We saw, in the last chapter, that in social communities the struggle of one individual with another for wealth and power is not a fair and open contest, but that all are more or less handicapped by surrounding conditions, lack of capital, education, or influence. We saw that recently more equal chances for success are being given to all, and with the result that the more capable and pushing are gradually tending to form a new upper class, and thereby draining from the labouring classes all those who possess the qualities we have alluded to.

Are the More Capable Relatively Sterile?

So far we have viewed this as a struggle for wealth and position, and have purposely kept out of view its influence upon those who will come after us: this we have now to consider. Provided the successful and capable competitors contribute on an average an equal number of children per head, as do the unsuccessful and less capable, it is evident that talent will neither increase nor suffer decrease; it will merely undergo a sifting process, and tend to find its place more and more in the ranks of the aristocracy. If, however, it should be found that the successful ones are less prolific, from one cause or another, then talent will tend to diminish, and the aristocracies will tend to dwindle by the side of the more prolific democracy, and will possibly eventually disappear. In assuming this result, we, of course, conclude that there will be comparatively few marriages between members of widely different classes, and we have reason for conjecturing that this will be the case from the fact that distinctions of class have ever been a bar to free intermarriage, even when these class distinctions have been of the most artificial kind.

If so, we are Breeding from our Incapables.

Now there is good reason to believe that the career necessary to individual success in the life-struggle of modern societies is one which carries with it and necessitates relative sterility; and if this is so, we have to face the certainty that talent is being bred out of us, as it were, and that the average capacity of the race must therefore assuredly deteriorate. And whereas, in the animal world, those qualities which determine the success of an individual in the battle of life become stamped upon its progeny, our modern system entails just the reverse. In the animal world, fitness results in life and reproduction, and unfitness in death and sterility; while amongst men, the capable and successful are rewarded by honour and wealth, but are relatively sterile, and the man that society is inclined to overlook contributes a large percentage to the race of the future.

It would indeed be difficult to conceive any plan more inimical to the future of a race, or better devised to sap and undermine the power of a nation, than that of taking from it in perpetuity those possessed of innate capacity, a result which follows when the best citizens are induced, for the sake of gifts and honours, to relinquish their obligation to the race of being the parents of many children. Such a plan must continually withdraw from the nation those qualities which are most admired, and which, it must be presumed, it is most desirable to preserve.[27] A nation subjected for long to such a treatment can only become, like the mould of a garden from which the produce has been taken for many years, but to which nothing has been added in return, a soil prolific enough in weeds and brambles, but incapable of growing any of the choicer plants.

If, then, we find that our more democratic views of to-day are tending to bring about such a result, we must admit the danger into which we are passing, and see whether there is not a way of escape. We cannot but feel a strong sympathy with every plan which tends to place a round man in a round hole, and to develop to the utmost whatever of capacity, whatever of goodness, there may be present at any one time in the social community. Our sympathy for the downtrodden, and our efforts to assist those who are willing to do life’s better work, are but expressions of the fact that we live and have lived together socially, because we have it in us to love, and to value the love of others. It would indeed be a sad tale if that love had never acted in perhaps unwise excess, if it had not prompted us to action, which we may afterwards realise is not in itself and by itself the most judicious.

As already maintained, we naturally consider our fellows first, and we study the picture of life around us; our power of foretelling the future and the results of our present actions comes later on. So it is that our politicians, in cases where sincerity is undoubted, have aimed at the betterment of the individual, and the adjustment in the community of individual capacity to suitable occupation. Few have ever asked themselves the question, What will be the result of my present action on the next generation born? For this there is every excuse, for until recently these questions were unanswerable in the face of our great ignorance of the chief facts of evolution.

Capable and Ambitious Men Marry Late in Life.

