,,birth ,,control ,a ,statement of ,christian ,doctrine against the ,neo-,malthusians ,,by ,,halliday ,g4 ,,sutherland1 ,m4,d4 7,edin47 ,,contents ,,chapter ,i ,,the ,,essential ,,fallacies ,,of ,,malthusian ,,teaching ,section #a4 ,,malthus ,,and ,,the ,,neo-,,malthusians4 7a7 ,malthus 7b7 ,the ,neo-,malthusians ,section #b4 ,,teaching ,,based ,,on ,,false ,,premises4 7a7 ,that ,population progresses geometrically 7b7 ,that ,food ,supply progresses arithmetically 7c7 ,that ,overpopulation is the cause of ,poverty and ,disease ,section #c4 ,,the ,,root ,,fallacy ,section #d4 ,,what ,,overpopulation ,,means ,section #e4 ,,no ,,evidence ,,of ,,overpopulation 7a7 ,in the ,suez ,canal ,zone 7b7 ,in ,closed ,countries like ,japan ,section #f4 ,a ,,natural ,,law ,,checking ,,fertility ,section #g4 ,,overpopulation ,,in ,,the ,,future ,section #h4 ,,how ,,nations ,,have ,,perished ,section #i4 ,,physical ,,catastrophes 7a7 ,disease 7b7 ,war ,section #aj4 ,,moral ,,catastrophes ,,chapter ,,ii ,,the ,,false ,,deductions ,,concerning ,,poverty ,section #a4 ,,birth-,,rate ,,and ,,poverty 7a7 ,famines 7b7 ,abundance 7c7 ,wages ,section #b4 ,,poverty ,,in ,,great ,,britain ,,due ,,to ,,other ,,causes 7a7 ,under-development 7b7 ,severance of the ,inhabitants from the ,soil ,section #c4 ,,causes ,,of ,,poverty ,,in ,,india ,section #d4 ,,poverty ,,in ,,fact ,,causes ,a ,,high ,,birthrate 7a7 ,malthusianism is an attack on the ,poor 7b7 ,a ,hindrance to ,reform 7c7 ,a ,quack ,remedy for ,poverty ,section #e4 ,,poverty ,,and ,,civilisation ,,chapter ,,iii ,,high ,,birth-,,rates ,,not ,,the ,,cause ,,of ,,high ,,death-,,rates ,section #a4 ,,poverty ,,as ,,now ,,existing ,section #b4 ,,high ,,birth-,,rate ,,not ,,the ,,cause ,,of ,,high ,,death-,,rate3 ,,proved ,,from ,,statistics 7a7 ,canada 7b7 ,connaught ,section #c4 ,a ,,low ,,birth-,,rate ,,no ,,guarantee ,,of ,a ,,low ,,death-,,rate ,section #d4 ,,vital ,,statistics ,,of ,,france ,section #e4 ,,coefficients ,,of ,,correlation ,,chapter ,,iv ,,how ,,religion ,,affects ,,the ,,birthrate ,section #a4 ,,french ,,statistics ,,misinterpreted ,,by ,,malthusians ,section #b4 ,,evidence ,,from ,,holland ,section #c4 ,,the ,,united ,,states ,,of ,,america ,section #d4 ,,the ,,same ,,results ,,in ,,england ,,chapter ,v ,,is ,,there ,a ,,natural ,,law ,,regulating ,,the ,,proportion ,,of ,,births ,,and ,,deaths8 ,section #a4 ,,the ,,theory ,,of ,,thomas ,,doubleday ,,revived ,section #b4 ,,mr4 ,,pell',s ,,generalisations ,,criticised ,section #c4 ,,the ,,law ,,of ,,decline ,section #d4 ,,illustrated ,,from ,,greek ,,history 7a7 ,moral ,catastrophe in ,ancient ,greece 7b7 ,the ,physical ,catastrophe induced by ,selfishness ,,chapter ,,vi ,,the ,,falling ,,birth-,,rate ,,in ,,england3 ,,its ,,causes ,section #a4 ,,not1 ,,as ,,malthusians ,,assert1 ,,due ,,mainly ,,to ,,contraceptives ,section #b4 ,,decline ,,in ,,fertility ,,due ,,to ,,some ,,natural ,,law ,section #c4 ,,and ,,to ,,character ,,of ,,occupation4 ,section #d4 ,,aggravated ,,doubtless ,,by ,,malthusianism ,,chapter ,,vii ,,the ,,evils ,,of ,,artificial ,,birth ,,control ,section #a4 ,,not ,a ,,physical ,,benefit 7a7 ,a ,cause of ,sterility 7b7 ,neuroses 7c7 ,fibroid ,tumours ,section #b4 ,a ,,scandalous ,,suggestion ,section #c4 ,a ,,cause ,,of ,,unhappiness ,,in ,,marriage ,section #d4 ,,an ,,insult ,,to ,,true ,,womanhood ,section #e4 ,a ,,degradation ,,of ,,the ,,female ,,sex ,section #f4 ,,specially ,,hurtful ,,to ,,the ,,poor 7a7 ,affecting the ,young 7b7 ,exposing the ,poor to ,experiment 7c7 ,tending towards the ,servile ,state ,section #g4 ,a ,,menace ,,to ,,the ,,nation 7a7 ,there is a ,limit to lowering the ,death-rate 7b7 ,birth ,control tends to extinguish the ,birth-rate 7c7 ,a ,danger to the ,empire 7d7 ,the ,dangers of ,small ,families ,section #h4 ,,the ,,plot ,,against ,,christendom ,,chapter ,,viii ,,the ,,religious ,,argument ,,against ,,birth ,,control ,section #a4 ,,an ,,offence ,,against ,,the ,,law ,,of ,,nature ,section #b4 ,,reflected ,,in ,,the ,,normal ,,conscience ,section #c4 ,,expressed ,,in ,,the ,,science ,,of ,,ethics ,section #d4 ,,birth ,,control ,,condemned ,,by ,,protestant ,,churches ,,appendix ,,to ,,chapter ,,viii ,a ,,neo-,,malthusian ,,attack ,,on ,,the ,,church ,,of ,,england ,,chapter ,,ix ,,the ,,teaching ,,of ,,the ,,catholic ,,church ,,on ,,birth ,,control ,section #a4 ,a ,,false ,,view ,,of ,,her ,,doctrine ,section #b4 ,,the ,,essence ,,and ,,purpose ,,of ,,marriage ,section #c4 ,,artificial ,,sterility ,,wholly ,,condemned ,section #d4 ,,the ,,only ,,lawful ,,method ,,of ,,birth ,,control ,section #e4 ,,conclusion ,,bibliography ,,birth ,,control ,,chapter ,i ,,the ,,essential ,,fallacies ,,of ,,malthusian ,,teaching ,section #a4 ,,malthus ,,and ,,the ,,neo-,,malthusians ,birth control1 in the sense of the prevention of pregnancy by chemical1 mechanical1 or other artificial means1 is being widely advocated as a sure method of lessening poverty and of increasing the physical and mental health of the nation4 ,it is1 therefore1 advisable to examine these claims and the grounds on which they are based4 ,the following investigation will prove that the propaganda throughout ,western ,europe and ,america in favour of artificial birth control is based on a mere assumption1 bolstered up by economic and statistical fallacies2 that ,malthusian teaching is contrary to reason and to fact2 that ,neo-,malthusian practices are disastrous alike to nations and to individuals2 and that those practices are in themselves an offence against the ,law of ,nature1 whereby the ,divine ,will is expressed in creation4 7a7 ,malthus ,the ,rev4 ,thomas ,malthus1 ,m4,a41 in #agih published his ,essay on the ,principle of ,population4 ,his pamphlet was an answer to ,condorcet and ,godwin1 who held that vice and poverty were the result of human institutions and could be remedied by an even distribution of property4 ,malthus1 on the other hand1 believed that population increased more rapidly than the means of subsistence1 and consequently that vice and poverty were always due to overpopulation and not to any particular form of society or of government4 ,he stated that owing to the relatively slow rate at which the food supply of countries was increased1 a high birth-rate #a inevitably led to all the evils of poverty1 war1 and high death-rates4 ,in an infamous passage he wrote that there was no vacant place for the superfluous child at ,nature's mighty feast2 that ,nature told the child to be gone2 and that she quickly executed her own order4 ,this passage was modified in the second1 and deleted from the third edition of the ,essay4 ,in later editions he maintained that vice and misery had checked population1 that the progress of society might have diminished rather than increased the evils resulting from the principle of population1 and that by moral restraint overpopulation could be prevented4 ,as ,cannan has pointed out1 #b this last suggestion destroyed the force of the argument against ,godwin1 who could have replied that in order to make moral restraint universal a socialist ,state was necessary4 ,in order to avoid the evils of overpopulation1 ,malthus advised people not to marry1 or1 if they did1 to marry late in life and to limit the number of their children by the exercise of self-restraint4 ,he reprobated all artificial and unnatural methods of birth control as immoral1 and as removing the necessary stimulus to industry2 but he failed to grasp the whole truth that an increase of population is necessary as a stimulus not only to industry1 but also as essential to man's moral and intellectual progress4 7b7 ,the ,neo-,malthusians ,the ,malthusian ,league accept the theory of their revered teacher1 but1 curiously enough1 they reject his advice as being impracticable and productive of the greatest possible evils to health and morality4 #c ,on the contrary1 they advise universal early marriage1 combined with artificial birth control4 ,although their policy is thus in flat contradiction to the policy of ,malthus1 there are two things common to both4 ,each is based on the same fallacy1 and the aim of both is wide of the mark4 ,indeed1 the ,neo-,malthusian1 like ,malthus1 has a mist of speculation over his facts1 and a vapour of fact over his ideas4 #d ,moreover1 as will be shown here1 the path of the ,malthusian ,league1 although at first glance an easy way out of many human difficulties1 is in reality the broad road along which a man or a nation travels to destruction2 and as guides the ,neo-,malthusians are utterly unsafe1 since they argue from 7a7 false premises to 7b7 false deductions4 ,we shall deal with the former in this chapter4 ,section #b4 ,,teaching ,,based ,,on ,,false ,,premises ,the theory of ,malthus is based on three errors1 namely 7a7 that the population increases in geometrical progression1 a progression of #a1 #b1 #d1 #h1 #af1 and so on upwards2 7b7 that the food supply increases in arithmetical progression1 a progression of #a1 #b1 #c1 #d1 #e1 and so on upwards2 and 7c7 that overpopulation is the cause of poverty and disease4 ,if we show that de facto there is no overpopulation it obviously cannot be a cause of anything1 nor be itself caused by the joint operation of the first two causes4 ,however1 each of the errors can be severally refuted4 7a7 ,in the first place1 it is true that a population might increase in geometrical progression1 and that a woman might bear thirty children in her lifetime2 but it is wrong to assume that because a thing might happen1 it therefore does happen4 ,the population1 as a matter of fact1 does not increase in geometrical progression1 because ,nature #e places her own checks on the birth-rate1 and no woman bears all the children she might theoretically bear1 apart altogether from artificial birth control4 7b7 ,secondly1 the food supply does not of necessity increase in arithmetical progression1 because food is produced by human hands1 and is therefore increased in proportion to the increase of workers1 unless the food supply of a country or of the world has reached its limit4 ,the food supply of the world might reach a limit beyond which it could not be increased2 but as yet this event has not happened1 and there is no indication whatsoever that it is likely to happen4 ,human life is immediately sustained by food1 clothing1 shelter1 and fuel4 ,food and clothing are principally derived from fish1 fowl1 sheep1 cattle1 and grain1 all of which tend1 more so than man1 to increase in geometrical ratio1 although actually their increase in this progression is checked by man or by ,nature4 ,as regards shelter there can be no increase at all1 either arithmetical or geometrical1 apart from the work of human hands4 ,again1 the stock of fuel in or on the earth cannot increase of itself1 and is gradually becoming exhausted4 ,on the other hand1 within living memory1 new sources of fuel1 such as petroleum1 have been made available1 and old varieties of fuel have been used to better advantage1 as witness the internal-combustion engine driven by smoke from sawdust4 ,moreover1 in the ocean tides is a vast energy that one day may take the place of fuel4 7c7 ,thirdly1 before anyone can reasonably maintain that overpopulation is the cause of poverty and disease1 it is necessary to prove that overpopulation actually exists or is likely to occur in the future4 ,by overpopulation we mean the condition of a country in which there are so many inhabitants that the production of necessaries of livelihood is insufficient for the support of all1 with the result that many people are overworked or ill-fed4 ,under these circumstances the population can be said to press on the soil3 and unless their methods of production could be improved1 or resources secured from outside1 the only possible remedy against the principle of diminishing returns would be a reduction of population2 otherwise1 the death-rate from want and starvation would gradually rise until it equalled the birth-rate in order to maintain an unhappy equilibrium4 ,section #c4 ,,the ,,root ,,fallacy ,according to ,malthusian doctrine overpopulation is the cause of poverty1 disease1 and war3 and consequently1 unless the growth of population is artificially restrained1 all attempts to remedy social evils are futile4 ,malthusians claim that if only the devastating torrent of children could be arrested for a few years1 it would bring untold relief4 ,they hold that overpopulation is the root of all social evil1 and the truth or falsehood of that proposition is therefore the basis of all their teaching4 ,now1 when ,malthusians are asked to prove that this their basic proposition is true1 they adopt one of two methods1 not of proof1 but of evasion4 ,their first method of evading the question is by asserting that the truth of their proposition is self-evident and needs no proof4 ,to that we reply that the falsity of the proposition can and will be proved4 ,their second device is to put up a barrage of facts which merely show that all countries1 and indeed the earth itself1 would have been overpopulated long ago if the increase of population had not been limited by certain factors1 ranging from celibacy and late marriages to famines1 diseases1 wars1 and infanticide4 ,the truth of these facts is indisputable1 but it is nevertheless a manifest breach of logic to argue from the fact of poverty1 disease1 and war having checked an increase of population1 that therefore poverty1 disease1 and war are due to an increase of population4 ,it would be as reasonable to argue that1 because an unlimited increase of insects is prevented by birds and by climatic changes1 therefore an increase of insects accounts for the existence of birds1 and for variations of climate4 ,nor is it of any use for ,malthusians to say that overpopulation might be the cause of poverty4 ,they cannot prove that it is the cause of poverty1 and1 as will be shown in the following chapter1 more obvious and probable causes are staring them in the face4 ,for our present purpose it will suffice if we are able to prove that overpopulation has not occurred in the past and is unlikely to occur in the future4 ,section #d4 ,,what ,,overpopulation ,,means ,in the first place1 the meaning of the word overpopulation should be clearly understood4 ,the word does not mean a very large number of inhabitants in a country4 ,if that were its meaning the ,malthusian fallacy could be disproved by merely pointing out that poverty exists both in thinly populated and in thickly populated countries4 ,now1 in reality1 overpopulation would occur whenever the production of the necessities of life in a country was insufficient for the support of all the inhabitants4 ,for example1 a barren rock in the ocean would be overpopulated1 even if it contained only one inhabitant4 ,it follows that the term overpopulation should be applied only to an economic situation in which the population presses on the soil4 ,the point may be illustrated by a simple example4 ,let us assume that a fertile island of #ajj acres is divided into #aj farms1 each of #aj acres1 and each capable of supporting a family of ten4 ,under these conditions the island could support a population of #a1jjj people without being overpopulated4 ,if1 however1 the numbers in each family increased to #bj the population would press on the soil1 and the island1 with #b1jjj inhabitants1 would be an example of overpopulation1 and of poverty due to overpopulation4 ,on the other hand1 let us assume that there are only #a1jjj people on the island1 but that one family of ten individuals has managed to gain possession of eight farms1 in addition to their own1 and that the other nine families are forced to live on one farm4 ,obviously1 #ijj people would be attempting to live under conditions of dire poverty1 and the island1 with its population of #a1jjj1 would now offer an excellent example1 not of overpopulation1 but of human selfishness4 ,my contentions are that poverty is neither solely nor indeed generally related to economic pressure on the soil2 that there are many causes of poverty apart altogether from overpopulation2 and that in reality overpopulation does not exist in those countries where ,malthusians claim to find proofs of social misery due to a high birthrate4 ,if overpopulation in the economic sense occurred in a closed country1 whose inhabitants were either unable or unwilling to send out colonies1 it is obvious that general poverty and misery would result4 ,this might happen in small islands1 but it is of greater interest to know what does happen4 ,section #e4 ,,no ,,evidence ,,of ,,overpopulation ,in a closed country1 producing all its own necessities of life and incapable of expansion1 a high birth-rate would eventually increase the struggle for existence and would lead to overpopulation1 always provided that1 firstly1 the high birth-rate is accompanied by a low death-rate1 and secondly1 that the high birth-rate is maintained4 ,for example1 although a birth-rate was high1 a population would not increase in numbers if the death-rate was equally high4 ,therefore1 a high birth-rate does not of necessity imply that population will be increased or that overpopulation will occur4 ,again1 if the birth-rate fell as the population increased1 the danger of overpopulation would be avoided without the aid of a high death-rate4 ,for a moment1 however1 let us assume that the ,malthusian premise is correct1 that a high birth-rate has led to overpopulation1 and that the struggle for existence has therefore increased4 ,then obviously the death-rate would rise2 the effect of the high birth-rate would be neutralised2 and beyond a certain point neither the population nor the struggle for existence could be further increased4 ,on these grounds ,neo-,malthusians argue that birth-control is necessary precisely to obviate that cruel device whereby ,nature strives to restore the balance upset by a reckless increase of births2 and that the only alternative to frequent and premature deaths is regulation of the source of life4 ,as a corollary to this proposition they claim that1 if the death-rate be reduced1 a country is bound to become overpopulated unless the births are artificially controlled4 ,fortunately it is possible to test the truth of this corollary1 because certain definite observations on this very point have been recorded4 ,these observations do not support the argument of birth controllers4 7a7 ,in the ,suez ,canal ,zone ,in the ,suez ,canal ,zone there was a high death-rate chiefly owing to fever4 ,according to ,malthus it would have been a great mistake to lower this death-rate1 because1 if social conditions were improved1 the population would rapidly increase and exceed the resources of the country4 ,now1 in fact1 the social conditions were improved1 the death-rate was lowered1 and the subsequent events1 utterly refuting the above contention1 are thus noted by ,dr4 ,halford ,ross1 who was medical officer in that region3 ,during the years #aija to #aiaj1 health measures in this zone produced a very considerable fall in the death-rate1 from #cj4b per thousand to #ai4f per thousand2 the infant mortality was also reduced very greatly1 and it was expected that1 after a lapse of time1 the reduction of the death-rate would result in a rise of the birth-rate1 and a corresponding increase of the population4 ,but such was not the case4 ,when the death-rate fell1 the birthrate fell too1 and the number of the population remained the same as before1 even after nearly a decade had passed1 and notwithstanding the fact that the whole district had become much healthier1 and one town1 ,port ,said1 was converted from an unhealthy1 fever-stricken place into a seaside health resort4 #f ,moreover1 ,dr4 ,halford ,ross has told me that artificial birth control was not practised in this region1 and played no part in maintaining a stationary population4 ,the majority of the people were strict ,mohammedans1 amongst whom the practice of birth control is forbidden by the ,koran4 7b7 ,in ,closed ,countries like ,japan ,but a much more striking example of the population in a closed country remaining stationary without the practice of birth control1 thus refuting the contention of our birth controllers1 is to be found in their own periodical1 ,the ,malthusian4 #g ,it would appear that in ,japan from #agbc to #ahdf the population remained almost stationary1 only increasing from #bf1jfe1dbb to #bf1ijg1fbe4 ,in #ahfg the ,shogunate was abolished1 the ,emperor was restored1 and ,japan began to be a civilised power4 ,now from #ahgb the population increased by #aj1fdi1iij in twenty-seven years1 and during the period between #ahig and #aijg the population received an increment of #aa4f per cent41 whereas the food-producing area increased by only #d4d per cent4444 ,according to ,professor ,morimoro1 the cost of living is now so high in ,japan that #ih per cent1 of the people do not get enough to eat4 ,from these facts certain obvious deductions may be made4 ,so long as ,japan was a closed country her population remained stationary4 ,when she became a civilised industrial power the mass of her people became poorer1 the birth-rate rose1 and the population increased1 this last result being the real problem to-day in the ,far ,east4 ,in face of these facts it is sheer comedy to learn that our ,malthusians are sending a woman to preach birth control amongst the ,japanese6 ,do they really believe that for over a hundred years ,japan1 unlike most semi-barbaric countries1 practised birth control1 and that when she became civilised she refused1 unlike most civilised countries1 to continue this practice8 ,there is surely a limit to human credulity4 ,the truth appears to be that in closed countries the population remains more or less stationary1 that ,nature herself checks the birth-rate without the aid of artificial birth control1 and that birthrates and death-rates are independently related to the means of subsistence4 ,section #f4 ,a ,,natural ,,law ,,checking ,,fertility ,during the past century the population of ,europe increased by about #afj1jjj1jjj1 but it is utterly unreasonable to assume that this rate of increase will be maintained during the present century4 ,it would be as sensible to argue that because a child is four feet high at the age of ten he will be eight feet high at the age of twenty4 ,moreover1 there is evidence that1 apart altogether from vice1 the fertility of a nation is reduced at every step in civilisation4 ,the cause of this reduction in fertility is unknown4 ,it is probably a reaction to many complex influences1 and possibly associated with the vast growth of great cities4 ,this decline in the fertility of a community is a natural protection against the possibility of overpopulation2 but1 on the other hand1 there is a point beyond which any further decline in fertility will bring a community within sight of depopulation and of extinction4 ,section #g4 ,,overpopulation ,,in ,,the ,,future ,it is a fallacy to say that overpopulation is the cause of poverty and disease1 and that for the simple reason that overpopulation has not yet occurred4 ,for the growth of a nation we assume that the birth-rate should exceed the death-rate by from #aj to #bj per thousand1 and it is obvious that in a closed country the evil of overpopulation might appear in a comparatively short time4 ,the natural remedies in the past have been emigration and colonisation4 ,according to the birth controllers these remedies are only temporary1 because sooner or later all colonies and eventually the earth itself will be overpopulated4 ,at the ,british ,association ,meeting in #ahij the population of the earth was said to be #a1ejj millions1 and it was calculated that only #f1jjj millions could live on the earth4 ,this means that if the birth-rate throughout the world exceeded the death-rate by only #h per thousand1 the earth would be overpopulated within #bjj years4 ,it is probable that in these calculations the capacity of the earth to sustain human life has been underestimated2 that the earth could support not four times but sixteen times its present population2 and that the latter figure could be still further increased by the progress of inventions4 ,but1 apart altogether from the accuracy of these figures1 the danger of overpopulation is nothing more or less than a myth4 ,indeed1 the end of the world1 a philosophic and scientific certitude1 is a more imminent event than its overpopulation4 ,section #h4 ,,how ,,nations ,,have ,,perished ,before speculating on what might happen in the future1 it is well to recollect what has happened in the past4 ,the earth has been inhabited for thousands of years1 and modern research has revealed the remains of many ancient civilisations that have perished4 ,for example1 there were the great nations of ,cambodia and of ,guatemala4 ,in ,crete1 about #bjjj ,b4,c41 there existed a civilisation where women were dressed as are this evening the women of ,london and ,paris4 ,that civilisation perished1 and even its language cannot now be deciphered4 ,why did these civilisations perish8 ,surely this momentous question should take precedence over barren discussions as to whether there will be sufficient food on the land or in the sea for the inhabitants of the world in #bjj years' time4 ,how came it about that these ancient nations did not double their numbers every fifty years and fill up the earth long ago8 ,the answer is that they were overcome and annihilated by the incidence of one or other of two dangers that threaten every civilisation1 including our own4 ,these dangers are certain physical and moral catastrophes1 against which there is only one form of natural insurance1 namely1 a birth-rate that adequately exceeds the death-rate4 ,they help to illustrate further the fallacy of the overpopulation scare4 ,the following is a general outline of these dangers1 and in a later chapter 7p4 #gj77see ,reference3 ,dangers7 ,i shall quote an example of how they have operated in the past4 ,section #i4 ,,physical ,,catastrophes ,deaths from famine1 floods1 earthquakes1 and volcanic eruptions are confined to comparatively small areas1 and the two physical catastrophes that may seriously threaten a civilisation may be reduced to endemic disease and war4 7a7 ,disease ,disease1 in the form of malaria1 contributed to the fall of ancient ,greece and ,rome4 ,in the fourteenth century #be1jjj1jjj people1 one-quarter of the population of ,europe1 were exterminated by plague1 the ,black ,death1 and in the sixteenth century smallpox depopulated ,spanish ,america4 ,although these particular diseases have lost much of their power owing to the progress of medical science1 we have no right to assume that disease in general has been conquered by our civilisation1 or that a new pestilence may not appear4 ,on the contrary1 in #ahje1 a new disease1 spotted fever1 appeared in ,geneva1 and within half a century had become endemic throughout ,europe and ,america4 ,of this fever during the ,great ,war the late ,sir ,william ,osler wrote3 ,in cerebro-spinal fever we may be witnessing the struggle of a new disease to win a place among the great epidemics of the world4 ,there was a mystery about this disease1 because1 although unknown in the ,arctic ,circle1 it appeared in temperate climates during the coldest months of the year4 ,as ,i was able to prove in #aiae1 #h it is a disease of civilisation4 ,i found that the causal organism was killed in thirty minutes by a temperature of #fb;,f4 ,it was thus obvious that infection could never be carried by cold air4 ,but in overcrowded rooms where windows are closed1 and the temperature of warm1 impure1 saturated air was raised by the natural heat of the body to #hj;,f or over1 the life of the microorganism1 expelled from the mouths of infected people during the act of coughing1 was prolonged4 ,infection is thus carried from one person to another by warm currents of moving air1 and at the same time resistance against the disease is lowered4 ,cold air kills the organism1 but cold weather favours the disease4 ,in that paradox the aetiology of cerebro-spinal fever became as clear as the means of prevention4 ,the story of spotted fever reveals the forces of nature fighting against the disease at every turn1 and implacably opposed to its existence1 while man alone1 of his own will and folly1 harbours infection and creates the only conditions under which the malady can appear4 ,for example1 during two consecutive winters cerebro-spinal fever had appeared in barracks capable of housing #b1jjj men4 ,a simple and effective method of ventilation was then introduced4 ,from that day to this not a single case of cerebro-spinal fever has occurred in these barracks1 although there have been outbreaks of this disease in the town in which the barracks are situated4 ,there are many other diseases peculiar to civilisation1 and concerning the wherefore and the why an apposite passage occurs in the works of ,sir ,william ,gull4 ,causes affecting health and shortening life may be inappreciable in the individual1 but sufficiently obvious when their effect is multiplied a thousandfold4 ,if the conditions of society render us liable to many diseases1 they in return enable us to establish the general laws of life and health1 a knowledge of which soon becomes a distributive blessing4 ,the cure of individual diseases1 whilst we leave open the dark fountains from which they spring1 is to labour like ,sisyphus1 and have our work continually returning upon our hands4 ,and1 again1 there are diseases over which1 directly1 we have little or no control1 as if ,providence had set them as signs to direct us to wider fields of inquiry and exertion4 ,even partial success is often denied1 lest we should rest satisfied with it1 and forget the truer and better means of prevention4 #i ,medical and sanitary science have made great progress in the conquest of enteric fever1 diphtheria1 scarlet fever1 measles1 and whooping cough4 ,the mortality from bronchitis and from pulmonary tuberculosis has also been reduced1 but nevertheless tuberculosis still claims more victims in the prime of life than any other malady4 ,it is a disease of civilisation and is intimately associated with economic conditions4 ,the history of tuberculosis has yet to be written4 ,on the other hand1 deaths from certain other diseases are actually increasing1 as witness the following figures from the ,reports of the ,registrar-,general for ,england and ,wales3 ,disease4 ,number of ,number of deaths in ,deaths in #ahih4 #aiai4 ,diseases of the heart and circulatory system #ej1dib #fi1fcg ,cancer #be1aif #db1add ,pneumonia #ce1dfb #ch1idi ,influenza #aj1dje #dd1hja ,in view of these figures it is folly to suppose that the final conquest of disease is imminent4 7b7 ,war ,war1 foreign or civil1 is another sword hanging over civilisations1 whereby the fruits of a long period of growth may be destroyed in a few years4 ,after the ,thirty ,years ,war the recovery of ,germany occupied a century and a half4 ,during the fourteen years of the ,taiping rebellion