THE ROOTS OF THE EVIL
If a disease is to be combated the first thing to be done is to
diagnose it. It is only when the destructive powers of an enemy are
realised that the full power of a nation is mobilised; and the moral
forces of a nation will only be mobilised for its own salvation when it
realises the full sweep of the forces of degeneration which are united
for its ethical destruction. Hitherto the attitude of society towards
the evils which threaten its very existence has been one of assumed
ignorance. Ostrich-like it buried its head in conventions and was
determined not to see. The result has been that the evils grew in an
atmosphere of artificial darkness and ignorance, until to-day the
fountains of the national life are at one and {25} the same time going
through a process of desiccation and of pollution. The elements in
society which have in them a promise of strength are limiting their own
existence; the elements which have in them the least promise of
vitality are passing on the stream of life diseased alike by
inheritance and by infection. It is a disagreeable and distasteful
duty to contemplate the foul diseases which prey on the body-politic,
but we must face the duty. We must remove the blinkers which have too
long hid from us the sweep of those forces which will inevitably work
destruction unless the nation be roused to its peril.
I
It is a startling fact that in the very days when the flower of the
manhood of the race is perishing by the hundred thousand on land and
sea, a campaign is being conducted in London with the express purpose
of preventing the wastage of life being replaced by the advent of life.
It is almost incredible that such a {26} thing could be, but those who
carry on the propaganda are not even conscious that they are doing
wrong. In this very unconsciousness of evil we see the depths to which
the nation is falling. In his evidence submitted to the National
Birthrate Commission, the secretary of the Malthusian League, with a
frankness which showed that he was thoroughly convinced of the
righteousness of the policy he propounded, gave detailed information
regarding the propaganda now being carried on by his society:
In the early days of the movement strenuous and, at first, successful
attempts were made to interest the poorer classes directly. But the
opposition which quickly arose rendered the continuance of this policy
impracticable, and it was only at the commencement of 1913 that it was
deemed possible to start an open-air campaign in one of the poorest
districts of South London. The response was so gratifying and the
demand for practical advice so persistent, that the League {27}
determined at an early date thereafter to issue gratuitously a leaflet
describing the most hygienic methods of limiting families, subject to a
declaration by applicants that they were over twenty-one years of age,
married or about to be married, that they were convinced of the
justification of family limitation, and that they held themselves
responsible for keeping the leaflet out of the hands of unmarried
people under twenty-one years of age.... The applications received
show unmistakably that the poor and the debilitated are most anxious to
adopt family limitation, and are deeply grateful for the necessary
information....'[1]
The Commission naturally asked for a copy of this leaflet.
'I have some of these practical leaflets here,' answered the witness,
'but I have one thing to say about them. That sort of thing has to be
done with precautions. It has only been recently issued, and only
those can take it who will sign a {28} declaration that they are either
married or about to be married, and that they consider the artificial
limitation of families justifiable. If any of the members here come
within that category--that is prejudging the case--they can have it,
otherwise I am afraid I cannot give it.'
This is the only touch of comedy in the greatest tragedy of our day.
The Commission of grave and reverend seigneurs were not to be trusted
with a leaflet which was circulating gratuitously in East London. It
is manifest that no declaration signed to the contrary will prevent
these leaflets passing from hand to hand, or the information they
convey from man to man and woman to woman. There is no limit to the
evil wrought by even one such leaflet. Down the streets, by word of
mouth, the secret goes. And wherever it goes, death begins to reign.
And the nation disregards the undermining of its existence. It is not
enough that bomb and shell and gas should be laying its manhood low in
swathes; it suffers a campaign {29} in its streets and alleys that
wages war on the life that is struggling to be born. If the hands that
sway the destiny of the race were not paralysed such a propaganda would
not be suffered for a day.