When we turn to the experiences of life common to most of us, we shall find, I think, pretty strong evidence that surrounding conditions determine that, as a rule, the capable and ambitious man has fewer children than his fellows. Let us examine some of these facts of common experience. The agricultural labourer, of the intellectual value of whose education I have by no means a low opinion, nevertheless obtains this education without cost. Bred on the farm, he insensibly imbibes from what he sees around him the multifarious bits of information a farm hand requires. The manual labour which he is called upon to perform implies a very varied, although often underrated, skill, but this skill, and, indeed, his whole education, may easily be acquired, and that without cost, by the age of twenty. He is then capable of earning a maximum wage, for he has reached the period of life at which he is a full-farm-labourer, and at forty he does nothing more and receives no higher wage. Now this maximum wage which he is capable of earning at so early an age is sufficient to support a wife and family. In consequence of this condition of things the countryman generally marries in his early twenties, and selects in preference to an older woman one of about his own age. The pair are married during nearly the whole of their child-bearing period, and have as many children as they, in the ordinary course of nature, can produce. Much the same sort of statement applies to the lower artisan, factory hand, etc. In these cases perfect accomplishment of the set routine of their especial work can be obtained at a very early age, and for the rest of life no further advance is made. The manual dexterity required in most of these occupations is indeed best acquired during youth, and at twenty or thereabouts the full standard of efficiency is reached, and full wages demanded in return. Need we wonder at the fertility of these marriages, or at the swarms of children seen in every street where the town labourers and lower artisans reside. Now, rightly or wrongly, the man who dresses fashionably, who drives a pen or serves behind a counter, is held of much more account than one who pursues the more manly occupations of tilling the ground or of laying drains. How this sentiment has arisen we need not discuss; there it is, and it has the effect of drawing from the agricultural and lower artisan classes the more ambitious and capable, and turning them into clerks and shop attendants. The slightly-increased wage is not more than is required in the new position, and is expended on dress and those appearances and pleasures which associate themselves with town life. The future has, no doubt, possibilities, for the clerk may rise, and the shop attendant may become himself a master, and with these possibilities in view most are inclined to wait in hope, many fondly believing in their power and certainty of eventual success. Marriage, however, is a very serious thing, for though the country hand is comfortable enough with his fifteen shillings a week, free cottage, etc., and a wife used to roughing it, the clerk has to mate with a woman who has to be dressed like a lady, and who has placed a foot on that ladder which strikes all who find themselves upon it with the folly of wishing to appear to be on one rung above that on which they really rest. His means are, therefore, quite inadequate for marriage, unless with discomfort and privation, and it tends, therefore, to be postponed. This especially will be the case with those whose capacity is opening out a brighter future, and who would naturally hesitate before they imperil this by a course which, to say the least, might complicate the issue.

A step further we come to occupations which require a long preliminary training, and we find that the time of marriage is postponed maybe to the later years of life. An artist requires years of careful training before his work can reach a standard which is of marketable value, and even then his progress is generally delayed while a connection is being established, and a reputation built up. The manufacturer requires general education of a fairly advanced kind, to be followed by a more or less protracted acquaintance with the special business to which he may be devoted, an acquaintance which tends to be wider and of greater value as time goes on; he frequently has to wait for openings only obtainable on the decease of those with whom he is associated. The lawyer and doctor are only able to marry comparatively late in life owing again to the prolonged and special training required of them. The medical student must continue his studies for at least five years after he has left his school, and then almost invariably continues for a few years to act as assistant or partner, content to learn the practical aspects of his profession, with but a small monetary return. Amongst these the most ambitious aim at special knowledge of some small branch, and here again a longer training is required and years of patience, until their work has received sufficient recognition to bring the rich harvest to which they ultimately aspire.

Many Unmarried Persons among Upper Classes.

For such reasons ambitious rising men fear marriage, and the possibility of large families. In many cases marriage is never contracted, and the middle and upper classes are full of men and women living single lives, without contributing their share to the production of the race. The lower classes, less hampered by a sense of prudence, contract marriages most freely, increasing thereby the relative fertility of their class. While the success of a woman in the upper classes who has several daughters to dispose of is proverbially precarious, we read that in the East End of London every girl in the lowest classes can get married, and with hardly one exception does marry.[28] Those in the upper classes who marry at all do so, as already remarked, at a later period. In verification of this fact we have not only the statements previously adduced from the circumstances of every-day experience, but we also have statistical information at hand in the Forty-Ninth Report on Births, Deaths, and Marriages, where we can find the average age of marriage given for a variety of trades and occupations as follows:—

We shall see from a study of this table that marriage is contracted at a more advanced age by those who occupy what in the world’s estimation are high positions, and this implies diminished fertility on the part of the women. We should expect from common observation that the younger women would be more prolific, and this is borne out by exact statistical observation. Matthews Duncan[29] concludes that women who marry from twenty to twenty-four are the most prolific, and that the only period which at all rivals this is the five years from fifteen to nineteen inclusive, and that women married later in life than twenty-four are distinctly less prolific.

