Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 91, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1920 — WANT MORE BIRTHS [ARTICLE]

WANT MORE BIRTHS

France Is Stirred to Urge Larger Families. Government Names Board to Warn Nation of Danger of . 'Dying Out. Paris.—France is at last arousing itself to the danger of dying out. The privately conducted, uphill fight for a higher birthrate has been taken over by the government through the creation of a higher council of natality. This council of 30, appointed by j T, Breton, minister of hygiene, was asked to act immediately. * Mr. Bretofi, father of five children, Is known as a strong friend of large families. Three others of the new cabinet are advocates of measures to increSse the French birthrate. . War cost France, roughly 1.500,000 •Ives. A low birth rate, during the war

years, cost France 2,272,735 loss of population. The statistics, made Into striking pictures to illustrate their effect on the nation, industry and war danger are being used in a vigorous campaign, 'by the national alliance, for the increase of the French population. This campaign is being conducted by letters to members of parliament, posters, r magazine, the Woman and the Child, and through the many socially and politically powerful persons interested in the movement The plainest sorts of truth are told the French about the decreasing birth yate. The national alliance and government officials hold that a family should have three or more children. To encourage such famflies, government allowances of 60 to 200 francs a year are granted for each child after the second, under thirteen years. » The alliance asks also for Igglstetlnn to provide for the construction of cheap attractive homes available only

to lafge families, . establishment of “supersaiarles” in industries to neads of such families, preference in government employment, the plural vote, giving the father as many votes as there are persons in the family, ami i eal war, on “birth control,” known here as Neo-Malthusianlsm.