Evening star., 1923-07-30
To Regulate
The Birth Rate
by DIR. FRANK CRANE.
by DIR. FRANK CRANE.

Some time ago Representative Mar
suggestion he had received from a
constituent that the United States
government establish population
| bureau for the purpose of advising
| the people whether to raise large or
small families.
According to the gentleman who
| made the suggestion some such de-
vice Will be necessary to prevent
oVerpopulation, statistics showing
that IL the United States continues
10 increase at the same rate 1t has
maintained since the founding of the
government 1t will have a population
OF nearly 4,000,000,0OO at the end of
the next 147 years
Ihis population bureau" said the
correspondent, could publish for the
information of the public the number
| OF Dirths and deaths occurring in the
United States.
IN the event that the births exceed
, tne deaths the bureau would advise
the people to raise small families.
III, on the other hani, the deaths
, should exceed the births the advice
OF tne bureau would be that larger
families be raised"
Inls suggestion might at first be
received with amusement as another
attempt to regulate instinct and ma
ture by laws. But the truth is that
the question here touched upon is
the most vital of all social issues
Ruskln said that the most funda-
VI marriage.
II STANDS to reason that nothing
can be of more Importance to the
human RAGE than the proper and in
teiilsent control of that source from
which IT comes. Unfortunately this
matter which should be treated with
the utmost frankness and scientific
adherence to facts has forever been
shrouded in clouds and darkness. The
topic of the reproduction of the hu-
mar man species is not only taboo in pu-
ilte society but for some strange rea-
son has somehow been considered as
essentially unclean.
That natural instinct to which is
Que que the continuation of the race has
church and moralists as having
somewhat Of evil in it
TO this idea perhaps more than
any other may be traceable the per
versions and crimes which so abound
in this field
IT is still rather the rule of con-
ventional morality that ignorance is
considered chastity. and impoteIrrC
ana indifference are SYNONYMOUS
with virtue
While. on the other hand. love is
preached as the greatest thing in
the world, that love is the fulfilling
or the law and even that God Him
sef Is Love. on the other hand tho
common. natural and universal cx-
preston of love among human beings
has been quite generally estimate
as beastly and degrading
the trouble is that most organize n
religions follow the easiest way and
instead Of trying to direct. energizc
and set in order the compile forces
"f humanity they find IL much sim
pier to class certain things among
the totems to be superstitiously re-
Sarded as sacred and other things
as taboos 20 be regarded with equal
Superstitition as unclean
The only remedy for all fnis IS
first of all intelligence, a frank fac
ing and an honest investigation of
the facts of life: and secondly. ideal
ism. or the recognition that man is
predOminantly a spirit and that tho
function of the spirit is to beautifv.
regulate and control all the things
Of the flesh and not to eXterminate
them.
The easiest thing in tho world 10
say is Thou shalt not. II is in
finitely harder. but also infinitely
# more Importance, to say Thou
shalt" What the human race needs.
what every boy and girl needs is to
be told what to do in order to
achieve the fullest expression of lie-
And about all that laws and moral
tiles accomplish is to tell them what
not TO do.
In some time to come when We
shall have ascended from the pIa IN
where we now are. covered with fog
and miaSmatic vapors. uD to the
clear sunshine region of intelligence
our legislators shall direct their at
tention constructively toward rhe
most vital of all questions that con-
Germ the government of the human
race. which is the question nf the
regulation of the population.