The secretary of the Malthusian League made it clear in his evidence
that he had a grievance against the educated and leisured classes in
this country. It was not the intention of the League that its teaching
should result in the impoverishment of what is good in humanity. The
teaching of eugenics aims at the improvement of the soul of the race by
developing the force of heredity and by improving environment. The
effect of the Neo-Malthusian propaganda has been hitherto to discourage
worthy parentage, and to limit the birth of children among the class
who would transmit a worthy heredity and could supply a good
environment. Thus the result has been the very reverse of that aimed
at by eugenics. But the Malthusian League is not repentant.
'Notwithstanding the fact that, in spite {30} of its efforts, the
limitation of families has up to the present been on dysgenic lines,
the Malthusian League cannot profess regret that the limitation has
occurred'--thus its secretary. It did not intend that result, but it
does not regret it. It desired to direct its teaching to the poor and
enable them to restrict their children, but the well-to-do classes
prevented them. 'All we could do was continually to direct all our
movement to convincing the educated classes of the necessity of so
extending it; but they allowed it to stop at themselves and did not let
it go any further....[2] I think it would have been far better had
they realised that the restriction should have been conveyed to the
quarters where it was most needed.' The position seems to be this: The
upper classes who already had established a monopoly of the good things
of this world, when the teaching of race-limitation came their way,
added this also to their monopoly. Having assimilated it, they kept it
to {31} themselves. This was the last fine fruit of their selfishness!
But, now, the opposition has weakened in a world of greater
enlightenment, and the Malthusian League is determined to resist that
selfishness which would keep the good things of this world as the
preserve of certain classes. Therefore it starts its new campaign in
South London. 'We know that the want of restriction among the poorest
grade is enormously due to ignorance,' says its secretary. 'It is
clear, therefore, that if such knowledge is available to them it will
conduce to more restriction in those quarters than at present.' Having
achieved what it did not intend--having silenced the voices of children
in Park Lane and Belgravia--the Malthusian League is now determined to
achieve what it intended--silence the voices of children in Lambeth and
Poplar!
II
When the arguments on which the Malthusian League base their propaganda
{32} are considered, they are at once revealed to be the fruit of false
reasoning and of ignorance. Neo-Malthusianism is based on the
principle that poverty, disease, and premature death can only be
eliminated by restricting the increase of the population. As disease
and premature death are largely due to poverty, the problem is how to
eliminate poverty. It is, however, manifest to any one who considers
the sources of the world's food supply that these sources could provide
food for a population many times greater than that at present
inhabiting this planet. The vast territories of the British Empire are
at present only occupied along their fringes. The most fertile
regions--the vast spaces of Africa watered by noble rivers--cry out for
the spade and the plough. Canada is doubling its wheat supply every
few years. Counties at home, lying derelict, are waiting for intensive
cultivation. The remedy for poverty is a right distribution of the
world's food, and a right direction of the energies of men towards the
production {33} of food. When life is directed to its primary object,
the production of food, then the greater the wealth of life the greater
will be the food supply. The true wealth of a nation is therefore its
life.
But the Neo-Malthusians are incapable of regarding life with anything
but a jaundiced eye. If anywhere life should be desired it should
surely be in Australia, where a population only equal to that of
Scotland inhabit a continent. But even there the Neo-Malthusians will
have nothing but restriction. The birthrate in Australia has descended
to 10 per thousand, but the Neo-Malthusians regard that with
satisfaction. 'What I am absolutely certain of is that no country can,
from year to year, increase the amount which it produces by enough to
hold all the people that can be born, and Australia apparently has just
got to the point; its birthrate has just descended to 10 per thousand,
but there has been a correlation between the birthrate and
deathrate.... I do admit that, at the present moment, it {34} has just
got to the point of balance.' The hollowness of an argument such as
that is apparent when it is remembered that the wheat crop of Canada in
1915 was more than 50 per cent. higher than that of 1911. Canada in
five years increased its food supply by half; it is impossible in five
years for the birthrate to increase the population by half. Canada has
done even more, for since 1901 it has increased its wheat supply by 125
per cent., and its population is only two per square mile. Yet in the
vast empty territories of Australia and Canada the Neo-Malthusian would
spread his propaganda!