in ,china whole provinces were devastated and millions upon millions of people were killed or died4 ,in spite of the ,great ,war during the past decade1 there are some who would delude themselves and others into the vain belief that1 without a radical change in international relations and a determined effort to neutralise its causes1 there will be no more war2 but unless the nations learn through ,christianity that justice is higher than self-interest the following brilliant passage by ,devas is as true to-day as when it was written in #aija3 ,true that the spread of humanitarianism and cosmopolitanism made many people think1 towards the end of the nineteenth century1 that bloodshed was at an end4 ,but their hopes were dreams3 the visible growth of national rivalry and gigantic armaments can only issue in desperate struggles2 while not a few among the nations are troubled with the growth of internal dissensions and accumulations of social hatred that point to bloody catastrophes in the future2 and the tremendous means of destruction that modern science puts in our hands offer frightful possibilities of slaughter1 murderous anarchical outrages1 and rivers of blood shed in pitiless repression4 #aj ,malthusians may inveigh against wars waged to achieve the expansion of a nation1 but so long as international rivalry disregards the moral law their words will neither stop war nor prevent a ,malthusian country from falling an easy prey to a stronger people4 ,on the contrary1 a low birthrate1 by reducing the potential force available for defence1 is actually an incentive to a declaration of war from an envious neighbour1 because it means that he will not hesitate so long when attempting to count the cost beforehand4 ,in #ahej the population of ,france and ,germany numbered practically the same1 #ce1ejj1jjj2 in #aiac that of ,france was #ci1fjj1jjj1 that of ,germany #fg1jjj1jjj4 #aa ,the bearing of these facts on the ,great ,war is obvious4 ,in #aiai the new ,germany1 including ,silesia1 had a population of just over #fj1jjj1jjj2 whereas1 in #aiba1 ,france1 including ,alsace-,lorraine1 had a population of #ci1bjj1jjj4 ,thus1 despite her victory in the war1 the population of ,france is less to-day than it was seven years ago4 ,section #aj4 ,,moral ,,catastrophes ,in view of past history only an ostrich with its head in the sand can profess to believe that there will be no calamities in the future to reduce the population of the earth4 ,and apart from cataclysms of disease or of war1 empires have perished by moral catastrophe4 ,a disbelief in ,god results in selfishness1 and in various moral catastrophes4 ,in the terse phrase of ,mr4 ,bernard ,shaw1 ,voluptuaries prosper and perish4 #ab ,for example1 during the second century ,b4,c4 the disease of rationalism1 #ac spread over ,greece1 and a rapid depopulation of the country began4 ,the facts were recorded by ,polybius1 #ad who expressly states that at the time of which he is writing serious pestilences did not occur1 and that depopulation was caused by the selfishness of the ,greeks1 who1 being addicted to pleasure1 either did not marry at all or refused to rear more than one or two children1 lest it should be impossible to bring them up in extravagant luxury4 ,this ancient historian also noted that the death of a son in war or by pestilence is a serious matter when there are only one or two sons in a family4 ,greece fell to the conquering ,romans1 and they also in course of time were infected with this evil canker4 ,there came a day when over the battlements of ,constantinople the blood-red ,crescent was unfurled4 ,later on all ,christendom was threatened1 and the ,king of ,france appealed to the ,pope for men and arms to resist the challenge to ,europe of the ,mohammedan world4 ,the ,empire of the ,turk spread over the whole of ,south-,eastern ,europe4 ,but once more the evil poison spread1 this time into the homes in many parts of ,islam1 and to-day the once triumphant foes of ,christianity are decaying nations whose dominions are the appanage of ,europe4 ,in face of these facts it is sheer madness to assume that all the ,great ,powers now existing will maintain their population and prove immune from decay4 ,indeed1 the very propaganda against which this ,essay is directed is in itself positive proof that the seeds of decay have already been sown within the ,british ,empire4 ,yet1 in an age in which thought and reason are suppressed by systematised confusion and spiritless perplexity1 the very simplicity of a truth will operate against its general acceptance4 ,from the theological point of view1 the myth of overpopulation is definitely of anti-,christian growth1 because it assumes that1 owing to the operation of natural instincts implanted in mankind by the ,creator1 the only alternative offered to the race is a choice between misery and vice1 an alternative utterly incompatible with ,divine goodness in the government of the world4 ,footnote #a3 ,the birth-rate is the number of births per #a1jjj of the whole population4 ,in order to make a fair comparison between one community and another1 the birth-rate is often calculated as the number of births per #a1jjj married women between #ae and #de years of age1 as these constitute the great majority of child-bearing mothers4 ,this is called the corrected birth-rate4 ,footnote #b3 ,economic ,review1 ,january #ahib4 ,footnote #c3 ,so says the ,secretary of the ,malthusian ,league4 ,vide ,the ,declining ,birth-rate1 #aiaf1 p4 #hh4 ,footnote #d3 ,bagehot1 ,economic ,studies1 p4 #aic4 ,footnote #e3 ,to assign a personality to ,nature is1 of course1 a mere faon de parler2 the believer holds that the course of ,nature is an expression of the ,mind and ,will of the ,creator4 ,footnote #f3 ,problems of ,population1 p4 #chb4 ,footnote #g3 ,the ,malthusian1 ,july #ae1 #aiba4 ,footnote #h3 ,lancet1 #aiae1 vol4 ii1 p4 #hfb4 ,footnote #i3 ,the ,new ,sydenham ,society1 vol4 clvi1 section viii1 p4 #ab4 ,footnote #aj3 ,charles ,s4 ,devas1 ,political ,economy1 #aija1 p4 #aia4 ,footnote #aa3 ,revue ,pratique d',apologtique1 ,september #ae1 #aiad4 ,footnote #ab3 ,man and ,superman1 p4 #aie4 ,footnote #ac3 ,by rationalism we mean a denial of ,god and of responsibility for conduct to a ,higher ,being4 ,footnote #ad3 ,quoted by ,w4,h4,s4 ,jones1 ,malaria and ,greek ,history #aiji1 p#ie4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,the ,,false ,,deductions ,,concerning ,,poverty ,from the original root-fallacy ,malthus argued that poverty1 prostitution1 war1 disease1 and a high death-rate are necessary in order to keep down the population3 and from the same false premises birth controllers are now arguing that a high birth-rate causes 7#a7 poverty1 and 7#b7 a high death-rate4 ,the steps in the argument whereby these amazing conclusions are reached are as follows4 ,before the death-rate can be lowered the social conditions of the people must be improved2 if social conditions are improved there will be an enormous increase of population in geometrical progression2 the food supply of the country and even of the world cannot be increased at the same rate2 and therefore there will be greater poverty and a higher death-rate unless the birth-rate is lowered4 ,thus ,malthusians argue4 ,in view of the false premises on which their argument is based1 it is not surprising to find that their deductions are erroneous and contain many economic and statistical fallacies1 to the consideration of which we may now devote our attention4 ,section #a4 ,,birth-,,rate ,,and ,,poverty ,the first false deduction of birth controllers is that a high birth-rate1 by intensifying the struggle for existence1 increases poverty4 ,in order to bolster up this contention1 ,malthusians quote three arguments concerning 7a7 famines1 7b7 abundance1 and 7c7 wages1 and each of these arguments is fallacious4 7a7 ,famines ,the prevalence of famines is quoted as a proof of reckless overpopulation4 ,now a famine may occur from several different causes1 some within and others beyond the control of man1 but a failure of crops has never yet been caused by pressure on the soil4 ,on the contrary1 famine is less likely to arise in a country whose soil is intensively cultivated1 because intensive cultivation means a variety of crops1 and therefore less risk of all the crops failing4 ,moreover1 during the past century famine has occurred in ,bengal1 where population is dense2 in ,ireland1 where population is moderate1 and in ,eastern ,russia1 where population is scanty4 ,the existence of famine is therefore no proof that a country is overpopulated1 although it may indicate that a country is badly governed or under-developed4 7b7 ,abundance ,malthusians also claim that by means of artificial birth control we could live in a land of abundance4 ,they point out that1 as the population of a new colony increases1 the colonists1 by applying the methods of civilisation to the rich soil1 become more and more prosperous4 ,eventually there comes a time when capital or labour applied to the soil gives a maximum return per head of population4 ,once that point has been reached any further capital or labour applied to the soil will produce a smaller return per head of population4 ,this law of diminishing returns may be illustrated by a simpler example4 ,let us suppose that during one year a market garden worked by one man has produced vegetables to the value of #aj4 ,during the second year the garden is worked by ten men and produces vegetables to the value of #bjj4 ,it is obvious that the work of ten men has produced twice as much per head as the work of one man1 because each man has produced not #aj but #bj4 ,during the third year the garden is worked by twenty men and yields vegetables to the value of #cjj4 ,the total yield is greater1 but the yield per head is less1 because each man has produced not #bj but #ae4 ,the point of maximum production per head has been passed1 and the law of diminishing returns is operating4 ,by restricting the birth-rate ,malthusians would limit the population to the number necessary for maximum production per head4 ,now1 in the first place1 it would be very difficult1 if not impossible1 in the case of a country with various industries1 to decide when the line of maximum production had been passed at any given time4 ,moreover1 it would be utterly impossible to fix this line permanently4 ,in the case of our market garden the introduction of intensive horticulture might mean that maximum production per head required the work of forty men4 ,again1 the very phrase maximum production per head implies sterling moral qualities in the workers1 and an absence of drones2 and sterling moral qualities have never been prominent in any nation1 once the practice of artificial birth control has been adopted4 ,lastly1 the ,christian ideal requires for its realisation1 not a maximum1 but an adequate supply of food1 clothing1 shelter1 and fuel4 ,christianity teaches that to seek after the maximum enjoyment of material things is not the chief end of man1 because the life of a man in this world is very short compared with his life in eternity4 7c7 ,wages ,the ,wages ,fund ,theory is an economic reflection of the ,malthusian myth4 ,this theory assumes that a definite fixed sum is available every year for distribution as wages amongst labourers1 so that the more numerous the labourers the less wages will each one receive4 ,from this theory ,malthusians argue that the only remedy for low wages is artificial birth control4 ,they carefully refrain from telling the working classes the other aspect of this ,wages ,fund theory--namely1 that if the workers in one trade receive a rise in wages1 a corresponding reduction must be made in the wages of others1 so that a rise in wages here and there confers no real benefit on the labouring classes as a whole4 ,that is merely one illustration of capitalist bias in the ,malthusian propaganda4 ,in any case1 economic science has discarded the ,wages ,fund ,theory as a pure fiction4 ,no fixed or definite sum is available for wages1 because the wages of a labourer are derived from the produce of his work4 ,even in the case of making a railway1 where wages are paid before the work is completed1 the money is advanced by shareholders on the security of the proceeds that will eventually accrue from the produce of the labourers4 ,section #b4 ,,poverty ,,in ,,great ,,britain ,,due ,,to ,,other ,,causes 7a7 ,under-development ,even if the theory of birth controllers1 that a high birth-rate increases poverty1 were as true as it is false1 it could not possibly apply to ,great ,britain or to any other country open to commercial intercourse with the world2 because there is no evidence that the supply of food in the world either cannot or will not be increased to meet any actual or possible demand4 ,within the ,british ,empire alone there was an increase of #ge per cent4 in the production of wheat between #aija and #aiaa4 #ae ,in ,great ,britain there has been not only an increase of population but also an increased consumption of various foods per head of the population4 ,moreover1 if ,britain were as well cultivated as is ,flanders we could produce all or nearly all our own food4 #af ,the truth is that in countries such as ,england1 ,belgium1 and ,bengal1 usually cited by ,malthusians1 as illustrating the misery that results from overpopulation1 there is no evidence whatsoever to prove that the population is pressing on the soil4 ,on the contrary1 we find ample physical resources sufficient to support the entire population1 and we also find evidence of human injustice1 incapacity1 and corruption sufficient to account for the poverty and misery that exist in these countries4 ,this was especially so in ,ireland during the first half of the nineteenth century4 #ag ,moreover1 so far from high birth-rates being the cause of poverty1 we shall find that poverty is one of the causes of a high birth-rate 7p4 #fi74 7b7 ,severance of the ,inhabitants from the ,soil ,it was not a high birth-rate that established organised poverty in ,england4 ,in the sixteenth century the greater part of the land1 including common land belonging to the poor1 was seized by the rich4 ,they began by robbing the ,catholic ,church1 and they ended by robbing the people4 #ah ,once machinery was introduced in the eighteenth century1 the total wealth of ,england was enormously increased2 but the vast majority of the people had little share in this increase of wealth that accrued from machinery1 because only a small portion of the people possessed capital4 ,more children came1 but they came to conditions of poverty and of child-labour in the mills4 ,in countries where more natural and stable social conditions exist1 and where there are many small owners of land1 large families1 so far from being a cause of poverty1 are of the greatest assistance to their parents and to themselves4 ,there are means whereby poverty could be reduced1 but artificial birth control would only increase the total poverty of the ,state1 and therefore of the individual4 ,from early down to ,tudor times1 the majority of the inhabitants of ,england lived on small holdings4 ,for example1 in the fifteenth century there were twenty-one small holdings on a particular area measuring #afj acres4 ,during the sixteenth century the number of holdings on this area had fallen to six1 and in the seventeenth century the #afj acres became one farm4 ,occasionally an effort was made to check this process1 and by a statute of ,elizabeth penalties were enacted against building any cottages without laying four acres of land thereto4 ,on the other hand1 acres upon acres were given to the larger landowners by a series of ,acts for the enclosure of common land1 whereby many labourers were deprived of their land4 ,from the reign of ,george ,i to that of ,george ,,iii nearly four thousand enclosure bills were passed4 ,these wrongs have not been righted4 ,to urge1 wrote ,professor ,bain1 that there is sufficient poverty and toil in the world without bringing in more to share it than can be provided for1 implies either begging the question at issue--a direct imputation that the world is at present very badly managed--or that all persons should take it upon themselves to say how much poverty and toil will exist in any part of the world in the future1 or limit the productiveness of any race1 because inadequate means of feeding1 clothing1 or employing them may be adopted in that part of time sometimes called unborn eternity4 ,as a rule1 the result usually has been3 limit the increase of population without adequate cause1 and the reaction causes deterioration or annihilation4 #ai ,lastly1 there is evidence that poverty has existed in thinly populated countries4 ,richard ,cobden1 writing in #ahcf1 of ,russia1 states3 ,the mass of the people are sunk in poverty1 ignorance1 and barbarism1 scarcely rising above a state of nature1 and yet it has been estimated that this country contains more than #gej1jjj square miles of land1 of a quality not inferior to the best portions of ,germany1 and upon which a population of #bjj1jjj1jjj might find subsistence4 #bj ,section #c4 ,,causes ,,of ,,poverty ,,in ,,india ,in reality chronic poverty exists both in the thickly-peopled and in the thinly-peopled regions of ,india1 and therefore the overpopulation theory is an inadequate explanation4 ,moreover1 there are certain obvious and admitted evils1 sufficient in themselves to account for the chronic poverty of ,india1 and of these four are quoted by ,devas4 #ba 7#a7 ,the grave discouragement to all rural improvement and in particular to the sinking of deep wells1 by the absence outside ,bengal of fixity of tenure1 the landholder having the prospect of his assessment being raised every fifteen or thirty years4 7#b7 ,through most of ,india the unchecked oppression of usurers1 in whose toils many millions of landholders are so bound as to lack means or motive for the proper cultivation of the soil4 7#c7 ,a system of law and police totally unfit for small cultivators--witness the plague of litigation1 appeals as #bej to #a in ,england1 habitual perjury1 manufactured crime1 and blackmailing by corrupt native police1 all destructive of rural amity1 co-operation1 and industry4 7#d7 ,taxation oppressive both in quantity and quality3 demanded1 on pain of eviction and imprisonment1 to be paid punctually and rigidly in cash1 instead of optionally or occasionally in kind1 or flexible1 according to the variations of the seasons2 moreover1 levied on salt1 raising the price of this necessity of life at least ten times1 often much more2 when precisely an abundant supply of salt1 with the climate and diet of ,india1 is a prime need for men and cattle4 ,section #d4 ,,poverty ,,in ,,fact ,,causes ,a ,,high ,,birth-,,rate ,as will be shown in ,chapter ,v1 poverty is generally the cause and not the result of a high birth-rate4 ,the ,malthusian doctrine has been and is to-day a barrier to social reform1 because it implies that humane legislation1 by encouraging population1 will of necessity defeat the aim of those who desire to improve the conditions of the poor by methods other than the practice of artificial birth control4 ,to a very great extent ,malthusian teaching was responsible for the ,poor ,law of #ahcd1 the most severe in ,europe1 the demoralising laxity of the old ,poor ,law being replaced by degrading severity4 ,again1 as recently as #ahii1 a ,secretary of ,state reiterated the ,malthusian doctrine by explaining that great poverty throughout ,india was due to the increase of population under the pax ,britannica4 ,now the truth is that if the social conditions of the poor were improved1 we have every reason to believe that their birth-rate would be reduced1 because as civilisation in a community progresses there is a natural decline in fertility4 ,hence3 7a7 ,malthusianism is an ,attack on the ,poor ,both the supporters and the opponents of ,malthus are often mistaken in considering his greatest achievement to be a policy of birth control4 ,malthus did a greater and a more evil thing4 ,he forged a law of nature1 namely1 that there is always a limited and insufficient supply of the necessities of life in the world4 ,from this false law he argued that1 as population increases too rapidly1 the newcomers cannot hope to find a sufficiency of good things2 that the poverty of the masses is not due to conditions created by man1 but to a natural law2 and that consequently this law cannot be altered by any change in political institutions4 ,this new doctrine was eagerly adopted by the rich1 who were thus enabled to argue that ,nature intended that the masses should find no room at her feast2 and that therefore our system of industrial capitalism was in harmony with the ,will of ,god4 ,most comforting dogma6 ,most excellent anodyne for conscience against acceptance of those rights of man that1 being ignored1 found terrible expression in the ,french ,revolution6 ,without discussion1 without investigation1 and without proof1 our professors1 politicians1 leader-writers1 and even our well-meaning socialists1 have accepted as true the bare falsehood that there is always an insufficient supply of the necessities of life2 and to-day this heresy permeates all our practical politics4 ,in giving this forged law of nature to the rich1 ,malthus robbed the poor of hope4 ,such was his crime against humanity4 ,in the words of ,thorold ,rogers1 ,malthusianism was part and parcel of a conspiracy1 conceived by the law and carried out by parties interested in its success1 to cheat the ,english workman of his wages1 to tie him to the soil1 to deprive him of hope1 and to degrade him into immediate poverty4 ,when ,malthusians enter a slum for the purpose of preaching birth control1 it is right that the people should be told what is written on the passports of these strangers4 7b7 ,a ,hindrance to ,reform ,the teaching of birth control amongst the poor is in itself a crime1 because1 apart from the evil practice1 the people are asked to believe a lie1 namely1 that a high birth-rate is the cause of poverty and that by means of birth-control their circumstances will be improved4 ,by one advocate of birth control this weak reasoning and inconsequential sentimentality have actually been crowded into the compass of a single sentence3 ,we must no longer be content to remain indifferent and idle witnesses of the senseless and unthinking procreating of countless wretched children1 whose parents are diseased and vicious4 #bb ,it is true that disease1 vice1 and wretched children are the saddest products of our industrial system2 it is also true that a helpless baby never yet was guilty of expropriating land1 of building slums1 of under-paying the workers1 or of rigging the market4 ,therefore instead of preventing the birth of children we should set about to rectify the evil conditions which make the lives of children and adults unhappy4 ,like many other policies advocated on behalf of the poor1 birth control is immoral if only on this account1 that it distracts attention from the real causes of poverty4 ,in ,spain birth control is not practised4 ,i do not say there is no poverty in that country1 but there is no poverty that resembles the hopeless grinding poverty of the ,english poor4 ,for that strange disease1 artificial birth control is a worthless remedy2 and it were far better that we should turn our attention to the simple words of ,cardinal ,manning3 ,there is a natural and divine law1 anterior and superior to all human and civil law1 by which men have the right to live of the fruits of the soil on which they are born1 and in which they are buried4 #bc 7c7 ,a ,quack ,remedy for ,poverty ,artificial birth control is one of the many quack remedies advertised for the cure of poverty1 and ,g4,k4 ,chesterton has given the final answer to the ,malthusian assertion that some form of birth control is essential because houses are scarce3 ,consider that simple sentence1 and you will see what is the matter with the modern mind4 ,i do not mean the growth of immorality2 ,i mean the genesis of gibbering idiocy4 ,there are ten little boys whom you wish to provide with ten top-hats2 and you find there are only eight top-hats4 ,to a simple mind it would seem not impossible to make two more hats2 to find out whose business it is to make hats1 and induce him to make hats2 to agitate against an absurd delay in delivering hats2 to punish anybody who has promised hats and failed to provide hats4 ,the modern mind is that which says that if we only cut off the heads of two of the little boys1 they will not want hats2 and then the hats will exactly go round4 ,the suggestion that heads are rather more important than hats is dismissed as a piece of mystical metaphysics4 ,the assertion that hats were made for heads1 and not heads for hats savours of antiquated dogma4 ,the musty text which says that the body is more than raiment2 the popular prejudice which would prefer the lives of boys to the mathematical arrangement of hats1--all these things are alike to be ignored4 ,the logic of enlightenment is merciless2 and we duly summon the headsman to disguise the deficiencies of the hatter4 ,for it makes very little difference to the logic of the thing1 that we are talking of houses and not of hats4444 ,the fundamental fallacy remains the same2 that we are beginning at the wrong end1 because we have never troubled to consider at what end to begin4 #bd ,section #e4 ,,poverty ,,and ,,civilisation ,a modern writer is burdened by many words that carry an erroneous meaning1 and one of these is the word civilisation4 ,intended to mean ,the ,art of ,living1 this word1 by wrong usage1 now implies that our method of combining mental culture and bodily comfort is the highest1 noblest1 and best way to live4 ,yet this implication is by no means certain4 ,on the contrary1 the spectacle of our social life would bring tears to eyes undimmed by the industrial traditions of the past hundred years4 ,this ,i know to be true1 having once travelled to ,london in the company of a young girl who came from the ,thirteenth ,century4 ,she had lived some twelve years on the ,low ,sierra of ,andalusia1 where in a small sunlit village she may have vainly imagined our capital to be a city with walls of amethyst and streets of gold1 for when the train passed through that district which lies to the south of ,waterloo1 the child wept4 ,look at these houses1 she sobbed2 ,dios mio1 they have no view4 ,footnote #ae3 ,memorandum issued by the ,dominions ,royal ,commission1 ,december #c1 #aiae 7p4 #b74 ,footnote #af3 ,prince ,kropotkin1 ,fields1 ,factories1 and ,workshops1 #ahii1 chapter iii4 ,footnote #ag3 ,vide ,the ,economic ,history of ,ireland from the ,union to the ,famine1 by ,s4 ,o',brien 7,longmans1 #aiba74 ,footnote #ah3 ,william ,cobbett1 ,social ,effects of the ,reformation4 ,catholic ,truth ,society 7,h4 #acb71 price #b;d4 ,footnote #ai3 ,quoted by ,f4,p4 ,atkinson1 ,m4,d41 in ,edinburgh ,medical ,journal1 ,september #ahhj1 p4 #bbi4 ,footnote #bj3 ,ibid41 p4 #bcd4 ,footnote #ba3 ,charles ,s4 ,devas1 ,political ,economy1 #aija1 p4 #aii4 ,footnote #bb3 ,british ,medical ,journal1 ,july #bc1 #aiba1 p4 #aca4 ,footnote #bc3 ,quoted in ,tablet1 ,november #e1 #aiba1 p4 #eih4 ,footnote #bd3 ,quoted from ,america1 ,october #bi1 #aiba1 p4 #ca4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,high ,,birth-,,rates ,,not ,,the ,,cause ,,of ,,high ,,death-,,rates ,section #a4 ,,poverty ,,as ,,now ,,existing ,the second contention of birth controllers is that a high birth-rate1 by increasing poverty1 causes a high death-rate4 ,in the first place1 there is no doubt that poverty1 necessary features of which are mal-nutrition or insufficient food and bad housing1 is directly associated with a high death-rate1 although this view was once shown by the ,lancet to need important qualifications4 ,with respect to the greater mortality amongst the poor than the rich1 we have yet to learn that the only hope of lessening the death-rate lies in diminishing the birth-rate4 ,we have no proof as yet that the majority of the evils at present surrounding the poor are necessarily attendant upon poverty4 ,we have yet to see a poor population living in dry1 well-drained1 well-ventilated houses1 properly supplied with pure water and the means of disposal of refuse4 ,and we have yet to become acquainted with a poor population spending their scant earnings entirely1 or in a very large proportion1 upon the necessities of life2 for such is not the case when half the earnings of a family are thrown away to provide adulterated alcoholic drinks for one member of it4 ,until reforms such as these and others have been carried out1 and the poor are able and willing to conform to known physiological laws1 it is premature to speak of taking measures to lessen the birth-rate--a proposal1 be it said1 which makes the humiliating confession of man's defeat in the battle of life4 #be ,it will be seen that the qualifications practically remove the question from dispute4 #bf ,if the conditions of the poor were thus altered1 poverty1 as it exists to-day1 would of course disappear4 ,as things are1 we find that a high death-rate is related to poverty1 as is proved1 for example1 by the death-rate from tuberculosis being four times greater in slums than in the best residential quarters of a city4 ,the correct answer to the birth controllers is that a high birth-rate is not the cause of a high death-rate1 because high birth-rates1 as shown in the previous chapter1 are not the cause of poverty1 but vice versa4 ,moreover1 all the statistical evidence goes to prove that in this matter we are right and that ,malthusians are wrong4 ,section #b4 ,,high ,,birth-,,rate ,,not ,,the ,,cause ,,of ,,high ,,death-,,rate3 ,,proved ,,from ,,statistics ,in ,china1 where there is said to be a birth-rate of over #ej per #a1jjj1 and where over #gj per cent4 of infants are helped to die1 the high death-rate is due clearly to degraded social customs4 ,in the slums of ,great ,britain the high death-rate is also due to degraded social conditions4 ,it is not due to the birth-rate4 ,of this the proof is simple1 7a7 ,among the ,french ,canadians1 where the average family numbers about nine1 this high birth-rate is not associated with a high death-rate1 but with the increase of a thrifty1 hard-working race4 ,in ,ontario the birth-rate went up from #ba4aj in #aiaj to #bd4g in #aiaa1 and the death-rate fell from #ad to #ab4f4 7b7 ,again1 in #aiaa the corrected birth-rate for ,connaught was #de4c as against a crude rate of #bd4g for ,england and ,wales2 and in ,connaught1 where there is no need for ,societies for preventing ,parents being ,cruel to their ,children1 the infant mortality rate #bg is very much lower than in ,england1 although the birth-rate is much higher and the poverty much greater4 ,in ,bradford1 a prosperous ,english town which pays particular attention to its mothers and children1 the infant mortality in #aiag was #acb per #a1jjj and the birth-rate #ac4b4 ,in ,connaught1 where there are no maternity centres or other aids to survival1 but on the contrary a great dearth of the means of well-being1 the infant mortality was only #ej1 whilst the birth-rate was actually #de6 #bh ,so untrue is it to say that a high death-rate is due to a high birth-rate4 ,section #c4 ,a ,,low ,,birth-,,rate ,,no ,,guarantee ,,of ,a ,,low ,,death-,,rate ,again1 birth controllers claim that a low birthrate leads to a low infant mortality rate4 ,now1 it is really a very extraordinary thing that1 whatever be the statement made by a ,malthusian on the subject of birth-control1 the very opposite is found to be the truth4 ,during the last quarter of last century a falling birth-rate in ,england was actually accompanied by a rising infant mortality rate6 ,during #aiah in ,ireland #bi the crude birthrate was #ai4i1 with an infant mortality rate of #hf1 whereas in ,england and ,wales #cj the crude birthrate was #ag4g with an infant mortality rate of #ig1 and in the northern boroughs the appalling rate of #abj4 ,in ,england and ,wales the lowest infant mortality rate was found to be in the southern rural districts1 where the rate was #fc1 but in ,connaught the rate was #ej4e4 ,this means that in ,england a low birth-rate is associated with a high infant mortality rate1 whereas in ,ireland a high birth-rate is associated with a low infant mortality rate4 #ca ,these cold figures prove that in this matter at least the poorest ,irish peasants are richer than the people of ,england4 ,section #d4 ,,vital ,,statistics ,,of ,,france ,the ,malthusian claim that a low birth-rate leads to a low death-rate is also disproved by the vital statistics of ,france4 ,the death-rate of ,france has not declined at the same rate as the birth-rate has1 and1 while the incidence of mortality in ,france was equal to that of ,england in the middle of the seventies1 the ,english mortality is now only five-sevenths of the ,french4 ,england thus maintains a fair natural increase1 although the birth-rate has declined at an even faster pace than has been the case in ,france4444 ,the ,french death-rate is higher than is the case with most of her neighbours1 and it can quite well be reduced4 ,the reasons for her fairly high mortality are not to be found in climatic conditions1 racial characteristics1 or other unchangeable elements of nature1 nor even in her occupations1 since some of the most industrial regions have a low mortality4 #cb ,i have tabulated certain vital statistics of twenty ,departments of ,france4 ,the following table1 covering two periods of five years in twenty ,departments1 proves that the death-rate was lower in the ten ,departments having the highest birth-rate in ,france than in the ten ,departments having the lowest birth-rate4 ,,table ,i ,,the ,,ten ,,departments ,,having ,,the ,,highest ,,birth-,,rate ,,france #aiji-aiac #aiae-aiai ,rates per #a1jjj population ,still- ,rates per #a1jjj births population ,departments4 ,living ,deaths ,natural per #ajjj ,births deaths births increase births ,moselle #bg4f #af4e #aa4a - #ad4g #ae4d ,finistre #bg4b #ah4a #i4a #d4j #ae4i #ah4b ,pas-de-,calais #bf4h #ag4d #i4d #d4b - - ,morbihan #be4g #ag4h #g4i #d4d #ae4j #ai4j ,ctes-du-,nord #bd4e #bj4f #c4i #d4b #ad4d #bj4j ,bas-,rhin4 #bd4c #af4b #h4j - #ac4c #af4a ,meurthe-et- ,moselle #bc4b #ai4b #d4j #d4c - - ,lozre #bb4f #ag4c #e4b #d4b #ab4d #ag4e ,haut-,rhin4 #bb4d #af4j #f4d - #aj4c #ae4d ,vosges #bb4j #ah4g #c4c #d4g - - ,total ,averages #bd4f #ag4g #f4h #d4b #ac4g #ag4c ,,the ,,ten ,,departments ,,having ,,the ,,lowest ,,birth-,,rate ,,in ,,france ,cte-d',or4 #ae4d #ah4b -#b4h #c4a #i4i #bj4e ,allier4 #ae4a #ae4g -#j4f #c4c #h4d #ah4h ,gironde #ae4a #ag4c -#b4b #d4e #aj4a #ba4b ,haute-,garonne4 #ae4a #bj4d -#e4c #d4j #i4j #bb4e ,lot #ae4j #ba4j -#f4j #d4e #g4e #bj4f ,nivre #ad4i #ag4d -#b4e #c4b #h4h #bj4j ,tarn-et-,garonne #ad4i #bj4a -#e4a #d4g #g4i #bj4g ,yonne #ad4d #ai4a -#d4g #c4h #h4i #bb4j ,lot-et-,garonne #ac4g #ai4a -#e4d #d4d #g4d #bj4a ,gers #ac4b #ai4b -#f4j #d4a #f4h #ai4h ,total ,averages #ad4f #ah4g -#d4j #c4i #h4d #bj4f ,moreover1 the figures show that1 prior to #aiad1 the ,departments with the lowest birth-rate were becoming depopulated4 ,on the other hand1 the enormous fall in the birth-rate throughout the country from #aiae to #aiai is a memorial1 very noble1 to the heroism of ,france in the ,great ,war1 and to her #a1age1jjj dead4 ,certain other facts should also be noted4 ,in ,france the regulations permit that1 when a child has died before registration of the birth1 this may be recorded as a still-birth2 and for that reason the proportion of still-births appears higher than in most other countries4 ,malthusian claims are thus refuted by the vital statistics of ,france2 but it should be clearly understood that these figures do not prove that the reverse of the ,malthusian theory is true1 namely1 that a high birth-rate is the cause of a low death-rate4 ,there is no true correlation between birthrates and death-rates4 ,section #e4 ,,coefficients ,,of ,,correlation ,as birth controllers rely very much upon statistics1 and as figures may very easily mislead the unwary1 it is necessary to point out that the ,malthusian contention that a high birth-rate is the cause of a high death-rate is not only contrary to reason and to facts1 but is also contrary to the very figures which they quote4 ,a high birth-rate is often associated with a high death-rate1 but a general or uniform correspondence between birth-rates and death-rates has never been established by modern statistical methods4 ,to these methods brief reference may be made4 ,a coefficient of correlation is a number intended to indicate the degree of similarity between two things1 or the extent to which one moves with the other4 ,if this coefficient is unity1 or #a1 it indicates that the two things are similar in all respects1 while if it be zero1 or #j1 it indicates that there is no resemblance between them4 ,the study of correlation is a first step to the study of causation1 because1 until we know to what extent two things move together1 it is useless to consider whether one causes the movement of the other2 but in itself a coefficient of correlation does not necessarily indicate cause or result4 ,now in this country1 between #ahch and #aiab the birth-rate and the death-rate show a correlation of 4#hd2 but if that period be split into two1 the correlation from #ahch to #ahgf1 when the birth-rate was fluctuating1 is minus 4#ab1 and in the period after #ahgf the correlation is plus 4#ib4 ,this means that the whole of the positive correlation is due to the falling of the death-rate1 and that birthrates and death-rates do not of necessity move together4 #cc ,after a careful examination of the vital statistics for ,france1 ,knud ,stouman concludes as follows3 ,in ,france no clear correlation exists between the birth-rate and the death-rate in the various ,departments4 ,the coefficient of correlation between the birth-rate and the general death-rate by ,departments 7#aiji-aiac7 was #j4jfibj4ajfg1 and including ,alsace and ,lorraine--#j4jbabj4ajed1 indicating no correlation whatsoever4 ,a somewhat different and more interesting table is obtained when the correlation is made with the mortality at each age class3 ,,table ,,ii ,under #a year #j4cfdg #j4jihf #a-ai years #j4dhhd #j4jhaf #bj-ci years #j4fbbh #j4jfef #dj-ei years #j4ejbh #j4jhja #fj years and over #j4begg #j4ajja ,a peculiar configuration is observed in these coefficients in that a quite pronounced positive correlation exists at the central age group1 but disappears with some regularity towards both extremities of life4 ,if the mortality has any influence upon the natality this cannot be in the form of replacement of lost infants and deceased old people1 therefore1 as has frequently been suggested4 ,that a high death-rate at the child-bearing age should be conducive to increased fertility is absurd1 neither does it seem likely that a large number of children should make the parents more liable to diseases which are prevalent at this period of life4 ,the reasons must1 then1 be looked for in a common factor4 ,now the only disease of importance representing the same age-curve as do the correlation coefficients is tuberculosis4 ,this disease causes in ,france #b per cent4 of the deaths under one year1 #bd per cent4 of the deaths from #a to #ai years of age1 not less than #de per cent4 from #bj to #ci1 #ah per cent4 at ages #dj to #ei1 and less than #b per cent4 at the ages over #fj4 ,will a high tuberculosis mortality1 then1 be conducive to great fertility1 or do we have to fear that a decrease of the natality will be the result of energetic measures against tuberculosis8 ,hardly4 ,the death-rate may be reduced1 then1 without detrimental effects upon the birth-rate4 ,what can the factor be which influences both the tuberculosis incidence and the birth-rate8 ,we know that the prevalence of tuberculosis is conditioned principally by poverty and ignorance of hygiene4 ,the ,parisian statistics1 as compiled by ,dr4 ,bertillon and recently by ,professor ,l4 ,hersch1 show a much higher birth-rate in the poor wards than in the richer districts1 and the high birth-rates may be furnished largely by the poorer elements of the population4 ,a comfortable degree of wealth does not imply a low birth-rate1 as is abundantly shown elsewhere1 and one of the important questions which suggest themselves to the ,french statistician and sociologist is evidently the following3 ,how can the intellectual and economic standard of the masses be raised without detriment to the natality8 ,we believe that the time is opportune for solving this question4 ,the past half-century has been lived under the shadow of defeat and with a sense of limitations1 and of impotence against fate4 ,this nightmare is now thrown off1 and1 the doors to the world being open and development free1 the ,french people will learn that new initiative has its full recompense and that a living and a useful activity can be found for all the sons and daughters they may get4 ,the habit of home-staying is broken by the war1 and new and great undertakings are developing in the ruined north-east as well as in the sunny south4 #cd ,footnote #be3 ,the ,lancet1 #ahgi1 vol4 ii1 p4 #gjc4 ,footnote #bf3 ,poverty is a term of wide import admitting many degrees according as the victim is deprived more or less completely of the ordinary necessities in the matters of food1 clothing1 housing1 education1 and recreation4 ,as used by ,malthusians and spoken of here it means persistent lack of one or more of these necessary requisites for decent living4 ,vide ,parkinson1 ,primer of ,social ,science 7#aiah71 pp4 #bbe sqq4 ,footnote #bg3 ,the infant mortality rate is the number of deaths of infants under one year old per #a1jjj births in the same year4 ,footnote #bh3 ,see ,saleeby1 ,the ,factors of ,infant ,mortality1 edited by ,cory ,bigger4 ,report on the ,physical ,welfare of ,mothers and ,children1 vol4 iv1 ,ireland 7,carnegie ,u4,k4 ,trust71 #aiah4 ,footnote #bi3 ,fifty-fifth ,annual ,report of the ,registrar-,general for ,ireland1 containing a ,general ,abstract of the ,numbers of ,marriages1 ,births1 and ,deaths1 #aiah1 pp4 x1 xxix1 and #bd4 ,footnote #cj3 ,eighty-first ,annual ,report of the ,registrar-,general of ,births1 ,deaths1 and ,marriages in ,england and ,wales1 #aiah1 pp4 xxiv1 xxxii1 and xxxv4 ,footnote #ca3 ,this is also the emphatic testimony of ,sir ,arthur ,newsholme1 in his ,report of ,child ,mortality1 issued in connection with the ,forty-fifth ,annual ,report of the ,local ,government ,board 7dated #aia871 ,,pp4 #gg-h4 ,footnote #cb3 ,knud ,stouman1 ,the ,repopulation of ,france1 ,international ,journal of ,public ,health1 vol4 ii1 no4 #d1 p4 #dba4 ,footnote #cc3 ,dr4 ,major ,greenwood4 ,vide ,the ,declining ,birth-rate1 #aiaf1 p4 #acj4 ,footnote #cd3 ,international ,journal of ,public ,health1 vol4 ii1 no4 #d1 p4 #dbc4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,how ,,religion ,,affects ,,the ,,birthrate ,section #a4 ,,french ,,statistics ,,misinterpreted ,,by ,,malthusians ,the fact that ,malthusians are in the habit of citing the birth-rate in certain ,catholic countries as a point in favour of their propaganda is only another instance of their maladroit use of figures3 because for that argument there is not the slightest justification4 ,the following paragraph from a recent speech #ce in the ,anglican ,church ,congress by ,lord ,dawson1 ,physician to the ,king1 is a good example of their methods in controversy3 ,despite the influence and condemnations of the ,church1 it 7artificial birth control7 has been practised in ,france for well over half a century1 and in ,belgium and other ,catholic countries is extending4 ,and if the ,roman ,catholic ,church1 with its compact organisation1 its power of authority1 and its discipline1 cannot check this procedure1 is it likely that ,protestant ,churches will be able to do so8 ,for ,protestant religions depend for their strength on the conviction and esteem they establish in the heads and hearts of their people4 ,i have italicised the closing words because it would be interesting to know1 in passing1 whether anyone denies that these human influences also contribute to the strength of the ,catholic ,church4 ,among recent converts to the ,faith in this country are many ,protestant clergymen who may be presumed to have known what claims on their conviction and esteem their communion had4 ,moreover1 in ,france1 amongst recent converts are some of the great intellects of that country4 ,if it be not conviction and esteem in their heads and hearts1 what other motive1 ,i ask1 has induced ,huysmans1 ,barrs1 and others to make submission to ,rome8 ,secondly1 it is true that for over half a century the birth-rate of ,france has been falling1 and that to some extent this decline is due to the use of contraceptives2 but it is also true that during the past fifty years the ,government of ,france has made a determined but unsuccessful effort to overthrow the ,catholic ,church2 and that it is in so far as the ,government has weakened ,catholic influence and impeded ,catholic teaching that the birth-rate has fallen4 ,the belief of a nation will not influence its destiny unless that belief is reflected in the actions of the citizens4 ,father ,herbert ,thurston1 ,s4,j41 #cf thus deals with the argument implied3 ,catholicism which is merely ,catholicism in name1 and which amounts to no more in the supposed believer than a vague purpose of sending for a priest when he is dying1 is not likely to have any restraining effect upon the decline of the birth-rate4 ,further1 it is precisely because a really practical ,catholicism lays such restrictions upon freedom in this and in other matters1 that members of the educated and comfortable classes1 the men especially1 are prone to emancipate themselves from all religious control with an anti-clerical rancour hardly known in ,protestant lands4 ,had it not been for these defections from her teaching1 the ,catholic ,church1 in most countries of mixed religion1 would soon become predominant by the mere force of natural fertility4 ,even as it is1 we believe that a country like ,france owes such small measure of natural increase as she still retains almost entirely to the religious principle of the faithful few4 ,where the ,catholic ,church preserves her sway over the hearts of men the maintenance of a vigorous stock is assured4 ,in the first place1 it is noteworthy that the birth-rate varies with practical ,catholicism in ,france1 being much higher in those ,departments where the ,church is more flourishing4 ,as was shown by ,professor ,meyrick ,booth in #aiad1 there are certain districts of ,france where the birth-rate is higher than in the usual ,english country districts4 ,for example1 the birth-rate in ,finistre was #bg4a1 in ,pas-de-,calais #bf4f1 and in ,morbihan #be4h4 ,on the other hand1 in many ,departments the birth-rate was lower than the death-rate4 ,this occurred1 for example1 in ,lot1 ,haute ,garonne1 ,tarn-et-,garonne1 ,lot-et-,garonne1 and in ,gers4 ,in the two last-named ,departments the birth-rates were #ac4f and #ac4j respectively4 ,in the following table ,i have tabulated more recent figures concerning the vital statistics in these two groups of ,departments1 and rates for the two periods of five years1 #aiji-aiac1 and #aiae-aiai1 in each group are compared4 ,it will be noted that in the three ,departments1 where practical ,catholicism is most flourishing1 ,,table ,,iii #aiji-aiac4 #aiae-aiai4 ,departments4 ,rates per #ajjj ,still- ,deaths ,rates per #ajjj population ,births under population per #a year ,living ,deaths ,national #ajjj per ,births ,deaths ,births ,increase ,births #ajjj living births ,finistre4 #bg4b #ah4a #i4a #d4j #aaf4g #ae4i #ah4b ,pas-de-,calais #bf4h #ag4d #i4d #d4b #ace4c -- -- ,morbihan4 #be4g #ag4h #g4i #d4d #aac4g #ae4j #ai4j ,total ,averages4 #bf4e #ag4g #h4h #d4b #aba4i #ae4d #ah4f ,lot4 #ae4j #ba4j -#f4j #d4e #adh4j #g4e #bj4f ,haute ,garonne4 #ae4a #bj4d -#e4c #d4j #aba4c #i4j #bb4e ,tarn-et-,garonne #ad4i #bj4a -#e4a #d4g #acd4g #g4i #bj4g ,lot-et-,garonne4 #ac4g #ai4a -#e4d #d4d #aab4j #g4d #bj4a ,gers4 #ac4b #ai4b -#f4j #d4a #ajb4d #f4h #ai4h ,total ,averages4 #ad4c #ai4i -#e4e #d4c #abc4f #g4g #bj4g there is a high birth-rate1 and moreover that in these ,departments both the death-rate and the infant mortality rate is lower than in the five ,departments with the lowest birth-rate4 ,professor ,meyrick ,booth's comments are as follows3 ,the above five departments 7in which the decline of population has been most marked7 are adjacent to one another in the fertile valley of the ,garonne1 one of the wealthiest parts of ,france2 and we may well ask3 ,why should the birth-rate under such favourable conditions be less than half that which is noted for the bleak district of ,finistre8 ,the noted statistician1 ,m4 ,leroy-,beaulieu1 has some interesting observations to offer upon this paradoxical state of things4 ,considering the country in general1 and these districts in particular1 he notes that the most prolific parts of ,france are those in which the people have retained their allegiance to the traditional ,church 7in the case of the ,pas-de-,calais we have a certain degree of adherence to the orthodox faith combined with the presence of a large mining population74 ,m4 ,leroy-,beaulieu expresses the opinion that the ,catholic ,church tends1 by means of its whole atmosphere1 to promote a general increase of population2 for1 more than other types of ,christianity1 it condemns egoism1 materialism1 and inordinate ambition for self or family2 and1 moreover1 it works in the same direction through its uncompromising condemnation of modern ,malthusian practices4 ,he draws our attention1 further1 to the new wave of religious life which has swept over the haute-bourgeoisie of ,france during the last few decades2 and he does not hesitate to connect this with the fact that this class is now one of the most prolific 7perhaps the most prolific7 in the nation4 ,space forbids my taking up this subject in detail1 but it appears from a considerable body of figures which have been collected that1 while the average number of children born to each marriage in the ,english ,protestant upper middle class is not more than about #b4j to #b4e1 the number born to each marriage in the corresponding class in ,france is between #c4j and #d4j4 ,taking the foregoing facts into consideration1 it would appear that ,roman ,catholicism--even in ,france--is very considerably more prolific 7where the belief of the people is at all deep7 than ,english ,protestantism4 ,this applies both to the upper and lower classes4 #cg ,in all probability ,lord ,dawson was unaware of the foregoing1 but there is one fact which1 as a ,neo-,malthusian1 he ought to have known1 because the omission of this fact in his address is a serious matter4 ,when referring to ,france as a country where birth control had come to stay1 ,lord ,dawson did not tell his audience that the ,government of ,france has now suppressed the only ,malthusian periodical in that country1 and has proposed a law1 whereby those who engage in birth control propaganda shall be imprisoned4 ,section #b4 ,,evidence ,,from ,,holland ,as regards other countries1 ,holland is usually described as the ,mecca of ,malthusians1 being the only country where ,neo-,malthusianism has been given the opportunity of diminishing the excessive birth-rate on eugenic lines1 i4e4 in the reduction of the fertility of the poorest classes1 #ch and where a considerable rise in the wages and general prosperity appears to have taken place side by side with an unprecedented increase of population4 ,when we come to investigate this claim we find that1 of the eleven provinces of ,holland1 two are almost entirely ,catholic1 these being ,north ,brabant1 with #fdi1jjj inhabitants1 and ,limburg1 with #ceh1jjj inhabitants4 ,on the other hand1 in ,friesland1 with #cff1jjj inhabitants1 not more than #h per cent1 are ,catholics4 ,the vital statistics for #aiac are quoted by ,father ,thurston1 ,s4,j43 444 ,we find that in ,limburg the crude birth-rate is #cc4d1 in ,north ,brabant it is #cb4e1 but in ,friesland it is #bd4c4 ,of course1 this is not the beginning and end of the matter4 ,in ,north ,brabant the death-rate is #af4cf1 in ,limburg it is #ae4bh1 in ,friesland it is only #aa4ba1 but the fact remains that in the two ,catholic provinces the natural increase is #af4ag and #ah4ae1 while in the non-,catholic province of ,friesland it is #ac4ae4 ,further1 no one can doubt that in such densely populated districts as ,north and ,south ,holland and ,gelderland the ,catholics1 who number more than #be per cent1 of the inhabitants1 exercise a perceptible influence in raising the birth figures for the whole kingdom4 ,the results would be very different if the entire country adopted ,neo-,malthusian principles4 #ci ,section #c4 ,,the ,,united ,,states ,,of ,,america ,as was proved by the census of religions in #aijf1 the ,united ,states of ,america is becoming a great stronghold of the ,faith4 ,in ,massachusetts the ,catholic ,church numbered #a1ajj1jjj members1 whereas the total membership of all the ,protestant ,churches was #dej1jjj4 ,in ,illinois there were about #cjj1jjj ,methodists and #a1jjj1jjj ,catholics4 ,there were #b1cjj1jjj ,catholics in the ,state of ,new ,york1 and about #cjj1jjj ,methodists1 while no other ,protestant ,church numbered more than #bjj1jjj4 ,the ,new ,england ,states1 once the home of ,american ,puritanism1 are now great centres of ,catholicism4 ,professor ,meyrick ,booth #dj explains this remarkable change as being due to two causes3 7#a7 ,the influx of large numbers of ,european ,catholics1 who cling tenaciously to their religion2 7#b7 the greater fertility of these stocks as compared with the native population4 ,moreover1 he has tabulated the following statistics3 ,,table ,,iv ,state4 ,population ,chief ,religious ,bodies ,births ,birth 7#aijf7 ,deaths rate per 7b4 and d47 #a1jjj ,indiana #b1gjj1jjj ,methodist #bcc1jjj b4 #cf1jjj #ac4j ,prot4 ,episcopalian #ajb1jjj d4 #cf1ejj ,disciples #aah1jjj ,r4,c4 #age1jjj ,iowa4 #b1bbd1jjj ,methodist #afd1jjj b4 #cf1jjj #af4j ,lutheran #aag1jjj d4 #bj1jjj ,presbyterian #fj1jjj ,r4,c4 #bjg1jjj ,maryland4 #a1bie1jjj ,methodist #acg1jjj b4 #ai1jjj #ae4j ,prot4 ,episcopalian #ce1jjj d4 #bj1jjj ,baptist smaller1 about #ajj1jjj ,r4,c4 #afg1jjj ,california4 #b1cgg1jjj ,r4,c4 #ced1jjj b4 #cb1ajj #ad4j ,prot4 bodies about d4 #cb1djj 7,all ,churches weak7 #bej1jjj ,kentucky #b1bij1jjj ,baptist #cab1jjj b4 #ce1jjj #ae4j ,methodist #aef1jjj d4 #ah1jjj ,r4,c4 #aff1jjj ,in these ,states the birth-rate is low2 in three there are actually more deaths than births2 and in all five the proportion of ,catholics is comparatively small4 ,these ,states may be compared with five others1 in which the ,catholic and the foreign elements are well represented3 ,,table ,v ,state4 ,population ,chief ,religious ,birth and ,birthrate 7#aiaj7 ,bodies ,deaths per #ajjj ,new ,york4 #i1aac1jjj ,r4,c4 #b1bhj1jjj b4 #bac1jjj #bb4j ,jews 787 #a1jjj1jjj d4 #adg1jjj ,methodist #cjj1jjj ,presbyterian #bjj1jjj ,rhode ,island #edj1jjj ,r4,c4 #afj1jjj b4 #ac1jjj #bd4j ,baptist #bj1jjj d4 #h1jjj ,prot4 ,episcopalian #ae1jjj ,massachusetts #c1ccf1jjj ,r4,c4 #a1jhj1jjj b4 #hd1jjj #be4j ,congregational #abj1jjj d4 #ea1jjj ,baptist #hj1jjj ,all ,protestants together #dej1jjj ,michigan #b1hjj1jjj ,r4,c4 #dij1jjj b4 #fd1jjj #bc4j ,methodist #abh1jjj d4 #cf1jjj ,lutheran #aje1jjj ,connecticut #a1aad1jjj ,r4,c4 #cjj1jjj b4 #bg1jjj #bd4j ,congregational #ff1jjj d4 #ag1jjj ,prot4 ,episcopalian #cg1jjj ,in these ,states the birth-rate is very much higher than in the former4 ,furthermore1 a ,new ,york paper #dj investigated the birth-rate in that city with special reference to religious belief1 and concluded that the different bodies could be graded as follows with respect to the number of children per marriage3 7#a7 ,jews1 7#b7 ,catholics1 7#c7 ,protestants 7,orthodox71 7#d7 ,protestants 7,liberal71 and 7#e7 ,agnostic4 ,professor ,meyrick ,booth1 who is himself a ,protestant1 concludes his survey of the evidence as follows3 looking at the situation as a whole1 there is good reason to think that the ,protestant ,anglo-,saxons are not only losing ground relatively1 but must1 at any rate in the ,east and middle ,east1 be suffering an actual decrease on a large scale4 ,for it has been shown by more than one sociologist 7see1 for example1 the statement in ,the ,family and the ,nation7 that no stock can maintain itself with an average of less than about four children per marriage1 and from all available data 7it has not been found possible to obtain definite figures for most of the ,western and ,southern ,states7 we must see that the average fertility of each marriage in this section of the ,american people falls far short of the requisite four children4 ,judging by all the figures at hand1 the modern ,anglo-,saxon ,american1 with his high standard of comfort1 his intensely individualistic outlook on life1 and his intellectual and emancipated but child-refusing wife1 is being gradually thrust aside by the upgrowth of new masses of people of simpler tastes and hardier and more natural habits4 ,and1 what is of peculiar interest to us1 this new population will carry into ascendancy those religious and moral beliefs which have moulded its type of life4 ,the victory will be1 not to those religious beliefs which most closely correspond to certain requirements of the abstract intellect1 but to those which give rise1 in practice1 to a mode of life that is simple1 natural1 unselfish1 and adequately prolific--in other words1 to a mode of life that works1 that is ,lebensfhig4 #da ,as things are1 the original ,protestant stock of ,america is being swamped by the growth of the ,catholic1 the ,jewish1 and the ,negro population4 ,moreover1 the ,united ,states is faced by the grave problem of a rapidly increasing coloured race4 ,despite this fact the ,american ,malthusians are now demanding that a ,national ,bureau should be established to disseminate information regarding contraceptives throughout their country6 ,and what of the other reformers8 ,they also are very busy4 ,they have already abolished those cheering beverages from grapes and grain1 or rather they have made alcohol one of the surreptitious privileges of the rich4 ,they are seeking to enforce the ,sabbath as a day of absolute rest1 not for the glory of ,god but in order that tired wage-slaves may have their strength renewed for another week of toil in the factories and the mills4 ,again1 they would uproot from the homely earth that pleasant weed whose leaves have made slaves of millions since the days of ,sir ,walter ,raleigh4 ,all these things would they do4 ,there are some things the reformers have not done1 and these things are recounted by an ,american writer1 ,dr4 ,anthony ,m4 ,benedik3 ,the divorce peril1 the race-suicide evil1 the greed for ill-gotten gold1 things like these the reformers touch not4 ,and these things it is which harm the soul4 ,abolishing the use of alcoholic drinks and of tobacco1 putting the blue laws into effect1 suppressing all rough sports1 may make a cleaner1 more sanitary1 more hygienic1 a quieter world4 ,and yet there keep recurring to mind those words of the ,master of mankind1 ',what doth it profit a man if he gain the world and suffer the loss of his soul8' ,what worthy exchange can a man make for his soul8 #db ,on the other hand1 it is good to read that the ,governor of ,new ,york has recently signed a bill making it a misdemeanour for landlords to refuse to rent apartments to families in which there are children4 ,in that ,state children thus regain equal rights with dogs1 cats1 and canaries4 ,is it too much to ask of the ,house of ,commons that they should pass a similar law8 ,we shall see4 ,the dangers of birth control were apparent to that great ,american1 ,theodore ,roosevelt1 when he said3 ,the greatest of all curses is the curse of sterility1 and the severest of all condemnations should be that visited upon wilful sterility4 ,the first essential in any civilisation is that the man and the woman shall be the father and the mother of healthy children1 so that the race shall increase and not decrease4 #dc ,section #d4 ,,the ,,same ,,results ,,in ,,england ,on a smaller scale the position is the same in ,england and ,wales1 where ,catholicism has probably checked to some extent the general decline of the birth-rate4 ,in #aiai there were only six towns in ,england #dd with a birth-rate of over #be per #a1jjj1 these being ,st4 ,helens 7#be4f71 ,gateshead 7#be4i71 ,south ,shields 7#bf4i71 ,sunderland 7#bg4a71 ,tynemouth 7#be4i71 and ,middlesbrough 7#bf4g74 ,now in these towns the ,catholic element is very strong4 ,during the same year in the four registration counties in which these towns are situated1 a larger proportion of marriages were celebrated according to the rites of the ,church of ,rome than in the other counties of ,england and ,wales4 #de ,the actual proportion of ,catholic marriages per #a1jjj of all marriages in these four counties was3 ,lancashire #aaf1 ,durham #ii1 ,northumberland #ib1 and the ,north ,riding of ,yorkshire #ib4 ,that gives a fair index of the strength of the ,catholic population4 ,again in #aiai we find that ,preston1 a textile town1 has a birth-rate of #ag4a1 whereas two other textile towns1 ,bradford and ,halifax1 have rates of #ac4d and #ac4a respectively3 and there can be little doubt that the relative superiority of ,preston is mainly owing to her large ,catholic population4 ,the actual birth-rate amongst ,catholics in ,england may be estimated from information contained in ,the ,catholic ,directory for #aiad4 ,as that work gives the ,catholic population and the number of infant baptisms during the previous year in each diocese of ,great ,britain1 and as ,catholic children are always baptized soon after birth1 it is possible to estimate the