POPULATION PROBLEMS 213 



limit the family which was wise when circumstances 

 were straitened and prospects gloomy might well be 

 subject to revision some five years afterwards. The 

 control is relative to many conditions, e.g. (a) the likeli- 

 hood of securing good education and auspicious launch- 

 ing in life, a likelihood which might be great for two but 

 small for ten ; (h) the health of the mother ; (c) the 

 vigour of the children. Similarly with nations, the 

 problem is relative to conditions. When the land is 

 crowded, when openings are few, when unemployment is 

 rife, and distress ^s at the doors, it might be wise to 

 counsel restriction of families. But when numbers are 

 dwindling or have been terribly reduced, when new 

 opportunities of industry are offered, when new countries 

 are opening out, when there is vigour and mastery, then 

 it might be wise to hearken to the old counsel, " Be 

 fruitful and multiply." 



To those, and there are at piesent (1921) many, who 

 cannot see in the decline of the birth-rate anything 

 but menacing evil, if not ' race-suicide,' we would submit 

 the following considerations : — (1) Much depends on how 

 far the decline goes. If there should begin to be an 

 excess of deaths over births, which has not come about 

 even in France, that would be ominous indeed. But may 

 not a considerable decline in the birth-rate strengthen 

 a nation ? May it not make for stability, by raising the 

 health-rate and lessening the strain of domestic anxieties ? 

 We can compensate for a falling Birth-rate by lowering 

 the Death-rate, and also by raising the Health-rate. 



(ii) The decline in the birth-rate is now an almost 



