i 94 NO STRUGGLE NO SELECTION 



the adoption by a considerable portion of the popula- 

 tion of Belgium of the system which prevails in 

 France, of married people limiting the number of 

 their children. This system enables marriages to be 

 multiplied without a corresponding addition being 

 made to the population. Were it not for its adoption 

 by the French people, the proportion of marriages to 

 population, which is as high in France as in the 

 Netherlands, would yield an increment far beyond 

 what there is room for in the labour market of France. 



But such an increment the French prevent by 

 making their marriages comparatively infertile. Thus 

 the same number of marriages that in the Netherlands 

 yields 100 children, in France yields only 68. The 

 average number of births in 100 marriages in the 

 latter country is 310 compared with 456 in the 

 former. The economic conditions of France impose 

 upon its people either comparative infrequency or 

 comparative infertility of marriage. They have 

 chosen the latter mode of adjusting the population 

 to the demand of the labour market. 



The manufacturing and commercial industries of 

 France are prosperous, and population in the large 

 towns is increasing. But even in these the expansion 

 of the labour market is very moderate when compared 

 with what is taking place throughout Europe. On 

 the other hand, the agricultural population, which 

 embraces many times the population supported by 

 other industries, is decreasing. The so much lauded 

 system of peasant proprietors has, when weighed in 