birth-rate of the ,catholic population4 ,working on these figures ,professor ,meyrick ,booth #df has published the following table3 ,,table ,,vi ,diocese4 ,birth-rate per #a1jjj of the ,roman ,catholic population4 ,menevia 7,wales7 #de4b ,middlesbrough #ch4j ,leeds #db4j ,liverpool #dj4j ,newport #ec4j ,northampton #cc4j ,plymouth #bf4j ,shrewsbury #ch4j ,southwark #ci4,o ,westminster #cf4j ---- ,average #ch4f ---- ,during the same period the general birth-rate amongst the whole population of ,england and ,wales was about #bd per #a1jjj4 ,and figures that are even more remarkable have been published by ,mr4 ,w4,c4,d4 ,whetham and ,mrs4 ,whetham4 #dg ,these writers1 having investigated the number of children in the families of the landed gentry1 show that the birth-rate amongst the aristocracy has declined4 ,a hundred fertile marriages for each decade from #ahca to #ahij have been taken consecutively from those families who have held their title to nobility for at least two preceding generations1 thus excluding the more modern commercial middle-class element in the present ,peerage1 which can be better dealt with elsewhere4 ,we then get the full effect of hereditary stability and a secure position1 and do away with any disturbing influence that might occur from a sudden rise to prosperity4 #dh ,the results were as follows3 ,reference3 ,population ,year4 ,number of children to each fertile marriage4 #ahca-dj #g4a #ahda-fj #f4a #ahga-hj #d4cf #ahha-ij #c4ac ,the birth-rate amongst thirty families of the landed gentry1 who were known to be definitely ,catholic1 was also investigated1 with the following results3 ,years4 ,number of children to each fertile marriage4 #ahga-ij #f4f 7as compared with #c4gd for the landed families as a whole during the same period47 ,the interpretation of these figures is not a matter of faith1 but of reason4 ,i submit that the facts are prima facie evidence that by observance of the moral law1 as taught by the ,catholic ,church1 even a highly cultured community is enabled to escape those dangers of over-civilisation that lead to diminished fertility and consequently to national decline4 ,the truth of this statement has been freely acknowledged by many ,anglicans4 ,according to ,canon ,edward ,lyttelton3 ,the discipline of the ,roman ,communion prohibits the artificial prevention of conception1 hence ,ireland is the only part of the ,united ,kingdom in which the birth-rate has not declined1 and the decline is least in places like ,liverpool and those districts where ,roman ,catholics are most numerous4 ,as we have already seen1 there are also other reasons why ,catholicism preserves the fertility of a nation4 ,without wishing to hurt the feelings of the most sensitive materialist1 it is necessary to point out that1 apart altogether from the question as to whether the chief or immediate cause of a declining birth-rate is the practice of artificial birth control1 or1 as seems to be possible1 a general lowering of fertility1 birth-rates are more dependent on morals and religion than on race and country4 ,during the past century irreligion spread throughout ,france1 and the birth-rate fell from #cb4b1 during the first decade of the nineteenth century1 to #bj4f1 during the first ten years of the twentieth century4 ,in ,america1 amongst the descendants of the ,new ,england ,puritans a decay of religion and morals has also been accompanied by a dwindling birth-rate4 ,the decline of the original ,new ,england stock in ,america has been masked to some extent by the high birth-rate amongst the immigrant population2 but nevertheless it is apparent in the ,census ,returns for #ahij1 when a population of #fe1jjj1jjj was expected and only #fb1ejj1jjj was returned4 ,moreover1 there is ample evidence in history that1 wherever the ,christian ideal of a family has been abandoned1 a race is neither able to return to the family life of healthy pagan civilisations nor to escape decay4 ,during the past fifty years in ,england family life has been definitely weakened by increased facilities for divorce amongst the rich1 by the discouragement of parental authority amongst the poor1 and by the neglect of all religious teaching in the schools4 ,and thus1 in the words of ,charles ,devas1 ,we have of late years1 with perverse ingenuity1 been preparing the way for the low birth-rate of irreligion and the high death-rate of civil disorder4 #di ,the birth-rate in ,england and ,wales reached its highest point1 #cf4c1 in #ahgf1 and has gradually fallen to #ah4e in #aiai4 ,during the first two quarters of that year the rate was the lowest yet recorded4 ,during the pre-war year1 #aiac1 the rate was #bd4a4 ,in conclusion1 the following statements by a ,protestant writer are of interest3 ,judging from a number of figures which cannot be quoted here1 owing to considerations of space1 it would seem that the ,english middle-class birth-rate has fallen to the extent of over #ej per cent4 during the last forty years2 and we have actual figures showing that the well-to-do artisan birth-rate has declined1 in the last thirty years1 by #eb per cent46 ,seeing that the ,protestant ,churches draw their members mainly from these very classes1 we have not far to seek for an explanation of the empty ,sunday ,schools4444 ,under these circumstances it is not in the least necessary for ,protestant ministers and clergymen to cast about them for evidence of ,jesuit machinations wherewith to explain the decline of the ,protestant ,churches in this country6 ,let them rather look at the empty cradles in the homes of their own congregations6 #ej ,the author of the above-quoted paragraphs thus attributes the decline both of the birth-rate and of the ,protestant ,churches to the general adoption of artificial birth control4 ,with that explanation ,i disagree1 because it puts the horse behind the cart4 ,when the ,protestant faith was strong the birth-rate of this country was as high as that of ,catholic lands4 ,the ,protestant ,churches have now been overshadowed by a rebirth of ,rationalism1 a growth for which they themselves prepared the soil3 and diminished fertility is the natural product of a civilisation tending towards materialism4 ,although the practice of artificial birth control must obviously contribute towards a falling birth-rate1 it is neither the only nor the ultimate cause of the decline4 ,the ultimate causes of a falling birth-rate are more complex1 and the decline of a community is but the physical expression of a moral change4 ,that is my thesis4 ,footnote #ce3 ,evening ,standard1 ,october #ab1 #aiba4 ,footnote #cf3 ,the ,declining ,birth-rate in ,the ,month1 ,august #aiaf1 p4 #aeg1 reprinted by ,c4,t4,s4 ,price #b;d4 ,footnote #cg3 ,religious ,belief as affecting the ,growth of ,population1 ,the ,hibbert ,journal1 ,october1 #aiad1 p4 #add4 ,footnote #ch3 ,the ,secretary of the ,malthusian ,league4 ,vide ,the ,declining ,birth-rate1 #aiaf1 p4 #ii4 ,footnote #ci3 ,the ,month1 ,august #aiaf1 p4 #aeg1 ,c4,t4,s43 #b;d4 ,footnote #dj3 ,the ,hibbert ,journal1 ,october #aiad1 p4 #adg4 ,footnote #da3 ,the ,hibbert ,journal1 ,october #aiad1 p4 #aej4 ,footnote #db3 ,race-suicide and ,dr4 ,bell1 ,america1 ,october #bi1 #aiba1 p4 #ca4 ,footnote #dc3 ,daily ,chronicle1 ,april #be1 #aiaj4 ,footnote #dd3 ,eighty-second ,annual ,report of the ,registrar-,general of ,births1 ,deaths1 and ,marriages in ,england and ,wales1 #aiai1 p4 #hi4 ,footnote #de3 ,ibid41 p4 xxvi4 ,footnote #df3 ,the ,hibbert ,journal1 ,october #aiad1 p4 #ada4 ,footnote #dg3 ,the ,family and the ,nation1 #aiji1 pp4 #aci1 #adb4 ,footnote #dh3 ,quoted in ,universe1 ,october #bb1 #aiba4 ,footnote #di3 ,charles ,s4 ,devas1 ,political ,economy1 #bnd edition1 #aija1 p4 #aic4 ,footnote #ej3 ,meyrick ,booth1 ,b4 ,sc41 ,ph4,d41 ,the ,hibbert ,journal1 ,october #aiad1 pp4 #adb and #aeb4 ,,chapter ,v ,,is ,,there ,a ,,natural ,,law ,,regulating ,,the ,,proportion ,,of ,,births ,,and ,,deaths8 ,section #a4 ,,the ,,theory ,,of ,,thomas ,,doubleday ,,revived ,in #ahcg ,thomas ,doubleday #ea maintained that the rising birth-rate of his own time was closely connected with the fall in the standard of living1 and his argument implied that1 in order to check the excessive birth-rate1 it was necessary to improve the condition of the mass of the people4 ,four years later he published ,the ,true ,law of ,population1 wherein he stated that when the existence of a species is endangered-- ,a corresponding effort is invariably made by ,nature for its preservation and continuance by an increase of fertility1 and that this especially takes place whenever such danger arises from a diminution of proper nourishment or food1 so that consequently the state of depletion or the deplethoric state is favourable to fertility1 and that1 on the other hand1 the plethoric state1 or state of repletion1 is unfavourable to fertility in the ratio of the intensity of each state4 ,by a series of experiments on plants ,doubleday discovered that whatever might be the principle of manure1 an overdose of it invariably induced sterility in the plant4 ,although his formula is deficient in that food is selected as the one factor in environment which influences fertility1 and although it may be an overstatement to claim that fertility varies in exact proportion to abundance or to scarcity1 nevertheless his formula contains an important truth which literally knocks the bottom out of the whole ,malthusian case4 ,it is a sad reflection that1 while the falsehoods of ,malthus have been blindly accepted for the greater part of a century1 the work of ,doubleday was almost lost in oblivion4 ,his shade has now been recalled to the full centre of the stage1 and for this the credit is due to ,mr4 ,c4,e4 ,pell4 ,his recent book #eb is a stimulating essay on the declining birth-rate1 and contains much evidence that supports the main contention of ,doubleday4 ,although it is impossible to agree with all the deductions made by ,mr4 ,pell1 he has nevertheless done a public service by restating the problem of the birth-rate in a new way1 by effectively bursting the ,malthusian bubble1 and by tabulating fresh evidence against the birth-controllers4 ,section #b4 ,,mr4 ,,pell',s ,,generalisations ,,criticised ,mr4 ,pell defines the law of births and deaths in two generalisations4 ,the first is3 ,we have seen that it is a necessary condition of the success of the evolutionary scheme that the variation of the inherited potential degree of fertility between species and species must bear an inverse proportion to their capacity for survival4 #ec ,at first glance this statement appears hard to be understood2 but it is obviously true--because it means that a species that is well adapted to its environment can survive with a low degree of fertility1 whereas a species that is not well adapted to its environment requires a high degree of fertility in order to survive4 ,mr4 ,pell considers that a capacity for survival is synonymous with nervous energy2 but1 as our total knowledge of nervous energy is limited to the fact that it is neither matter nor any known force1 the change in words does not mark a real advance in knowledge4 ,the second generalisation is that the variation of the degree of animal fertility in response to the direct action of the environment shall bear an inverse proportion to the variation of the survival capacity under that environment4 #ed ,here ,mr4 ,pell and ,i part company4 ,i have already 7,chapter ,,iii7 disputed the causal connection between birth-rate and death-rate which ,mr4 ,pell here asserts4 ,his generalisation is made by assuming that birth-rates and death-rates rise and fall together3 that conditions which produce a high death-rate will also produce a high birth-rate and that conditions which cause a low death-rate will also cause a low birth-rate2 that the increase or decline of a population is due to the direct action of the environment2 and finally that the actual degree of fertility is decided by the direct action of the environment4 #ee ,on that last rock ,mr4 ,pell's barque sinks4 ,the mistake here is analogous to the old ,darwinian fallacy1 abandoned by ,huxley and by ,romanes1 that natural selection is a creative cause of new species4 ,even if the hypothesis of evolution--and it is merely a hypothesis--be accepted1 the only view warranted by reason is that variation of species and their actual degree of fertility may be produced1 not by the direct action of environment1 but by the reaction of species to their environment--a very different story4 ,there is no statistical evidence to prove a uniform correspondence between birth-rates and death-rates1 and it is improbable that there should be a physical law of nature whose operations cannot be demonstrated by mathematical proof4 ,moreover1 we know that the same conditions which cause a high birth-rate may cause a low death-rate4 ,in the case of the first settlers in a new country the death-rate is low because the diseases of civilisation are absent and the settlers are usually young1 whereas the birth-rate is high4 ,if fifty young married couples settle on the virgin soil of a new country it is probable that for many years an enormous birth-rate1 of over #ajj1 will coexist with a low death-rate4 ,in reality a high birth-rate may coexist with a low death-rate1 or with a high death-rate4 ,for example1 there is a difference between natural and artificial poverty1 the first being brought about by ,god1 or1 if any reader prefers to have it so1 by ,nature1 and the second being made by man4 ,under conditions of natural poverty small groups of people in an open country are surrounded by land not yet cultivated3 whereas artificial poverty means a population overcrowded and underfed1 living in dark tenements or in back-to-back houses1 breathing foul air in ill-ventilated rooms seldom lit by the sun1 working long hours in gas-lit workshops for a sweated wage1 buying the cheapest food in the dearest market1 and drugged by bad liquor4 ,in either case their existence is threatened1 although for very different reasons1 and the birth-rate rises2 but under conditions of natural poverty the death-rate is low1 whereas in slums the death-rate is high4 ,section #c4 ,,the ,,law ,,of ,,decline ,it would appear1 then1 that under conditions of hardship the birth-rate tends to rise1 and that in circumstances of ease the birth-rate tends to fall4 ,if the existence of the inhabitants in a closed country is threatened by scarcity1 the birth-rate tends to rise4 ,for example1 ,in some of the remote parts of the country1 ,orkney and ,shetland1 the population remained practically stationary between the years #ahja and #ahaa1 and in the next ten years1 still years of great scarcity1 it increased #ae per cent4 #ef ,the governing principle may be expressed in the following generalisation4 ,when the existence of a community is threatened by adversity the birth-rate tends to rise2 but when the existence of a community is threatened by prosperity the birth-rate tends to fall4 ,by adversity ,i mean war1 famine1 scarcity1 poverty1 oppression1 an untilled soil1 and disease3 and by prosperity ,i mean wealth1 luxury1 idleness1 a diet too rich--especially in flesh meat--and over-civilisation1 whereby the physical laws of nature are defied4 ,now the danger of national decline owing to prosperity can be avoided by a nation that observes the moral law1 and this is the most probable explanation of the fact that in ,ireland1 although the general prosperity of the people has rapidly increased since ,george ,wyndham displaced landlordism over a large area by small ownership1 the birth-rate has continued to rise4 ,moreover1 the danger to national existence1 as we have already indicated 7,chapter ,i1 ,section4 #aj7 is greater from moral than from physical catastrophes1 and when both catastrophes are threatened the ultimate issue depends upon which of the two is the greater4 ,furthermore1 it would appear that moral catastrophes inevitably lead to physical catastrophes4 ,this is best illustrated by the fate of ancient ,greece4 ,section #d4 ,,illustrated ,,from ,,greek ,,history ,reference3 ,dangers ,the appositeness of this illustration arises from the fact that ancient ,greece reached a very high level of material and intellectual civilisation1 yet perished owing to moral and physical disasters4 7a7 ,moral ,catastrophe in ,ancient ,greece ,the evidence of the moral catastrophe is to be found in the change that occurred in the ,greek character most definitely after the fourth century before ,christ4 ,of this ,mr4 ,w4,h4,s4 ,jones has given the following account3 ,gradually the ,greeks lost their brilliance1 which had been as the bright freshness of early youth4 ,this is painfully obvious in their literature1 if not in other forms of art4 ,their initiative vanished2 they ceased to create and began to comment4 ,patriotism1 with rare exceptions1 became an empty name1 for few had the high spirit and energy to translate into action man's duty to the ,state4 ,vacillation1 indecision1 fitful outbursts of unhealthy activity followed by cowardly depression1 selfish cruelty1 and criminal weakness are characteristic of the public life of ,greece from the struggle with ,macedonia to the final conquest by the arms of ,rome4 ,no one can fail to be struck by the marked difference between the period from ,marathon to the ,peloponnesian ,war and the period from ,alexander to ,mummius4 ,philosophy also suffered1 and became deeply pessimistic even in the hands of its best and noblest exponents4 ',absence of feeling1' 'absence of care'--such were the highest goals of human endeavour4 ,how far this change was due to other causes is a complicated question4 ,the population may have suffered from foreign admixture during the troubled times that followed the death of ,alexander4 ,there were1 however1 many reasons against the view that these disturbances produced any appreciable difference of race4 ,the presence of vast numbers of slaves1 not members of households1 but the gangs of toilers whom the increase of commerce brought into the country1 pandered to a foolish pride that looked upon many kinds of honourable labour as being shameful and unbecoming to a free man4 ,the very institution that made ,greek civilisation possible encouraged idleness1 luxury1 and still worse vices4 ,unnatural vice1 which in some ,states seems to have been positively encouraged1 was prevalent among the ,greeks to an almost incredible extent4 ,it is hard not to believe that much physical harm was caused thereby2 of the loss to moral strength and vigour there is no need to speak4 ,the city-state1 again1 however favourable to the development of public spirit and a sense of responsibility1 was doomed to fail in a struggle against the stronger ,powers of ,macedon and ,rome4 ,the growth of the scientific spirit destroyed the old religion4 ,the more intellectual tried to find principles of conduct in philosophy2 the ignorant or half-educated1 deprived of the strong moral support that always comes from sharing the convictions of those abler and wiser than oneself1 fell back upon degrading superstitions4 ,in either case there was a serious loss of that spirit of self-sacrifice and devotion which a vigorous religious faith alone can bestow4 ,without such a spirit1 as history proves conclusively1 no nation or people can survive4 #eg 7b7 ,the ,physical ,catastrophe induced by ,selfishness ,one of the physical catastrophes that probably most accelerated the fall of ,greek civilisation was malarial fever4 ,the parasite of this disease is carried from man to man by ,anopheline mosquitoes4 ,these insects1 during the stage of egg1 larva1 and nympha1 live in water1 and afterwards1 as developed insects1 in the air4 ,the breeding-grounds1 where the eggs are laid1 are shallow pools of stagnant water4 ,for that reason the disease is most common in marshy country1 and tends to disappear when the land is properly drained4 ,of this we have an example in ,england1 whence malaria disappeared as the marshes were drained4 ,in ,homer there is a disputed reference to malaria1 but it is not possible to ascertain whether the disease was present during the rise of ,greek civilisation1 and there are no references to this disease in the literature from #gjj ,b4,c4 to #eej ,b4,c4 #eh ,from this date references to malaria gradually become more frequent1 and ,hippocrates stated that those who live in low1 moist1 hot districts1 and drink the stagnant water1 of necessity suffer from enlarged spleen4 ,they are stunted and ill-shaped1 fleshy and dark1 bilious rather than phlegmatic4 ,their nature is to be cowardly and adverse from hardship2 but good discipline can improve their character in this respect4 #ei ,after an exhaustive study of the literature1 ,mr4 ,jones concludes that malaria was endemic throughout the greater part of the ,greek world by #djj ,b4,c4 ,concerning the causes of a malarial epidemic1 ,sir ,ronald ,ross writes3 #fj ,suppose that the ,anophelines have been present from the first1 but that the number of infected immigrants has been few4 ,then1 possibly1 some of these people have happened to take up their abode in places where the mosquitoes are rare2 others may have recovered quickly2 others may not have chanced to possess parasites in suitable stages when they have been bitten4 ,thus1 the probability of their spreading infection would be very small4 ,or1 supposing even that some few new infections have been caused1 yet1 by our rough calculations in section #ab1 unless the mosquitoes are sufficiently numerous in the locality1 the little epidemic may die out after a while--for instance1 during the cool season4 ,the italics are mine1 because some writers have suggested that the decline of ,greece was due to malaria1 whereas ,i submit1 as the more logical interpretation of the facts1 that a moral catastrophe led to the neglect of agriculture1 whereby the area of marshy land became more extensive1 mosquitoes more numerous1 and the fever more prevalent4 ,in view of the foregoing facts1 the following ,malthusian statement1 although groundless1 is nevertheless an amusing example of the errors that arise from lack of a little knowledge3 ,the difficulty of providing for a high birth-rate in a settled community was appreciated by the ancient ,greeks1 notably by ,plato and ,aristotle2 but their conclusions were swept aside by the warlike spirit of ,rome1 and the sentimentality of ,christianity1 so that only a few isolated thinkers showed any appreciation of them4 #fa ,footnote #ea3 ,quoted in ,the ,law of ,births and ,deaths1 by ,charles ,edward ,pell1 #aiba1 chap4 xii4 ,footnote #eb3 ,the ,law of ,births and ,deaths1 #aiba4 ,footnote #ec3 ,ibid41 p4 #dj4 ,footnote #ed3 ,the ,law of ,births and ,deaths1 #aiba1 p4 #da4 ,footnote #ee3 ,ibid41 p4 #dj4 ,footnote #ef3 ,dr4 ,john ,brownlee1 ,the ,declining ,birth-rate1 p4 #aef4 ,footnote #eg3 ,malaria and ,greek ,history1 #aiji1 pp4 #ajb et seq4 ,footnote #eh3 ,ibid41 p4 #bf4 ,footnote #ei3 ,ibid41 p4 #he4 ,footnote #fj3 ,report on the ,prevention of ,malaria in ,mauritius1 p4 #ea4 ,footnote #fa3 ,c4,v4 ,drysdale1 ,o4,b4,e41 ,d4 ,sc41 ,the ,malthusian ,doctrine and its ,modern ,aspects1 p4 #c4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,the ,,falling ,,birth-,,rate ,,in ,,england3 ,,its ,,causes ,birth controllers claim that the fall in the ,english birth-rate1 which began to decline in #ahgf1 is mostly due to the use of contraceptives3 but the very fact that this claim is made by these reckless propagandists makes it imperative that we should scrutinise the evidence very carefully4 ,section #a4 ,,not1 ,,as ,,malthusians ,,assert1 ,,due ,,mainly ,,to ,,contraceptives ,in support of the ,malthusian contention1 ,dr4 ,c4,v4 ,drysdale1 who is not a doctor of medicine but a doctor of science1 has published the following statements3 444 ,we might note that a recent investigation of the records of the ,quakers 7the ,society of ,friends7 reveals the fact that family limitation has been adopted by them to a most astonishing extent4 ,their birthrate sic stood at #bj per thousand in #ahgf1 and has now actually fallen to about #h per thousand4 ,the longevity of ,quakers is well known1 and the returns of deaths given by their ,society show that the great majority live to between seventy and ninety years4 ,infantile mortality is practically unknown among them1 although none of the special steps so dear to most social reformers have been taken for the protection of infant life4 ,the ,quakers are well known to be very earnest ,christians1 and to give the best example of religious morality4 ,their probity in business and their self-sacrifice in humanitarian work of all kinds are renowned4 ,yet it would seem that they have adopted family restriction to a greater extent than any other body of people1 and1 since the decline of their birth-rate only began in #ahgf1 that it is due to adoption of preventive methods4 #fb ,again1 he translates the following quotation from a ,swiss author3 ,in ,france a national committee has been formed which has as its object an agitation for the increase of the population4 ,upon this committee these 8 there sit1 besides ,president ,poincar1 who1 although married1 has no children1 twenty-four senators and littrateurs4 ,these twenty-five persons1 who preach to their fellow citizens by word and pen1 have between them nineteen children1 or not one child on the average per married couple4 ,similarly1 a ,paris journal 7,intransigeant1 ,august and ,september1 #aijh7 had the good idea of publishing four hundred and forty-five names of the chief ,parisian personalities who are never tired of lending their names in support of opposition to the artificial restriction of families4 ,i give these figures briefly without the names1 which have no special interest for us4 ,anyone interested in the names can consult the paper well known in upper circles4 ,among them3 #agf married couples had #j children #j children #ajf #a child #ajf #hh #b children #agf #dj #c #abj #ai #d #gf #g #e #ce #d #f #bd #c #g #ba #a #i #i #a #aa #aa ,total #dde with #egh ,that is1 an average one and a third children per couple1 while each single one of these families could much more easily have supported twenty children than a working-class family a single child4 ,comment on the above is superfluous1 adds ,dr4 ,c4,v4 ,drysdale1 and with that remark most people will cordially disagree4 ,the obvious interpretation of the foregoing figures is that there has been a decline in natural fertility amongst highly educated and civilised people4 ,but that interpretation does not suit ,dr4 ,drysdale's book1 and hence we have the disgraceful spectacle of a writer who1 in order to bolster up an argument which is rotten from beginning to end1 does not hesitate to launch without a particle of evidence a charge of gross hypocrisy against the ,quakers of ,england1 a body of men and women who in peace and in war have proved the sincerity of their faith1 and against four hundred and seventy respected citizens of ,paris4 ,further comment on that is superfluous4 ,at the same time it is obvious that1 in so far as their pernicious propaganda spreads and is adopted1 ,malthusians may claim to contribute to the fall of the birth-rate1 and towards the decline of the ,empire4 ,section #b4 ,,decline ,,in ,,fertility ,,due ,,to ,,some ,,natural ,,law ,in the course of an inquiry on the fertility of women who had received a college education1 the ,national ,birth ,rate ,commission #fc attempted to discover to what extent birth control was practised amongst the middle and professional classes4 ,of those amongst whom the inquiry was made #dgg gave definite answers1 from which it was ascertained that #bhi1 or #fj per cent41 consciously limited their families1 or attempted to do so2 and that #ahh1 or #dj per cent4 made no attempt to limit their families4 ,amongst those who limited their families #ahc stated the means employed1 and of these1 #aje1 or #eg per cent41 practised continence1 whilst #gh1 or #dc per cent41 used artificial or unnatural methods4 ,now comes a most extraordinary fact4 ,dr4 ,major ,greenwood1 #fd a statistician whose methods are beyond question1 discovered that there was no real mathematical difference between the number of children in the limited families and the number in the unlimited families4 ,in both groups of families the number of children was smaller than the average family in the general population1 and in both groups there were fewer children than in the families of the preceding generation to which the parents belonged4 ,dr4 ,greenwood states that this is prima facie evidence that deliberate birth control has produced little effect1 and that the lowered fertility is the expression of a natural change4 ,nevertheless1 he holds that the latter explanation cannot be accepted as wholly proved on the evidence1 owing to certain defects in the data on which his calculations were based4 ,i am of opinion that we should hesitate before adopting that interpretation in view of the cogent indirect evidence afforded by other data that the fall of the birth-rate is differential1 and that the differentiation is largely economic4 ,there are at least two considerations which must be borne in mind in connection with these schedules4 ,the first is1 that all the marriages described as unlimited may not have been so4 ,i do not suggest that the answers are intentionally false1 but it is possible that many may have considered that limitation implied the use of mechanical means2 that marriages in which the parties merely abstained from1 or limited the occasions of1 sexual intercourse may have frequently entered as of unrestricted fertility4 ,the above italics are mine1 because1 if that surmise be correct1 it goes to prove that the restriction of intercourse to certain periods1 which restriction the married may lawfully practise1 is as efficacious in limiting the size of a family as are those artificial methods of birth control contrary both to natural and to ,christian morality4 ,dr4 ,major ,greenwood continues as follows3 ,in the second place1 the schedules do not provide us with information as to when limitation was introduced4 ,we are told1 for instance1 that the size of the family was five and that its number was limited4 ,this may mean either that throughout the duration of the marriage preventive measures were adopted from time to time1 or that after five children had been born fertile intercourse was stopped4 ,in the absence of detailed information on this point it is plainly impossible to form an accurate judgment as to the effect of limitation4 ,there are1 therefore1 no accurate figures to indicate the extent to which birth control has contributed to the decline in the birth-rate4 ,section #c4 ,,and ,,to ,,character ,,of ,,occupation ,moreover the claim of birth controllers1 that the decline in the ,english birth-rate is mainly due to the use of contraceptives1 is rendered highly improbable by the fact that the ,registrar-,general #fe has shown that in #aiaa the birth-rate in different classes varied