1880–2. 1890–2. 1900–2.
Legitimate Fertility 331·4 312·0 299·0
Illegitimate Fertility 17·4 16·5 13·1
Footnote 2:
Lowest figure for the Continent.
The Neo-Malthusian propaganda in Holland is founded on feministic and
economic grounds. Birth Control is the pivot around which both of these
important movements must swing. Mr. S. Van Houten, late Minister of the
Interior of the Netherlands, says: “Wage-slavery exists as a consequence
of the carelessness with which the former generation produced
wage-slaves; and this slavery will continue so long as the adult
children of these wage-slaves have nothing better to do than to
reproduce wage-slaves.”
There has been marked improvement in the labor conditions in Holland
during these last ten years especially, wages having increased and hours
of labor decreased, with the cost of living taking a comparatively very
small rise.
There is perhaps no country in Europe where the educational advantages
are so great as in Holland. Many English women and widows with children,
living on small incomes, move to Holland on account of the splendid
education to be obtained in the public schools.
That the Birth Control propaganda has been a success in Holland any one
travelling through that delightful, clean, and cheerful country can
testify. There is no doubt that at first there were objections and
abuses, but, in the words of Dr. Rutgers, “Certainly there are abuses,
but the abuses of knowledge are never so enormous as the abuses of
ignorance. And hygiene is the highest form of morality.”
Following are the methods, reprinted from the practical pamphlet given
out by the Neo-Malthusian League of Holland:—
_Confidential._