No national entity1 can resist the attacks of others if its numerical strength is comparatively small. If a contest takes place between two nations whose numerical strength is approximately equal, the healthier of the two will gain the victory.
Even in prehistoric2 times a minimal3 degree of Child-Protection was indispensable to tribal4 existence. To rear children diminished, indeed, the quantity of wealth available to maintain the life of the parents, and consequently rendered even more difficult than before the struggle with the hostile forces of nature. None the less, it was absolutely essential to rear a minimal number of children. A sufficient number of boys must be reared to maintain the ranks of the warriors5 needed for the protection of the tribe against the attacks of its neighbours; and since tribal wars were unceasing, the number requisite6 to replace those who fell in battle was considerable; girls also must be reared in numbers sufficient to be the mothers of the required number of warriors. But it was against the tribal interest that more children than these should come into the world; and it was desirable that superfluous7 infants should perish.
The most important factors in human evolution are the quantity and the quality of individual human beings. Until quite recently it is only upon quantity of population that any stress has been laid: the quality of the population has been ignored; being either taken for granted, or regarded as dependent upon chance conditions. The problems of population[4] were not recognised as quantitative8 and qualitative9, but were believed to be quantitative merely. Both Socialism and Child-Protection have intimate associations alike with the quantitative and with the qualitative problems of population. Both Socialism and Child-Protection exert a powerful influence upon the quantity and the quality of human beings; and conversely these latter react no less powerfully upon Socialism and Child-Protection.
The leading aim of Child-Protection is to prevent the death of children before they attain10 an age at which they become competent to contribute directly to the welfare of society. The next most important aim of Child-Protection is to ensure that the individual whose life has been preserved shall not become useless or dangerous to society. These leading aims may be pithily11 summarised in the following terms: “the prevention of a high mortality-rate,” and “the prevention of a high criminality-rate.” The main factor of a high mortality-rate is excessive mortality in childhood; and the main factor of a high criminality-rate is excessive criminality in childhood. (The rate of mortality affects the quantitative element, and the rate of criminality affects the qualitative element, of the race.)
In the course of human racial history certain sentiments make their appearance (parental love, altruism12, and humanism), in consequence of which, even among nations to which the fear of a declining population is no longer known, actions endangering the health or the life of children come to be regarded as immoral13 and punishable; these sentiments subsequently constitute the main foundations of Child-Protection. But a recognition of the expediency14 of Child-Protection, and a desire to increase the population, have also at all times exercised a very great influence upon the degree to which methods of Child-Protection have been adopted and enforced. In any community in which an increase in numbers would involve over-population, an individual has, ceteris paribus, less value than in a community in which no such risk has to be considered; for this reason, in the latter community, more stress will be laid upon Child-Protection than in the former community.
[5]
The following examples will show that this reasoning is sound. As a result of the wide acceptance of the “mercantile theory” of political economy, inasmuch as this theory laid much stress upon the importance of an increase in population, the care of foundlings came to receive much more attention, even in Protestant countries. Moreover, though it is an indisputable fact that the fierce attack made by Malthus, in his widely celebrated15 work on The Principles of Population, upon the Foundling Hospitals of his day, was directed especially against the fact that these institutions received children quite unconditionally16, yet it is also perfectly17 true that Malthus’s views regarding Foundling Hospitals harmonise perfectly with his ideas as to the possibilities and dangers of over-population. Although some authors maintain that the connection we have pointed18 out obtains only among comparatively uncivilised peoples, and that as civilisation19 progresses, sentiment alone is decisive in forming our views in the matter of Child-Protection, those who advance such a contention20 may be referred to the example of modern France.
The following conception is dominant21 in France. It is sad but true that the number of births hardly shows any excess over the number of deaths—nay, that in certain years the births are fewer than the deaths; hence it happens that the population of the other states of Europe increases much more rapidly than the population of France. It is essential that something should be done to counteract22 this difference, by which the position of France as one of the great Powers of Europe may ultimately be endangered. Since all the laws and regulations which have been instituted with a view to increasing the birth-rate have remained fruitless, some new method must be found of bringing about a more marked excess of births over deaths. Since excessive mortality among children is the principal cause of a high death-rate, the State and the community must take all the steps in their power to reduce child mortality to a minimum.
