Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/675

Rh corroboration of the biologic law ; but this is not a reliable criterion, as there has been a corresponding diminution in the marriage-rate, and this is to be ascribed to the psycho-economic check, to which I shall presently revert. The only legitimate data that can be used for the purpose under consideration would be found in the marriage-birth rate, i. e., in the number of births per marriage, or the prolificness of marriages at various periods. But even this is a very imperfect guide, owing to the circumstance that unprolificness is very often voluntary — that parents who are naturally fertile restrict the number of their offspring by one means or another. To this must be added that the prolificness of marriages of course depends upon the age of marriage, which seems to be constantly rising. Notwithstanding all these opposing conditions, the prolificness of marriages does not seem to have sensibly decreased during the first three-quarters of the century, and such changes as have occurred of late years can be easily explained by other than biologic and physiologic causes. The case of France, where prolificness has almost uninterruptedly declined from over four births per marriage, at the beginning of the century, to about three and under, is indeed very remarkable, as in no other country do we notice so rapid and so regular a decrease in the marriage-birth rate. Add to this that the marriage-rate has remained practically constant during the greater part of the century (about 7.9 yearly marriages to every 1,000 inhabitants), and that France is, with the exception of Russia, the country furnishing the largest proportion of women marrying under the age of twenty. This reduced rate of multiplication, joined to the circumstance that the death-rate has not fallen in proportion, has kept the French population practically stationary for a great many years past, and has been the constant preoccupation of French demographists, economists, and moralists. The majority of them, however, and those who have studied the question most thoroughly, seem to be convinced of the voluntary nature of what is by some considered a terrible national calamity. The people, having acquired a deep sense