Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1920-12-14
Condition More Vital Than An
other War-0r Than
Ten Others.
YELLOW SPECTER is Seen
United States Looked To as Savior,
With National Decay as Wars Aft
ermath-Middie Glass Most
Affected-Babies Fewer
In Germany.

said the sprucely dressed young Eng
lishman with collar of pre-war glossi-
ness. reading out the following para
| graph In the corner of a London club {:
"The birth rate per 1000 persons
living in England and Wales in 1918
was HI, as compared with 81 per
1000 In the ten years 1880. The
rate in Cheshire is only 1919 per 1000,
and that in London 16.1. The end of
/ the war shows no check in what is
| really national suicide.
'It's not my funeral" he repeated.
| But it was.
It was not only his funeral, but per-
hapS the funeral of a race. ''D-n
| posterity !" said the Irishman. "What
| has posterity ever done for me?" The
| European is saying the same.
This is no scare. 1t is fact. 1t is
more vital than another European
| war-or than ten others. 1t is more
| mortal than the influenza. 1t is more
| dangerous than an anarchist bomb in
every street. For Europe, it is the
| only thing that matters.
1t is a very old world.
Here in London at election time we
the face of one of our tallest buildings.
| AS the results come in. the figures on
the ladders, representing the Liberal
| and tory parties, race each other up
the building. Rearing their height
| over Europe'S weary, war worn
masses, two ladders are seen today.
| On one is the figure of death. On the
other. the figure of little rosy child.
| death racing against life. And death
| is winning.
1.-THE End of the Race"
1.-THE End of the Race" a current
cartoon, shows Europe's last baby in
the year 1000. A halo is shown about
it's wizened head. It's bones show
, through its tortured skin. It is sur
rounded by adOring millions of aged
Europeans of both sexes, the last OF
| their race. 1t is only cartoon
But?
In the death that comes in the roar
! of gun and the crash of a shell we
| have forgotten the death of the great
| silence.
Twenty years ago France used to be
| held up as EurOpe's horrible eXam
ple-France, the country where
after America, the baby was king.
| There are those who say today that
| the war has completed what the
| French nation began. There are
skilled sociologists who believe that
France, once the glory of the old
world, is dying-dying because she re-
| fuses to live. Patriotism and pride
keep closed the mouths of her great
men. But is not today's Europe
greater France?
Except in this one thing figures can
be made to prove anything. But the
mathematics of birth and death are
| memorable. There is no room for
doubt.
Europe, to use pungent American
ism, is ION the toDOggan." There are
omens as portentous and inevitable
as that sinking feeling before sea
| sickness. Bonuses for babies" is Eu
ropes. Here in England we have
already raised that S. o. S. France
tried it and failed. Will Europe?
The above applies to all classes. bat
to the middle class it comes with
full intensity.
Middle Class Most Affectet
| While, with better conditions, a raII
| ing death rate among the W ,rking
| classes has during the last 80 years
| TO some extent compensated for Il fall
| ing birth rate, the accentuated fall of
| the middle class birth rate has no fall
| ing death rate of any kind to cOmpen-
safe. A prominent medical man has
| just written in the Times: ''Wbat 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
live" 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 it's
| 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, alasI 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
fhof 6rrr-ir +1x,
birth rate of that class has been going
headlong to perdition.
n rrvac c.rOOr