Lower Class Marriages are the Most Prolific.

Not only do the wives of the working classes produce individually more children than those of the professional classes, but, owing to these earlier marriages, generations succeed each other with greater rapidity. In order to realise how soon a slight advantage like this tells upon the composition of the race, we will suppose for the nonce that the labourer’s wifeA marries at twenty-three, and the lawyer’s wifeB marries at twenty-six, and that they have the same number of children, in each case four. In the case of A the population will double, say roughly, every twenty-seven years, and in the case of B every thirty years, allowing in each case four years for the birth of the family. As we shall see by the following table, the population produced by the labourer’s wifeA will in 270years be 2,048, while the population produced by the lawyer’s wifeB will be half as much, namely, 1,024 in the same period.[30]

As regards the men, it is also probable that those who marry at thirty will on the whole be fathers of smaller families than those who marry at twenty-five, even did they mate with women of the same age. Of this, however, I cannot adduce reliable statistical evidence.

Their Infant Mortality is Greater.

The lower classes appear, therefore, to be more fertile; they more frequently marry, and they marry at earlier and more fertile ages.

On the other hand it must at once be admitted that they manage to rear a smaller percentage of their off-spring. The mortality amongst the infants and children is often alarmingly great through ignorance and neglect on the parent’s part.

While, therefore, the lower classes are undoubtedly the most fertile, it is not certain how far this is counterbalanced by the lower mortality which exists among the children and youth of the upper classes.

Artificial Restriction of the Family.

That the counterbalance is not complete is generally believed, and we must view with dismay any agencies which tend still more to make the middle and upper classes sterile relatively to the lower. There can be little doubt that this has recently, and to an increasing extent, been brought about by the wilful avoidance, on the part of the parents of the middle and upper classes, of the full duties of parenthood. It can no doubt be urged that whereas, in many instances, the care of one or two children can be undertaken in such a manner as to insure their careful upbringing and education, the rearing of a large family would be quite beyond the power of the parents, and would lead to their neglect, or deprivation of some of those advantages which we have already seen to be so necessary for life’s struggle.

However true this may be, and however we may sympathise with a parent’s desire to do his best by his offspring, it is likewise true that this is an important means, and probably one of greatly increasing importance, by which the upper and middle classes are becoming, relatively speaking, sterile. It is probable, too, that this sterility will be mostly found in the case of those who rise in life and have a longer and more difficult battle to fight, and who have, therefore, most cause to avoid unnecessary complication.

Fertility of French and English Marriages Contrasted.

We can see very clearly in the pages of contemporary history the disastrous effects which may follow diminished fertility. Owing to custom, and subsequently to legislation, property in France is divided equally among the children of a family; and in consequence of this, were there many children to a marriage, this property would be split up into smaller and smaller portions, insufficient at last to furnish the necessities of life. Among the rural population, a farmer by thrift can live and marry on his small farm, but half the farm would be a piece of property upon which no one could live an independent existence.

It is necessary, therefore, that this property should be passed on intact, and this can be done when on an average a farmer brings to maturity two children. Of these, on an average, one will be a boy and the other a girl, so that by adjustment farmerA can marry his daughter to farmerB, and marry the daughter of farmerC to his own son. In this case the son of farmerA gains by his wife’s dowry what his family lost by his sister’s marriage. As a result of this artificial limitation of the family, the population of France remains stationary, there is no pressure of numbers, and by thrift and care the people are prosperous and happy. While, however, this may suit the convenience of individual French men and women, it is fatal for the future of the French race, who are becoming insignificant in numbers and influence as compared with those nations whose citizens have more fully accepted the duties of parenthood. It is interesting in this relationship to contrast the births, deaths and marriages, together with the estimated population of France, with those of the United Kingdom, which may be done by reference to the following table taken from Tables40 and 54 of the Fifty-Fourth Annual Report of the Registrar General’s Returns.