What is manifest is that if teaching such as that of the
Neo-Malthusians be the ideal adopted by the people of this Empire and
the Dominions beyond the sea, then the Empire is doomed. Australia has
laid it down as an unalterable policy that the continent shall be a
white-man country. How can that policy hold in Australia with a
birthrate of 10 and in New Zealand with a birthrate of 9 {35} per
thousand? The abounding birthrate of Japan and China demands an
outlet. If the men of British race succumb to race-weariness and
adhere to the policy of racial suicide, they must give place to those
that are not yet weary of life. It will be impossible for any race in
the future to hold territories which they cannot occupy, and lands
which they cannot replenish or cultivate. And, yet, in the region of
empty spaces, the Neo-Malthusian regards racial limitation with
satisfaction. 'When the birthrate stood at that level [19 to 20 per
thousand] in Ontario, was that a desirable level for Ontario ... being
a young country with plenty of room for expansion?' was one of the
questions addressed to the secretary of the Malthusian League. 'I am
quite decided Ontario should at present have only that birthrate,' was
the answer. Surely human folly has seldom transcended this.
But the Neo-Malthusian has another argument to support his delusions.
It is {36} that the lowering of the birthrate leads to the lowering of
the deathrate, and thus that there is no decrease in the population.
It was on this ground that the secretary of the Malthusian League
justified the restriction of births even in Ontario. 'When Ontario did
increase its birthrate, its deathrate increased; it gained no increase
of population thereby, so I am absolutely definite in that case.' But
the Superintendent of Statistics, Dr. Stevenson, promptly pricked that
bubble. The alleged increase of the deathrate in Ontario was due to a
miscalculation. The increase in 1911 of the population was
underestimated. The population in Ontario increased in 1911 to
2,523,000; the birthrate went up from 21.10 to 24.7, and the deathrate
came down 14.0 to 12.6. So far from the increased birthrate in Ontario
producing an increased deathrate, it brought with it a diminished
deathrate. At the touch of reality the edifice of the Neo-Malthusian
crumbles into sand. He is not deficient in patriotism; for he says so.
{37} 'We probably should get more colonising and more efficient
colonisers if we had a smaller birthrate,' declared the secretary of
the Malthusian League. Empty cradles are going to populate the Empire!
There is surely no limit to the faculty of human self-deception.
III
Though the arguments of the Neo-Malthusians be fallacious, and the
basis of their teaching illusionary, yet they have gained the
allegiance of a vast portion of the population of the Empire. A
birthrate lowered by half in some cities, and by a third over the whole
of the nation, testifies to the withering blight which has passed over
the race. In a little while Britain will be as France--its population
stationary. We have yet a little way to go ere we have reduced the
birthrate to the level of Australia, 10 per thousand; but we are on the
way to it. When that day draws near there will be no more emigrants
available for the territories that we hold; {38} and the door of
Australia must open to the yellow races. A race that chooses death can
no longer shape or mould the issues of life.
The statistics which abound in the Report are as the ringing of a
passing bell. But far more alarming than the mere statement that the
race is now sacrificing a third of its children is the fact that this
limitation has not yet come to its full development. The stage which
is now attained is that a vast majority of the educated classes
sacrifice the race to their self-indulgence. The figures given in a
booklet entitled _The Small Family System_ show that 'in the Fabian
Society in about 90 per cent. of the more recent marriages they have
voluntarily restricted.' The super-intelligent of the Socialists have
set their faces towards the drying up of life's sources. The evidence
amply proves that everywhere 'the size of the family tends to vary
inversely as the social status of the parents.' The figures provided
by the Registrar-General for {39} England and Wales showing the births
classified according to the occupation of the father, are as follows:
Births per 1000
married males aged
under 55 years,
Social Class including retired.
