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Show Financial, 1 man says stork will come to ; sirrjurb ' often be- ! cause of . j! money in due e ment, Ing to Income, occupation, province m and county, urban and rural, and ' M religion (If possible); statistics I - showing the proportion of sterile j to total marriages (to find out whether smaller families or total j childlessness is the cause of the i fall), and foreign statistics showlps j the extent of declining birth rates, special attention -being paid to j France and the Jews.. . ' "Secondly, the alleged causes of ! the decline are to be investigated j under the headings of physiologic ', causes (for example, tho effect of i town life, etc., ,on lateness of marriage, mar-riage, fertility and. number of marriages), mar-riages), prudontlal motives and .1 methods of restraint (moral. xn$- I chanical.and chemical). HIGHER EDUCATION BLAMED IN SCOTLAND. "Thirdly, the effects of the decline I of the birth rate, whether due to j natural or to artificial causes, are to bo searched out, under the head- 1 1 ings of effects on the children, on a tho man and woman, on married persons and on home life, ' "Fourthly, the economic and nat- i ural aspects are to be dealt with; ' and the commission is to consider, for Instance, the alleged results of . :i ,f a rapid increaso of population In a f? :f country In which the land Is fully" n.'y cultivated, of a permanent surplus ftjB of workers on the condition of tho $ working class (In the matter of up-employment, up-employment, overorowdlng, etc.). In HS tiio case of a declining or stationary j jH population, and tho alleged national j9 danger of a disproportionate in- 'JHX crease in other nations. Bflj "A discussion on the subject has fjfm taken place at Edinburgh under the J )fj auspices of the Scottish Council of ! iffll Public Morals. Mr. James March- BJM ant, the secretary of tho National BH Council of Public Morals, road a paper. Among the. explanations Ri suggested by him for the fall In the K'j birth rate were tho high standard' of living, the love of pleasure and t' tho higher education of. women. X It; serious question was whether or not ' jfe behind tho lower birth rate there .Kj was a lower degree of fertility. If ym It could be proved that only the .Jj weak and defective were ceasing to fvl Increase there would be little cause ;1 for complaint, but apparently, the. i fall ran through all classes. "Dr. J. W. Ballantyne opened the t discussion. A tremendous changa wh had occurred, he said, in tho vital t m statistics in the country, which was I I represented by the fall of the birth flj M rate from 35 to 25 per thousand. M There was no doubt that the human race had begun to experiment on XW its reproduction, very much, as It If; I had in the past experimented on il its digestion, and no ono could fore- Wtim tell the ultimate result, but one ifn- jH mediate and welcome result had ll been tho appreciation In the value H of infant life which had followed IH the decrease in the number born. By ifcl this he thought it was possible to fH maintain an equilibrium so far as tho number of lives in the nation ll was concerned." Il |