Show A CONDITION OF NATIONAL VIGOR r SCIENCE and 0 observation er CO combine abi U e to teach that the population of a nation must steadily increase in order that national vigor may be maintained the increase need not be rapid but it must not cease for decay of national power prestige and glory sets in when this happens relative to this subject grant allen alien has an article in the fortnightly review from which we take the following if every woman married and every woman had four children population would remain just stationary or rather if every marriageable adult man and woman in a given common ity were to marry and if every marriage proved fertile on the average to the extent of four children thenander the favorable circumstances that community I 1 take it would just keep up its numbers neither increasing nor decreasing from generation to generation if less than all the adult men and women married or if the marriages proved fertile on the average to a less degree than four children apiece then that community would grow smaller and smaller in order that the community may keep up to its normal level therefore either all adults must marry and produce to this extent or else fewer marrying those few must have families exceeding on the average four children in exact proportion to the rate of abstention and if the community is to increase which on darwinian principles I 1 believe to be a condition precedent of national health and vigor then either all adults must marry and produce more than four children or else fewer marrying those few must produce as many more as will compensate for the abstention of the remainder and form a small surplus in each generation in britain at the present day an average of about six children per marriage not per head of female inhabitants is necessary in order to keep the population just stationary tio nary and the actual number of hiedl children per marriage is is a little in excess of even that high figure thus providing for the regular increase from census to census and for overflow by emigration these facts look so startling at first sight that they will probably need for tho reader a little explanation and simplification suppose now every man and every woman in a given community were to marry and suppose they were in each case to produce two children a boy and a girl and suppose those children were in every case to attain maturity why then the next genera tion would exactly reproduce the 1 last aach father being represented by his jon ion and each mother by by her daughter dd ad in infinitum fini tum 1 I purposely omit for simplic itys sake the complicating factor of the length and succession 01 of generations which by good luck in the case of the human species practically cano Is 19 itself but as a matter of fae fact all the children do not at attain tain mat maturity ty on the contrary nearly half of them die before reaching the age afe of manhood in some some conditions of of life indeed and in some count countries ripa more than half roughly u h s speaking king therefore it may be sat said t that at in order that two children may attain maturity and be capable of marriage even un der the most favorable circumstances four must be born the other two must be provided to cover risks of infant or adolescent mortality and to insure against infertility or incapacity for marriage in later life they are wanted to make up the category of soldiers sailors imbeciles imbe ciles cripples and inca generally so that even if every possible person married and if every married pair had four children we should only just kee keep up the number of our population from one age to another lowi need hardly say that not every possible person foes does marry and that we do actually a good d deal more than keep up the number r of our population Therefore rhe it will at once be clear that each actual marriage is fertile to considerably more than the extent of four children I 1 think it will be abundantly apparent from these simple considerations that in every community and to all time the vast majority of the women must become wives and mothers and must bear at least four children apiece if some women shirk their natural duties then a heavier task must be laid upon the remainder but in any ease case almost all must become wives and mothers and almost all must mua bear at least four or five children moreover it is pretty clear that the best ordered community will be one where as I 1 large r e a proportion of the women as possible ble marry and where the arden of maternity is thus most evenly shared between them 0 to the end of all time it is mathematically demonstrable that most women must become the mothers of at least four children or else the race must cease to exist any supposed solution of the woman problem therefore which falls fails to look this fact straight in n the face is a false solution it substitutes a verbal juggle for a real way out of the difficulty it wiLh withdraws draws the attention of thinking women from the etue true problem of their sex to fix it on side issues of comparative unimportance 11 |