according to the occupation of the fathers4 ,the figures are these3 ,births per #a1jjj married ,social ,class4 males aged under #ee1 including retired4 #a4 ,unskilled workmen #bac #b4 ,intermediate class #aeh #c4 ,skilled workmen #aec #d4 ,intermediate #acb #e4 ,upper and middle class #aai ,thus1 ascending the social scale1 we find1 in class upon class1 that as the annual income increases the number of children in the family diminishes1 until we come to the old ,english nobility of whom1 according to ,darwin1 #ai per cent4 are childless4 ,these last have every reason to wish for heirs to inherit their titles and what land and wealth they possess1 and1 as their record in war proves them to be no cowards' breed1 it would be a monstrous indictment to maintain that their childlessness is mostly due to the use of contraceptives4 ,if all these results arose from the practice of birth control1 it would imply a crescendo of general national selfishness unparalleled in the history of humanity4 ,no1 it is not possible to give ,neo-,malthusians credit1 even for all the evil they claim to have achieved4 ,section #d4 ,,aggravated ,,doubtless ,,by ,,malthusianism ,nevertheless1 artificial birth control is an evil and too prevalent thing4 ,my contention is that the primary cause of our falling birth-rate is over-civilisation2 one of the most evil products of this over-civilisation1 whereby simple1 natural1 and unselfish ideals1 based on the assumption that national security depends on the moral and economic strength of family life1 have been replaced largely by a complicated1 artificial1 and luxurious individualism2 and that diminished fertility1 apart from the practice of artificial birth control1 is a result of luxurious individualism4 ,even if it be so1 one of the most evil products of over-civilisation is the use of contraceptives1 because this practice1 more than any other factor in social life1 hastens1 directly and indirectly1 the fall of a declining birth-rate2 and artificial birth control1 to the extent to which it is practised1 therefore aggravates the consequences of a law of decline already apparent in our midst4 ,i have already said that restriction of intercourse1 as held lawful by the ,catholic ,church1 is possibly as efficacious in limiting the size of a family as are artificial methods4 ,if any man shall say that therefore there is no difference between these methods1 let him read the fuller explanation given in another connection on p4 #aec4 7,see ,reference3 ,explanation7 ,the method which reason and morality alike permit is devoid of all those evils1 moral1 psychological1 and physiological1 that follow the use of contraceptives4 ,footnote #fb3 ,the ,small ,family ,system1 pp4 #aie and #afj1 ,new ,york1 #aiag4 ,footnote #fc3 ,the ,declining ,birth-rate1 p4 #cbc4 ,footnote #fd3 ,the ,declining ,birth-rate1 p4 #cbd4 ,footnote #fe3 ,the ,declining ,birth-rate1 p4 #i4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,the ,,evils ,,of ,,artificial ,,birth ,,control ,section #a4 ,,not ,a ,,physical ,,benefit ,birth control is alleged to be beneficial for men and women1 and these benefits are no less amazing than the fallacies on which this practice is advocated4 ,at the ,obstetric ,section of the ,royal ,society of ,medicine in #aiba the leading physicians on diseases of women condemned the use of contraceptives4 #ff ,a ,cause of ,sterility ,dr4 ,r4,a4 ,gibbons1 ,physician to the ,grosvenor ,hospital for ,women1 said that nowadays it was common for a young married woman to ask her medical man for advice as to the best method of preventing conception4 ,the test of relative sterility was the rapidity with which conception takes place4 ,he had made confidential inquiries in #abj marriages4 ,in #ajj cases preventive measures had been used at one time or another1 and the number of children was well under #b per marriage4 ,in ,paris some time ago the birth-rate was #ajd per #a1jjj in the poorer quarters and only #cd in a rich quarter of the city2 in ,london comparative figures had been given as #aie and #fc in poor and in rich quarters4 ,these and similar figures showed that women living in comfort and luxury did not want to be bothered with confinements4 ,it had been said that the degree of sterility could be regarded as an index to the morals of a race4 ,congenital sterility was rare1 but the number of children born in ,england was decreasing4 ,it had been estimated that one-third of the pregnancies in several great cities abroad aborted4 ,dr4 ,gibbons then quoted figures given by ,douglas ,wight and ,amand ,routh to show the high percentage of abortions and stillbirths4 ,in his opinion it was the duty of medical men to point out to the public that physiological laws could not be broken with impunity4 ,it had been observed that if the doe were withheld from the buck at oestral periods atrophy of the ovary took place4 ,in this connection ,dr4 ,gibbons recalled a large number of patients who had used contraceptives in early married life1 and subsequently had longed in vain for a child4 ,this applied also to those who had decided1 after the first baby1 to have no more children1 and had subsequently regretted their decision4 ,neuroses ,professor ,mc,ilroy1 of the ,london ,school of ,medicine for ,women1 deplored the amount of time spent on attempting to cure sterility when contraceptives were so largely used4 ,the fact that neuroses were largely the result of the use of contraceptives should be made widely known1 and also that in women the maternal passion was even stronger1 though it might develop later1 than sexual passion1 and would ultimately demand satisfaction4 ,fibroid ,tumours ,dr4 ,arthur ,e4 ,giles1 ,senior ,surgeon to the ,chelsea ,hospital for ,women1 endorsed ,dr4 ,gibbons's remarks as to the great unhappiness resulting from deliberately childless marriages1 and he added that he had always warned patients of this4 ,he believed that quinine had a permanently bad effect4 ,those who waited for a convenient season to have a child often laid up trouble for themselves4 ,on the question of fibroid tumours he had come to the conclusion that these were not a cause but in a sense a consequence of sterility4 ,women who were subjected to sexual excitement with no physiological outlet appear to have a tendency to develop fibroids4 ,he would like the opinion to go forth from the section that the use of contraceptives was a bad thing4 ,all these authorities are agreed that the practice of artificial sterility during early married life is the cause of many women remaining childless1 although later on these women wish in vain for children4 ,to meet this difficulty one of the advocates of birth control advises all young couples to make sure of some children before adopting these practices2 thus demanding of young parents1 at the very time when it is most irksome1 that very sacrifice of personal comfort and prosperity to prevent which is the precise object of the vicious practice4 ,nor is sterility the only penalty4 ,the disease known as neurasthenia arises both in women and in men in consequence of these methods4 ,dr4 ,mary ,sharlieb1 #fg after forty years' experience of diseases of women1 writes as follows3 ,now1 on the surface of things1 it would seem as if a knowledge of how to prevent the too rapid increase of a family would be a boon to over-prolific and heavily burdened mothers4 ,there are1 however1 certain reasons which probably convert the supposed advantage into a very real disadvantage4 ,an experience of well over forty years convinces me that the artificial limitation of the family causes damage to a woman's nervous system4 ,the damage done is likely to show itself in inability to conceive when the restriction voluntarily used is abandoned because the couple desire offspring4 ,i have for many years asked women who came to me desiring children whether they have ever practised prevention1 and they very frequently tell me that they did so during the early days of their married life because they thought that their means were not adequate to the support of a family4 ,subsequently they found that conception1 thwarted at the time that desire was present1 fails to occur when it becomes convenient4 ,in such cases1 even although examination of the pelvic organ shows nothing abnormal1 all one's endeavours to secure conception frequently go unrewarded4 ,sometimes such a woman is not only sterile1 but nervous1 and in generally poor health2 but the more common occurrence is that she remains fairly well until the time of the change of life1 when she frequently suffers more1 on the nervous side1 than does the woman who has lived a natural married life4 ,the late ,dr4 ,f4,w4 ,taylor1 ,president of the ,british ,gynaecological ,society1 wrote as follows in #aijd3 ,artificial prevention is an evil and a disgrace4 ,the immorality of it1 the degradation of succeeding generations by it1 their domination or subjection by strangers who are stronger because they have not given way to it1 the curses that must assuredly follow the parents of decadence who started it1--all of this needs to be brought home to the minds of those who have thoughtlessly or ignorantly accepted it1 for it is to this undoubtedly that we have to attribute not only the diminishing birth-rate1 but the diminishing value of our population4 ,it would be strange indeed if so unnatural a practice1 one so destructive of the best life of the nation1 should bring no danger or disease in its wake1 and ,i am convinced1 after many years of observation1 that both sudden danger and chronic disease may be produced by the methods of prevention very generally employed4444 ,the natural deduction is that the artificial production of modern times1 the relatively sterile marriage1 is an evil thing1 even to the individuals primarily concerned1 injurious not only to the race1 but to those who accept it4 ,that was the opinion of a distinguished gynaecologist1 who also happened to be a ,christian4 ,the reader may protest that the latter fact is entirely irrelevant to my argument1 and that the value of a man's observations concerning disease is to be judged by his skill and experience as a physician1 and not by his religious beliefs4 ,a most reasonable statement4 ,unhappily1 the ,neo-,malthusians think otherwise4 ,they would have us believe that because this man was a ,christian his opinion1 as a gynaecologist1 is worthless4 ,c4,v4 ,drysdale1 ,o4,b4,e41 ,d4 ,sc41 after quoting ,dr4 ,taylor's views1 adds the following foot-note3 ,i have since learnt that ,dr4 ,taylor was a very earnest ,christian1 and the author of several sacred hymns and of a pious work1 ,the ,coming of the ,saints4 #fh ,furthermore1 in #aije1 the ,south-,western ,branch of the ,british ,medical ,association passed the following resolution3 ,that this ,branch is of opinion that the growing use of contraceptives and ecbolics is fraught with great danger both to the individual and to the race4 ,that this ,branch is of opinion that the advertisements and sale of such appliances and substances1 as well as the publication and dissemination of literature relating thereto1 should be made a penal offence4 #fi ,section #b4 ,a ,,scandalous ,,suggestion ,the foregoing opinions are very distasteful to ,neo-,malthusians1 and these people1 being unable apparently to give a reasoned answer1 do not hesitate to suggest that medical opposition1 when not due to religious bias1 is certainly due to mercenary motives4 ,as the ,church has a vested interest in souls1 so the medical profession has a vested interest in bodies4 ,birth is a source of revenue1 direct and indirect4 ,it means maternity fees first2 it generally presupposes preliminary medical treatment of the expectant mother2 and it provides a new human being to be a patient to some member of the profession1 humanly certain to have its share of infantile diseases1 and likely1 if it survives them1 to produce children of its own before the final death-bed attendance is reached4 #gj ,that scandalous suggestion has recently been repeated by the ,president of the ,society for ,constructive ,birth ,control and ,racial ,progress under the following circumstances4 ,on ,october #ca1 #aiba1 the ,sussex ,daily ,news published the following paragraph from its ,london correspondent4 ,,birth ,,control ,reverberations of ,lord ,dawson's recent sensational address to the ,church ,congress on birth control are still being felt as well in medical as in clerical circles4 ,indeed1 the subject has been discussed by the lawyers at ,gray's ,inn4 ,the ,london ,association of the ,medical ,women's ,federation had so animated a discussion on it that it was decided to continue it at the next meeting4 ,it is quite evident that ,lord ,dawson did not speak for a united medical profession4 ,indeed1 quite a number of doctors of all creeds are attacking the new ,birth ,control ,society4 ,a ,london physician has a pamphlet on the subject in the ,press1 and the controversy rages fiercely in the neighbourhood of 'birth-control' clinics4 ,much is likely to be made of the example of ,france1 where the revolt against the practices advocated is now in full swing1 and strong legal measures have been taken and are in contemplation4 ,french medical opinion is said to be very pronounced on the subject1 and it has1 of course1 a great deal of clinical experience to back it4 ,on ,november #h1 a second paragraph appeared3 ,,birth ,,control ,my remark recently that 'a number of doctors of all creeds are attacking the new ,birth-,control ,society' has been challenged by the hon4 secretary of the body in question1 who observes that ,i am misinformed4 ,i must adhere to my statement1 which was a record of personal observation4 ,many doctors have spoken to me on the subject1 and their opinions on the ethics of birth control differ widely2 but ,i can only remember one who did not attack this particular society4 ,the secretary suggests that ,i am confusing what his society advocates with something else4 ,as a matter of fact1 the whole question of birth control has been discussed more than once by medical bodies4 ,a doctor who attended one such discussion shortly after the opening of the clinic in ,holloway told me that1 while there was division of opinion on the general subject1 the feeling of the meeting was overwhelming against the particular teaching given at the clinic1 as undesirable and actively mischievous4 ,the subject is controversial1 and ,i profess to do no more than record such opinions as are current4 ,on ,november #ag the ,sussex ,daily ,news published the following letter3 ,,constructive ,,birth ,,control ,sir1--,your recent paragraph of 'opinions' about the ,mothers' ,clinic and the ,society for ,constructive ,birth ,control and ,racial ,progress is not only extremely unrepresentative1 but grossly misleading4 ,your writer says that he can only remember one doctor who did not attack this particular society4 ,this implies that the medical profession is against it1 which is absolutely untrue1 as is quite evident from the fact that we have three of the most distinguished medical men in ,great ,britain on our list of ,vice-,presidents2 four others1 also very distinguished1 on our ,research ,committee2 and that ,dr4 ,e4,b4 ,turner1 in a ,press interview after the recent ,church ,congress1 singled out ,constructive ,birth ,control as the only ',control' which was not mischievous4 ,that there may be medical men who do not approve of birth control is natural1 when one remembers that a doctor has to make his living1 and can do so more easily when women are ailing with incessant pregnancies than when they maintain themselves in good health by only having children when fitted to do so4 ,opinions of medicals1 therefore1 must be sifted4 ,the best doctors are with us2 the self-seeking and the biassed may be against us4 ,details about the society1 including the manifesto signed by a series of the most distinguished persons1 can be obtained on application to the ,honorary ,secretary1 at 444 ,london1 ,n4#ai4--,yours1 etc4 ,,marie ,c4 ,,stopes1 ,president ,society for ,constructive and ,racial ,progress4 ,the italics are mine1 and they draw attention to a disgraceful statement concerning the medical profession4 ,as the reader is aware1 certain members of our profession approve of artificial birth control4 ,what1 ,i ask1 would be the opinion of the general public1 and of my friends1 if ,i were so distraught as to suggest that these men approved of birth control because they had a financial interest in the sale of contraceptives8 ,that suggestion would be as reckless and as wicked as the statement made by ,dr4 ,marie ,c4 ,stopes4 ,in the ,british ,medical ,journal of ,november #bf ,i quoted1 without comment1 the above italicised paragraph as her opinion of the medical profession1 and on ,december #aj the following reply from the lady appeared3 ,your two correspondents1 ,dr4 ,halliday ,sutherland and ,dr4 ,binnie ,dunlop1 by quoting paragraphs without their full context1 appear to lend support to views which by implication are1 to some extent1 detrimental to my own4 ,this method of controversy has never appealed to me1 but in the interests of the society with which ,i am associated1 ,i must be allowed to answer the implications4 ,the paragraph quoted by ,dr4 ,sutherland is not1 as would appear from his letter1 a simple opinion of mine on the medical profession1 but was written in reply to a rather scurrilous paragraph so worded as to lead the public to believe that the medical profession as a whole was against the ,society for ,constructive ,birth ,control and ,racial ,progress4 ,my answer1 which appeared not only in the papers quoted but in others1 contained the following statement3 ',we have three of the most distinguished medical men in ,great ,britain on our list of ,vice-,presidents2 four others1 also very distinguished1 on our ,research ,committee4' ,reading these words before the paragraph your correspondent quotes1 and taking all in conjunction with an attack implying that the entire medical profession was against us1 it is obvious that the position is rather different from what readers of ,dr4 ,sutherland's letter in your issue of ,november #bf might suppose4 ,it will be noted that ,dr4 ,stopes does not withdraw but attempts to justify her scandalous suggestion by stating1 firstly1 that the full context of her letter was not quoted by me1 and secondly1 that her original letter was written in reply to a rather scurrilous paragraph4 ,as ,i have now quoted in full her original letter1 excepting the address of her society1 and the two paragraphs from the ,sussex ,daily ,news1 my readers may form their own judgment on the following points3 ,is it possible to maintain that the whole context of her original letter puts a different complexion on her remarks concerning the medical profession8 ,can either of the paragraphs from the ,sussex ,daily ,news be truthfully described as rather scurrilous1 or are they fair comment on a matter of public interest8 ,moreover1 even if a daily paper had published a misleading paragraph about this society1 surely that is not a valid reason why its ,president should make a malignant attack1 not on journalists1 but on the medical profession8 ,section #c4 ,a ,,cause ,,of ,,unhappiness ,,in ,,marriage ,nor does birth control lead to happiness in marriage4 ,on the contrary1 experience shows that the practice is injurious not only to the bodies but also to the minds of men and women4 ,as no method of contraception is infallible1 the wife who allows or adopts it may find herself in the truly horrible position of being secretly or openly suspected of infidelity4 ,again1 when a family has been limited to one or two children and these die1 the parents may find themselves solitary and childless in old age2 and mothers thus bereaved are often the victims of profound and lasting melancholy4 ,the mother of a large family has her worries1 many of them not due to her children1 but to the social evils of our time3 and yet she is less to be pitied than the woman who is losing her beauty after a fevered life of1 vanity and self-indulgence1 and who has no one to love her1 not even a child4 ,moreover1 these practices have an influence on the relation between husband and wife1 on their emotions towards each other and towards the whole sexual nisus4 ,mr4 ,bernard ,shaw recently stated #ga that when people adopt methods of birth control they are engaging1 not in sexual intercourse1 but in reciprocal masturbation4 ,that is the plain truth of the matter4 ,or1 from another point of view1 it may be said that the man who adopts these practices is simply using his wife as he would use a prostitute1 as indeed was said long ago by ,st4 ,thomas ,aquinas4 #gb ,the excuse offered for illicit sexual intercourse is not usually pleasure1 but that the sex impulse is irresistible3 and the same argument is used for conjugal union with prevention4 ,in both cases the natural result of union is not desired1 and positive means are taken to prevent it4 ,and what of the results on the mutual love1 if an old-fashioned word be not now out of place1 and on the self-respect of two people so associated8 ,birth control cannot make for happiness1 because it means that mutual love is at the mercy of an animal instinct1 neither satisfied nor denied4 ,it is an old truth that those who seek happiness for itself never find it4 ,and yet the advocates of birth control have the temerity to claim that these practices lead to happiness4 ,i presume that of the bliss following marriage with contraceptives the crowded lists of our divorce courts are an index4 ,the marriage bond is weakened when a common lasting interest in the care of children is replaced by transient sexual excitement4 ,once pregnancy is abolished there is no natural check on the sexual passions of husband or wife1 for they have learnt how sexual desire may be gratified without the pain1 publicity1 and responsibility of having children4 ,in the experience of the world marriages based merely on passion are seldom happy1 and artificial birth control means passion uncontrolled by nature4 ,these methods are not practised by nations such as ,ireland and ,spain1 who accept the moral rule of the natural law expressed in ,god's commandments and sanctioned by ,his judgments2 and no man who has ever lived in these countries could truthfully maintain that the people there1 on whom the burdens of marriage press as elsewhere1 are in reality anxious to obtain facilities for divorce4 ,on the other hand1 there are many who allege that the people of ,england are shouting out for greater facilities for divorce than they now possess4 ,at any rate1 it is obvious enough that there are those amongst us who are straining every nerve to force such facilities upon them4 ,section #d4 ,,an ,,insult ,,to ,,true ,,womanhood ,it has been said that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel2 and apparently chivalry is the last refuge of a fool4 ,some of the advocates of birth control who have never thought the matter out1 either passionately or dispassionately1 claim to speak on behalf of women4 ,they protest that many women of the educated classes revolt against the drudgery1 anxieties1 inconveniences1 disease1 and disfigurements which attend the yearly child-bearing advocated by the moralist4 #gc ,what moralist8 ,who ever said it8 ,again1 they plead for women who revolt from the disfigurement of the gestation period4 ,the great artist ,botticelli did not think this was disfigurement4 ,what true women do8 ,are they not those of whom ,kipling writes1 as pale and as stale as a bone8 ,and1 if so1 are these unworthy specimens of their sex worth tears8 ,the vast majority of women bear the discomforts of gestation and the actual perils and pangs of birth with exemplary fortitude3 and it is a gross slander for anyone to maintain that a few cowardly and degenerate individuals really represent that devoted sex4 ,but these writers are indeed well out of the ruck of ordinary humanity1 because they tell us that whatever the means employed1 and whether righteous or not1 the propensity to limit the highest form of life operates silently and steadily amongst the more thoughtful members of all civilized countries1 and yet add that it is not perhaps good taste to consider the means employed to this end4 ,while they thus approve and commend the practice of birth control as natural to the more thoughtful members1 they nevertheless question the good taste of discussing the very methods of which they approve1 even in the columns of a medical journal6 ,again1 they tell us that assuredly continence is not1 and never will be1 the principal method4 ,that may be possibly true1 so long as ,christianity is more professed than practised2 ,god knows we are all lacking enough in self-control4 ,and yet throughout the ages moralists have preached the advantages of self-control1 and we ordinary men and women know that we could do better1 and that others who have gone before us have done better2 but it is the self-styled thoughtful members who proclaim to the world that self-control in matters of sex is an impossibility1 and therefore not to be even attempted4 ,they are no common people--these epicureans1 selfish even in their refinement4 ,in addition to losing their morals1 they have certainly lost their wits4 ,section #e4 ,a ,,degradation ,,of ,,the ,,female ,,sex ,in the ,neo-,malthusian propaganda there is yet another fact which--should be seized by every married woman1 because it is a clear indication of a tendency to reduce women to degrading subjection4 ,no recommendations of limited intercourse or of self-restraint according to the dictates of reason or of affection are to be found in the writings of birth controllers4 ,unrestrained indulgence1 without the risk of consequences1 is their motto4 ,to this end they advocate certain contraceptive methods1 and the reader should note that these methods require precautions to be taken solely by the woman4 ,if she fails to take these precautions1 or if the precautions themselves fail1 all responsibility for the occurrence of conception rests on her alone2 because her ,malthusian masters have decided that she alone is to be1 made responsible for preventing the natural or possible consequences of intercourse4 ,why8 ,that is a very interesting question1 and one to which a leading ,neo-,malthusian has given the answer4 ,in #ahed there was published1 ,physical1 ,sexual and ,natural ,religion3 by a ,graduate of ,medicine4 ,in the third edition the title was altered to ,the ,elements of ,social ,science1 and the author's pseudonym to ,a ,doctor of ,medicine4 ,this book1 which contains over #fjj pages of small type1 may be truthfully described as the ,bible of ,neo-,malthusians1 and includes1 under the curious heading ,sexual ,religion1 a popular account of all venereal and other diseases of sex4 ,in the ,preface to the first edition1 #gd the anonymous author states3 ,had it not been the fear of causing pain to a relation1 ,i should have felt it my duty to put my name to this work2 in order that any censure passed upon it should fall upon myself alone4 ,the relation appears to have had a long life1 because anonymity was preserved for fifty years1 presumably out of respect for his1 or her1 feelings3 and he1 or she1 must have lived as long as the author1 who died in #aijd at the age of seventy-eight2 because the author's name was not revealed until a posthumous edition1 the thirty-fifth1 appeared in #aije1 from which we learn that the book was written by the late ,dr4 ,george ,drysdale1 brother of the first ,president of the ,malthusian ,league1 and uncle of the present incumbent4 ,the last edition1 in recompense for its smudgy type1 contains a most welcome announcement by the publisher3 ,,publisher',s ,,note4--444 ,it is due alike to the reader and the publisher to explain why the present edition is printed 7in the main7 from stereotypes that have seen fifty years' service4 ,the cost of resetting the work would be prohibitive on the basis of present 7and probable future7 sales4 ,to some extent the plates have been repaired2 but such an expedient can do no more than remove the worse causes of offence4 ,but the fact with which ,i am at present concerned is that in every edition all contraceptive methods that apply to the male are condemned for the following reasons3 ,the first of these modes coitus interruptus is physically injurious1 and is apt to produce nervous disorder and sexual enfeeblement and congestion1 from the sudden interruption it gives to the venereal act1 whose pleasure moreover it interferes with4 ,the second1 namely the sheath1 dulls the enjoyment1 and frequently produces impotence in the man and disgust in both parties2 so that it also is injurious 7p4 #cdi74444 ,any preventive means1 to be satisfactory1 must be used by the woman1 as it spoils the passion and the impulsiveness of the venereal act if the man have to think of them 7p4 #cej74 ,the italics are mine1 but the following comments are by a woman1 who was moreover the first woman to qualify in medicine--the late ,dr4 ,elizabeth ,blackwell4 ,here1 in this chief teacher of the ,neo-,malthusians1 the cloven foot is fully revealed4 ,this popular author1 who in many parts of his book denounces marriage as the enslavement of men and women1 who sneers at continence1 and rages at ,christianity as a vanishing superstition--all under a special pretence of benevolence and desire for the advancement of the human race1 here clearly1 shows what he is aiming at1 and what his doctrines lead to4 ,male sexual pleasure must not be interfered with1 male lust may be indulged in to any extent that pleasure demands1 but woman must take the entire responsibility1 that male indulgence be not disturbed by any inconvenient claims from paternity4 ,whatever consequences ensue the woman is to blame1 and must bear the whole responsibility4 ,a doctrine more diabolical in its theory and more destructive in its practical consequences has never been invented4 ,this is the doctrine of ,neo-,malthusianism4 #ge ,section #f4 ,,specially ,,hurtful ,,to ,,the ,,poor 7a7 ,affecting the ,young ,there are three special and peculiar evils that attend the teaching of birth control amongst the poor4 ,of the first a doctor has written as follows3 ,morally1 the doctrine is indefensible--it follows the line of least resistance1 and sacrifices the spirit to the flesh4 ,materially1 it is fraught with grave danger to the home and to our national existence4 ,it is proposed to disseminate a knowledge of contraceptive methods throughout the overcrowded homes of the ill-fed1 ill-clad poor4 ,now it is in these homes that the moral sense has already but little chance of development1 where the child of eight or ten already knows far more than is good for the health of either body or mind1 and1 though we may succeed in reducing the size of the family1 yet the means we employ will militate against the raising of the moral tone of the household1 and the children will not be any less precocious than before4 #gf ,that danger is ignored by the advocates of birth-control4 ,but he that shall scandalise one of these little ones that believe in ,me1 it were better for1 him that a mill-stone were hanged about his neck1 and that he were drowned in the depth1 of the sea4 #gg 7b7 ,exposing the ,poor to ,experiment ,secondly1 the ordinary decent instincts of the poor are against these practices1 and indeed they have used them less than any other class4 ,but1 owing to their poverty1 lack of learning1 and helplessness1 the poor are the natural victims of those who seek to make experiments on their fellows4 ,in the midst of a ,london slum a woman1 who is a doctor of ,german philosophy 7,munich71 has opened a ,birth ,control ,clinic1 where working women are instructed in a method of contraception described by ,professor ,mc,ilroy as the most harmful method of which ,i have had experience4 #gh ,when we remember that millions are being spent by the ,ministry of ,health and by ,local ,authorities--on pure milk for necessitous expectant and nursing mothers1 on ,maternity ,clinics to guard the health of mothers before and after childbirth1 for the provision of skilled midwives1 and on ,infant ,welfare ,centres--all for the single purpose of bringing healthy children into our midst1 it is truly amazing that this monstrous campaign of birth control should be tolerated by the ,home ,secretary4 ,charles ,bradlaugh was condemned to jail for a less serious crime4 7c7 ,tending towards the ,servile ,state ,thirdly1 the policy of birth control opens the way to an extension of the ,servile ,state1 #gi because women as well as men could then be placed under conditions of economic slavery4 ,hitherto1 the rule has been that during child-bearing age a woman must be supported by her husband1 and the general feeling of the community has been opposed to any conditions likely to force married women on to the industrial market4 ,in her own home a woman works hard1 but she is working for the benefit of her family and not directly for the benefit of a stranger4 ,if1 instead of bearing children1 women practise birth control1 and if children are to be denied to the poor as a privilege of the rich1 then it would be very easy to exploit the women of the poorer classes4 ,if women have no young children why should they be exempt from the economic pressure that is applied to men8 ,and indeed1 where birth control is practised women tend more and more to supplant men1 especially in ill-paid grades of work4 ,one of the birth controllers has suggested that young couples1 who otherwise could not afford to marry1 should marry but have no children1 and thus continue to work at their respective employments during the day4 ,as the girl would have little time for cooking and other domestic duties1 this immoralist is practically subverting the very idea of a home6 ,the ,english poor have already lost even the meaning of the word property1 and if the birth controllers had their way the meaning of the word home would soon follow4 ,the aim of birth control is generally masked by falsehood1 but the urging of this policy on the poor points unmistakably to the ,servile ,state4 ,when a nation1 or a section of a nation1 is oppressed1 their birth-rate rises4 ,that is the immutable law of nature as witnessed in history4 ,thus1 the ,israelites increased under the oppression of the ,pharaohs4 ,thus1 the ,irish1 from the ,union to the ,famine1 multiplied prodigiously under the oppression of an iniquitous political and land system4 ,by the operation of this law the oppressed grow in numbers1 and break their chains4 ,section #g4 ,a ,,menace ,,to ,,the ,,nation 7a7 ,there is a ,limit to lowering the ,death-rate ,birth controllers believe that a high birth-rate is the cause of a high death-rate1 and that over-population is the cause of poverty4 ,yet1 in spite of their beliefs1 they make the following statement3 ,neo-,malthusians have not aimed at reducing population1 but only at reducing unnecessary death1 which injures the community without adding to its numbers4 #hj ,in defence of this statement they argue that if the death-rate falls people will live longer1 and therefore the population will not decrease1 although the birth-rate is lowered4 ,there are two fallacies in their argument4 ,they overlook the fact that every one of us must die1 and that therefore there is a limit beyond which a death-rate cannot possibly fall1 whereas there is no limit1 except zero1 to the possible fall in a birth-rate4 ,if a birth-rate fell to nothing and no children were born1 it is obvious that the population would eventually vanish4 ,the second fallacy is that a low birth-rate will permanently lower the death-rate4 ,at first a falling birth-rate increases the proportion of young adults in the population1 and1 as the death-rate during early adult life is relatively low1 the total death-rate tends to fall for a time4 ,sooner or later there is an increase in the proportion of old people in the population1 and1 as the death-rate during old age is high1 the total death-rate tends to rise4 ,that is now happening in ,england1 and these are the actual facts as recorded by the ,registrar-,general3 ,it may be pointed out that1 though the effect of the fall in the birth-rate has hitherto been an a sense advantageous in that it has increased the proportions living at the working ages1 a tendency to the reversal of this fact has already set in1 and may be expected to develop as time goes on4444 ,the general characteristics of the figures indicate very clearly the effects of the long-continued decline in the birth-rate of this country1 and show1 by the example of ,france1 the type of age-distribution which a further continuance of the decline is likely to produce4 ,the present age-distribution of the ,english population is still favourable to low death-rates1 but is becoming less so than it was in #aija4 ,the movements along the curve of the point of maximum heaping up population1 referred to on page #fa 7,see ,reference3 ,population71 has shifted this from age #bj-be to a period ten years later1 when mortality is appreciably higher4--,census of ,england and ,wales1 #aiaa4 ,general ,report1 with ,appendices1 pp4 #fb and #fe4 ,of these facts the birth controllers1 would appear to be ignorant4 ,that is a charitable assumption2 but1 in view of the vital importance of this question their ignorance is culpable4 7b7 ,birth ,control tends to extinguish the ,birth-rate ,whatever may be the nebulous aim of birth controllers1 the actual results of birth control are quite definite4 ,we have no accurate information regarding the extent to which1 birth control is practised1 for1 needless to say1 the ,malthusians can provide us with no exact figures bearing on this question2 but we do know that birth control1 when adopted1 is mostly practised amongst the better paid artisans and wealthier classes4 ,after full examination of the evidence2 the ,national ,birth-rate ,commission were unanimously agreed ,that the greater incidence of infant mortality upon the less prosperous classes does not reduce their effective fertility to the level of that of the wealthier classes4 #ha ,it is probable that this ,commission overestimated the extent to which birth control has contributed to the declining birth-rate2 but1 even so1 this does not alter the obvious fact that artificial birth control1 when adopted1 reduces fertility to a lower level than ,nature intended4 ,if language has any meaning1 birth control means a falling birth-rate1 and a falling birth-rate means depopulation4 ,here and there this evil practice may increase the material prosperity of an individual1 but it lowers the prosperity of the nation by reducing the number of citizens4 ,moreover1 as birth control is not a prevailing vice amongst semi-civilised peoples1 the adoption of this practice by civilised nations means that the proportion of civilised to uncivilised inhabitants of the world will be reduced4 ,if birth control had been extensively practised in the past the colonisation of the ,british ,empire would have been a physical impossibility2 and to-day1 in our vast overseas dominions1 are great empty spaces whose untilled soil and excellent climate await a population4 ,is that population to be white1 or yellow8 ,a question which to-day fills the ,australian with apprehension4 7c7 ,a ,danger to the ,empire ,many people are honestly perplexed by ,neo-,malthusian propaganda1 and are honestly ignorant of the truth concerning the population and the food supply of the ,british ,empire4 ,they think that if the population is increasing faster than the food supply1 there is at least one argument in favour of artificial birth control from a practical1 although possibly not from an ethical1 point of view4 ,they apply to that propaganda the ordinary test of the world1 namely1 ',will it work8' rather than that other test which asks1 ',is it right8' ,the question ,i would put to people who reason in that way1 and they are many1 is a very simple one4 ,if it can be proved that ,neo-,malthusian propaganda is based on an absolute falsehood1 will it not follow that the chief argument in favour of artificial birth control has been destroyed8 ,let us put this matter to the proof4 ,neo-,malthusians state that the population of the ,empire is increasing more rapidly than the food supply4 ,that is a definite statement4 ,it is either true or false4 ,to discover the truth1 it is necessary to refer to the ,memorandum of the ,dominions ,royal ,commission1 and it may be noted that publications of that sort are not usually read by the general public to whom the ,neo-,malthusians appeal4 ,the public are aware that the staff of life is made from wheat1 but they are not aware of the following facts1 which prove that in this matter1 at any rate1 ,neo-,malthusian statements are absolutely false4 ,in foreign countries the increase of the wheat area is proceeding at practically the same rate as the increase of population4 ,within the ,british ,empire the wheat area is increasing more rabidly than the population4 ,between #aija and #aiaa the percentage increase of the wheat area was nearly seven times greater than the increase of population2 and the percentage increase in the actual production of wheat was nearly twelve times greater than the increase of population4 ,as these facts alone completely refute the ,neo-,malthusian argument1 it is advisable to reproduce here the official statistics4 #hb ,the requirements of wheat #hc for the ,united ,kingdom and the extent to which ,home and overseas supplies contributed towards these requirements during the period under review can be briefly summarised by the following table1 viz43 ,normal ,supplies ,proportion of supply ,annual requirements average ,home ,overseas ,home ,overseas ,million ,million ,million ,per ,per cwts cwts cwts cent cent #aija-e #ach4h #bh4g #aaj4a #bj4g #gi4c #aijf-aj #adc4b #ca4i #aaa4c #bb4c #gg4g #aiaa-ac #adi4b #cb4i #aaf4c #bb4a #gg4i ,the main sources of overseas supply are too well known to require recapitulation here4 ,the imports from the ,dominions and ,india and their proportionate contribution to the ,united ,kingdom's total imports and wheat requirements since #aija have been as follows3 #aija-e ,percentage ,from ,annual ,total ,total average imports requirements ,million ,per ,per cwts cent cent ,canada #aj4c #i4b #g4d ,australia #f4f #e4i #d4h ,new ,zealand 4#d 4#d 4#c ,india #ae4e #ac4i #aa4b #cb4h #bi4d #bc4g #aijf-aj ,percentage ,from ,annual ,total ,total average imports requirements ,million ,per ,per cwts cent cent ,canada #ag4b #ae4a #ab4j ,australia #i4d #h4b #f4f ,new ,zealand 4#c 4#c 4#b ,india #ac4c #aa4g #i4c #cb4h #bi4d #bc4g #aiaa-ac ,percentage ,from ,annual ,total ,total average imports requirements ,million ,per ,per cwts cent cent ,canada #bd4e #bj4e #af4d ,australia #ab4f #aj4f #h4d ,new ,zealand 4#d 4#c 4#c ,india #ba4e #ah4j #ad4d #ei4j #di4d #ci4e ,the large increase in the proportion received from the ,dominions is1 of course1 mainly due to the great extension of wheat cultivation in ,western ,canada since the beginning of the century4 #hd ,future ,supplies ,as the ,united ,kingdom is dependent for so large a proportion of its wheat supplies on the surplus of oversea countries1 it is of material interest to examine whether this surplus is increasing1 or whether the growth of population is proceeding more rapidly than the extension of the wheat-growing area4 ,the ,board of ,agriculture and ,fisheries in #aiab estimated #he that the extension of the wheat area and the growth of population during the period #aija-aiaa was as follows3 ,wheat area ,percent ,population4 ,percent ,wheat-growing age in age in countries4 #aija4 #aiaa4 crease #aija4 #aiaa4 crease ,british ,empire ,thousand ,thousand ,thousands ,thousands 7,united ,kingdom1 acres4 acres4 ,canada1 ,australia1 ,new ,zealand1 and ,india74 #cd1fif #ej1dij #de4e #bhc1che #cjb1aed #f4f ,european countries4 #ih1cbf #aae1aje #ag4a #bia1fhe #ccg1aha #ae4f ,others #fg1ijh #ha1djh #ai4i #aci1ibg #afh1hah #bj4f ,it is important to find that1 while in foreign countries1 both ,european and extra-,european1 the increase of wheat area is proceeding at practically the same rate as the increase of population1 in the ,british ,empire the wheat area is developing far more rapidly1 so that the ,empire as a whole is becoming more self-supporting4 ,the total production of wheat within the ,british ,empire1 which was #bbg1ejj1jjj cwts4 in #aija1 had risen to #cii1gjj1jjj cwts4 in #aiaa1 an increase of #ge per cent4 ,the relative yield per acre in #aiaa was as follows3 ,yield per acre4 ,average for five years1 #aijf-aj4 #aiaa4 ,bushels4 ,bushels4 ,united ,kingdom #cb4hh #cb4if ,canada #ag4efhf #bj4hjhg ,australia #aa4gd #i4fehh ,new ,zealand #bh4gb #cf4gc ,india 7including ,native ,states7 #aa4dd #ab4jb ,the foregoing facts destroy the chief ,neo-,malthusian argument1 and1 as birth control tends to extinguish the birth-rate1 this ,neo-,malthusian propaganda is a menace to the ,empire4 ,in fact1 the danger is very great for the simple reason that the proportion of white people within the ,empire is very small4 ,the ,british ,empire's share of the world's people is very large1 but it mainly consists1 it should be remembered1 of ,asiatics and ,african natives4 ,the ,empire as a whole contains about #dej millions of the world's #a1hjj millions1 made up roundly as follows3 ,united ,kingdom #dg1jjj1jjj ,self-governing ,dominions #bb1jjj1jjj ,rest of the ,empire 7chiefly ,india1 #cai millions7 #cgh1jjj1jjj ,total #ddg1jjj1jjj ,of the great aggregate ,empire population of #ddg millions1 the white people account for no more than #fe millions4 ,that is to say1 outside the ,united ,kingdom itself the ,empire has only #ah million white people1 or less than four million families4 ,that figure1 of course1 includes ,boers1 ,french-,canadians1 and others of foreign extraction4 ,this fact is clearly not realized by those present-day ,malthusians who assure us that too many ,britons are being born4 #hi ,it is also well to remember that depopulation in ,italy preceded the disintegration of the ,roman ,empire4 ,historians have estimated that1 while under the ,republic1 ,italy could raise an army of #hjj1jjj men1 under ,titus that number was halved4 ,unfortunately there are some to whom this argument will not appeal1 and wandering about in our midst are a few lost souls1 so bemused by the doctrines of international finance that they see no virtue in patriotism or1 in other words1 in the love that a man has for his own home4 ,they are unmoved by the story of sacrifice1 of thrift1 and of patient trust in ,god that is told for instance in the history of the ,protestant manses of ,scotland1 where ministers on slender stipends brought up families of ten and twelve1 where the boys won scholarships at the universities1 and where women were the mothers of men4 ,these days have been recalled by ,norman ,macleod3 ,the minister1 like most of his brethren1 soon took to himself a wife1 the daughter of a neighbouring 'gentleman tacksman1' and the grand-daughter of a minister1 well born and well bred2 and never did man find a help more meet for him4 ,in that manse they lived for nearly fifty years1 and there were born to them sixteen children2 yet neither father nor mother could ever lay hand on a child and say1 ',we wish this one had not been4' ,they were all a source of unmingled joy4444 #ij ,a 'wise' neighbour once remarked1 ',that minister with his large family will ruin himself1 and if he dies they will be beggars4' ,yet there has never been a beggar among then to the fourth generation4 #ia ,how did they manage to provide for their children8 ,in this pagan1 spoon-fed age1 many people will laugh when they read the answer--in a family letter1 written more than a hundred years ago by a man who was poor3 ,but the thought--,i cannot provide for these6 ,take care1 minister1 the anxiety of your affection does not unhinge that confidence with which the ,christian ought to repose upon the wise and good providence of ,god6 ,what though you are to leave your children poor and friendless8 ,is the arm of the ,lord shortened1 that ,he cannot help8 ,is ,his ear heavy1 that ,he cannot hear8 ,you yourself have been no more than an instrument in the hand of ,his goodness2 and is ,his goodness1 pray1 bound up in your feeble arm8 ,do you what you can2 leave the rest to ,god4 ,let them be good1 and fear the ,lord1 and keep ,his commandments1 and ,he will provide for them in ,his own way and in ,his own time4 ,why1 then1 wilt thou be cast down1 ,o my soul2 why disquieted within me8 ,trust thou in the ,lord6 ,under all the changes and the cares and the troubles of this life1 may the consolations of religion support our spirits4 ,in the multitude of thoughts within me1 ,thy comforts ,o my ,god1 delight my soul6 ,but no more of this preaching-like harangue1 of which1 ,i doubt not1 you wish to be relieved4 ,let me rather reply to your letter1 and tell you my news4 #ib ,that letter was written by ,norman ,macleod1 ordained in #aggd1 and minister of the ,church of ,scotland in ,morven for some forty years4 ,his stipend was #dj1 afterwards raised to #hj4 ,he had a family of sixteen4 ,one of his sons was minister in ,campbelltown1 and later in ,glasgow4 ,he had a family of eleven4 ,his eldest son was ,chaplain to ,queen ,victoria1 and wrote the ,reminiscences of a ,highland ,parish4 ,the birth controllers ask why we should bring up children at great cost and trouble to ourselves1 and they have been well answered by a non-,catholic writer1 ,dr4 ,w4,e4 ,home4 #ic ,one of my acquaintances refuses to have a second child because he could not then play golf4 ,is there1 then1 no pleasure in children which shall compensate for the troubles and expenses they bring upon you8 ,i notice that the penurious ,roman ,catholic ,french ,canadian farmers are spreading out of ,quebec and occupying more and more of ,ontario4 ,i fancy these hard-living parents would think their struggles to bring up their large 7ten to twenty7 families worth while when they see how their group is strengthening its position4 ,if a race comes to find no instinctive pleasure in children it will probably be swept away by others more virile4 ,one man will live where another will starve2 prudence and selfishness are not identical4 ,in her book1 ,the ,strength of a ,people1 ,mrs4 ,bosanquet1 who signed the ,majority ,report of the ,poor ,law ,commission1 tells the story of two girls in domestic service who became engaged4 ,one was imprudent1 married at once1 lived in lodgings1 trusted to the ,church and the parish doctor to see her through her first confinement1 had no foresight or management1 every succeeding child only added to her worries1 and her marriage was a failure4 ,the other was prudent1 did not marry till1 after six months1 she and her fianc had chosen a house and its furniture4 ,then she married1 and their house was their own careful choice2 every table and chair reminded them of the afternoon they had had together when it was chosen2 they were amusement enough to themselves1 and they saved their money for the expenses of her confinement4 ,he had not to seek amusement outside his home1 did his work with a high sanction and got promoted1 and each child was only an added pleasure4 ,idyllic2 yes1 but sometimes true4 ,one of the happiest men ,i have known was a ,marine sergeant with ten children1 and a bed in his house for stray boys he thought he should help4 ,one of my friends married young and had five children2 this required management4 ,he certainly could not go trips1 take courses and extra qualifications1 but he did his work all right1 and his sons were there to help in the war1 and one of them has won a position of ,imperial usefulness far above that of his father or me4 ,is that no compensation to his parents for old-time difficulties they have by now almost forgotten8 ,a bad tree cannot bring forth good fruit4 ,dr4 ,w4,e4 ,home is right1 and the ,neo-,malthusian golfer is wrong4 ,moreover1 he is wrong as a golfer4 ,golf requires skill1 a fine co-ordination of sight and touch1 much patience and self-control3 and many unfortunate people lack these qualities of mind and body1 and are therefore unable to play this game with pleasure to themselves or to others4 ,consequently every golfer1 no matter whether he accepts the hypothesis of ,spencer or that of ,weismann concerning the inheritance of acquired characteristics1 should rejoice to see his large family in the links as a good omen for the future of this game1 although there be some other reasons that also justify the existence of children4 7d7 ,the ,dangers of ,small ,families ,in a ,malthusian leaflet1 written for the poor ,dr4 ,binnie ,dunlop states3 ,you must at least admit that there would be nothing like the usual poverty if married couples had only one child for every #bjs4 or so1 a week of wages4 ,yet the population would continue to increase rapidly1 because very few of the children of small families die or grow up weakly2 and it would become stronger1 richer1 and of course much happier4 #id ,the false suggestion contained in his first sentence1 namely that a high birth-rate is the cause of poverty1 has already been exposed 7,chap4 ,,ii71 and apparently ,dr4 ,binnie ,dunlop has never considered why so many of the ,english people should be so poor as to enable him to make use of their very poverty in order to tempt them to adopt an evil method of birth control4 ,moreover1 his second contention1 that a small family produces a higher type of child1 better fed1 better trained1 and healthier1 than is found amongst the children of large families is contrary to the following facts1 as stated by ,professor ,meyrick ,booth3 #a4 ,a civilisation cannot be maintained with an average of less than about four children per marriage2 a smaller number will lead to actual extinction4 #b4 ,much information exists tending to show that heredity strongly favours the third1 fourth1 fifth1 and subsequent children born to a given couple1 rather than the first two1 who are peculiarly apt to inherit some of the commonest physical and mental defects 7upon this important point the records of the ,university of ,london ,eugenics ,laboratory should be consulted74 ,a population with a low birth-rate thus naturally tends to degenerate4 ,it is the normal1 and not the small family1 that gives the best children4 #c4 ,the present differential birth-rate--high amongst the less intelligent classes and low amongst the most capable families--so far from leading upwards1 is causing the race to breed to a lower type4 #d4 ,the small family encourages the growth of luxury and the development of what ,m4 ,leroy-,beaulieu calls l'esprit arriviste4 #e4 ,the popular idea that childbirth is injurious to a woman's health is probably quite erroneous4 ,where the birth-rate is high the health of the woman is apparently better than where it is artificially low4 #f4 ,a study of history does not show that nations with low birth-rates have been able to attain to a higher level of civilisation4 ,such nations have been thrust into the background by their hardier neighbours4 #ie ,moreover1 ,m4 ,leroy-,beaulieu1 in ,la ,question de la ,population #if states that those districts of ,france which show an exceptionally low birthrate are distinguished by a peculiar atmosphere of materialism1 and that their inhabitants exhibit1 in a high degree1 an attitude of mind well named l'esprit arriviste--the desire to concentrate on outward success1 to push on1 to be climbers1 to advance themselves and their children in fashionable society4 ,this spirit means the willing sacrifice of all ideals of ethics or of patriotism to family egoism4 ,to this mental attitude1 and to the corresponding absence of religion1 he attributes the decline of population4 ,in conclusion the following evidence is quoted by ,professor ,meyrick ,booth3 ,the ,revue des ,deux ,mondes for ,july #aiaa contains a valuable account1 by a doctor resident in ,gascony1 of the state of things in that part of ,france 7where1 it will be remembered1 the birth-rate is especially low74 ,he expresses with the utmost emphasis the conviction that the ,gascons are deteriorating1 physically and mentally1 and points out1 at the same time1 that the decline of population has had an injurious effect upon the economic condition of the country4 ',l'hyponatalit est une cause prcise et directe de la dgnrescence de la race1' he writes4 ,and1 dealing with the belief that a low birthrate will result in the development of a superior type of child1 he says3 ',c'est une illusion qui ne rsiste pas la lumire des faits tels que les montre l'tude dmographique de nos villages gascons4 ,depuis que beaucoup de bancs restent vides la petite cole1 les coliers ne sont ni mieux dous1 ni plus travailleurs1 et ils sont certainement moins vigoureux4' ,and again1 ',la quantit est en gnral la condition premire et souveraine de la qualit4' #ig ,section #h4 ,,the ,,plot ,,against ,,christendom ,all purposive actions are ultimately based on philosophy of one sort or another4 ,if1 for example1 we find a rich man founding hospitals for the poor1 we may assume that he believes in the principle of ,charity4 ,it is1 therefore1 of prime importance to determine what kind of philosophy underlies ,neo-,malthusian propaganda4 ,the birth controllers profess to be actuated solely by feelings of compassion and of benevolence towards suffering humanity2 and it is on these grounds that they are appealing to the ,church of ,england to bless their work1 or at least to lend to their propaganda a cloak of respectability4 ,now1 the very fact that ,neo-,malthusians are sincere in their mistaken and dangerous convictions makes it all the more necessary that we should discover the doctrines on which their propaganda was originally based2 because1 although their economic fallacies were borrowed from ,malthus1 their philosophy came from a different source4 ,this philosophy is to be found1 naked and unashamed1 in a book entitled ,the ,elements of ,social ,science4 ,i have already referred to this work as the ,bible of ,neo-,malthusians1 and its teaching has been endorsed as recently as #aije by the official journal of the ,malthusian ,league1 as witness the following eulogy1 whose last lines recall the happy days of ,bret ,harte in the ,far ,west1 and the eloquent periods of our old and valued friend ,colonel ,starbottle3 ,this work should be read by all followers of ,j4,s4 ,mill1 ,garnier1 and the ,neo-,malthusian school of economists4 ,we could give a long criticism of the many important chapters in this book2 but1 as we might be considered as prejudiced in its favour because of our agreement with its aims1 we prefer to cite the opinion given by the editor of that widely circulated and most enlightened paper ,the ,weekly ,times and ,echo1 which appears in its issue of ,october #h4 #ih ,before quoting from the book an explanation is due to my readers4 ,i do not suggest that all of those who are to-day supporting the propaganda for artificial birth control would agree with its foolish blasphemies and drivelling imbecilities2 but it is nevertheless necessary to quote these things1 because our birth controllers are too wise in their day and generation to reveal to the public1 still less to the ,church of ,england1 the philosophy on which ,neo-,malthusianism was originally based1 and from which it has grown4 ,moreover1 the ,malthusians claim that it was the author of the ,elements of ,social ,science who interested ,mr4 ,charles ,bradlaugh and ,mrs4 ,annie ,besant in the question4 #ii ,four quotations from the last edition of the book will suffice3 ,but this is a certain truth1 that any human being1 any one of us1 no matter how fallen and degraded1 is an infinitely more glorious and adorable being than any ,god that ever was or will be conceived 7p4 #dac74 ,in justice to the memory of ,john ,stuart ,mill1 whom ,malthusians are ever quoting1 it should be noted that the foregoing blasphemy is nothing more nor less than a burlesque of ,positivism or of ,agnosticism4 ,the teaching of ,mill1 ,bain1 and of ,herbert ,spencer was that the knowledge of ,god and of ,his nature is impossible1 because our senses are the only source of knowledge4 ,their reasoning was wrong--because a primary condition of all knowledge is memory1 in itself an intuition1 because primary mathematical axioms are intellectual intuitions1 and because mind has the power of abstraction2 but1 even so1 not one of these men was capable of having written the above-quoted passage4 ,the next quotation refers to marriage4 ,marriage is based upon the idea that constant and unvarying love is the only one which is pure and honourable1 and which should be recognised as morally good4 ,but there could not be a greater error than this4 ,love is1 like all other human passions and appetites1 subject to change1 deriving a great part of its force and continuance from variety in its objects2 and to attempt to fix it to an invariable channel is to try to alter the laws of its nature7p4 #cec74 ,that quotation is an example of how evil ideas may arise from muddled thinking3 because if the word lust be substituted for the word love in the third sentence1 the remaining forty-five words would merely convey a simple truth1 expressed by ,kipling in two lines3 ,for the more you 'ave known o' the others ,the less will you settle to one4 ,very few people1 ,i suppose1 are so foolish as to believe that man is by nature either a chaste or a constant animal1 and indeed in this respect he appears to his disadvantage when compared with certain varieties of birds1 which are by nature constant to each other4 ,on the other hand1 millions of people believe that man is able to overcome his animal nature2 and for the past two thousand years the civilised races of the world have held that this is a goal towards which mankind should strive4 ,in the opinion of ,christendom chastity and marriage are both morally good1 but1 according to the philosophy of our ,neo-,malthusian