I78 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



living. The population is now better clothed, housed and fed than at 

 any previous time, and its quality is probably much improved. 



From a military point of view the decline in the birthrate is important. 

 A reduction of surplus population now utilized for standing armies with 

 which to menace the peace of nations would contribute greatly to inter- 

 national tranquillity. Anything that increases the value of a man and 

 his usefulness to the state, renders his government less disposed to trump 

 up quarrels with other nations which may result in destruction of life. 

 Nations with a stationary population are anxious to avoid war. The 

 declining birthrate, therefore, is one of the factors making for inter- 

 national peace. 



It is an error to assume that the present materialistic attitude of the 

 social mind is likely to endure permanently. There is not the slightest 

 evidence that it represents a social psychology that will long obtain. 

 On the contrary, there are indications that at the present time large sec- 

 tions of our population are beginning to question the worth of the sacri- 

 fices made in the race for wealth. Exposures of the investigations of the 

 past few years have directed public attention to the questionable sources 

 of many great fortunes, and have made familiar the words "tainted 

 money." Criticism of the manner in which so many fortunes have been 

 made has tended to lessen the social value of wealth, and has done much 

 to direct the attention of the world to the advantages of the simple life. 

 It is coming to be realized that the greatest satisfactions of life are not 

 in extravagant living, but consist rather in the consciousness of duty 

 done and loyalty to high ideals. In so far as these ideas which have 

 been for some time obscured in the struggle for material comforts return 

 again to their proper place in the popular mind, it is likely that there 

 will not be the same antagonism between the birthrate and ambition that 

 has existed during several of the past decades. 



Much of the discussion of race-suicide is academic and sentimental 

 and tends to draw public attention away from questions whose study is 

 of vastly more vital interest in their relation to the general welfare. 

 Thus far the improvements in medical and sanitary science have greatly 

 increased the expectation of life and have in some degree compensated 

 for any loss due to the lowering of the birthrate. 



