In Mesopotamia

PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 867

" 'A still more atrocious instance,' continued the speaker, 'had been brought before the Court of King's Bench two years ago, when a number of these boys apprenticed by a parish in London to one manufacturer had been transferred (i. e., sold) to another and had been found by some benevolent persons in a state of absolute fam- " ine.'

In our own country the disregard of child life had become appalling. There was the same temptation here that existed in England the temptation — to disregard both human life and human happiness by the sacrifice of children upon the altar of Mammon. Even now reforms arc agitated in the interest of the children of the Southern States and the conditions of health are not the most favorable in many of the larger manufacturing cities of New England. — Childbirth Control. We have no sooner, however, brought about great amelioration in the employment of children and stopped the inhuman sacrifice of their lives in the factory and apprenticeship systems that have prevailed too long on the Continent and in the United States, than we are — confronted by a new some say, a more refined system of race suicide the — prevention of childbirth. It is a part of the newest and latest in the civilized life of the world. Men shut their eyes to the consequences because it has more to do with future generations than with the present. It has not the cruel aspect of ancient infanticide, but it is intended, as we are told, for economic reasons. The truth of the matter is, men and women are much less concerned about social welfare than they are about their own selfish advantages. The present problem of race suicide has in it quite a number of factors. There is first the practice of childbirth prevention under the slogan of fewer and better children. The fallacy of this pretense has been demonstrated by scientific inquiry into family life. Besides, Nature is known everywhere to produce her best achievements under normal conditions. A few years ago this practice had grown to an alarming extent in France where deaths exceeded births. The same practice gradually grew in England and in the United States, and latterly it has become even alarming to the Germans who are anxious for population and not very scrupulous about the legitimacy of their children. It was the old, old story again— the necessity of crutailing, for the economic -benefit of the world, the dangerous increase to population. Had these nations that began the practice of race suicide only recently awaited patiently coming events, they would have found their nefarious system of race suicide entirely unnecessary, since the great war has destroyed so much life and gives promise of continuing the destruction through famine, pestilence and disease. At present it is the wholesale destruction of manhood which is likely to disturb very greatly the equilibrium of the sexes. The processes, however, of destruction will not end with the war whose hardships will draw heavily upon both female and male child life. It is a little early, therefore, to speculate about what will be necessary in view of this disturbed equilibrium. of child Vice and Sterility.— Another factor making for the curtailment life is the rapid and alarming increase of sterility among all civilized

nations. This sterility has been brought about mostly through the vices, lo the which the present war, by one means or another, has uncovered, sterility, there may also positive moral vices which have helped to increase such as drink, be added the vices which grow out of human indulgence, excessive food, fashions, and all sorts of pleasures Indeed the whole divinely appointed retrend of modern life is away from the path of our quirements. , „ . . ,. commingling The evils of an age which begin in rivulets soon swell by