author1 they are morally evil4 ,chastity1 or complete sexual abstinence1 so far from being a virtue1 is invariably a great natural sin 7p4 #afb74 ,is it not obvious that to the writers of such passages love is synonymous with animalism1 with lust8 ,it is by no means necessary to go to saints or to moralists for a refutation of this ,neo-,malthusian philosophy4 ,does any decent ordinary man or woman agree with it8 ,ask the man in the street4 ,turn the pages of our literature4 ,refer to ,chaucer or ,spenser1 to ,shakespeare or ,milton1 refer to ,fielding or ,burns or ,scott or ,tennyson4 ,some of these men were very imperfect2 but they all knew the difference between lust and love2 and it is because they can tell us at least something of that which is precious1 enduring1 ethereal1 and divine in love that we read their pages and honour their names4 ,not one of these men could have written the following sentence3 ,marriage distracts our attention from the real sexual duties1 and this is one of its worst effects 7p4 #cff74 ,now it is certain that if the real sexual duties are represented by promiscuous fornication1 then both marriage and chastity are evil things4 ,that philosophy is very old4 ,from time immemorial--it has been advocated by one of the most powerful intelligences in the universe4 ,such is the soil on which the ,neo-,malthusian fungus has grown--a soil that would rot the foundations of ,europe4 ,footnote #ff3 ,the ,lancet1 ,may #ad1 #aiba1 p4 #ajbd ,footnote #fg3 ,british ,medical ,journal1 #aiba1 vol4 ii1 p4 #ic4 ,footnote #fh3 ,the ,small ,family ,system1 #bnd edit41 p4 #b4 ,footnote #fi3 ,supplement to ,the ,british ,medical ,journal1 ,march #ah1 #aije1 p4 #aaj4 ,footnote #gj3 ,common ,sense on the ,population ,question1 by ,teresa ,billington-,greig1 p4 #d4 ,published by the ,malthusian ,league4 ,footnote #ga3 ,medico-,legal ,society1 ,july #g1 #aiba4 ,footnote #gb3 ,suppl4 ,qu4 #di1 ,art4 #f3 ,voluptates meretricias vir in uxore quoerit quando nihil aliud in ea attendit quam quod in meretrice attenderet 7,a husband seeks from his wife harlot pleasures when he asks from her only what he might ask from a harlot74 ,quoted by the ,rev4 ,vincent ,mc,nabb1 ,o4,p41 ,the ,catholic ,gazette1 ,september #aiba1 p4 #aie4 ,footnote #gc3 ,british ,medical ,journal1 #aiba1 vol4 ii1 p4 #afi4 ,footnote #gd3 ,reproduced in fourth edition1 #ahfa4 ,footnote #ge3 ,essays in ,medical ,sociology1 #ahii4 ,revised and printed for private circulation1 p4 #ie1 7,copy in ,library of ,royal ,society of ,medicine74 ,footnote #gf3 ,british ,medical ,journal1 ,august #bj1 #aiba1 p4 #cjb4 ,footnote #gg3 ,st4 ,matt4 xviii4 #f4 ,footnote #gh3 ,proceedings of the ,medico-,legal ,society1 ,july #g1 #aiba ,footnote #gi3 ,that arrangement of society in which so considerable a number of the families and individuals are constrained by positive law to labour for the advantage of other families and individuals as to stamp the whole community with the mark of such labour we call ,the ,servile ,state4--,hilaire ,belloc1 ,the ,servile ,state1 #aiab1 p4 #af4 ,footnote #hj3 ,the ,secretary of the ,malthusian ,league4 ,vide ,the ,declining ,birth-rate1 #aiaf1 p4 #hi4 ,footnote #ha3 ,the ,declining ,birth-rate1 #aiaf1 p4 #cg4 ,footnote #hb3 ,dominions ,royal ,commission1 ,memorandum and ,tables relating to the ,food and ,raw ,material ,requirements of the ,united ,kingdom3 prepared by the ,royal ,commission on the ,natural ,resources1 ,trade1 and ,legislation of ,certain ,portions of ,his ,majesty's ,dominions4 ,november1 #aiae1 pp4 #a and #b4 ,my italics--,h4,g4,s4 ,footnote #hc3 i4e4 grain1 wheatmeal1 and flour ,footnote #hd3 ,for particulars of this increase see ,canada ,year ,book #aiac1 p4 #add4 ,footnote #he3 ,see pp4 #chg-h of ,cd4 #fehh4 ,footnote #hf3 ,average for period #aijg-aiaj and excluding ,british ,columbia1 where the yield per acre in #aiaa1 the only year for which figures are available1 averaged #bi-cg bushels4 ,footnote #hg3 ,including ,british ,columbia4 ,footnote #hh3 ,below the average4 ,the yield per acre in #aiab was #ab4ec bushels1 and in #aiac #aa4ah4 ,footnote #hi3 ,the ,observer1 ,nov4 #aa1 #aiba4 ,footnote #ij3 ,reminiscences of a ,highland ,parish1 by ,norman ,macleod1 ,d4,d41 #ahgf1 p4 #bg4 ,footnote #ia3 ,ibid41 p4 #cd4 ,footnote #ib3 ,ibid41 p4 #ia4 ,footnote #ic3 ,british ,medical ,journal1 ,august #ac1 #aiba1 p4 #bfa4 ,footnote #id3 ,leaflet of the ,malthusian ,league4 ,footnote #ie3 ,the ,hibbert ,journal1 ,october #aiad1 p4 #aec4 ,my italics4--,h4,g4,s4 ,footnote #if3 ,quoted by ,professor ,meyrick ,booth1 ,the ,hibbert ,journal1 ,october #aiad1 p4 #aec4 ,footnote #ig3 ,the ,hibbert ,journal1 ,october #aiad4 ,footnote #ih3 ,the ,malthusian1 ,november #aije1 p4 #hd ,footnote #ii3 ,c4,v4 ,drysdale1 ,o4,b4,e41 ,d4 ,sc41 ,the ,small ,family ,system1 #aiah1 p4 #aej4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,the ,,religious ,,argument ,,against ,,birth ,,control ,section #a4 ,,an ,,offence ,,against ,,the ,,law ,,of ,,nature ,birth control is against the law of nature1 which ,christians believe to be the reflection of the divine law in human affairs1 and any violation of this law was held to be vicious even by the ancient pagan world4 ,to this argument an advocate of birth control has made answer3 ,we interfere with nature at every point--we shave1 cut our hair1 cook our food1 fill cavities in our teeth 7or wear artificial teeth71 clothe ourselves1 wear boots1 hats1 and wash our faces1 so why should birth alone be sacred from the touch and play of human moulding8 #ajj ,why8 ,for a very simple reason4 ,birth control belongs to the moral sphere2 it essentially affects man's progress in good1 whereas all the other things that he mentions have no more moral significance than has the practice of agriculture4 ,regarded in the light of the law of nature they are neutral actions1 neither good nor bad in themselves1 raising no question of right or wrong1 and having no real bearing on the accomplishment of human destiny4 ,to make no distinction between the merely physical law of nature 7expressed in the invariable tendency of everything to act according to its kind7 and the natural moral law which governs human conduct1 is to pronounce oneself a materialist4 ,yet even a materialist ought to denounce the practice of birth control1 as it violates the laws of nature which regulate physical well-being4 ,but1 says the materialist1 it is not possible for anyone to act against nature1 because all actions take place in nature1 and therefore every act is a natural act4 ,quite so3 in that sense murder is a natural act2 even unnatural vice is a natural act4 ,will any one defend them8 ,there is a natural law in the physical world1 and there is a natural law in conscience--a law of right conduct4 ,certain actions are under the control of the human will1 which is able to rebel against the moral law of nature1 and the pagan poet ,aeschylus traces all human sorrow to the perverse human will omnipresent4 ,as birth control means the deliberate frustration of a natural act which might have issued in a new life1 it is an unnatural crime1 and is stigmatised by theologians as a sin akin to murder4 ,to this charge birth controllers further reply that millions of the elements of procreation are destroyed by ,nature herself1 and that to add one more to these millions sacrificed by ,nature is surely no crime4 ,this attempt at argument is pathetic4 ,if these people knew even the ,a4,b4,c4 of biology1 they would know that millions of those elements are allowed to perish by ,nature for a definite purpose--namely1 to make procreation more certain4 ,it is in order that the one may achieve the desired end that it is reinforced by millions of others4 ,moreover1 although millions of deaths in the world occur every year from natural causes1 it would nevertheless1 ,i fear1 be a crime if ,i were to cause one more death by murdering a birth controller4 ,section #b4 ,,reflected ,,in ,,the ,,normal ,,conscience ,in common with irrational animals we have instincts1 appetites1 and passions2 but1 unlike the animals1 we have the power to reflect whether an action is right or wrong in itself apart from its consequences4 ,this power of moral judgment is called conscience2 and it is conscience which reflects the natural law 7the ,divine ,nature expressed in creation74 ,as conscience1 when violated1 can and does give rise to an unpleasant feeling of shame in the mind1 we have good reason to believe that it exists for the purpose of preventing us from doing shameful actions1 just as our eyes are intended1 amongst other things1 to prevent us from walking over precipices4 ,moreover1 if the conscience is active1 instructed1 and unbiassed1 it will invariably give the correct answer to any question of right or wrong4 ,it is possible to assert1 without fear of contradiction1 that no ordinary decent man or woman approaches or begins the practice of artificial birth control without experiencing at first unpleasant feelings of uneasiness1 hesitation1 repugnance1 shame1 and remorse4 ,later on these feelings may be overcome by habit1 for the voice of conscience will cease when it has been frequently ignored4 ,this does not alter the fact that at first the natural moral instincts of both men and women do revolt against these practices4 ,to the conscience of mankind birth control is a shameful action4 ,section #c4 ,,expressed ,,in ,,the ,,science ,,of ,,ethics ,the dictates of conscience go to form the science of ethics4 ,according to ethics1 the practice of birth control means the doing of an act whilst at the same time frustrating the object for which the act is intended4 ,it is like using language to conceal the truth1 or using appetite so as to injure rather than to promote health4 ,during the decline of the ,roman ,empire men gorged themselves with food1 took an emetic1 vomited1 and then sat down to eat again4 ,they satiated their appetite and frustrated the object for which appetite is intended4 ,the practice of birth control is parallel to this piggishness4 ,no one can deny that the sexual impulse has for aim the procreation of children4 ,the birth controllers seek to gratify the impulse1 yet to defeat the aim2 and they are so honest in their mistaken convictions that1 when faced with this argument1 they boldly adopt an attitude which spells intellectual and moral anarchy4 ,they say that it is simply a waste of time to discuss the moral aspect of this practice4 ,without being able to dispute the truth that birth control is against nature1 conscience1 and ethics1 they attempt to prove that at any rate the results of this practice are beneficial1 or in other words that a good end justifies the use of evil means4 ,this is a doctrine that has been universally repudiated by mankind4 #aja ,nevertheless1 if birth control1 in spite of its being an offence against moral and natural law1 was really beneficial to humanity1 then birth controllers would be able to claim pragmatic justification for the practices1 and to argue that what actually and universally tends to the good of mankind cannot be bad in itself4 ,birth control1 as ,i have already shown1 does not conform to these conditions2 therefore that argument also fails4 ,section #d4 ,,birth ,,control ,,condemned ,,by ,,protestant ,,churches ,the ,protestants1 at the time of the ,reformation1 retained and even exaggerated certain beliefs of the undivided ,catholic ,church4 ,none of them doubted1 for instance1 that the ,bible was the ,word of ,god and therefore a guide to moral conduct4 ,they knew that artificial birth control is forbidden by the ,bible1 and that in the ,old ,testament the punishment for that sin was death4 #ajb ,in #ahgf1 when ,charles ,bradlaugh advocated in a notorious pamphlet the practice of birth control1 his views were denounced from every ,protestant pulpit in the land1 and were widely repudiated by the upper and middle classes of ,england4 ,but it would seem that ,protestant morality is now disappearing with the spread of indifferentism1 and the ,protestant ,churches have no longer the same influence on the public and private life of the nation4 ,protestantism has lasted for #djj years1 but though it has lasted longer than any other form of belief which took rise in the sixteenth century1 it is now also dying4 ,in #aiai the number of people over seven years of age in ,england who professed belief in any church was #aj1hcc1gie 7out of #dj1jjj1jjj71 and the church attendance equalled #g1jjj1jjj1 or about #a out of every #e people4 #ajc ,again1 a ,commission appointed by the ,protestant ,churches to inquire into the religious beliefs held in the ,british armies of the ,great ,war has endorsed the following statements3 ,everyone must be struck with the appalling ignorance of the simplest religious truths4 ,probably #hj per cent1 of these men from the ,midlands had never heard of the sacraments4444 ,it is not only that the men do not know the meaning of ',church of ,england'2 they are ignorant of the historical facts of the life of our ,lord4 ,nor must it be assumed that this ignorance is confined to men who have passed through the elementary schools4 ,the same verdict is recorded upon those who have been educated in our public schools4444 ,the men are hopelessly perplexed by the lack of ,christian unity4 #ajd ,in my opinion these statements are exaggerations1 but that was not the view of the ,commission4 ,as regards ,scotland1 it has recently been stated at the ,lothian ,synod of the ,united ,free ,church that in #aiaa at least #cg per cent4 of the men and women of ,scotland were without church connection4 #aje ,in #ahgj1 of every #a1jjj marriages1 #gfj were according to the rites of the ,established ,church1 but in #aiai the proportion had fallen to #eig4 ,during the same period civil marriages without religious ceremonial increased from #ih to #bca per #a1jjj4 #ajf ,these figures are an index of the religious complexion of the country4 ,the ,protestant ,churches are being strangled by the development of a germ that was inherent in them from the beginning1 and that growth is ,rationalism4 ,the majority of the upper1 professional1 and artisan class can no longer be claimed as staunch ,protestants1 but as vague theists2 and amongst these educated people1 misled by false ideas of pleasure and by pernicious nonsense written about self-realisation1 the practice of birth control has spread most alarmingly4 ,this is an evil against which all religious bodies who retain a belief in the fundamental facts of ,christianity might surely unite in action4 ,in a ,catholic country there would be no need1 in the furtherance of public welfare1 to write on the evils of birth control4 ,the teaching of the ,catholic ,church would be generally accepted1 and a moral law generally accepted by the inhabitants of a country gives strength to the ,state4 ,but ,great ,britain1 no longer ,catholic1 is now in some danger of ceasing to be even a ,christian country4 ,in #ahhe it was asserted1 ,england alone is reported to contain some seven hundred sects1 each of whom proves a whole system of theology and morals from the ,bible4 #ajg ,each of these that now survives gives its own particular explanation of the law of ,god1 which it honestly tries to follow1 but at one point or another each and every sect differs from its neighbours4 ,on account of these differences of opinion many people say3 ,the ,churches cannot agree amongst themselves as to what is truth2 they cannot all be right2 it is1 therefore1 impossible for me to know with certainty what to believe2 and1 to be quite honest1 it may save me a lot of bother just at present to have no very firm belief at all4 ,this means that in ,great ,britain there is no uniform moral law covering all human conduct and generally accepted by the mass of the people4 ,as the practice of artificial birth-rate control is not only contrary to ,christian morality1 but is also a menace to the prosperity and well-being of the nation1 the absence of a uniform moral law1 common to all the people and forbidding this practice1 is a source of grave weakness in the ,state4 ,,appendix ,,to ,,chapter ,,viii ,a ,,neo-,,malthusian ,,attack ,,on ,,the ,,church ,,of ,,england ,as was proved in a previous chapter 7p4 #abj7 artificial birth control was originally based on ,atheism1 and on a philosophy of moral anarchy4 ,further proof of this fact is to be found in the course of a most edifying dispute between two rival ,neo-,malthusians4 ,this quarrel is between ,dr4 ,marie ,c4 ,stopes1 ,president of the ,society for ,constructive ,birth ,control and ,racial ,progress1 who is not a ,doctor of ,medicine but of ,philosophy1 and ,dr4 ,binnie ,dunlop1 who is a ,bachelor of ,medicine3 and when birth controllers fall out we may humbly hope that truth will prevail4 ,dr4 ,stopes maintains that artificial birth control was not an atheistic movement1 whereas ,dr4 ,binnie ,dunlop contends that the pioneers of the movement were ,atheists4 ,the beginning of the trouble was a letter written by ,dr4 ,stopes to the ,british ,medical ,journal1 in which she made the following statement3 ,dr4 ,martindale is reported in your pages to have given an address to medical women in which she pointed out that the birth control movement in ,england dated from the ,bradlaugh trial in #ahgg4 ,had she attended the presidential address of the ,society for ,constructive ,birth ,control she would have learned that there was a very flourishing movement1 centring round ,dr4 ,trall in #ahff1 years before ,bradlaugh touched the subject1 and also a considerable movement earlier than that4 ,this point is important1 as 'birth control' has hitherto 7erroneously7 been much prejudiced in popular opinion by being supposed to be an atheistical movement originated by ,bradlaugh4 #ajh ,dr4 ,stopes1 who has been working overtime in the attempt to obtain some religious sanction for her propaganda1 is ready not only to throw the ,atheists overboard1 but also to assert that a flourishing movement for artificial birth control centred round the late ,dr4 ,trall1 who was a ,christian4 ,her letter was answered by ,dr4 ,binnie ,dunlop as follows3 ,dr4 ,marie ,c4 ,stopes1 whose valuable books ,i constantly recommend1 protests 7page #hgb7 against the statement that the birth control movement in ,england dated from the trial of ,charles ,bradlaugh in #ahgg--;for re-publishing ,dr4 ,knowlton's pamphlet1 ,the ,fruits of ,philosophy because the ,government had interdicted it4 ,she must admit1 however1 that there was no organised movement anywhere until ,bradlaugh and the ,doctors ,drysdale1 immediately after the trial1 founded the ,malthusian ,league1 and that the decline of ,europe's birthrate began in that year4 ,it may now seem unfortunate that the pioneers of the contraceptives idea1 from #ahah onwards 7,james ,mill1 ,francis ,place1 ,richard ,carlile1 ,robert ,dale ,owen1 ,john ,stuart ,mill1 ,dr4 ,knowlton1 ,dr4 ,george ,drysdale1 ,dr4 ,c4,r4 ,drysdale1 and ,charles ,bradlaugh71 were all ,free-thinkers2 and ,dr4 ,stopes harps on the religious and praiseworthy ,dr4 ,trall1 an ,american1 who published ,sexual ,physiology in #ahff4 ,but ,dr4 ,trall was not at all a strong advocate of contraceptive methods4 ,after a brief but helpful reference to the idea of placing a mechanical obstruction1 such as a sponge1 against the os uteri1 he said3 ,let it be distinctly understood that ,i do not approve any method for preventing pregnancy except that of abstinence1 nor any means for producing abortion1 on the ground that it is or can be in any sense physiological4 ,it is only the least of two evils4 ,when people will live physiologically there will be no need of preventive measures1 nor will there be any need for works of this kind4 #aji ,that is a most informative letter4 ,in simple language ,dr4 ,binnie ,dunlop tells the remarkable story of how in #ahgf three ,atheists1 merely by forming a little ,society in ,london1 were able to cause an immediate fall in the birth-rate of ,europe4 ,when you come to think of it1 that was a stupendous thing for any three men to have achieved4 ,i am very glad that ,dr4 ,binnie ,dunlop has defended the ,atheists and has painted the late ,dr4 ,trail1 despite that brief but helpful reference1 in his true colours as a ,christian4 ,nevertheless1 ,dr4 ,stopes had the last word3 ,as regards ,dr4 ,dunlop1 he now shifts the ,atheists' position by adding the word 'organised4' ,the ,atheists never tire of repeating certain definite misstatements1 examples of which are3 ',if it were not for the fact that the despised ,atheists1 ,charles ,bradlaugh and ,annie ,besant1 faced imprisonment1 misrepresentation1 insult1 and ostracism for this cause forty-four years ago1 she ,dr4 ,stopes would not be able to conduct her campaign to-day' 7,literary ,guide1 ,november1 #aiba72 and ',before the ,knowlton trial1 neither rich nor poor knew anything worth counting about contraceptive devices' 7,malthusian1 ,november #ae1 #aiba74 ,variations of these statements have been incessantly made1 and ,i dealt with their contentions in the presidential address for the ,c4,b4,c4 ,meanwhile to them ,i reply that3 ',there has never been in this country any law against the dissemination of properly presented birth control information1 and before1 during1 and after the ,bradlaugh trial properly presented information on birth control was extending its range with full liberty4' ,my address is now in the press1 and when published will make public not only new matter from manuscript letters of very early date in my possession1 but other overlooked historical facts4 ,i have already told ,dr4 ,dunlop ,i refuse to be drawn into a discussion on facts an account of which is still in the press4 #aaj ,the lady1 by her dissertation on the ,laws of ,england1 makes a clumsy effort to evade the point at issue1 which is quite simple1 namely1 whether it was ,atheists or ,christians who initiated the ,neo-,malthusian movement1 organised or unorganised4 ,dr4 ,binnie ,dunlop has here proved his case4 ,i also do maintain that in this matter all credit must be given to the ,atheists2 and that it would be truly contemptible to deny this fact merely in order to pander to a popular prejudice against ,atheism4 ,nor am ,i shaken in this opinion when ,dr4 ,stopes points out that there was a ,neo-,malthusian movement prior to #ahgf4 ,of course there was a movement1 but it was always an atheistic movement4 ,in the past no ,christian doctor1 and indeed no ,christian man or woman1 advocated artificial birth control4 ,let us give the ,neo-,malthusian his due4 ,until recently both the ,church of ,england and the medical profession presented practically a united front against ,neo-,malthusian teaching2 and1 as late as #aiad1 the ,malthusian ,league did not hesitate to make use of the following calumnies1 very mean1 very spiteful1 very imbecile3 ,take the clergy4 ,they are the officers of a ,church that has made marriage a source of revenue and of social control2 they preach from a sacred book that bids the chosen people of ,god 'multiply and replenish the earth'2 they know that large families generally tend to preserve clerical influence and authority2 and they claim that every baby is a new soul presented to ,god and1 therefore1 for ,his honour and glory1 the greatest possible number of souls should be produced4 #aaa ,that feeble attempt to poison the atmosphere was naturally ignored by intelligent people2 and more than once ,lambeth has ruled that artificial birth control is sin4 ,unfortunately1 within the ,church of ,england1 in spite of the ,lambeth ruling1 there is still discussion as to whether artificial birth control is or is not sin1 the ,bishops1 as a whole1 making a loyal effort to uphold ,christian teaching against a campaign waged by ,malthusians in order to obtain religious sanction for their evil propaganda4 ,although many ,malthusians are rationalists1 they are well aware that without some religious sanction their policy could never emerge from the dim underworld of unmentioned and unrespected things1 and could never be advocated openly in the light of day4 ,to this end birth control is camouflaged by pseudo-poetic and pseudo-religious phraseology1 and the ,anglican ,church is asked to alter her teaching4 ,birth controllers realise that it is useless to ask this of the ,catholic ,church1 a ,rock in their path1 but as regards the ,church of ,england1 which makes no claim to infallibility1 the case is different1 and discussion is possible4 #aab ,let us consider1 firstly1 the teaching of the ,church of ,england on this matter4 ,at the ,lambeth ,conference of #aijh the ,bishops affirmed that deliberate tampering with nascent life is repugnant to ,christian morality4 ,in #aiad a ,committee of ,bishops issued a ,memorandum #aac in which artificial birth control is condemned as dangerous1 demoralising1 and sinful4 ,the memorandum was approved by a large majority of the ,diocesan ,bishops1 although in the opinion of ,dean ,inge this is emphatically a matter in which every man and woman must judge for themselves1 and must refrain from judging others4 #aad ,the ,bishops also held that in some marriages it may be desirable1 on grounds of prudence or of health1 to limit the number of children4 ,in these circumstances they advised the practice of self-restraint2 and1 as regards a limited use of marriage1 they added the following statement3 ,it seems to most of us only a legitimate application of such self-restraint that in certain cases 7which only the parties' own judgment and conscience can settle7 intercourse should be restricted by consent to certain times at which it is less likely to lead to conception4 ,this is only to use natural conditions2 it is approved by good medical authority2 it means self-denial and not self-indulgence4 ,and we believe it to be quite legitimate1 or at least not to be condemned4 ,a small minority of ,bishops held that prolonged or even perpetual abstinence from intercourse is the only legitimate method of limiting a family4 ,finally1 in ,resolution #fh of the ,lambeth ,conference in #aibj1 the ,bishops stated that3 ,we utter an emphatic warning against the use of unnatural means for the avoidance of conception1 together with the grave dangers--physical1 moral1 and religious--thereby incurred1 and against the evils with which the extension of such use threatens the race4 ,in opposition to the teaching which1 under the name of science and religion1 encourages married people in the deliberate cultivation of sexual union as an end in itself1 we steadfastly uphold what must always be regarded as the governing consideration of ,christian marriage4 ,one is the primary purpose for which marriage exists--namely1 the continuation of the race through the gift and heritage of children2 the other is the paramount importance in married life of deliberate and thoughtful self-control4 #aae ,and the ,committee on ,problems of ,marriage and ,sexual ,morality felt called upon to utter an earnest warning against the use of any unnatural means by which conception is frustrated4 #aaf ,if ,resolution #fh be read in conjunction with the ,memorandum of #aiad1 the teaching of the ,church of ,england is plain to any sane man or woman2 it is one with the teaching of the ,church ,catholic4 ,artificial birth control is condemned as sin1 but1 under certain circumstances1 the limitation of a family by continence or by restricted intercourse is permitted4 ,as this teaching forbids ,neo-,malthusian practices1 birth controllers have tried to make the ,church alter her teaching to suit their opinions4 ,although their methods in controversy against the ,church must be condemned by everyone who values intellectual honesty1 the reader1 of his charity1 should remember that ,malthusians are unable to defend their policy1 either on logical or on moral grounds4 ,without attempting to prove that the teaching of the ,church is wrong1 birth controllers began the attack by a complete misrepresentation of what that teaching actually is4 ,this unenviable task was undertaken by ,lord ,dawson of ,penn1 at the ,birmingham ,church ,congress of #aiba4 ,after quoting ,resolution #fh1 ,lord ,dawson said3 ,now the plain meaning of this statement is that sexual union should take place for the sole purpose of procreation1 that sexual union as an end in itself--not1 mind you1 the only end--7there we should all agree71 but sexual union as an end in itself is to be condemned4 ,that means that sexual intercourse should rightly take place only for the purpose of procreation4 ,quite a large family could easily result from quite a few sexual unions4 ,for the rest the couple should be celibate4 ,any intercourse not having procreation as its intention is 'sexual union as an end in itself1' and therefore by inference condemned by the ,lambeth ,conference4 ,think of the facts of life4 ,let us recall our own love--our marriage1 our honeymoon4 ,has not sexual union over and over again been the physical expression of our love without thought or intention of procreation8 ,have we all been wrong8 ,or is it that the ,church lacks that vital contact with the realities of life which accounts for the gulf between her and the people8 ,the love envisaged by the ,lambeth ,conference is an invertebrate1 joyless thing--not worth the having4 ,fortunately it is in contrast to the real thing as practised by clergy and laity4 ,fancy an ardent lover 7and what respect have you for a lover who is not ardent87--the type you would like your daughter to marry--virile1 ambitious1 chivalrous--a man who means to work hard and love hard4 ,fancy putting before these lovers--eager and expectant of the joys before them--the ,lambeth picture of marriage4 ,do you expect to gain their confidence8 #aag ,that sort of appeal is not very effective1 even as rhetoric2 but it is very easy to give an exact parallel4 ,fancy a fond father 7and what respect have you for a father who is not fond87 being told by his daughter's suitor that he1 his prospective son-in-law1 looked forward to the physical joys of marriage1 but intended to insist on his wife using contraceptives4 ,would any father regard such a one as the type he would like his daughter to marry8 ,there is1 unfortunately1 another answer to ,lord ,dawson1 and ,i put it in the form of a question4 ,can any intelligent man or woman1 ,catholic1 ,protestant1 or rationalist1 maintain that ,lord ,dawson has given a fair1 a true1 or an honest statement of the teaching of the ,church of ,england8 ,moreover1 it is past all understanding how a gross libel on ,anglican doctrine has been overlooked by those most concerned4 ,the address is actually hailed as wise1 bold1 and humane in the highest sense of the word by ,the ,spectator1 #aah and that amazing journal1 expert as ever in making the worse appear the better cause in a way that appeals to clergymen1 goes on to say3 ,lord ,dawson fearlessly and plainly opposed the teachings of the ,roman ,church and the alleged teachings of the ,anglican4 ,having by a travesty of truth created a false theological bogey1 