The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-12-17

scraps which I have described in former letters. Often each boy will want some of his land facing the road, and what is a large field of the father becomes mere ribbons when parceled out to the sons. In order to prevent such division parents keep down the number of children, and thus leave a sizeable portion to each. The peasant loves his land and his ideal is a single heir mar ried to a single heiress. Therefore he leaves only one or two children.
 Attempts have been made to change this inheritance law, and give the father the right to will away his estate as he pleases. If this can be accomplished it will increase tho birthrate. Some authorities suggest an inheritance tax of 90 per cent on all estates when there -are only two children, and of 50 per cent when there is only one. This means that the man with one child would leave to the government all but 40 per cent of his savings.
 They Need Prohibition
 Another load on the wings of the bird that carries the babies is the great amount of alcohol consumed by the French. The average per capita is about If quarts every year and in certain cities of Normandy 1t s twice as much. Statistics show tha. q large per cent of the inmates of the French insane asylums and hos pitals are drunkards; and the scien- lists claim that alcoholism is con tributing 10 the weakening of the race in more ways than one. Some say it is lessening the number of births, but this is questionable, for many of the nations who drink much have a far higher birth rate. The British, for instance, who are great drinkers, have one-third more babies per thousand than the French. and the Russians who are adicted to vodka have birthrate of A to the thousand while France has only T..
 Other contributory causes are said to be the decline of religion. the em- ployment of women in factories, and the absolute necessity of every boy baby being raised for a place in the army. The state watches the advent of every new infant, and as soon as it comes a government doctor in spects it. If it is boy, his name goes down at once as a future sol- dier of France. Indeed there is no way of escaping the army no matter if ones parents be American or of any other nationality if boy is born on French soil. For this reason mothers often cross the Channel to England to have their babies born there.
 What the Government Does
 For years the government has been enacting laws with a view to in crease the French population. It passed one in 1913 which gave an an nGal allowance for every poor family which had more than three children The amount of the allowance was fixed by the communes. and it ranged from s11 to s17 per head In 1920 bills wer introduced into the French senate making physical education compulsory for girls is well as for boys, and this included plans to ac- quire lands and buildings to be used for physical training Another law sought to modify the marriage code so that one could marry without the consent of his parents and grand parents, and another proposed that the word "obey" be taken out of the woman's part of the marriage con tract To the latter, the women's journals were especially hostile, de- claring that it would lead to anarchy in the home
 There are other laws that have been suggested. One is the taxation of bachelors, and another the tax ation of married men who have not become fathers. There is a move rnent to curtail the taxes on the large, Ffamilies and in some places gold medals are given for more babies.