It stands to the credit of Holland that it is perhaps the only country
where the advocates of Birth Control have not been prosecuted or jailed.
This does not mean there has been no opposition to this propaganda; on
the contrary, there is to-day strong opposition by the Church, and only
a few years ago, in 1911, when a Clerical Government came into power,
laws were made against the propagation of these ideas, and much of the
freedom previously enjoyed by the League was denied it; but on the
expulsion of the Clerical Government later on, the rights of free speech
and free press were regained.
In the year 1895 the League was given a royal decree of public utility,
which again does not necessarily mean this propaganda is sanctioned by
the Government; but the laws regarding the liberty of the individual and
the freedom of the press uphold it, and it is thus that its advocates
are not molested.
The League has thirty sub-divisions, which include all the large cities
and towns and many of the smaller ones. Over 7,000 pamphlets of the kind
printed herein are sent out in the Dutch language and several hundred in
English and Esperanto each year. These are only sent when asked for by
the applicant.
There is no doubt that the Neo-Malthusian League of Holland stands as
the foremost in the world in organisation, and also as a practical
example of the results to be obtained from Birth Control teaching. Aside
from the spreading influence of these ideas in Belgium, Italy, and
Germany, Holland presents to the world a statistical record which proves
unmistakeably what the advocates of Birth Control have claimed for it.
The infantile mortality of Amsterdam and The Hague is the lowest of any
cities in the world, while the general death rate and infantile
mortality of Holland has fallen to be the lowest of any country in
Europe. These statistics also refute the wild sayings of those who shout
against Birth Control and claim it means race suicide. On the contrary,
Holland proves that the practice of anti-conceptional methods leads to
race improvement, for the increase of population has accelerated as the
death rate has fallen. There has also been a rapid improvement in the
general physique and health of the Dutch people, while that of the high
birth rate countries, Russia and Germany, is said to be rapidly
deteriorating.
The following figures will suffice to show some of the improvements
which have been going on in Holland since 1881, the time the League
became actively engaged in the work:—