bearing little resemblance either to ,catholic or to ,anglican teaching1 ,lord ,dawson proceeds to demolish his own creation by a somewhat boisterous eulogy of sex-love4 ,now sex-love is an instinct and involves no question of good or evil apart from the circumstances in which it is either gratified or denied2 but1 in view of the freedom with which ,lord ,dawson discussed this topic1 it is only right to note that it was left to the ,rev4 ,r4,j4 ,campbell to add to the gaiety of nations by his subsequent protest that the ,marriage ,service contains expressions which are offensive to modern delicacy of feeling4 ,that protest is also a first-rate example of the anarchical state of the modern mind4 ,the ,rev4 ,r4,j4 ,campbell is a modern mind1 so is ,mr4 ,george ,bernard ,shaw2 but the latter refers to the sober decency1 earnestness1 and authority #aai of those very passages to which the former objects4 ,lord ,dawson's eulogy of sexual intercourse was but a prelude to his plea for the use of contraceptives3 ,i will next consider ,artificial ,control4 ,the forces in modern life which make for birth control are so strong that only convincing reasons will make people desist from it4 ,it is said to be unnatural and intrinsically immoral4 ,this word 'unnatural' perplexes me4 ,why8 ,civilisation involves the chaining of natural forces and their conversion to man's will and uses4 ,much of medicine and surgery consists of means to overcome nature4 ,that paragraph illustrates precisely the confused use of the word natural1 which ,i have already criticised 7p4 #abd74 ,lord ,dawson says he is perplexed1 and ,i agree with him4 ,civilisation1 he says1 involves the conversion of natural forces to man's will4 ,so does every crime4 ,is that any defence of crime8 ,even if physical nature be described as non-moral1 that description cannot be applied to the inward nature of will and conscience4 ,that ,i will an act may show it is in accordance with nature in a certain sense1 but the fact of its being in accordance with physical nature does not justify my act4 ,does ,lord ,dawson agree8 ,or does he think that any action in accordance with the physical laws of nature1 which means any action whatsoever1 is justified2 and does he approve therefore of mere moral anarchy8 ,his confusion of thought concerning the use of the word natural is followed by the inevitable sequence of false analogies3 ,when anaesthetics were first used at child-birth there was an outcry on the part of many worthy and religious people that their use under such circumstances was unnatural and wicked1 because ,god meant woman to suffer the struggles and pains of child-birth4 ,now we all admit it is right to control the process of child-birth1 and to save the mother as much pain as possible4 ,it is no more unnatural to control conception by artificial means than to control child-birth by artificial means4 ,surely the whole question turns on whether these artificial means are for the good or harm of the individual and the community4 ,generally speaking1 birth control before the first child is inadvisable4 ,on the other hand1 the justifiable use of birth control would seem to be to limit the number of children when such is desirable1 and to spread out their arrival in such a way as to serve their true interests and those of their home4 ,once more1 careful distinction needs to be made between the use and the bad effects of the abuse of birth control4 ,that its abuse produces grave harm ,i fully agree--harm to parents1 to families1 and to the nation4 ,but abuse is not a just condemnation of legitimate use4 ,over-eating1 over-drinking1 over-smoking1 over-sleeping1 over-work do not carry condemnation of eating1 drinking1 smoking1 sleeping1 work4 ,these long extracts are here quoted because1 as ,the ,spectator has remarked1 an attempt at a detailed summary might destroy the careful balance which is essential to ,lord ,dawson's purpose4 ,it might indeed2 and many a true word is written inadvertently and despite the wisdom of the serpent4 ,as ,lord ,dawson believes that ,malthusian practice is not of necessity sinful1 and as he is urging the ,church to remove a ban on that practice1 it is necessary for him to prove in the first place that his opinion is right and that the teaching of the ,church is wrong4 ,elsewhere in these pages ,i have stated the reasons why ,christian morality brands the act of artificial birth control as intrinsically a sin1 a malum in se1 and those reasons have never been disproved by ,lord ,dawson or by anyone4 ,his comparison between the use of contraceptives and eating or drinking is a false analogy4 ,eating is a natural act1 not in itself sinful1 whereas the use of contraceptives is an unnatural act1 in itself a sin4 ,the extent to which artificial birth control is practised neither increases nor diminishes the sinful nature of the act1 but merely indicates the number of times the same sin is committed4 ,lord ,dawson admits the danger of ,neo-,malthusian methods being carried to excess1 and counsels that these practices be used in moderation2 but is it likely that those who have discarded the teaching of a ,church and the dictates of the moral law will be seriously influenced by what he calls an appeal to patriotism8 ,now there is one appeal to patriotism which ,lord ,dawson could have made but did not make4 ,he might have pleaded that for the sake of the nation all attempts at unnatural birth control amongst the wealthier and more leisured citizens should be abandoned forthwith1 and that the lawful form should be confined to those few cases where limitation of the family is justified on genuine medical grounds4 ,but he refrained from making that appeal1 and his plea for the use of contraceptives in moderation is more likely to be quoted with approval in the boudoirs of ,mayfair than in humbler homes4 ,lord ,dawson's grave error in failing to anticipate the inevitable consequences of his deplorable speech is becoming more and more apparent4 ,in the columns of ,the ,daily ,herald1 cheek by jowl with advertisements concerning ,herbalists1 ,safe and ,sure ,treatment for ,anaemia1 ,irregularities1 etc41 ,knowledge for ,young ,wives1 and ,surgical ,goods and ,appliances1 there appears the following notice3 ,lord ,dawson1 the ,king's ,physician1 says1 ',birth control has come to stay4' ,following up this honest and daring declaration1 the ,liberator ,league have decided to distribute #aj1jjj copies of its publications free to applicants sending stamped addressed envelopes to ,j4,w4 ,gott1 ,secretary 444 ,london1 ,n4,w4#e4 ,a stamped addressed envelope brought in return sample copies of two undated newsprints1 entitled ,the ,rib ,tickler and ,the ,liberator1 and1 to the honour of newsvendors1 we learn that these papers are not supplied by newsagents4 ,the first print is devoted to ,blasphemy1 and the second to ,birth ,control4 ,both papers are edited by ,j4,w4 ,gott1 of ,london1 ,leeds1 ,liverpool1 and other prisons1 who1 when he is not in jail for selling blasphemous or obscene literature1 earns a livelihood by a propaganda of ,secularism1 ,socialism1 and ,neo-,malthusianism1 combined with the sale of contraceptives4 ,at ,birmingham in #aiba this individual1 according to his own statement1 was charged1 on eleven summonses1 with having sent an obscene book and obscene literature through the post1 and with publishing a blasphemous libel of and concerning the ,holy ,scriptures and the ,christian ,religion4 ,the ,malthusian ,league 7at their own expense1 for which ,i here wish to thank them7 sent their ,hon4 ,secretary1 ,dr4 ,binnie ,dunlop1 who gave evidence 444 that the ,council of the ,malthusian ,league 444 most strongly protests against the description of ,g4 ,hardy's book1 ,how to prevent ,pregnancy1 as obscene1 for that book gives in a perfectly refined and scientific way this urgently needed information4 ,this opinion was not shared by the jury1 who brought in a verdict of guilty1 and ,gott was sentenced to six months' imprisonment4 ,from the ,liberator we learn that the ,treasurer of the ,liberator ,league was fined #bj1 having been found guilty on the following summons--for that you on the eleventh day of ,september #aibj1 at the ,parish of ,consett1 in the ,county aforesaid1 unlawfully1 wickedly1 maliciously1 and scandalously did sell to divers persons1 whose names are unknown1 in a public street1 there situate1 a certain lewd1 wicked1 scandalous1 and obscene print entitled ',large or ,small ,families1' against the ,peace of our ,sovereign ,lord the ,king1 ,his ,crown and ,dignity4 ,lord ,dawson's advice was indeed perilous because the ,british ,empire and all its traditions will decline and fall if the ,motherland is faithless to motherhood2 #abj and the nation would do better to pay heed to the following words of ,his ,majesty the ,king3 ,the foundations of national glory are in the homes of the people4 ,they will only remain unshaken while the family life of our race and nation is strong1 simple1 and pure4 ,all ,lord ,dawson's arguments are hoary fallacies4 ,once more1 careful distinction needs to be made between--anaesthetics and contraceptives4 ,anaesthetics assist the birth of a child1 whereas contraceptives frustrate the act of procreation4 ,the old explanation that man's progress has been achieved by harnessing and not by opposing the forces of nature is dismissed with ignominy4 ,the age-long teaching of ,hippocrates that the healing art was based on the ,vis ,medicatrix ,naturae is overthrown by ,lord ,dawson of ,penn1 in a single sentence2 and in place of the ,father of ,medicine as a guide to health of body and mind1 there comes the ,king's ,physician3 ,to pestle a poison'd poison behind his crimson lights4 ,when a great leader announces the birth of a new epoch1 it is meet that the rank and file remain silent2 and at this ,congress of the ,church of ,england no jarring interruptions marred the solemnity of the moment4 ,no old-fashioned doctor was there to utter a futile protest1 and there was no simple-minded clergyman to rise in the name of ,christ and give ,lord ,dawson the lie4 ,without dissent1 on a public platform of the ,established ,church1 presided over by a ,bishop1 and in full view of the nation1 the moth-eaten mantle of ,malthus1 the godless robe of ,bradlaugh1 and the discarded garments of ,mrs4 ,besant1 #aba were donned--by the successor of ,lister4 ,it was a proud moment for the birth controllers1 but for that national institution called ,ecclesia ,anglicana a moment full of shame4 ,footnote #ajj3 ,british ,medical ,journal1 ,august #f1 #aiba1 p4 #bai4 ,footnote #aja3 ,there is1 or perhaps we should say there was1 a legacy of #a1jjj ,rhenish guilders awaiting anyone who1 in the judgment of the faculty of law in the ,university of ,heidelberg or of ,bonn1 is able to establish the fact that any ,jesuit ever taught this doctrine or anything equivalent to it4 ,vide ,the ,antidote1 vol4 iii1 p4 #abe1 ,c4,t4,s41 ,london4 ,footnote #ajb3 ,gen4 xxxviii4 #i-aj ,footnote #ajc3 ,vide ,catholic ,times1 ,august #bg1 #aiba1 p4 #g4 ,footnote #ajd3 ,the ,army and ,religion1 #aiai1 p4 #ddh4 ,footnote #aje3 ,universe1 ,november #d1 #aiba1 p4 #c4 ,footnote #ajf3 ,eighty-second ,annual ,report of the ,registrar-,general of ,england and ,wales1 #aiai1 p4 xiv4 ,footnote #ajg3 ,the ,times1 ,january #ac1 #ahhe4 ,footnote #ajh3 ,british ,medical ,journal1 ,november #ai1 #aiba1 p4 #hgb4 ,footnote #aji3 ,british ,medical ,journal1 ,november #bf1 #aiba1 p4 #ibd ,footnote #aaj3 ,british ,medical ,journal1 ,december #aj1 #aiba1 p4 #ajaf4 ,footnote #aaa3 ,common ,sense on the ,population ,question1 p4 #d ,footnote #aab3 ,dr4 ,c4,k4 ,millard1 in ,the ,modern ,churchman1 ,may #aiai4 ,footnote #aac3 ,reproduced in ,the ,declining ,birth-rate1 #aiaf1 p4 #chf4 ,footnote #aad3 ,outspoken ,essays1 #aiai1 p4 #ge4 ,footnote #aae3 ,report1 p4 #dd4 ,footnote #aaf3 ,ibid41 p4 #aab4 ,footnote #aag3 ,evening ,standard1 ,october #ab1 #aiba4 ,footnote #aah3 ,october #ae1 #aiba4 ,footnote #aai3 ,man and ,superman1 ,act ,,iii1 p4 #abe4 ,footnote #abj3 ,sunday ,express1 ,october #af1 #aiba4 ,footnote #aba3 ,on becoming a ,theosophist1 ,mrs4 ,besant retracted her approval of ,neo-,malthusianism4 ,,chapter ,,ix ,,the ,,teaching ,,of ,,the ,,catholic ,,church ,,on ,,birth ,,control ,section #a4 ,a ,,false ,,view ,,of ,,her ,,doctrine ,one of the marks of the ,catholic ,church1 whereby she may be distinguished from all other ,churches1 is that her teaching is always clear and above all logical4 ,yet this fact has not saved her teaching from misrepresentation in the hands of ,malthusians4 ,for example1 ,dr4 ,c4 ,killick ,millard writes as follows3 ,the ,churches have taught that it was the divine wish that human beings should multiply and population increase--the more rapidly the better2 the traditional authority for this being the instruction given to ,noah and his family1 after the ,deluge1 to 'be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth4' ,the ,churches have continued to teach that the duty of man was to obey the divine command and still to increase and multiply1 and until recently any attempt by married couples to restrict or regulate the birth-rate was denounced as sinful4 ,this is still the orthodox attitude1 ,i believe1 of the ,roman ,catholic ,church1 with its celibate priesthood2 but1 as it is clearly useless to reason with those who claim infallibility1 it is unnecessary to discuss the question further so far as ,roman ,catholicism is concerned4 #abb ,now1 although it may be unnecessary for ,dr4 ,millard to discuss the question further1 he will1 ,i am sure1 regret having inadvertently misstated the truth4 ,the ,catholic ,church has never denounced as sinful any attempt by married couples to restrict or regulate the birth-rate4 ,on the contrary1 the ,catholic ,church has taught1 by her greatest doctor1 ,st4 ,thomas ,aquinas1 that the essence of marriage is not primarily in the begetting of offspring1 but in the indissoluble union between husband and wife4 #abc ,section #b4 ,,the ,,essence ,,and ,,purpose ,,of ,,marriage ,there is an obvious distinction between the essence of a thing and the ends or purposes for which the thing exists4 ,for example1 in a business partnership the essence of the partnership is a legal instrument1 whereas the purposes or ends of the partnership are various commercial projects4 ,the following is a clear statement1 by ,father ,vincent ,mc,nabb1 ,o4,p41 #abd of ,catholic teaching concerning the nature and end of marriage3 ,marriage is an indissoluble state of life wherein a man and a woman agree to give each other power over their bodies for the begetting1 birth1 and upbringing of offspring4 ,the natural and primary end of marriage is this duty towards offspring4 ,but1 as sin has despoiled the human will and disturbed human relations1 marriage has now the secondary end of allaying sexual lust4 ,but it is a principle of ethics that what is primary cannot be set aside as if it were secondary1 nor can the secondary be sought as if it were primary4 ,to invert the ethical order is to bring in that disorder which is called sin4 ,if the human act brings in a slight disorder1 it is venial sin2 if the human act brings in a grievous disorder it is a grievous or mortal sin4 ,it is a grievous disorder1 and1 therefore1 a grievous sin1 to desire satisfaction in such sexual intercourse as could not result in the begetting of offspring4 ,as the wedded pair have given each other power over their bodies it would be a grave sin for one to refuse either altogether or for a considerable time the fulfilment of the marriage debt4 ,but it is not a sin if by mutual agreement the wedded pair refrain from the marriage debt for a time1 or for ever4 ,as a rule1 and speaking objectively1 it would be heroic virtue for a wedded pair to abstain for a long time1 and still more for ever1 from the marriage debt4 ,to counsel such a practice indiscriminately would be a sinful want of prudence1 and1 in a confessor1 of professional knowledge4 ,it is quite clear that by mutual consent1 even without any further motive1 the wedded pair can abstain from marital intercourse4 ,still more may they abstain for a time or for ever1 for a good motive1 e4g4 in order to have time for prayer1 for good works1 for bringing up such family as they already have to support4 ,section #c4 ,,artificial ,,sterility ,,wholly ,,condemned ,artificial birth control is an offence against the law of ,god1 and is therefore forbidden by the ,catholic ,church4 ,any ,catholic who wilfully adopts this practice violates the law of ,god in a serious matter1 and is therefore guilty of mortal sin1 an outrageous and deliberate insult offered by a human creature to the ,infinite ,majesty4 ,the ,catholic ,church teaches that men and women should control the sex impulse just as they should control their appetite for food or drink4 ,the principal end of marriage1 as we have seen1 is the purpose of its institution1 the procreation and bringing up of children4 ,the secondary end of marriage is mutual assistance and companionship1 and a remedy against concupiscence4 ,where it is advisable1 owing to the health of the mother or owing to reasons of prudence as distinct from selfishness1 to limit the number of children1 the ,catholic ,church points out that this should be done by the exercise of self-control1 or by restricted use4 ,as those who deny the possibility or even the wisdom of self-restraint are not likely to pay the slightest attention to the teaching of the ,church1 ,i will quote the opinions of two clear-thinking1 non-,catholic writers4 ,mr4 ,george ,bernard ,shaw has said3 ,i have no prejudices4 ,the superstitious view of the ,catholic ,church is that a priest is something entirely different from an ordinary man4 ,i know a great many ,catholic priests1 and they are men who have had a great deal of experience4 ,they have at the back a ,church which has had for many years to consider the giving of domestic advice to people4 ,if you go to a ,catholic priest and tell him that a life of sexual abstinence means a life of utter misery1 he laughs4 ,and obviously for a very good reason4 ,if you go to ,westminster ,cathedral you will hear voices which sound extremely well1 and very differently from the voices of the gentlemen who sing at music-halls1 and who would not be able to sing in that way if they did not lead a life extremely different from the ,catholic priest4444 ,i may say that ,i am in favour of birth control4 ,i am in favour of it for its own sake4 ,i do not like to see any human being absolutely the slave of what we used to call ',nature4' ,every human action ought to be controlled1 and you make a step in civilisation with something which has been uncontrollable4 ,i am therefore in favour of control for its own sake4 ,but when you go from that to the methods of control1 that is a very different thing4 ,as ,dr4 ,routh said1 we have to find out methods which will not induce people to declare that they cannot exist without sexual intercourse4 #abe ,of course the use of contraceptives is the very negation of self-control4 ,the late ,sir ,william ,osier1 speaking of venereal disease1 says3 ,personal purity is the prophylaxis which we as physicians are especially bound to advocate4 ,continence may be a hard condition 444 but it can be borne1 and it is our duty to urge this lesson upon young and old who seek our advice on matters sexual4 ,section #d4 ,,the ,,only ,,lawful ,,method ,,of ,,birth ,,control ,there are methods of control whereby people are enabled to exist1 and to exist happily1 without being slaves to the sex impulse4 ,these methods are those of the ,catholic ,church4 ,her people are encouraged to take a higher and a nobler view of marriage1 to overcome their egoism and selfishness1 and to practise moderation and self-restraint in the lawful use of marital rights4 ,the ,church urges her people to strengthen their self-restraint by observing the penitential seasons1 especially ,lent2 by fasting or by abstaining from flesh meat at other times1 if necessary by abstaining from alcohol2 and by seeking that supernatural help which comes to those who receive the ,sacraments worthily4 ,when all other deterrents fail1 it is lawful1 according to the teaching of the ,church1 for married people to limit intercourse to the mid-menstrual period1 when1 although conception may occur1 it is less likely to occur than at other times4 ,all other methods are absolutely and without exception forbidden4 ,this limited use of marriage1 which1 as we have seen1 is within the rights of the married1 differs from all methods of artificial birth-control as day differs from night1 because3 ,reference3 ,explanation 7#a7 ,no positive or direct obstacle is used against procreation4 7#b7 ,the intercourse is natural1 in contradistinction to what is equivalent to self-abuse4 7#c7 ,self-restraint is practised in that the intercourse is limited to certain times4 7#d7 ,there is no risk to mental or physical health4 7#e7 ,there is no evil will to defeat the course of nature2 at worst there is merely an absence of heroism4 ,even if the question be considered solely as a matter of physiology the difference between these methods is apparent4 ,physiologists and gynaecologists believe that in natural intercourse there is1 apart from fertilisation1 an absorption of certain substances into the system of the woman4 ,the rle of this absorption is at present obscure1 but it obviously exists for a purpose2 and it is permissible to speculate whether1 under natural conditions of intercourse1 there is not a mutual biological reaction that makes1 amongst other things1 for physical compatibility4 ,whatever be its purpose or explanation in the marvellous mechanism of nature1 this absorption of vital substances is either hindered or is absolutely prevented by artificial methods of birth control2 whereas1 in the method permitted by the teaching of the ,catholic ,church there is no interference with a physiological process4 ,even those who fail1 from their lack of training1 to comprehend moral distinctions in this matter should be able to appreciate the difference between a method that is physiological and one that is unphysiological4 ,there are thousands who know little of the ,catholic or of any other faith1 and thousands who believe the ,catholic ,church to be everything except what it is4 ,these people have no infallible rule of faith and morals1 and when confronted1 as they now are1 by a dangerous1 insidious campaign in favour of birth control1 they do not react consistently or at all4 ,it was therefore thought advisable to issue this statement in defence of the position of the ,catholic ,church2 but the reader should remember that the teaching of the ,church on this matter is held by her members to be true1 not merely because it agrees with the notions of all right-thinking men and women1 not because it is in harmony with economic1 statistical1 social1 and biological truth1 but principally because they know this teaching to be an authoritative declaration of the law of ,god4 ,the ,ten ,commandments have their pragmatic justification2 they make for the good of the race2 but the ,christian obeys them as expressions of the ,divine ,will4 ,section #e4 ,,conclusion ,our declining birth-rate is a fact of the utmost gravity1 and a more serious position has never confronted the ,british people4 ,here in the midst of a great nation1 at the end of a victorious war1 the law of decline is working1 and by that law the greatest empires in the world have perished4 ,in comparison with that single fact all other dangers1 be they of war1 of politics1 or of disease1 are of little moment4 ,attempts have already been made to avert the consequences by the partial endowment of motherhood and by a saving of infant life4 ,physiologists are now seeking among the endocrinous glands and the vitamines for a substance to assist procreation4 ,where are my children8 was the question shouted yesterday from the cinemas4 ,let us have children1 children at any price1 will be the cry of to-morrow4 ,and all these thoughts were once in the mind of ,augustus1 ,emperor of the world from the ,atlantic to the ,euphrates1 from ,mount ,atlas to the ,danube and the ,rhine4 ,the ,catholic ,church has never taught that an avalanche of children should be brought into the world regardless of consequences4 ,god is not mocked2 as men sow1 so shall they reap1 and against a law of nature both the transient amelioration wrought by philanthropists and the subtle expediences of scientific politicians are alike futile4 ,if our civilisation is to survive we must abandon those ideals that lead to decline4 ,there is only one civilisation immune from decay1 and that civilisation endures on the practical eugenics once taught by a united ,christendom and now expounded almost solely by the ,catholic ,church4 ,footnote #abb3 ,the ,modern ,churchman1 ,may #aiai4 ,footnote #abc3 ,rev4 ,vincent ,mc,nabb1 ,o4,p41 ,the ,catholic ,gazette1 ,september #aiba1 p4 #aid ,footnote #abd3 ,ibid ,footnote #abe3 ,speech at the ,medico-,legal ,society1 ,july #g1 #aiba4 ,,bibliography ,a4--,,general ,,publications ,marriage and the ,sex ,problem4 ,by ,dr4 ,f4,w4 ,foerster4 ,translated by ,margaret ,booth1 ,b4 ,sc41 ,ph4,d4 ,london1 #aiab4 ,the ,menace of the ,empty ,cradle4 ,by ,bernard ,vaughan1 ,s4,j4 ,london1 #aiag4 ,coffins or ,cradles4 ,by ,sir ,james ,marchant4 #aiaf4 ,moral ,principles and ,medical ,practice4 ,by ,c4 ,coppens1 ,s4,j41 and ,h4 ,spalding1 ,s4,j4 ,the ,family and the ,nation4 ,by ,w4,c4,d4 ,whetham and ,mrs4 ,whetham4 ,london1 #aiji4 ,the ,law of ,births and ,deaths4 ,by ,charles ,edward ,pell4 ,london1 #aiba4 ,the ,declining ,birth-rate4 ,report of the ,national ,birthrate ,commission4 ,london1 #aiaf4 ,the ,church and ,labour 7,a ,compendium of ,official ,utterances74 ,edited by ,john ,a4 ,ryan1 ,,ll4,d41 and ,joseph ,husslein1 ,ph4,d4 ,london1 #aiba4 ,b4--,,catholic ,,truth ,,society ,,publications 7,obtainable from #fi1 ,southwark ,bridge ,road1 ,s4,e4#a47 ,the ,condition of the ,working ,classes4 7,the ,encyclical ,rerum ,novarum47 ,by ,pope ,leo ,,xiii4 ,edited by ,mgr4 ,canon ,parkinson1 ,d4,d4 #f;d4 ,social ,questions and the ,duty of ,catholics4 ,by ,c4,s4 ,devas1 ,m4,a4 #f;d4 7,the ,following are ,twopence each47 ,birth-rate1 ,the ,declining4 ,by ,h4 ,thurston1 ,s4,j4 ,christian ,democracy before the ,reformation4 ,by ,cardinal ,gasquet1 ,o4,s4,b4 ,christian ,democracy3 ,its ,meaning and ,aim4 ,by ,c4,s4 ,devas4 ,christian ,womanhood4 ,church and ,social ,reformers1 ,the4 ,by the ,bishop of ,northampton4 ,conjugal ,life1 ,the ,duties of4 ,by ,cardinal ,mercier4 ,divorce4 ,by the ,bishop of ,northampton4 ,english ,economics and ,catholic ,ethics4 ,by ,m4 ,maher4 ,labour1 ,the ,church and4 ,by ,abbot ,snow1 ,o4,s4,b4 ,landlords1 ,a ,dialogue on4 ,by ,r4,p4 ,garrold1 ,s4,j4 ,the ,catholic ,church and the ,principle of ,private ,property4 ,by ,hilaire ,belloc4 ,rome and the ,social ,question4 ,social ,reform1 ,pope ,pius ,x on4 ,social ,sense1 ,the3 ,its ,decay and its ,revival4 ,by ,a4,p4 ,mooney1 ,m4,d4 ,socialism1 ,the ,catholic ,church and4 ,by ,hilaire ,belloc4 ,socialism1 ,an ,examination of4 ,by the same4 ,socialism1 ,some ,ethical ,criticisms of4 ,by ,a4,p4 ,mooney1 ,m4,d4 ,trade ,unionism4 ,by ,henry ,somerville4 ,woman in the ,catholic ,church4 ,by ,h4,f4 ,hall4 ,the ,church and ,science4 ,by ,sir ,bertram ,windle1 ,m4,d41 ,f4,r4,s41 ,k4,s4,g4 #gs4 #f;d4 ,twelve ,catholic ,men of ,science4 ,edited by ,sir ,bertram ,windle1 ,m4,d41 ,f4,r4,s4 ,sir ,dominic ,corrigan--,thomas ,dwight--,galvani--,lapparent --,laennec--,linacre--,mendel--,johannes ,mller--,pasteur--,secchi--,nicolaus ,stenson--,vesalius4 #bs4 #f;d4 ,facts and ,theories4 ,a ,consideration of ,some ,biological ,conceptions of ,to-day4 ,by ,sir ,bertram ,windle1 ,m4,d41 ,f4,r4,s41 ,k4,s4,g4 #bs4 ,the ,modernist4 ,by ,joseph ,rickaby1 ,s4,j4 #as4 ,the ,world and ,its ,maker4 ,by ,j4 ,gerard1 ,s4,j4 #d;d4 7,the ,following are ,twopence each47 ,anti-,catholic ,history3 ,how it is written4 ,by ,hilaire ,belloc4 ,darwinism1 ,the ,decline of4 ,by ,walter ,sweetman4 ,evolution and ,exact ,thought4 ,by ,j4 ,gerard1 ,s4,j4 ,freedom of ,thought4 ,by4 ,j4 ,vance1 ,m4,a41 ,ph4,d4 ,freethought1 ,modern4 ,by ,j4 ,gerard1 ,s4,j41 ,f4,l4,s4 ,haeckel and his ,philosophy4 ,by ,j4 ,gerard1 ,s4,j4 ,life1 ,the ,origin of4 ,by ,j4 ,gerard1 ,s4,j41 ,f4,l4,s4 ,positivism4 ,by ,joseph ,rickaby1 ,s4,j4 ,rationalist ,propaganda1 ,the1 and ,how it must be met4 ,by ,j4 ,gerard1 ,s4,j4 ,rationalist1 ,the 7,joseph ,m',cabe71 as ,prophet4 ,by ,j4 ,keating1 ,s4,j4 ,science and ,its ,counterfeit4 ,by ,j4 ,gerard1 ,s4,j4 ,science or ,romance3 ,the ,game of ,speculation4 ,by ,j4 ,gerard1 ,s4,j4 ,scientific ,facts and ,scientific ,hypotheses4 ,by ,sir ,bertram ,windle1 ,m4,d41 ,f4,r4,s4 ,scientific ,opinion1 ,the ,ebb and ,flow of4 ,by ,sir ,bertram ,windle1 ,m4,d41 ,f4,r4,s4 ,babylonia and ,assyria4 ,by ,a4 ,condamin1 ,s4,j4 ,the ,catholic ,church4 ,by ,canon ,gildea4 ,france1 ,plain ,words on ,church and ,state in4 ,france1 ,the ,real ,authors of the ,separation in4 ,by ,o4 ,kellet1 ,s4,j4 ,good ,queen ,bess1 ,the ,days of4 ,by ,william ,cobbett4 ,kulturkampf1 ,the4 ,by ,humphrey ,johnson1 ,b4,a4 ,luther1 ,four ,centuries of4 ,by ,canon ,william ,barry1 ,d4,d4 ,mediaeval ,england1 ,catholic ,faith and ,practice in4 ,by ,h4,j4 ,kilduff4 ,monasteries1 ,the ,suppression of the ,english4 ,by ,william ,cobbett4 ,the ,pilgrim ,fathers4 ,by ,h4 ,thurston1 ,s4,j4 ,reformation1 ,social ,effects of the4 ,by ,william ,cobbett4 7,leaflets #cs4 per #ajj47 ,do ,babies build ,slums8 ,by ,halliday ,sutherland1 ,m4,d4 ,c4--,,catholic ,,social ,,guild ,,publications 7,obtainable from ,catholic ,social ,guild1 ,oxford47 ,a ,primer of ,social ,science4 ,by ,mgr4 ,parkinson4 #cs4 #f;d4 ,prostitution3 ,the ,moral ,bearings of the ,problem4 ,by ,m4,f4 and ,j4,f4 ,foreword by the late ,archbishop of ,liverpool4 #bs4 #f;d4 ,the ,church and ,eugenics4 7,new and revised edition1 #aiba47 ,by ,t4 ,gerrard4 #as4 #f;d4 ,the ,christian ,family4 ,by ,margaret ,fletcher4 #as4 #f;d4 ,sweated ,labour and the ,trade ,boards ,act4 ,edited by ,t4 ,wright4 #h;d4 ,guild ,socialism4 ,a ,criticism of the ,national ,guild ,theory4 ,by ,francis ,goldwell4 #f;d4 ,elements of ,housing4 ,by ,c4 ,tigar1 ,s4,j4 #f;d4 ,the ,gospel and the ,citizen4 ,by ,c4,c4 ,martindale1 ,s4,j4 #d;d4 ,the ,church and the ,worker4 ,by ,v4,m4 ,crawford4 #d;d4 ,questions of the ,day4 ,by ,j4 ,keating1 ,s4,j41 and ,s4,a4 ,parker1 ,o4,s4,b4 #d;d4 ,elements of ,economics4 ,by ,lewis ,watt1 ,s4,j4 #d;d4 ,the ,nation's ,crisis4 ,by ,cardinal ,bourne4 #c;d4 ,the ,catholic ,attitude to the ,ministry of ,health4 ,by ,j4,b4 ,mc,laughlin1 ,o4,s4,b41 and ,a4,p4 ,mooney1 ,m4,d4 #b;d4 ,d4--,,french ,,publications ,la ,dpopulation de la ,france4 ,jacques ,bertillon4 #aiaa4 ,la ,population franaise4 ,levasseur4 #ahia4 ,la ,question de la ,population4 ,leroy-,beaulieu4 ,dpopulation et ,civilisation4 #ahij4 ,arsne ,dumont4 ,natalie4 ,dr4 ,bertillon ,pre4