THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 171 



A very illuminating study of the problem has been made by 

 Miss Elderton in her Report on the English Birth Rate. As the 

 conditions portrayed are quite typical for industrial communities 

 in this country as well as England, and probably other countries 

 also, it will be of interest to quote rather extensively from this 

 report. Speaking of the city of York, Miss Elderton says, "Pre- 

 ventive measures appear to be largely used by nearly all sections 

 of the population in York, although some of our correspondents 

 are not acquainted with the sale of preventatives in pubHc places. 

 One correspondent finds the source of the falling birth rate not in 

 economic depression, but in the rapid growth of prosperity among 

 the working classes in York, and in particular in the exceptional 

 opportunities for the remunerative employment of unmarried 

 women. These unmarried women — often several in one home, 

 earning good wages — connote that the standard of home comforts 

 is a high one. When these women marry, they will not put up 

 with large families and the resulting poverty, incessant toil and 

 drudgery; if they have any knowledge at all of the means of 

 prevention, they check births. This correspondent does not 

 think there is a large recourse to methods of abortion, but that 

 there is greater acquaintance with methods for preventing con- 

 ception. Indirectly, therefore, the employment of women, it is 

 suggested, has raised the standard of living and lowered the 

 birth rate. A second correspondent finds that preventives are 

 used more freely in the upper classes of York society, the county 

 and military sets, and to a somewhat lesser extent in the middle 

 and lower middle classes. In the artisan classes means of preven- 

 tion are not so often adopted, but if pregnancy does occur aborti- 

 facients are resorted to. The poorest classes of all, those who 

 cannot provide for themselves, but seek public dispensaries and 

 maternity charities for attendance, do not appear to limit their 

 families, for very many have large families running up to thirteen 

 or more. It is clear, however, that if certain members of this class 

 used preventives, they would not come under observation to the 

 same extent as the normally fertile. . . . The upper classes do 

 not as a rule come under the chemist's observation, they order 