1. Upper and middle class . . . . . 119
2. Intermediate . . . . . . . . . . 132
3. Skilled workmen . . . . . . . . 153
4. Intermediate class . . . . . . . 158
5. Unskilled workmen . . . . . . . 213
The race is now being carried on mainly by the poorest classes of the
population. But, when the Neo-Malthusians have carried out to the full
that campaign on which they have now entered; when the faith in life
which the poor have not yet lost, shall at last be undermined; when it
will be true of Poplar as of Belgravia, and of the Canongate as of the
West End, that having a family is no longer a British ideal--what then
is to become of the race and the Empire? What we must realise is that
this process of racial destruction will steadily go on working down the
social {40} scale until the race is doomed--unless the conscience of
the race be roused and the forces of degeneration routed. Nobody has
studied the whole problem with more thoroughness than Dr. J. W.
Ballantyne of Edinburgh. 'If this voluntary restriction has begun in
one group of society,' says Dr. Ballantyne, 'it has not expended itself
yet upon the other groups ... it is working its way, one might almost
say, as a leaven, it has not yet reached the larger groups of people,
and therefore I expect the fall in the birthrate to go on.' In the
present miasma which has fallen on the race, when women have become
'less scrupulous,' and doctors advise with greater and greater
frequency the restriction of birth, Dr. Ballantyne can only summon us
to 'bring up the reserves and strengthen the recruits.' Life has
ceased to be desired; its continuance is no longer 'convenient.' It is
inevitable that, unless a change comes in the spirit of our day, the
process of decay will go steadily on.
{41}
IV
It is a repulsive picture this which grows before our eyes; but there
are blacker shades still--so black that one can only indicate them and
pass on. So far we have only considered the restricted birthrate as
the result of the teaching of Neo-Malthusianism; but there is a further
restriction which even the Neo-Malthusian condemns--the destruction of
the unborn life.
The best way to indicate this, the blackest of all the signs of moral
decay, is to quote here and there from the Report.
_Witness_--The LORD BISHOP OF SOUTHWARK.
_Question_--It is your general experience, my lord, that there is among
the working-classes, so far as you can judge, a larger amount of
abortion than the use of anti-conceptions?
_Answer_.--That is what I should say.
_Dr. Scharlieb_.--They say that there are five abortions to every one
live birth.
{42}
The Lord Bishop of Southwark did not hesitate to declare that the
destruction of unborn life in South London 'betrays instincts which are
worse than the savage.'
_Witness_--Sir THOMAS OLIVER, M.D., LL.D., B.Sc., of
Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
_Witness_.--The waste of infant life was enormous owing to the
expectant mother miscarrying.... For twopence a woman might purchase
sufficient ... to cause her to miscarry, while she at the same time
might imperil her own life....
_Witness_--Dr. AMAND ROUTH, M.D.
_Witness_.--My main contention was in regard to the enormous antenatal
mortality.... The number of abortions is about four times as great as
the still-birth.... Assuming that the still-births are 3 per cent.,
and the abortions 12 per cent., the two together are 15 per cent.
Of the mass of evidence regarding this terrible aspect of the national
life, these quotations must suffice. The public conscience has, in
this last generation, become so deadened on the part of masses of the
{43} people that life is no longer sacred. 'It is always a great
comfort to me,' says Dr. Amand Routh, 'that it is criminal as well as
wrong--that one can show that the law considers it to be murder.' To
escape from inconvenience, to secure freedom from responsibility, to
attain untrammelled devotion to pleasure--the weapon of murder is
freely used. One of the witnesses, Mrs. Burgwin, told the Commission
an experience. 'When I went to Moscow,' says Mrs. Burgwin, 'I went to
see the great Foundling Hospital ... and I felt very ashamed when I
came away, because I said to a Russian doctor there, "You know this is
very serious; you have got a couple of thousand illegitimate children,
and by bringing them into a place like this you are only encouraging
illegitimacy!" And he said to me, "Well, Mrs. Burgwin, is not that
better than what you do in England? There, even your married people
murder the children."'