Fertility of the Lower Classes.—In the civilised countries of twentieth-century Europe, the mean birth-rate is about thirty; that is, for every thousand inhabitants, there are[6] thirty births each year; France is far below this mean, with a birth-rate of twenty-one, and Russia far above, with a birth-rate of about forty-nine. In the country districts, fertility and the birth-rate are greater than in the towns. Transient variations in the birth-rate depend upon various disturbing factors, such as war, civil disorders23, and rise in the prices of the necessaries of life.
The lower the type of life, the greater is the insecurity of existence; and it is necessary that this should be counterbalanced by greater vigour24 of the forces of reproduction, and a consequent increase in the number of the offspring. Thus differences between the different species have a great influence upon the procreativeness of these species, so that there is a direct causal connection between the quality of a species and the number of the individuals of which it is made up. But it remains25 in dispute whether the rise (or fall) in the quantity, directly gives rise to a decline (or increase) in the quality; whether, within the limits of an individual species, the quantitative differences between the individuals making up that species are of importance; whether, within the limits of a single species, the individual members are more fertile in proportion as they stand at a lower level in development; and, finally, whether the fertility of the individuals of any species diminishes as the species advances in its evolution.
As regards the fertility of the human species, the decisive influences are not physiological26, but social. The view that higher brain development or prolonged intellectual activity restricts fertility has been rightly contested. Undoubtedly27, powerful intellectual activity tends to inhibit28 the sexual impulse, but this is no less true of great physical exertions29. The causes of the high birth-rate among the lower classes of the population are the following:—
(a) Members of the proletariat have to marry earlier in life than those belonging to the middle and the upper classes.
(b) A smaller proportion of the proletariat suffers from venereal infection.
(c) Owing to the overcrowded condition of their dwellings,[7] those belonging to the poorer classes find it far more difficult to observe “prudential restraint.”
(d) The poor make less use than the well-to-do of positive methods for the prevention of conception.
(e) To those belonging to the poorer classes, to have children is often economically advantageous30. A child can help in the work of the household, and can early engage in some occupation enabling it to contribute towards the expenses. On the other hand, in the case of the comparatively well-to-do, a large family involves the risk of a depression in the standard of life.
(f) Women of the middle and upper classes are far more afraid than working-class women of pregnancy31 and childbirth. They actually suffer more from these eventualities, because their sheltered life makes them weaker and more susceptible32; in many cases also they shirk motherhood because they think that pregnancy will interfere33 with their “social duties.”
An excessive number of conceptions, pregnancies34, and deliveries is harmful, not merely from the outlook of the domestic economist35, but also from that of the political economist. If the aim of the State is to secure a population which is not merely numerous, but also of good quality, care must be taken that the number of conceptions, pregnancies, and deliveries shall not be unduly36 great; for when the number of births is exceedingly large, it is very likely that the number of those to attain maturity37 will actually be less than if the birth-rate had been lower.
We have to take into consideration, not only the difference between the birth-rate and the death-rate, but also the important matter of the actual number of births and deaths. Although in any two cases the terminal results may be identical, it is a matter of grave economic moment how the figures are comprised by which these identical results are attained38. If, to effect a certain increase in population, a comparatively large number of births and deaths has been requisite, there has been an enormous waste of time, energy, and wealth.
The large families of the proletariat provide a greater[8] supply of labour, and this leads to a fall in wages. Because wages are lower, there results, in turn, an increase in the birth-rate. The great number of conceptions among the proletariat interferes39 with the effective working of selective forces—an evil which every unprejudiced thinker must deplore40, and must endeavour to remedy to the utmost of his ability. The most important means available for this purpose are: first, a rise in wages, and, secondly41, the use by the proletariat of positive methods to restrict or prevent procreation.
