| Show Amer Americas America's cas ca's Latest Public Enemies' Enemies The Washington Center for Metropolitan tan Studies reports that the United States had undergone a baby bust that presents the possibility of zero population growth and threatens to force lorce a major reshaping of the economy It the greatest decline in the nations nation's under under- five child chUd population during the years for lor which statistics have been kept The number of children in elementary school this fall faU declined for the second consecutive year is a note of bad news for lor aspiring teachers The government projects projects pro pro- fewer jobs for lor elementary teachers and said the slump will last for another five years Children under age five decreased from more than 20 million in 1960 to about 17 million in 1970 A recent Gallup poll showed that the percentage of ol Americans favoring families of four or more children child ren has dropped from 40 percent in 1967 to only 23 percent today Propaganda emanating from zero population population pop pop- enthusiasts has created among many Americans a type of near hysteria in which babies have become public enemies menacing our constitutional right to the pursuit of happiness Otto Friedrichs Friedrich's TIME ESSAY of September 13 Population 13 Explosion Is Man Really Real Real- Really ly Doomed takes Doomed takes these prophets ts of doom to task He argues that the essence of the population population population pop pop- is not that mankind has propagated ed too many children but that it has failed to organize a world in which they can grow in peace and prosperity Both Doth rich and poor nations have grossly misused the worlds world's resources both material ma and intellectual neglected them wasted them and fought each other over how to share them Friedrich believes that the basic question is not how many people can share the earth but whether they can devise the means of sharing it at all Americas America's efforts would be better spent on providing for its people rather than on reducing them The negative thinking of zero population enthusiasts threatens America with extinction The rest of world confidently believes that it can provide for lor its children preferring to regard them as the wave of the future rather than as public enemies |