{44}
V
There is another cause of the falling birthrate which I will only
indicate. However necessary it may be to look facts in the face, there
are facts so ugly that they do not bear even contemplation. One great
cause of the fall in the birthrate is the social disease. One or two
quotations must suffice.
'I hold,' says Dr. Ballantyne, 'that in a given family, if syphilis
enters it, it is the most deadly thing for the future of that family.'
'Have you any idea about the proportion of antenatal deaths which are
due to syphilis?' 'Of course, one's idea is,' answered Dr. Amand
Routh, 'that it is an enormous proportion--perhaps one-fourth....'
'Dr. Willey was of opinion that probably 32.8 per cent. of the total
still-births were due to syphilis.'
'I would hold the view that it is a considerable proportion,' says Dr.
Ballantyne, {45} 'founding upon Fournier's evidence in France, where he
speaks broadly of families being swept out of existence before birth by
syphilis.'
'We have been recently told that there are 500,000 fresh cases of
syphilis yearly in this country and three times that number of cases of
gonorrhea.'
It is the opinion of Sir William Osler that of all the killing diseases
syphilis comes third or fourth.[3] 'While we have been unable,' says
the Commission on the subject, 'to arrive at any positive figures, the
evidence we have received leads us to the conclusion that the number of
persons who have been infected with syphilis, acquired or congenital,
cannot fall below 10 per cent. of the whole population in the large
cities, and the percentage affected with gonorrhea must greatly exceed
this proportion.' Regarding all that, one can only re-echo the words
of Sir Thomas Barlow: 'I think it is terrible.'[4]
{46}
It is only when the after-effects of these diseases are considered that
the full measure of the peril which they create is realised. They not
only lead to an enormous loss of child life, but they also undermine
the health of those on whom they have fastened their fangs,
transmitting the misery even to the third generation. The evidence
shows that more than half the cases of blindness among children are the
result of these diseases in the parents. Out of 1100 children in the
London County Council Blind Schools at least 55.6 per cent. were
clearly attributable to this cause. In adult life this evil is
responsible for diseases which often manifest themselves after many
years, such as general paralysis, affections of the brain and spinal
cord, and epilepsy. It is because the people have been left in
ignorance as to the terrible consequences not only to themselves but to
their children, that the welfare and happiness of life are thus
sacrificed to sin.
'It is one of the few diseases which {47} are hereditary,' writes Sir
Malcolm Morris, 'and in the hereditary form its effects are even more
disastrous than in the acquired variety.... Many of its innocent
victims die in the first few months of life from meningitis,
hydrocephalus, convulsions, and other affections; if they survive they
are liable to recrudescences of the disease up to the twentieth year or
even later. Growth is checked, vitality depressed, intelligence
stunted; hideous deformities may be produced, sight and hearing may be
destroyed, and the central nervous system may be involved, with results
similar to those which supervene in adults. What a story of mutilation
and massacre of the innocents!'[5]
When these results are considered, there comes a feeling of amazement
that a nation should suffer such plagues to afflict its vitality
without putting forth every effort to stamp them out. The nation which
has become thus afflicted by its own vices must have sunk to a depth
which {48} may well fill the observer with consternation. And the
remedies which are proposed will only deliver the people from the
consequences of their acts--they will not cure the disease itself. The
only salvation lies in the ideal of the pure heart once more shining
forth before the eyes of man. The law of God decrees that sin be
punished; and deliverance for humanity from punishment can only come by
conformity to the law of God. But this is not how we now regard it.
We have set ourselves to combat the social disease not because vice is
hateful but that in the future vice may become safe. When we shall
have attained our end the shadows shall have gathered in deeper
blackness. The few remaining stars shall be blotted out.
VI
Such, in bold outline, are the forces which threaten the continuance
and the well-being of the race. On the altar of degeneration England
and Wales offered {49} up in the year 1914 over 600,000 children.[6]
Who can compute the laughter and joyousness, the happiness and the
riches thus consumed at the shrine of our self-indulgence? And every
sign points to this vast sacrifice of life increasing with the years.
