Show I When Therell There'll Be No Children I ITHACA X N. Y Nov No 25 Durin Duning During the tho period from 1800 1860 to 1900 1000 the proportion proportion proportion pro pro- I portion of children to 1000 women of child bearing beaning age decreased in in the thc United United United Unit Unit- ed States b by or on nn an a average O of about thirty in each deca decade e. e If we a assume that the change e will continue unchecked erl for a century century and ana a half in tho direction I in which it has been in progress pro for thelast the thc last forty years ears there will be no chil chil- dreu dren I This startling statement came out in inthe tho the lecture on birth and ancI birth rat rate delivered delivered de de- de I livered by Prof Walter WaIte F. F Willcox in iu inthe inthe the course of sanitary science in Goldwin Goldwin Gold Gold- win Smith hall hail Let yesterday me be understood ns as pre predicting the continuance of this movement con contin tin I Professor Willcox but often tho the best hegt method of bringing home to yourselves yourselves your your- our selves the vast sweep and of the changes revealed bv br statistics is ig isto is isto to project them into the future and see Foce whether they lead It is one oue of the main main duties of statistics to point out the whirlpools in the stream along which is going oin before the grip rip of the current becomes irresistible and ond thus to arouse a desire to change e the course The true reason f far r the fall in tho the birth rate is ia that in mo modern ern times mainly within the last half balf century births and the tho birth rate have conic come under the control of human will And aud nd choice in a sense to a de degree reo never be before be fore true Our lending leading American authority tV Dr John Billings g put it ns as follows The most important factor in the I past in the chan change o is tho deliberate andol and ol voluntary avoidance or or prevention pre on ou the part of a steadily increasing number num nurn- ber of married people who prefer to have hae but few children Before Defore this change chano began beJan the birth of a child in the thc vast ast majority of cases was not not- an indi cation of a deliberate preference for that result result result-on on the part of both or either cither of the parents There Thoro i is not a sin single lc one among the experts who denies enies that this is is the great underlying ns cause of tho the mo modern ern decline in tho the birth rate of all civilized ci com corn J Professor Willcox also gave e a statistics to show that thit marriage e is less common among graduates of both sexes flexes than it is in the average of the entire population The Tho ft figures ures regarding tho birth rate amon arnon r college o graduates show that the hi highly hl educated part pat of tho American people not only docs does not in in- crease the population at nt all but on the contrary fails to reproduce itself |