Parents should procreate so many children only as they are in a position to maintain and educate in a suitable manner; it is obvious, therefore, that working-class families should be comparatively small. Yet to-day we see the exact opposite. Only among the well-to-do and the more intelligent sections of the population do we find that these principles are carried into effect. The tragic42 consequence is that the more prosperous and the comparatively intelligent procreate very few children, the very reverse of what is desirable. Rich people are in a position to have many children, and have but few; working-class parents, on the other hand, ought to have but few children, and they have a great many. If the weekly wage-earners were more prosperous and more intelligent, they would be in a position to have more children, but they would, in fact, have fewer in that case.
The Tendency of Evolution.—During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, a decline in the birth-rate set in in every civilised country in Europe, notwithstanding the fact that in all these countries the proletariat constitutes an ever-increasing proportion of the total population. The probable causes of this decline are: first, women’s dread43 of pregnancy, of childbirth, and of rearing children, and, secondly, pelvic contraction(?).
The death-rate is harder to control than the birth-rate. For the birth-rate is influenced to a far greater extent by factors which are under individual control; whereas, in the case of the death-rate, great natural forces are the chief determinants. Death comes to every one, whether his parents and other relatives desire it or not, but those only are born whose parents desire it. In this matter of the population[9] problem, well-considered action will be directed where a result may be obtained with comparative ease. By this it is not meant to imply that the campaign against excessive mortality is to be altogether neglected; but rather that the campaign against an excessively high birth-rate demands more attention than it has hitherto received.
The tendency of evolution to-day is to effect a decline in the birth-rate. In the future far more attention will be paid, than has been paid in the past, to the demand of social hygiene44 that potential parents shall be careful to procreate healthy children only. On the other hand, the knowledge that will enable parents to prevent undesired conceptions will become more and more widely diffused45. In times to come, an ever-increasing proportion of pregnancies will be deliberately46 willed.
The decline in the birth-rate will necessarily result in a decline in the death-rate, and more especially in a decline in the death-rate of infants and children. Ultimately, we shall see a decline, not merely in the birth-rate and the death-rate, but also in the difference between the total number of the births and of the deaths. It is beyond dispute that these figures are tending to become less variable and more constant than they were in former times.
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1
entity
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| n.实体，独立存在体，实际存在物 | |
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prehistoric
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| adj.（有记载的）历史以前的，史前的，古老的 | |
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3
minimal
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| adj.尽可能少的，最小的 | |
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tribal
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| adj.部族的，种族的 | |
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warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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6
requisite
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| adj.需要的，必不可少的；n.必需品 | |
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7
superfluous
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| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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8
quantitative
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| adj.数量的，定量的 | |
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9
qualitative
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| adj.性质上的，质的，定性的 | |
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10
attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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pithily
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| adv.有力地，简洁地 | |
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altruism
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| n.利他主义，不自私 | |
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13
immoral
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| adj.不道德的，淫荡的，荒淫的，有伤风化的 | |
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expediency
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| n.适宜；方便；合算；利己 | |
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15
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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16
unconditionally
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| adv.无条件地 | |
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17
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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18
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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19
civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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20
contention
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| n.争论，争辩，论战；论点，主张 | |
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21
dominant
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| adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因 | |
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22
counteract
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| vt.对…起反作用，对抗，抵消 | |
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23
disorders
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| n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调 | |
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24
vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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25
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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26
physiological
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| adj.生理学的，生理学上的 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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28
inhibit
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| vt.阻止，妨碍，抑制 | |
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29
exertions
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| n.努力( exertion的名词复数 )；费力；（能力、权力等的）运用；行使 | |
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30
advantageous
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| adj.有利的；有帮助的 | |
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31
pregnancy
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| n.怀孕，怀孕期 | |
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32
susceptible
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| adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的 | |
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33
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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34
pregnancies
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| 怀孕，妊娠( pregnancy的名词复数 ) | |
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35
economist
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| n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人 | |
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36
unduly
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| adv.过度地，不适当地 | |
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37
maturity
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| n.成熟；完成；(支票、债券等)到期 | |
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38
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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39
interferes
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| vi. 妨碍，冲突，干涉 | |
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40
deplore
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| vt.哀叹，对...深感遗憾 | |
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41
secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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42
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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43
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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44
hygiene
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| n.健康法，卫生学 （a.hygienic） | |
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45
diffused
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| 散布的，普及的，扩散的 | |
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46
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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