RACIAL DECAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1504, 29 July 1912, Page 5

RACIAL DECAY.

A NATIONAL DANGER. BRITISH STOCK DYING OUT IN AMERICA. ENGLAND'S LOST POPULATION. lly Telcßranli—l'roßH AGSocialion-ConyrieM (Kcc, .Tuly 2S, . r i., r ) p.m.) London, July 27. .Major Darwin, in Ms presidential address at the Eugenics Congress .said Hint eugenics was (he practical'application of tlio principle of evolution, to tho nation >■ by first applying conscious selection instead ot Wind forces. Natural selection, would surely win in all.international competitions. Mr. F. L. Hoffman, ft well-known American insurance statistician, stilted that, taking New England as an example, 1 half tho population of America were of 1 foreign extraction. Fewer native-born than foreign-born women had reared families, with tlio result that unless Hie better classes of Americans realised tlieir duty, British ideas-.and institutions had no clianco of survival in the United States. Dr. Leslie, said bis experience in the East End of London confirmed Mr. Hoffman's statements. The numbers of thr foreign-born wcro increasing out, of all proportion to tho native-born. Dr. Drysdalo staled that since (lie promulgation of tlio Desant and Bradlaugli doctrines thirty .wars ago there had been '' twenty-five million fewer births. • l A "LITTLER" ENGLAND. LEFT BEHIND IN THE EACE FOR • \ I'EOI'LE. "Issues of an exceedingly 1 ler aro raised for tho United Kingdom ' by tho coincidence of a rapidly-lulling - birth-rate anil a rapidly rising tide oi l emigration"—so wrote Mr. L. U. Chiom , Money, M.l'., in the "Nineteenth Century" in February last. -Mr. Money pro- ; ceedod in the course of his article to say . \ 1 of the position in Britain:— > In the twenty-live years tho birth-rate ) has fallen 6.3 per 1000 of the population, . whilo the deatli-rate has fallen 4.9. The , fall in tlio birth-rate has been most rapid - ' in tlio last five years; tho full in the , death-rate has taken place almost elitireIv in the last ten years. In 1885 a population of something over ,'j(i,000,000 added 448,000 persons to itself by natural increase; in 1911 a population of nearly ; 45,000,000 made a natural increase of only , about 440,000. Serious as these considerations would be, if there were no drain by emigration, how intensely, serious they become when wo iind ourselves regarded by tlio self-governing Dominions as an mit limited store of potential colonists. The , ; coincidence of falling death-rato and fail- ' ing birth-rate means a higher average age for tho population as a whole, and a cqn- • sequent intensification of British social . problems. The emigration in a year of . nearly 300,001) of our most vigorous' stock leaves us with a larger proportion of tho ' old and feeble. If tlio process went • much further ,aud an actual decline nl i population occurred, wo should have not . merely a smaller nation, but a smaller nation whose average individual efficiency ; had licen reduced. Every social problem I would bo aggravated, even while . a ;

smaller aggregate population would l>» loft to furnish the means of amelioration. The charge for old ago pensions would sensibly rise, even while a smaller number. of taxpayers could he called upon to meet the charge. Sickness being a problem or age, the sickness charges to bo borne under tlio National Insurance Act oi 1011 would rise, oven while the number of voting contributors to the fund would diminish. The material output of the nation would fall, not alone because there 1 would be fewer workers, but because the ' average ogo of those fewer workers would , . bo higher. „ ~ . ! While the population of tlio United Kingdom is threatened with decline, that of the German Empire is still rapidly m- • creasing. It is true that the German I birth-rate lias fallen, but it is s ill higher . than ours, and Germany, instead of losing ' population by migration, is actually gam- i ing immigrants on balance . . . Germany is thus gaining by migration oven while we liavo reached the point of losing 300,000 people a year. As to natural . increase this is nearly 01)0,000 a year in . .Germany, in spile of the fal in her birthrate, it is hardly likely that the Gor- ■ man population will increase by loss than 8.000,000 in the next ten years, ami in 10"1 therefore, the German population may bo 7.1,0(10,000. If the British popu- • lati'on makes no more increase per annum | lan it did in 1911. the British Is os in .; 1021 will have about 47,000,000 inhabitant* Bv 1021, therefore, the Gorman Empire's poimlafion is likely to be within ; about 10,000;000 of the aggregate population of the United Kingdom and l'janw, fir Prance Ims now about 39,000,000.w«nle and her population is falling. -J.M mpative position of the United lung- ; dom it will be gathered, may easily bo worse tlinn this, for there is lv no certainly that even our slight «£ I of sain of population in 1911 will Da. maintained during the next ten years. ;