The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1910. THE BATTLE OF HEALTHY BABES

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2738, 17 February 1910, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1910. THE BATTLE OF HEALTHY BABES

The part that is being played in the relative positions of nations by the occupants of the cradles has received some special attention since the latest statistics have been made available. At the annual public meeting of the Academy of Sciences the president of the society. Professor Charles Bouchard, delivered an interesting address bn the question of the population of France, which, after multiplying year by year in a smaller degree, has now become stationary in number. Af. Bouchard suggested, in explanation of this phenomenon, that it was due partly to an almost morbid desire on the part of French families to preserve and to hand down undivided property that had been accumulated at the cost of much toil and trouble, and partly to the selfishness of parents, who preferred to enjoy as soon as possible the luxury of easy circumstances with one child to rearing a more numerous progeny. Additional causes were the lack of cheap dwellings which contained suitable accommodation for children, and the prejudice on the part of landlords and tenants against tolerating children in flats, who were apt- to bo classed with dogs and pianos as public nuisances. These considerations applied in an especial degree in the case of families belonging to the lower middle class. The poor were heedless and prolificOver a lid above these economic causes practices which could only be described as criminal were in large measure responsible for the restriction of the population in France. Following upon this we have a significant utterance by Dr. Saleeby, who is reported in the “Christian Commonwealth” to have said that he feared the Germans on the following grounds: “History shows that nothing has ever been able to resist the pressure of population; not frontiers, nor armies, nor fleets, nor treaties. Nothing but an artificial frontier separates France from Germany, and while the German population is advancing rapidly, the French population is stationary, and the latter country could support a good many more people than it does; consequently,” said Dr. Saleeby, “the youngest member of my audience will live to sec the day when France becomes Germanised. Nothing can stop it,” added Dr Saleeby; “Nature’s laws work even when we don’t think about theirf, and vaguely feci that they will be suspended in our case! At the moment Germany is producing two babies to every one born in England, and, what is more, she looks after them better when she has them; their birth rate is higher than ours, their infantile mortality is less than ours. This is the serious problem. You may stuff the North Sea full of Dreadnoughts, but it will not be able to resist the pressure of a vigorous, healthy., well-nourished population up-

on a weak and degenerating one.” Dr Saleeby lias in liis anxiety to enforce a lesson probably exaggerated the position somewhat, but he has drawn attention to an important phase of the International situation. It seems reasonably certain that were the future of the British Empire dependent upon the people of England, Scotland and Ireland, the present mighty nation would ultimately be ousted from its present proud position. Fortunately, however, there are still the overseas possessions to be reckoned with, and when these are taken into consideration Germany’s prospects of over-mas-tering its groat Anglo-Saxon rival by sheer force of numbers become exceedingly small.