For we are emancipated; and we smile at any restraint emanating
from--God! Science has delivered us from that. We know it now--the
voice of law is only the echo of outworn superstitions. And science,
which has broken the chain of restraint, and which has provided the
means for gratifying desire without incurring responsibility, has
blessed us also with the high-explosive shell. This great
deliverer--science--has put into our hands the power of pruning life at
both ends. If the world is to find salvation through the absence of
life--then, salvation is at the gate. In other days it gave {50} our
fathers a shudder to read of the moral depravity of Home ere the
scourge of God fell on it. The old Romans can, alas! cause us to
shudder no longer. We have improved upon them. Science has helped us
greatly, and with its aid we can sound depths of depravity the Roman
never reached. The triumphs of science have in our hands become
instruments of an immorality which would have made even heathen Rome
shudder. And as yet we are only at the top of the declivity. The
momentum of our descent is gathering force with the years.
It may be asserted that this view is alarmist, and that, however bad
our state, we are better than Germany. No thought of an enemy from
without need, therefore, mar our satisfaction in our swift declension
into the morass of vice. That comparison may be granted: we are better
than Germany, though Germany has not yet sacrificed her children in
such hecatombs as we have done. But what we have to consider is not
the birthrate in {51} relation to that of Germany but in relation to
the extent of the earth surface which owns our sway. The end of the
war will find Germany confined within narrow borders with all her
colonies gone. The Germany of to-morrow will have no room for racial
expansion. But we own the fourth of the world's surface. That vast
territory calls to us for men. And if we individually choose our own
selfish ease, and sacrifice the generations to come, we shall have
failed in our imperial calling. We may win an empire on the
battlefield; we will inevitably lose it in the silent nursery.
Not in relation to this or that earthly factor has this question to be
considered. It is in relation to the Moral Order of the universe that
we must face it. The unseen Power that reigns is a Moral Power.
Somewhere in this universe, Righteousness is throned. Whatever race in
the past surrendered to evil and made degeneracy its god--upon that
race the judgment of the consuming sword fell. Though the {52}
judgment often tarried, it always fell. As one considers the moral
condition to which we have come, the worse condition to which we are
hastening, the destruction which befell those of old in whose footsteps
we are now treading, the dust accumulated on buried cities and vanished
races who made their pleasure their god, and the flaming of the sword
wherewith God removed in all ages the cankerous growth from the body of
humanity,--the question leaps forth: How can we escape the righteous
judgment of God? Will there be found a place of repentance for us who
have sacrificed the child of flesh and blood to the calf of gold[7] and
have surrendered ourselves to the sensuous delights of worshipping at
our chosen idol's shrine? Unless the nation finds the place of
repentance, it needs no prophet to foretell the end. For we have been
living for more than a generation a life 'such as God has never
suffered man to lead on earth long, which He has always {53} crushed
out by calamity or revolution.' And the startling fact is this--that
when the judgment of God befell, it was on men unconscious that they
were being judged. They came to the Great White Throne and never
discerned it; they reached the end and never knew it to be the end.
Thus they perished--Babylon and Rome alike. And we are as they. The
judgment-seat is visible in the heavens, but our eyes never turn to it;
amid the crash of the world's civilisation we hear no voice calling to
repentance.
[1] _The Declining Birthrate_, p. 90.
[2] P. 125.
[3] _Report of Royal Commission on V. D._, p. 23.
[4] _Ibid._, p. 55.
[5] _The Nineteenth Century and After_, April 1916.
[6] _The Declining Birthrate_, p. 248:--
Deaths in antenatal period . . . . . . . . . 138,249
Fewer births owing to reduced birthrate . . 467,837
-------
Total loss for 1914 . . . . . . . . . . . . 606,086
[7] See pp. 85-88.
{54}