The National leader., 1922-03-06

lHNMNA~ V@@gM| Cne North carolina college Tor
lNslVssa Igal Women, published in the Maryland
lNssaas-MNN| Women's News recently, interested me
greatly He showed that farm women
bear most of the children born in the United States
Besides having the duty of keeping up the rural
population, farm mothers of the
boys and girls who go to the cities and account for
about half of the annual increase in city population
immigration from foreign countries he found,
accounts for only very small part of the increase
in population in constantly growing cities.
Some of the increase in city population of course
from the birth rate in the cities, but fully
half of the city increase he says, be accounted
for only by the fact that it is drawn from the farm
communities.
"Statistical evidence" he says, "need not be as
simulated to support what is common knowledge,
namely that the size of the rural families is greater
than that of city families The families of the
working classes in the cities tend to decrease slow
ly; the families of the middle classes Commercial
and professionally and the so-called upper classes
tend to decrease rapidly All the above
that the ma ajority of the children of the
ton are born in rural communities and probably
will continue to be thus born for some time to
come" .-"~
Intentional birth control is practiced by the rich
and well-to-do of the cities, who best able to
afford the expense of bringing children into the
world and educating them. Despite laws forbidding
the circulation of information on how to limit the
size of families, of working families Of the
cities, pressed by poverty and economic uncer-
talnty, are learning to control the number of chill
country that the birth-rate keeps up. -,
1t seems, then, that besides feeding and clothing
the world, farmers are the chief factors in
populating it. With the birth rate elsewhere fall
ing off, what will be the result eventually? Obvi-
ously it will not be long, if the present tendency
! keeps up, before farm will be furnishing
two-thlrds, three quarters of the population
But 1T can not keep up in my opinion The cities
are constantly growing at the expense of the
try. AS the cities increase, proportionaly small
er and decreasing number of farm mothers will be
expected to keep up city populations we'll as
rural populations, and there must be limit some
where. Where is the breaking point?
Today economic conditions make farming on the
whole bitter struggle for existence. The bust
ness of feeding and clothing the world is not now
safe or profitable business for farmers. Will the
business OF farmers in populating the world be a
safe and profitable occupation, is it safe and
profitable even now? It costs suffering, hard work
and much money to have children and educate them.
Every child contributed to society by farmers has
an economic and social value of thousands of dol
lars, not to mention the priceless amount of love
and care and hope that goes into it.
This new duty to civilization that bad social and
economic conditions are forcing farmers, while
others neglect it, may prove the last straw. Will
farm women continue to meet the emergency with
ever increasing families? There is physical limit
but long before that is reached if indeed it is not
now reached, believe farm women will balk And
who is there that will blame them? They will but
have taken a leaf from the book of city women. -
THE WORLD PEACE MOVE
Efforts to bring about world disarmament and
peace have not stopped with the adjournment Of the
limitation OF ornaments parley at Washington,