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Show INCREASE IN POPULATION. Ever since the l-iencn were deteaf-j ed in the Franco-Prussian war 'yM France's birth rate has been a sub- ' 'q. Ject ol discussion. At out lime France; 'ftm had a population slightly larger than that of the German siates. But the' iv$j- French allowed their birth rate to I ilrop while the Qea-naans increased .tj'S- iheir number at a more rapid rate. j&S Frank H. Simonds, Ihe historian.! ,$M r-ees nothing alarming for France in) $Em i's lessened birth rate. He says It I does not mean depopulation an the ' dei death rate also ha6 been decreased. 'Up to the present moment, aside ffiB from war losses," says Simonds, ftaB there has been no such thiug as de- SnS population in France. Each census.. save the last, and that aa a conse-Uucnce conse-Uucnce of the war, has shown an in-hH; in-hH; ( ieae in French population Between HHBI 1 2 aQ(i !901 the increase was 640. SbB! aQd for the preceding ten years Sflj 1)19,000, and for the ten year6 preeed- H iug, 670,000 It will be seen then that gflB if the increase is small it is present yB and tends to run evenly. The second BHj error In discussing the question grows jHi out of the overemphasis of the de- clioe in the birthrate. The decline Is EBH steady factor, but It has so far been gH substantially balanced by the decline 9H in the death rate. Occasionally the deaths in a year exceed the births, but this has been the case for twenty years and more. jH) "A falling birth rate is a oharac- jBj i eristic of most civilized countries, but Hj ihe progressive reduction of the doatl. WM ''ate tondj to overcome it In France tBm lhr decline In the birth rate is a much older phenomenon than in t'.er nian or Great Britain, tor example.' Of course, if the birth rate continue bo dsollna, ihere Is a point beyond which it cannot be compensud-d for by the reduction of the death rate, but this has not been reached yet even in France, where, on the contrary, the death rate is unduly high still." Dealing with the economic side, Simonds says Great Britain, with a slightly larger population, counts an j annual birth surplus of more than 500,000. But today Great Britain has 2,000.000 unemployed, while France has les6 than 10,000. The French hare cut their population in relaiion to their own resources; they are sHf-i sustaining and therefore suffer little as a consequence of the paralysis of lorelgn markets Of course, on the I military side, the decline in the birth' rate is a disadvantage because it j reduces the number of recruits coming up each year, and thus the size of the , army and the strength of its recerves I Here Germany, with a still unrestrlct-I unrestrlct-I ed birth rate, has an advantage, but H ! remains a problem for the future , whether economic or military consld j erations ar1 the more important, and : Fiance has ui her 50,000,000 of Afri-j Afri-j can and Asiatic subjects a pretty wide: laid for the devalopinen.1 of cannon ! fodder. J Bomt writers contend 'hat wars ar- i estential, as the natural Increase lu population, it not interrupted by the destruction forces of war, would ovor j i populate the world 00 |