177
June, 1933
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
The truth is that culture and wealth refuse to bring babies to the birth, and the children o f the future will come from the lowest stratum of society, and be delivered in tax-supported hospitals by state-paid doctors! T he W ide -S pread U nemployment S ituation Here again we deal with a situation that is not local, but world-wide. The only nation that boasts itself with out this problem is Russia, where 150,000,000 people are slaves to Soviet taskmasters, and slaves in all countries at all times are always busy. The problem is not the problem of work. There is plenty o f that to be done. The problem is the problem o f pay, and when none is received, as in Russia, a slave can be driven to any job day after day; but in those more civilized countries and under those more intelligent governments where men are supposed to be somewhat equitably rewarded for their labors, not thou sands, but millions are without employment. The marvel o f all of this is in the circumstance that we
in its name, they have put over many false philosophies; and by its magic, they have promised the world all con ceivable good. But, alas, we look today on a world that is sick unto death, and notwithstanding all the pretentions and boasts o f modern science, the earth grows more sick daily, till it seems to some of us time for men to call a halt and attempt to make a diagnosis. What is wrong with the world, and what is working the wrong? Astounding as it may sound, we answer, “ The world is dying of an overdose o f science.” There are hundreds o f points at which one can prove this contention. T he S cientific A tta inment of B irth C ontrol The time is on when scarcely a single convention, whether it be legal, medical, scientific, or religious, ignores this subject. Resolution has succeeded resolution, some of them applauding the practice, approving the philosophy that lies back o f it, others vigorously condemning both. Thoughtful men, there
are but thirteen years re moved from the close o f the World War which wiped out a generation o f men, and it was the young labor-produc ing crowd that went to its grave. When the war closed, we vainly imagined t h a t this shortage in man power would not be recovered in a hundred years; and now, only four teen years later—millions of men for whom there is not profitable employment! Philosophers and states men are asking, “ W hy?” To us the very question indicates superficial thinking. The an swer is easy and instant. Sci ence, so-called, has so shaken the whole social foundation as to leave labor prostrate.
fore, should consider the sub ject in its relation to race con tinuance. Recently the Literary Di gest called our attention to the fact that, for the first quarter o f the past year in England and W a l e s , the death rate was higher than the birth rate. France has long led in this matter o f birth control and, in the same quarter to which I call attention, the birth rate in Paris was lower than that in London. A Paris correspondent,
♦♦rip HOU , O king, sawest, and behold a great w II image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. “ This image’s head was o f fine gold, his breast and his arms o f silver, his belly and his thighs o f brass. “His legs o f iron, his feet part o f iron and part o f clay. “ Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out with out hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were o f iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. “ Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and be came like the chaff o f the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found fo r them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth’’ (Dan. 2:31-35).
writing on this subject and expressing grave concern for his country, said: Whereas, in 1930 the num ber of youths called to the colors was 258,000 the contin gent for 1935 will, it is estimated, be only 136,000. He further contends: In 1835, the average French family raised four children. In 1896, they raised only three, and today the average number is only 2.2. If the decrease in the birth rate con tinues at the present rate, it is estimated that in seventy- five years, the population will have decreased by nearly one-half. Germany gives us no better report. In 1931, the birth rate was the lowest on record. The United States can present little better report. Here the rate dropped from 24.3 per 1,000 in 1921 to 19.9 per 1,000 in 1930. The only city in the United States with a birth rate of over 20 per cent per 1,000 was Pittsburgh, and there the decline was more than 6 per cent in the year. Professor Albert E. Wiggam, the noted American biologist, recently said: Morons are multiplying faster than college professors, or business men, or skilled workmen. If you take 1,000 Harvard or Yale graduates, at the present birth rate there will be only fifty descendants of theirs left within six gen erations. But 1,000 unskilled workmen, at the present rate, would have 100,000 descendants within the same period. Civilization is making this world safe for stupidity . . . At the present rate American intelligence declines, moral character sinks with it. Society is dying at the top, and democracy cannot continue, nor can civilization of any kind, unless its leaders actually lead in intelligence and character.
Your old tallow candle has been succeeded by the elec tric light; your stentorian orator by the mechanical loud speaker ; your old-time horse and buggy by the automobile; your old-fashioned horses and plow by the Ford tractor; your old-time wooden bridge by the modern concrete and steel structure; your old-time hack by the modern bus; your old-time well-nigh bottomless mud roads by the cement highways; and your old-time hot air balloon by the flying machine. “ Behold what invention hath wrought!” Yes, but is not unemployment o f men a definite by product of that so-called development, and have we not forced the question, “ Is a machine better than a man ?” When I was a lad, fifty years ago, such a thing as a man without a job was unknown, except in the instance of mental or physical incapacity or downright indolence. The world was smaller than it is now, and its luxury demands almost infinitely less, but those demands always exceeded the possible supply. Today that whole feature o f life is re versed, and machinery accounts for the reversal. The sup ply exceeds the buying ability! ' When I was a lad it took six o f us to gather corn— one driver, two men on either side o f the wagon, and one for the down row. Now this is done by a corn gatherer in the form o f a Ford tractor, one man driving, the machine ac complishing the rest. Some time ago, in northeast Minneapolis, I saw an immense caterpillar engine so slowly pulling its way up a hill that I suspected it would stall. Turning my car into a side road that ran by where this engine was working,
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