Birth Control | Page 5

and it was expected that, after a lapse of time, the reduction of the

death-rate would result in a rise of the birth-rate, and a corresponding
increase of the population. But such was not the case. When the
death-rate fell, the birthrate fell too, and the number of the population
remained the same as before, even after nearly a decade had passed,
and notwithstanding the fact that the whole district had become much
healthier, and one town, Port Said, was converted from an unhealthy,
fever-stricken place into a seaside health resort." [6]
Moreover, Dr. Halford Ross has told me that artificial birth control was
not practised in this region, and played no part in maintaining a
stationary population. The majority of the people were strict
Mohammedans, amongst whom the practice of birth control is
forbidden by the Koran.
(b) _In "Closed Countries" like Japan_
But a much more striking example of the population in a closed country
remaining stationary without the practice of birth control, thus refuting
the contention of our birth controllers, is to be found in their own
periodical, The Malthusian. [7] It would appear that in Japan from 1723
to 1846 the population remained almost stationary, only increasing
from 26,065,422 to 26,907,625. In 1867 the Shogunate was abolished,
the Emperor was restored, and Japan began to be a civilised power.
Now from 1872 the population increased by 10,649,990 in
twenty-seven years, and "during the period between 1897 and 1907 the
population received an increment of 11.6 per cent., whereas the
food-producing area increased by only 4.4 per cent.... According to
Professor Morimoro, the cost of living is now so high in Japan that 98
per cent, of the people do not get enough to eat." From these facts
certain obvious deductions may be made. So long as Japan was a
closed country her population remained stationary. When she became a
civilised industrial power the mass of her people became poorer, the
birth-rate rose, and the population increased, this last result being the
real problem to-day in the Far East. In face of these facts it is sheer
comedy to learn that our Malthusians are sending a woman to preach
birth control amongst the Japanese! Do they really believe that for over
a hundred years Japan, unlike most semi-barbaric countries, practised

birth control, and that when she became civilised she refused, unlike
most civilised countries, to continue this practice? There is surely a
limit to human credulity.
The truth appears to be that in closed countries the population remains
more or less stationary, that Nature herself checks the birth-rate without
the aid of artificial birth control, and that birthrates and death-rates are
independently related to the means of subsistence.
Section 6. A NATURAL LAW CHECKING FERTILITY
During the past century the population of Europe increased by about
160,000,000, but it is utterly unreasonable to assume that this rate of
increase will be maintained during the present century. It would be as
sensible to argue that because a child is four feet high at the age of ten
he will be eight feet high at the age of twenty. Moreover, there is
evidence that, apart altogether from vice, the fertility of a nation is
reduced at every step in civilisation. The cause of this reduction in
fertility is unknown. It is probably a reaction to many complex
influences, and possibly associated with the vast growth of great cities.
This decline in the fertility of a community is a natural protection
against the possibility of overpopulation; but, on the other hand, there
is a point beyond which any further decline in fertility will bring a
community within sight of depopulation and of extinction.
Section 7. OVERPOPULATION IN THE FUTURE
It is a fallacy to say that overpopulation is the cause of poverty and
disease, and that for the simple reason that overpopulation has not yet
occurred. For the growth of a nation we assume that the birth-rate
should exceed the death-rate by from 10 to 20 per thousand, and it is
obvious that in a closed country the evil of overpopulation might
appear in a comparatively short time. The natural remedies in the past
have been emigration and colonisation. According to the birth
controllers these remedies are only temporary, because sooner or later
all colonies and eventually the earth itself will be overpopulated. At the
British Association Meeting in 1890 the population of the earth was
said to be 1,500 millions, and it was calculated that only 6,000 millions

could live on the earth. This means that if the birth-rate throughout the
world exceeded the death-rate by only 8 per thousand, the earth would
be overpopulated within 200 years. It is probable that in these
calculations the capacity of the earth to sustain human life has been
underestimated; that the earth could support