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Show FAMILY DECREASE Bishop McFaul Gives Statistics Blue Blood Growing Cold Benjamin Franklin Frank-lin Had Sixteen Brothers and Sisters. We had hesitated to write on this delicate subject, sub-ject, but its prevalence at the present day necessitates neces-sitates the utterance of a few words of warning. Recently we read an article in the Catholic Union and Times, of Buffalo, entitled "Two Million Homes Without a Child." We will give the substance of a portion of it. At first sight these figures would seem to be an exaggeration. They are, however, verified by statistics of the state of Massachusetts, wherein, it is claimed, that eighteen out of a hundred hun-dred homes have no children, and that the commonwealth common-wealth has 100,000 childless homes. The children of the nation a century ago numbered num-bered about one-third of the entire population; at present they are hardly a fourth. Relatively to the present population of the United States, there is a decrease in births of nearly seven millions. The Xew York Tribune's Sunday Magazine asserts: as-serts: "A Unitarian minister in a fashionable suburb sub-urb in Massachusetts recently called attention from the pulpit to the fact that., on the average, a little more than one child was born annually for every hundred members of the congregation in good and regular standing. All over the country, and not alone in fashionable churches, ministers are complaining com-plaining that it is difficult to find enough children in their congregations to run a Sunday school. . . "For one hundred years and more the birth rate in the United States has been steadily, ominousiy sinking. Its steady decline, particularly among the native stock, shows that the blood of the Fathers of the Republic, if it has grown blue, has also grown cold in the veins of the newer generation. . . . Benjamin Franklin, who was number fifteen in a family of seventeen, said that the average family in h'n day was eiftht. At-the-ppeseui time it its, in sonic portions of the country, less than two. "America is no longer depending fo its population pop-ulation on the native product, but on yearly increasing increas-ing importations of the European surplus. Until 1840, the growth of population by native reproduction reproduc-tion was estimated at seven times greater than the growth by immigration. But at the present time the native population is slowly dying out." Of course, several causes may be assigned for this. condition. Xevertheelss, race suicide stands prominent among them. We are thus forcibly reminded re-minded of the massacre of the Holy Innocents by the impious Herod. Holy Scripture says: S'A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning; Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not." We can hear the shrieks of thousands of brokenhearted broken-hearted mothers and' the plaintive cries of innocent inno-cent babes coming down through the ages, but when we contemplate the slaughter of the innocents of our day by the parents themselves, we hear no tones of grief, but rather of satisfaction that they have prevented them from being an obstacle to their worldly pleasures. Herod deprived thousands of their physical life, but these heartless men and women prevent also their spiritual life. How many thousands of children chil-dren are sent into the other world without baptism, unable to see the face of their eternal Father! How many thousands more are denied life through the employment of skillful devices to prevent conception! concep-tion! When God had created our first parents, He blessed them, saying: "Increase and multiply and fill the earth, and subdue it." The self-same thing He said to the lower creatures. They are ever obedient to the laws of their nature. Instinct alone is their guide. What a spectacle, then, to see rational ra-tional men disobeying the laws of nature and nature's na-ture's God! Let not the end of marriage be set aside, and its sacred relations employed for the destruction de-struction of society and the nation. Let it be distinctly dis-tinctly understood that every act, of whatsoever kind, designed to prevent conception, is strictly forbidden for-bidden by the Church, and that those resorting to such practices are guilty of a heinous crime. Maternity is a woman's crowning glory. The husband and wifes union is never thoroughly welded until offspring enters the home, and makes it a paradise of joy and affection, all centered in the prattling, smiling, laughing innocence of childhood. child-hood. The excuse given for small families is that it is better to have one or two healthy, well-developed, properly educated children than several, on whom the parents are unable to bestow that care which is required for their well-being. In other words, it is better to have quality than quantity. But observation observa-tion shows that those who limit their offspring often have only one boy or girl, who becomes a spoiled, pampered pet; a worthless, spendthrift of a man, or a vain, frivolous woman. Do not attempt to regulate regu-late generation, whose laws are so imperfectly un-. un-. derstood. Obey the laws of nature, and God will provide for the quality and quantity of your offspring. off-spring. What picture more beautiful than the Madonna Ma-donna with the divine child in her anus! What scene so inspiring as the pure Christian woman, her jewels gathered around her while she points the way to Heaven! The eternal Father Himself and, the Court of Heaven look down with complacency on the Christian father, the Christian mother and the Christian child. |