25 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



like Normandy, Burgundy and the Valley of the Garonne, the birth- 

 rate is the lowest, while in the poorest provinces like Brittainy, the Nord 

 and Lozere it is the highest. They show also that it is twice as high 

 among the poor of Paris as among the rich and that it is fifty per cent, 

 higher among fishermen and sailors than among landlords and the pro- 

 fessional classes. But this is a phenomenon not peculiar to France; it 

 is found in all countries where there is a high state of civilization and 

 therefore does not explain why the birth-rate is lower in France than 

 in other countries where similar conditions prevail. 



Our conclusion, therefore, is that the principal causes of the low 

 birth-rate are not due to external conditions, social, legal or religious, 

 but are the result of the general attitude of the French toward family 

 life. The relatively high rate of mortality, inadequate hygienic condi- 

 tions, alcoholism, divorce and the other causes mentioned may be con- 

 tributory factors, but the chief reason is that the French people do not 

 desire to have children. This attitude has been powerfully accentuated 

 by the neo-Malthusian propagandists who by personal solicitation and 

 the distribution of literature encourage the voluntary limitation of 

 births and the practise of abortion, under the pretext of hygiene and 

 the dissemination of philosophic and scientific doctrines. Limitation 

 of the population is to them a legitimate means of combatting poverty 

 and misery, a policy all the more justifiable, they argue, because of the 

 high cost of living and the increasingly hard struggle for existence. 

 Quality rather than quantity of population, they maintain, is the true 

 test of civilization and national greatness. Moreover, the population 

 of France is already as large as its resources can adequately support and 

 therefore nothing is to be gained by producing a surplus to be forced 

 by necessity to emigrate to America or to Madagascar and to the colon- 

 ies of Africa. This very active propaganda is now being vigorously 

 combatted as a national crime by men like Jules Lemaitre, Edmond 

 Perrier, Senator Berenger and others, and a bill for its suppression is 

 being considered by the senate with every likelihood of becoming a law 

 at an early date. Statistics seem to leave no .doubt that the propaganda 

 in favor of race suicide is exerting a marked influence on the birth-rate 

 in many parts of France. In Eoubaix, for example, where it has been 

 particularly active, the number of births decreased from 3,837 in 1897 

 to 2,568 in 1906. Likewise in Turcoing the birth-rate has fallen 

 from 34 per 1,000 inhabitants to 19 since the beginning of the 

 propaganda in that city. This propaganda, says Dr. Lebec, is costing 

 France an army corps every five years. Senator Paul Strauss in re- 

 porting the conclusions of the extra-parliamentary commission on de- 

 population recently referred to the " agonizing results " of the Malthu- 

 sian crusade, and declared that statistics collected by Dr. Doleris 

 showed that between 1898 and 1904 the number of cases of abortions 

 treated in the maternity hospitals had tripled and that the number 



