havior of and they may not keep together. It is hard to see how the mor CHAP. III tality in a normal population can be brought lower than 10 in a The Bothousand, whereas there is no telling to what point its fecundity the Birth may sink. In New England, for example, the birth rate of the rative stock appears to be less than its death rate, so that it is calculable being swamped by the foreign-born element, which breeds three times as fast as it does. Rato May Stim Produc SOCIAL CONTROL OF FECUNDITY Society, however, is not without influence upon the desire for By Means of Opinion chspring. Whether a young couple shall avoid progeny, content Society Can Influthemselves with a child or two, or undertake to rear a real family, once the for de;ends much on the current opinion about children. If they Dispring are koked upon as blessings and if a normal-sized, well-reared tary is a source of pride, few couples will remain child-shy. Thus by substituting sound ideals for selfish and frivolous ideals, soce y may do much to raise births to the point, at least, of race coatinuance. If social appreciation of children does not suffice, society can Society induce the foresighted and prudent to rear more children by alter- ulato Chuld in the economic incidence of child-rearing. At present the child- tion by a producing family handicaps itself in comparison with the child- Bearing • sty. If by iree medical care of the child-bearing mother and her Its Oost <ildren, free schooling, free meals in school, and so on up to the sint of state allowances for healthy children born to healthy couples, the economic burden of race continuance were largely transferred from the individual to the community, no doubt the cid crop of the superior strains would increase. It goes without saying that such aid would most stimulate the reproduction of the sore shiftless elements unless it were reserved for couples which ca.me up to a certain standard of inheritance, capacity, and chararter. Such a standard will not be accepted in a democracy until trental measurement is far more advanced and used than it now is. As soon as one element withholds its increase more than an- The Freectter element, it diminishes its share in the heredity of the gener- Aro, in General zens to come. Now, since those who limit their family to a less Valu lerate size, are, on the whole, the prudent, self-controlled, and able Giable people, or those who have a high standard of what they than the ze their children, whereas those who have families of ten to multipliers Siteen are, on the whole, the more thriftless and reckless, or those multipliers Stocks Prudent Let the Law Hinder the Free-mul. tipliers Their CHAP. III who have a low standard of what they owe their children, is not birth control dysgenic? Does it not cause the race to be recruited from the less desirable strains ? Formerly, owing to the poverty and ignorance of the parents of large families, fewer of their children survived than of the families half as large. But now that the child's prospect of surviving depends less on the intelligence and resources of its parents and more on the intelligence and resources of the community, the conscientious breeders have little advantage over the rash breeders. Something may be done to correct this situation by social policies which restrain fathers from exploiting their young children. By means of compulsory school attendance laws and anti-childfrom Exploiting labor laws responsible parents may impose upon greedy fathers the standards of child culture to which they already accommodate Children their own conduct. The conversion of children from assets into liabilities works a surprising change in the attitude of a certain type toward the large family.. It is possible, moreover, for public opinion to discourage imFamily. Is moderate fecundity. When each trudges the road by himself, it gether a is solely his own affair how many bundles he loads himself with. But when we go by train, it is everybody's concern how many bundles a passenger brings aboard. The more one brings, the fewer others can bring and the greater the general discomfort. Hence, an opinion grows up as to what is a reasonable amount of luggage for a passenger to travel with. Can Social In the same way, once it is realized that only by a certain selfOpinion control in propagation is it possible for a people to enjoy health, the Mul. tiplication comfort, and length of life, an idea forms as to what is a reasonof the Inferior? able family size, and disapproval is shown those who without warrant exceed this. No doubt the exceptionally endowed who offer society a “ full quiver” of children will find favor ; but the subcommon - who are the most reckless in multiplication will be made to feel community resentment when they propagate as if the world could not have too much of their ilk. The man of poor stock who begets a family of ten or fifteen will be looked upon as a fool or an egoist. The Size of One's Private Matter Restrain NATIONAL CONTROL OF IMMIGRATION INEVITABLE But what of forethoughted parentage by the advanced peoples while there are peoples and races which multiply blindly and Would of the In threaten to flood their neighbors with their surplus population? CHAP. ITT Now that cheap travel stirs the social deeps and beckoning oppor- Unre tunity fills the steerages, immigration becomes ever more serious Migration to the people which hopes to rid itself utterly of slums,“ submerged tenth” and “poverty” classes. Wherefore should it the Eforts practise family prudence if hungry strangers may crowd in and telligent occupy at the table the places it had reserved for its children? Lift Their Shall it in order to relieve the teeming lands of their unemployed Living abive in the pit of wolfish competition and give up the prospect of a betterment of the lot of the masses? Barriors There is no doubt that barriers to immigration will be reared will be which will give notice to the backward peoples that enlightened Reared to humanity is not willing to cramp itself in order that these peoples the Free may continue to indulge in thoughtless reproduction. Let a peo- plying Peoples pie make itself miserable by multiplying like an animal not endowed with foresight and reason, but why should this people expect other peoples to allow themselves to be made miserable in order to accommodate its overflow? L'nless family restriction becomes general over the world, it is vain, therefore, to expect acknowledgment of the right of any well-behaved and self-supporting human being to settle where he wil. From the standpoint of the brotherhood of man such an acknowledgment would be most desirable. But there is no blinking the fact that it would handicap the advanced peoples and in time cause the world's population to consist more of unthinking races and less of thinking aspiring races. The ExThe barriers which are sure to rise will not aim to hamper the cluded interchange of culture elements among the peoples or to hinder Not the trovement of such bearers of culture as students, scholars, cluded as Interior missionaries, travellers, officials, and business men. But they but as will prevent the movement of great numbers from areas of high quous pçulation pressure to areas in which a low population pressure is deliberately maintained. The imputation of such a barrier is not that the excluded people or race is inferior but that the excluding periple does not propose to incommode itself and lose its own field of future internal expansion in order that the excluded may be relieved of the natural penalty of their heedless propagation. Such a policy smacks not so much of hateful discrimination as of hat wie conservation of resources for the benefit of posterity which is becoming general among the enlightened peoples. |