Willcox: Fewer Births and Deaths 
of the great decline in the death rate? 
That is, if the death rate in Europe had 
declined as rapidly as it has and the 
birth rate had not declined, the popula- 
tion of that continent would now be 
increasing even faster than the wealth 
or the food supply. The standard of 
living would be sinking and we would 
probably soon relapse into our former ill 
state. .It is the decline in the birth 
rate, and that only, which has enabled 
mankind to grip and hold fast the 
advantages promised by the decline in 
the death rate. 
But there is a very important differ- 
ence between the two changes. It is 
probably to the interest of society in the 
long run that each individual should be 
given a chance to live out his life to old 
age, and social effort directed to that 
end is beneficial both to the individual 
and to society. Thus far the interests 
of the two coincide. For this reason 
the two have cooperated and are cooper- 
ating effectively to reduce the death 
rate. But in the matter of the birth 
rate there is a lack of adjustment be- 
tween the interests of society and those 
of the individual. Society is deeply 
concerned that enough children should 
be born to secure its own permanence 
and a reasonable increase and that those 
children should have the highest promise 
of service. The individual is deeply 
concerned not to compromise his own 
future by assuming responsibility for 
wife or family without the prospect of 
being able to maintain them in accord- 
ance with his standard of living. The 
individual may often see for himself or 
herself, therefore, a balance of advantage 
in abstinence from or postponement of 
marriage, in a childless marriage or a 
small family, while society from its 
point of view might conceive it to be 
most important that a given endowment 
of much social worth should be per- 
petuated. 
If there were time it would be easy to 
show that a low and diminishing birth 
rate is especially characteristic of many 
strains of population, like college gradu- 
ates of both sexes and the native 
American stock of the New England 
States, strains perhaps better endowed 
than the average population with heredi- 
127 
tary qualities the perpetuation of which 
is socially desirable. 
SIGNIFICANCE OF EUGENICS 
While persons engaged in grappling 
with public health problems should 
interest themselves in the various 
changes I have briefly outlined, the main 
question which my figures raise is this, 
How shall the desirable natural increase 
of the population be secured and at the 
same time the quality of the population 
be maintained or improved by securing 
at least a normal or average and, if 
possible, a more than normal birth rate 
and natural increase in the strains of 
population which are of the best stock 
and therefore likely to transmit qualities 
of greatest social worth? 
In this difficult field a few general 
principles may be stated dogmatically, 
which I would be glad to explain and 
defend, if there were time. 
1. The death rate cannot be expected 
to fall much below where it now stands 
in healthy districts. 
2. There is no such natural limit to a 
fall in the birth rate. 
3. The spread in the volitional control 
of the birth rate is a change against 
which, even if we believe it undesirable, 
it is hopeless to struggle. 
4. Legal regulations of marriage in 
the effort to diminish the number of 
births of diseased or otherwise undesir- 
able children seem likely, unless accom- 
panied by segregation, to do more harm 
than good. 
5. The social service rendered by par- 
ents who have hereditary qualities of 
great value and make heavy sacrifices 
in other directions in order to rear 
families of normal size or larger is 
likely in future to be much better 
appreciated and requited. 
6. Persons interested in maintaining 
the numbers and improving the quality 
of the population should aim not merely 
or mainly at a continued reduction of 
the general death rate but also at the 
gradual education of public opinion 
towards a readjustment of the birth 
rate in various classes which will enable 
society to gain from its best strains 
more than it can do under present 
conditions. 
