RACE SUICIDE OR A NATURAL LAW? 19 



or fertile according to whether they are rich or poor, 

 prosperous or unprosperous. Giving evidence before the 

 National Birthrate Commission, the Chief Rabbi declared 

 that the use of contraceptives was strongly condemned 

 among the Jews as unclean and demoralising. It may 

 be added that from time immemorial childlessness has 

 been looked upon among the Jews as something akin to 

 a disgrace. Yet he pointed out that the Jewish birth- 

 rate varied greatly in different countries. " In some it 

 is higher than in Whitechapel (it rose during the period 

 1886-90 owing to the immigration of poor Jews in White- 

 chapel from 35* 7 to 38*2). For instance, in Bulgaria it 

 is 39* 6 ; Galicia, 38 ; Russia, 36 ; while in others it is 

 lower than the French birthrate. For instance, 16*2 in 

 Bavaria in the year 1913, while in 1906 in Breslau the 

 Jewish birthrate was 15*3.*' l Roman Catholic France 

 has about the lowest birthrate in the world for any 

 country as a whole, while the Roman Catholic Irish 

 become just as infertile in America as any other race. 

 Dr. C. E. Woodruff mentions that the degree of fertility 

 of the various races in the United States is said to be 

 in the following order : Bohemians, Russians, Hun- 

 garians, Italians, Scotch, Scandinavian Canadians, English, 

 Germans, French, Irish. 2 Thus, according to this list, 

 the Irish become the least fertile of all races in America. 

 And speaking of the Roman Catholic French-Canadians, 

 Dr. Woodruff says : " Though the French-Canadian 

 birthrate (49*08) is still more than double that of the 

 English -Canadians, (23- 41), the big families are becoming 

 rare." 3 At present the French-Canadians are kept back- 

 ward and ignorant by the dominance of a reactionary 



1 The Declining Birthrate, p. 67. 



* The Expansion of Boce*, Woodruff, p. 178. 



Ibid., p. 181. 