[Version of the table for narrower screens]

We see that from 1867 till 1891 the population of the United Kingdom has increased twenty-five per cent., but that of France has remained stationary. While the marriage-rate—the number of persons married per 1000 of the population—is about the same in both countries, the births are over fifty per cent. in excess of the deaths in the United Kingdom; while in France they are but very slightly in excess. It cannot be doubted that, in very large measure, it is due to this relative sterility that France has failed as a colonising power. The French have ever been full of enterprise, and have long desired to establish colonies, but they have in the main been ousted by the British. Colonisation to them has been an ambition, an idea, but not a necessity; to us the alternative has been overcrowding and misery on the one hand, and extensive emigration on the other. Can we wonder that British necessity has overmatched French vanity? One cannot read the accounts of the struggle between the British and French in North America, antecedent to the War of Independence, without feeling that from the first the issue was certain. The French, who took the palm in enterprise and exploration, were nevertheless rapidly outnumbered by the British settlers, who crowded out of their own congested country into the new land, and increased there with enormous rapidity, the population doubling during the period of fifteen years in many districts.

It is in their relative fertility by the side of the French that the English-speaking race, at first a smaller people, have now far outnumbered their Gaelic neighbours, and have peopled the choicest portions of the inhabitable world, and formed dominions by the side of which France is already becoming a small and unimportant province.

Possible Swamping of the Capables by the Incapables.

We have here, then, a demonstration of the effects of diminishing the fertility of a group of persons, and, returning once more to a consideration of the relative infertility of the upper classes in our own country, we cannot doubt that, if the present tendencies continue, we shall here also find that the ranks of those who possess the qualities suited to worldly success will increasingly be outnumbered by those more deficient in these qualities. If we tend to the production of aristocracy of innate worth, there is a danger that these aristocracies will die out, or, at any rate, that the number of capables of whom they are comprised will constitute an ever-diminishing number of the whole community.

Artificial Restrictions at Present Most Disastrous.

It may be truly urged that, at some time or another, the present increase of population must come to an end, for as new countries become filled up, the limits of subsistence must at last be reached. The discovery of America, Australia, and the opening up of vast tracts of country in Africa and Asia, has for some hundreds of years permitted certain European nations to increase their birth-rate above their death-rate, and we are so accustomed to such a condition of things that we do not realise that it is exceptional, and that countries, once they have reached a stable condition, only permit of the maintenance of a given number of population. Increased care and knowledge in agriculture may, as time goes on, gradually allow of a slight increase in the number of the inhabitants, but this will be slight indeed, as compared with the present ratio of increase.

We may therefore rest assured that, at some time or another, we shall have to reduce the birth-rate to that of the death-rate,[31] but we are certainly not called upon to do so at present. It is the experience of many men of practical knowledge that at the present time any healthy Englishman, who is fairly capable, industrious and sober, will be able to earn a living for himself, wife, and family. He may have to face a possibility of temporary misfortune, and even catastrophe, in the event of sickness, but his chances are as good, and the comforts that he can obtain for his wage are greater than those of wage-earners in other countries. We are not, therefore, called upon at present to diminish a population which, by its increase, has been enabled to possess itself of a large portion of the inhabitable world, and upon whose future increase will depend in great measure our faculty for keeping it; but we are called upon to see that this increase is derived from the best, and not from the worst, members of the community. It will be most disastrous not only to our Empire, whose strength depends in great measure upon the numbers of our citizens, but also to the quality of the race, if the more prudent and capable are bred out of and eliminated from the community. These, in the nature of things, will be the first to limit their fertility, no doubt to their individual advantage, but to the detriment of the race at large. The work on population by Malthus reads like a modern book. His contributions to social, and his stimulus to biological science can never be underestimated, but his advocacy of those measures which insure relative sterility, such as late marriages, etc., will lead to the final extermination of those who follow his advice. The world will fall to the share of those who produce most offspring. Let us be sure that in our own nation it shall not be to the offspring of the deteriorated, but that the generations that succeed us shall possess those qualities of mind and body which we admire most among our fellowmen, and which will only be preserved to the race if those possessing them carry out fully their duties of motherhood and fatherhood.

FOOTNOTES

[27] It is here taken for granted that the successful are the best. This is, however, open to question, as was seen in the last chapter.

[28] “Labour and Life of the People,” p.472, by MissCollett.

[29] “Fecundity, Fertility, and Sterility,” second edition, chapterxiv.

[30] For the sake of simplicity the ages at which the men marry have been omitted; their inclusion would make the case even stronger.

[31] See a most instructive paper by Dr.Ogle in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, June, 1890.