
versation of IT couples of business
girls In the early trans and buses. OF
this number no fewer than II used the
expression: "Where are you going to-
night?" but what has all this to do
with the birth rate?
Everything. Pleasure to the English
man, as to the European. has become
a narcotic as essential as tobacco or
alcohol. Pleasure costs money. Pleas
ure excessful means selfishness. Pleas
ure means effort and effort absorbs
vitality. Pleasure means the breakup
of the home. The modern European
has to choose between pleasure and
children. He chooses pleasure.
The Unborn Suffers.
Then comes the cost of living, the
Europeans nightmare. The war has