98 THE SCIENCE OF POWER 



body of the largest and richest city in civilization 

 reports that of the 172,619 school-children examined 

 by him in a single year one-half were suffering 

 from some definite organic defect " resulting from 

 sheer poverty." * In one phase he is the champion 

 of his civilization as the universal triumph of mind 

 and enlightenment. In another, in the highest 

 intellectual nation of the West, the silent verdict 

 of the people on the conditions in which they lived 

 at the outbreak of the world war of 1914 was that 

 they had gradually ceased to bring into being as 

 many children as were necessary to the community. 



1 Annual Report, 191 :> {London County Council). Cf. Times, 

 2 April 1912. 



