FALLING BIRTH-RATE IN BRITAIN.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2777, 23 May 1916, Page 8

FALLING BIRTH-RATE IN BRITAIN.

THE WASTE OF CHILDREN AND' MEN

NATIONS AND MAN-POWER

(By, tlii Medical Correspondent of the London "Times.") 1

It has become a truism that the three -essentials for-.carrying on a war are men, munitions,' and money. If for munitions we substitute machinery, we shall have named also the three essentials for carrying on a nation in peace or war. Money represents energy stored up and icady to be liberated in-any given direction, machinery represents the means. But money and machinery are but tools in the hands of a mail. At this moment we are threatened with a man shortage greater than any we have known in our history. It takes days to make a shell, weeks to forge a gun, months to build a ship.. But a man is not a man until years liavo elapsed. The waste of men is the bitterest of all the bitter draughts of war, It is a waste which has no limit, because it. stretches far into the future in which, in other conditions, these fallen men wouldihave been the fathers of children.'

At tho Birmingham Maternity Hospital" recently, Dr. Robertson stated ■ that "'as a result of the jvar there were between 4000 and 5000 fewer babies An Birmingham last year.". A White' Paper issued in 1915 showed that th 9 births re-' gistered in Engtad and Wales in ,1914 numbered' 878,822, as against 831,480 in 1913. The birth-rate (23.8 per 1000) for 1914 was the lowest on record. In, 1915 the' first quarter showed a birth-rate of 22.9 per 1000, which was again lower than the rate for 1914. In the fourth quarter of 1915 the 'rate hod fallen, to 19.5 per 1000, of the population. This rate, -which is' 4.6 per 1000 mean birth-rate in the 10 preceding fourth quarters and 2.7 per 1000 below the rate in the corresponding period of 1914, is the lowest birth-rate recorded in any quarter since tho establishment of civil registration. Words of 111-Omen. It is very necessary to emphasise these Words: "The lowest birth-rato recorded in any quarter since the' establishment of civil registration." They are words of Ul-oinen. No Englishman should be able to listen' to them, at this moment -unmoved. They say too plainly that the drain of man power is not being made good; that, on the contrary, it is being' augmented by a. loss which, if less perceptible, is mora dangerous. / .The other\side of the picture is -the infantile mortality rate, or tho rate at which children who might possibly, have lieen kept alive were allowed to die. In January of. this year the "Lancet" published a statement on this subject which eliowed that the rates of infantile mortality, .for 1915 were higher than in the corresponding estimates for 1914. In 1915 110 children under one year died for every IQOO births in England and Wales. In' 1914 105 children per 1000 births died. We see then that, while the birth-rate was falling to the lowest figure on record, the. infantile mortality rate was going up. , A clearer example of burning the candle at both ends -could not be furnished. > The Enemy's Example. Are ire, then, about to be "too late" m regard to'man-power also? It is surely a'significant fact that tho German population, which ivas 41,058,792 in 1871— the year after the Franco-Prussian Warrose to 42,727,3(10 in IS7.J, or four years later,, while the Trench population re- • mained stationary. The German increase •was. the beginning of an upward tendency, which in 1905 gave tho great figure of GO,-" 041,278. The-Jfrench figure was the beginning of the decline which lias proved so sore a national .burden. One can only, interpret those German figures in one way. Our enemies'foresaw the danger, and took measures to prevent it; cur Allies, partly, perhaps, as the- result of their, terrible experience; wero less happy. The. world at . this hpur .is having an. object-lesson in the. meaning of "birth. statistics. . But the German total, was not. swelled only by births. Ic was swelled also by the prevention of infant death, which is one of the greatest works standing to tho credit-of a scientific people. A nation which had set out to conquer the, world could not afford to liavo city slums. If our Blums endure much longer we shall pay the price in our national strength. A,s. Dr. Robertson, of Birmingham, said. "If the Empire is to be kept infant life must be preserved." As 'a people we rdust set our house in order lest- in the days to come ive find it tenantless and so become a prey to foes who have shown a wiser foresight and a truer, appreciation of values than ourselves. No sane man, knowing the, facts, can doubt that our whole national future is in jeopardy..