TEE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY 87 



From the very beginning of organic evolution the principal function 

 of every generation has been the production of the next. The origin 

 of each higher species has been an incident of this function, and man 

 who looks before and after has been the final result. The ultimate 

 outcome of evolution has been a rationalism that threatens to end the 

 long process. 



Last year the deaths in France exceeded the births by 19,920. In 

 some departments there were less than seventy births to fill the places 

 \acant by one hundred deaths. A patriotic Frenclmian has written 

 naively that this state of things is not so bad as it seems at first sight, 

 as all civilized nations will soon be in the same condition. It is indeed 

 true that the birth rate is decreasing in every country. The serious- 

 ness of the situation is obscured by the fact that the death rate is also 

 decreasing, so that an increase of population has been as a rule main- 

 tained. But the decrease in the death rate can not continue indefi- 

 nitely, and if present tendencies persist the birth rate will fall below 

 the death rate everywhere, as has already happened in France and in 

 New England. 



It is now considered praiseworthy to postpone marriage imtil a 

 family can be supported in comfort, and proper not to have more chil- 

 dren than suits the pleasure of the parents. In 81 divorce cases tried 

 in a month in a New York City court — divorces have trebled since 

 1870 — the 162 married persons had among them 52 children. A cen- 

 sus of twenty-two apartment houses in New York City proved them 

 to contain 485 families and just 54 children — one child to nine fam- 

 ilies. These are the extreme cases; but among the educated and well- 

 to-do classes the number of children does not nearly suffice to continue 

 the race. The Harvard graduate has on the average seven tenths of 

 a son, the Vassar graduate one half of a daughter. 



These conditions are regarded as bad because the successful stocks 

 are superseded; but to the present writer this does not appear to be 

 the danger. There is probably not so much difference between one 

 stock and another but that in each generation the place of the extinct 

 families can be supplied from the inferior classes to advantage. A 

 hereditary aristocracy is not maintained by inbreeding but by selection 

 from below. 



The fundamental danger to society lies in the fact that the pattern 

 set by the ruling classes dominates; and this is especially true in a 

 partial democracy, such as the United States or France. Where 

 classes are distinct and permanent, each can have its own ideals, as it 

 has its own dress. But when the hats and shoes of the rich are imi- 

 tated by the middle classes, and those of the middle classes by the 

 laboring classes, we may be sure that there will be a similar following 

 of the leader in social customs and morals. If the two-child family 



