OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2781, 27 May 1916, Page 5

OUR BABIES

IBY lITGEIA.I Published under the auspices of the Royal Now Zealand Health tiocicty for the Health of Yvomen and Children. "ft is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." RACE HYGIENE IN GERMANY. In the latest number of the American quarterly journal "Social Hygiene" appears the following very interesting note: The semi-oiliciai German Central Depot for the people's welfare ( Deutsche Zentralstelle fur Volksv.'ohli'alirt) held a three days' meeting in Berlin, from October 26 to 2S, IWIS, with about 1000 delegates attending. The conference was called ''Congress for the Maintenance and Increase of the Vigour of tho German People" (Tagung fur 'die Krhaltung und Mehrung der Deutschen Volkskraft), and was summoned for the purpose of finding ways and means to stem the evil consequences of war. and modern civilisation, which menace the vitality of .the race.. It was recognised that the war kills tho best, tho bravest, the healthiest, eradicating once for all the finest strains in the race; and city life, with all its attendant circumstances. causes a declining birlh-rate. The discussion was marked by a unanimity seldom seen in such a large>audience, the dominating note being race hygiene. ' THE GERMAN ATTITUDE TOWARDS EUGENICS. Whereas Eugenics in America has a restrictive tendency, seeking to check the propagation of tlie unit, Eugenics in Germany has always been a positive conception, aiming at the multiplication bf the fit. Thus the conference laid pinch stress upon everything tending to increase the birth-rate of the best of the nation, but it arrived at the conclusion that the time, had not yet come for the introduction of sterilisation of defectives. The following measures were proposed and fully discussed. A Standing Committee, representing all societies concerned, is now being formed with a view to the practical carrying out of the recommendations. Men.snres Pronosed. for Stemming Racial .Deterioration and Promoting the National Well-being. . (1) Simplicity in customs and mode of life; (•_') a full understanding of individual duty towards' society; (3) a high valuation of family life; (.4) the sys'teni of one house for each family; (5) the'encouragement and assistance of large healthy families in every way. (The import, anceof this measure was specially emphasised.), .((i) the /establishment of garden cities; (7) the encouragement of tho "back -to the farm" movement, "'lie Germans, entitle this "Inner Colonisation"— meaning thereby a kind of emigration from the towns into the country. Inner Colonisation.

In Central Europe inner colonisation ilj naturally of special interest at the present moment, seeing that "outer .colonisation" is, for the time being at least, no longer possible. It is interesting to note that Prince von Bulow (in his book "Imperial Germany"," written many years ago) referred to the paramount importance to Germany of arresting the tendency of population. to drift out of the country into the towns. His concern was not so much for the eugenic fitness of the face as for the risk that his country should prove in time of war unable to sustain herself from within, which .he foresaw as a first ■ necessity for a nation liable to have all importations cut off. Von Bulow expressly states that this fact caused the downfall of Count Caprivi, and necessitated the reversal of his free-trade policy about 20 years ago. ; The Government quickly realised that cheap wheat from America meant low wages for farm hands in Germany, and that low wages were accentuating tho tendency to flock from the country into tho cities. High protective tiinlTs were restored, and have beon maintained' ever since, 'but-evidently they have not sufficed to prevent emigration from continuing to set tho wrong way; so now wo see ft further effort being made—on. national en. genie- grounds in this time of stress und ■slaughter—to kocp people on tne farms inid encourage largo healthy country fami. lied. .. * . Germany mustTiave population,, and I , think my readers will agree with me that there is much food for reflection in tho fact that 1000 delegates should have assembled ia Berlin when the nation was ; in the throes of this colossal war to discuss calmly, in a .sensible ai'd practical way, the. measure's which miist be taken to'ensure ,'iot only tho keeping up of the population, but even more to promote its health and fitness. Wo must admit that our arch enemy is very practical, very farseeing, and very systematic >11 such matters, and that we cannot afford to be less so. Indeed, no one can fail to be impressed by the found common sene» of tho conclusions arrived at by tho Gorman Conference. It is true that there is nothing specially original in the' proposal*, but vs important that we should sll recognise what is needed and work in the right direction. . I have dwelt specially on: the"'exodus from the country into the towns, brcauso this tendency (which lias received sih-Ii an extraordinary impetus of late from the attraction of picture palaces) appears to "he t.h'9 "ravest meiiare of our time to National Fitness and Efficiency. EIDER HAGGARD'S OPINION. No one has thought more deeply or written more earnestly and impressively on this subject that Sir H. Rider Haggard, and it must be. remembered that his J book, "A Farmer's Tear," from which the , following passages are quoted, was published before the era of the picture show, and that matters are much iforse now. l'he Desertion of the Country for the Cities. This movement, out of the country into the alien i.M already in rapid progress; and when, the exodus is completed, and the rural districts are desolate, then it ■may. be asked: "Must not the numbers, health, and courage of our race in their turn pay a portion of the price of the ruin of its wholesale miseries?" . . . j It seems hard to credit that a country will remain prosperous for very long after the tillers, abandoning the free air their fathers breathed for centuries, have swarmed to inhabit the grim end sweltering courts of cities. Under like circumstances at least Rome did not long remain prosperous. To the millions who follow it, and therefore to the nations at large! the practice of agriculture—that primeval],occupation, and the cleanest of tliem all—means more than the'growing of grass and grain. -11 means the engen-' deriiig and achievement of patient, even minds in sound, enduring bodies, gifts of which, after (lie first generation, the great towns rob Ihese who dwell ajid laljpur in them. And wlien those gifts' are gone, or greatly lessened, what does history ' teach us of the fate of the peoples who have lost (hern? ...

I say that from the Rreat towns, 1 ivit.li (lie aggregated masses of mankind, there rises one eternal wail of misery—the hopeless misery that, with all its drawlim-lis. the country (lops not lei!ov; — the country, where faniilion ;: ni;tj!ifc live in quiet" homes .',. . in health of body and min<l. with mire air, pure thought", pure sights. Oh! who will so handle matters ns to 111.5kei this enthusiast's dream a nossibility, who will turn the people to the land again, and thus lessen the load of a nation's sorrows? .And from the empty waste of half-tilled acres floats -bnck the echo "Who""