GERMANY TURNS TO POLYGAMY.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 March 1918, Page 6

GERMANY TURNS TO POLYGAMY.

EXTRAORDINARY PROPOSALS. t> Germany stuns to be mobilising its . women, a icing- logical lines of Teutonic) • eliieiency, to counteract tiic tendency 1 towards a falling birth rate. The re- ' suits appear in tentative experiments 1 in the encouragement of births outside r of wedlock mid in polygamy, which, if } not, openly approved by the Government, are at least being tolerated. It is not • yet possible to got much wcll-authcnti--1 fated oliieial information as to the J movement, but the seepage of news from Germain' is large enough and ap- ' pnrently sufficiently verified to prove that such a movement does exist, and that experiments are being made. For the first, time in its history Germany 18 faring an actual decline in its population, due to war losses, disease, and a \ heavy fall in the birth rate. Recent reports from Hamburg, for instance, \ show a decline in its birth rate of over ; 13 per cent., in contrast to the rate before the wai. The reasons are obvious. . And to thejpraclical German, mind the cure seems also simple. Tt is found in \ such projects as that of so-called "lateral marriages,'' in "official pregnancy," 1 and sever.il forms of "trial marriage's." ; Moreover, it would appear that all these - are being welcomed by a great many | German women. The only indication of ' a counter movement of any formidable 1 weight is found in the disapproval of \ the Catholic Church. 1 THE "DOUBLE HOUSEHOLD" PLAN M Van der Klute, a Dutch journalist, 1 who has recently returned to The Hague • after long residence in Germany, is spon--1 sor for a widely-published report that "a ■ number of medical and scientific men in ■ Germany have formed themselves into a ; league for the promotion of what thev I call the 'double household,' a deliberate encouragement of polygamy." The guiding spirits of this league are Herren Pro- ' feasors Ostwald and Karll. Their efforts are aided by the practice of the military authorities in sending soldiers upon furlough to a part of the country remote from their own homes. This is done partly to keep knowledge of the privations of the soldier fron, his own family, and thus restrict the "war weariness" which flic Government so dread, and partly to encourage the "double liou-vcho!d" plan. Commenting on the falling birth rate, Jf. Van der Klute 'aid: Kultur's remedy for this state of _ affairs is an elaboration of promiscu- , oiir_ intercourse, which is a serious subject for debate among the German , clergy. Encouraged by the freedom { with which the subject is discussed and by the toleration of the authorities, an amazing <.,-,,„ „r hjgami.st.s 0 f both sexes are openly defying the laws ; of the various German States. One of the objects of the league above mentioned is to force the State to care properly for the offspring of these unions when the war is over, for their temporary nature is conceded by the propagandists. An astonishing instance of the perversion of this doctrine of the repopttlatioii of Germany was recently given in fho Divorce Court. An erring wife, whose soldier husband sought* relief on the ground of her infidelity, answered with the excuse that lu, had , been absent from home more than 12 months. She declared that she had a hig'her duty to the Fatherland than ; her duty to her husband sr.d her marriage vows. '-To-day' the Fatherland needs soldiers; to-morrow she will need children," she cried. She was heard s'-mnafhoj.icallv, and acclaimed by the person-, in court as a true patriot, and the case was adjourned in I order to civ her husband a chance to reconstitute their relations on an amicable basis. ' ORDERED TO VISIT CERTAIN WOMEN IN THE INTERESTS OF POPULATION*. V,y way of Kansas and vouched for by William Allen White, who published it in his "Emporia Gazette" (giving as his informant George W. Simmonds, of St. Louis), comes a story of deiin tc orders found among the papers of eapiurcd' German officers directing them to visit certain women, whose names and addresses were given, for the purpose of increasing tiie population. Main- similar reports have appeared in the French papersenough, if well authenticated, to indicate this as a not uncommon military practice. As to "lateral marriages," a despatch from Rome some time ago alleged that pamphlets bad \ Km widely circulated by the military authorities urging upon German troops this variety of polygamy, which, the message asserted, is "the onlv means for the formation of a new, powerful armed force, and for the ennoblement of morality." In this married women were urged, "in the interests of the Fatherland," to "secure the necessary, permission from their husbands to contract lateral marriages, based upon \ personal inclination, with married men, who in turn must obtain their wives' consent. The grimly humorous aspect of this particular scheme was not overlooked by foreign critics, but there seems reason to believe it has met with approval by at feast a portion of those most concerned—that is, the German women. The percentage of illegitimacy in Germany, especially in the cities, has always Wen largo. But the increase since the war has been astonishing. Carl Ackerman has asserted that in Hamburg the percentage has jumped from 15 to 45 per cent, a, year ago. A corollary to this and to wide recognition of many forms of "war marriages" he also claim-

Ed that Hamburg has no longer any "red light district," thus supporting the argument of the theoretical advocates of polygamy that a re-esta'blishment of some form of "respectable" concubinage would go far towards eliminating-pros-titution. Incidentally, that argument was given publicity in New York a month ago, when the Evening Telegram published an interview with Mrs. Susan Young Gates, a daughter of one of Prigham Young's score or so of wives, in which she predicted that the polygamous doctrines of her Mormon ancestors would be "openly countenanced by some countries and winked at by others" after the war; and added that "a tremendous moral effect of polygamy . . . would he the instant solution of the social ■ evil." But to return to Germany, where the matter seems to be of concrete , importance instead of a mere academic question, there is no lack ' of evidence that many German wo- I men are not disinclined to prac- :

v>c<V those cxtmorrtianry theories. Of deeper import is a story told of the case : »f two "wohleboren" ladies, the younger of whom is said to have-replied to an invitation from as American friend (jbp- ■

fore the entrance of tlio United States as a belligerent), who urged her to leave Germany and seek an asylum in America, that it was quite impossible now. In their ease, it was asserted, the character of the women is such thnt their motives could only 1)0 regarded as patriotic, founded 011 a sincere belief as to what constitutes'national duty.