The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-06-19
BIRTH RATE FALLS IN ITALY, DESPITE MUSSOLINPS
 PLEAS
June IT, 1887.

June IT, 1887.
 Editor of The Democrat:
 The one best authority to dis cuss Fascism, as the opposite of a working class republic, is the author of it himself, Signor Benito Mussolini. Paul Cremona, an Amer ican correspondent in Rome, in re- cent dispatches reports that ac- cording to an inspired article, if not actually written by the Signor him. self, in the Italian newspaper Popolo dItalia, Mussolini's own government organ, in discussion that Fascism as a pure cure- all for political evils admits solving the problem of Italy's fall- ing birth rate. Several articles on that important subject have ap- peared of late in that newspaper, says Cremona.
 It is now ten years since Signor Mussolini, in May 1927, launched his campaign for more children for Italian armies of the future. At that time he said that the decline of great nations was caused by falling birth rates. That undisputable truth is favorite theory of his. In Italy in 1927 the birth rate is reported as standing at 27.5 per population of 1000. In 1886 the rate had fallen to 22.2. The cause for this, said the Popolo d1talia, was moral, not eco- nomical. The fault was not laid at the door of the working class, but at that of the rich, whose homes are empty of children, whose place is taken by pet dogs and cats. The negative remedies of attempting to tax bachelors into matrimony, and penalizing those with small families have been sensibly ignored. Now, instead positive inducements, in- tended mainly to appeal to the working class, are being made, but past experience does not give much hope for the success of the appeal. In the past ten years, despite such drives and campaign, the results, have 1t is admitted by the Duce, been disappointing.
 Critics of this situation in the Duce's country see possible reason in the problem of war and peace, in that the Italian people are pessimis- tic about the future-are reluc- tant to bring children into the world for very good reasons. So the answer to the static birthrate may be psychic-a state of mind that en- genders a fear of raising children for cannon fodder.
 It is probable and possible that if the Duce gave more positive assur- ances to his own peoples, says Gre mona, about Italy's peaceful fu- ture and normal conditions, that he would find a raise in the falling birth rate, but that is something the Duce seems unprepared and un- willing to give, because in his own mind, he is afraid that there may be dark clouds ahead, and the wants to be prepared for the worst that might happen. Hence the falling birth rate worries him as well as irritates. The critics shrug their shoulders, and exclaim, that If the Duce could add few more millions to his already large population, that he would say as he did in justifica- ton of his Ethiopian conquest, We need more for expansion" and look around like Alexander, for fresh fields and pastures new, that be- long to some of his neighbors. So Fear is at the root of the sit- uation. Then again there are periods of social advance or decline in eco- homie power, material prosperity, and group strength for war. The early centuries of the Christian era were a period of decline. Tertullian, emperor of Rome, writes of the great prosperity of his times at the end of the second century. He did not see that society was on the verge of collapse. Augustus, on the contrary saw evil coming. Tacitns feared evil from the German hordes. (The same might be said of Mus -solini and his fear of the British) So Tacitus may have felt the dee cline of his Empire. One thing after another gave way. Nothing could produce recovery. At such times philosophy is pessimistic. and ascet- icsrn sweeps over the nation. So his- tory repeats itself.
 Greek pessism was at the root of the decline of the Greeks in the three centuries before our era,