Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 85.djvu/260

256 relating to age, residence in the commune and consent of parents, and the removal of these restrictions was actually followed by a large increase in the number of marriages (from an average of 281,000 per year prior to 1896 to 323,000 since 1907), but there is much complaint that the formalities still required and the legal fees exacted are excessive and constitute a real hindrance to marriage. But, as I have remarked, the number of marriages is already comparatively large in France and there has been a wholesome increase from year to year. In all probability, therefore, such a remedy would not produce any appreciable results.

The modification of the naturalization laws with a view to facilitating the acquisition of French nationality and thereby encouraging immigration has also been advocated as a means of increasing the population. The existing requirements are too rigid, says M. Leroy-Beaulieu; France, he thinks, could well afford to naturalize 50,000 foreigners a year since the density of her population is far less than that of Germany, Italy and Belgium, and by thus encouraging immigration the country would find a new source from which its declining population could be recruited. Reform of the inheritance laws so as to allow the father a right of free testamentary disposition, as is the rule in other countries of Europe, has been widely urged in recent years. The existing provisions of the civil code, as I have said, compel the division of the inheritance when there is more than one child, and the general reluctance among small proprietors of having their estates split up into parcels conduces to the voluntary limitation of their offspring. All those who have investigated the question are of the opinion that the proposed change would result in a marked increase of the birth rate. M. Bertillon goes further and proposes a more heroic remedy, namely, the treating of single children in respect to an inheritance as if they had brothers and sisters; he would, for example, impose a tax of 30 per cent, on the inheritance when there are two children and 60 per cent, when there is but one. In other words, where there is but a single child he would have the state confiscate that portion of the inheritance which would go to the other children if there were any.

A more reasonable proposal of this kind has been made by Colonel Toutee, namely, that the law should regulate the inheritance according to the size of the families of the heirs. Thus if two heirs are left, one of whom has three children and the other none, the estate should be divided into five parts, of which four should go to the first heir and one to the second.

The suggestion has often been made that the state should offer bounties for the production of children and numerous bills have been introduced into the parliament for this purpose. One of the more recent was a proposal by M. Messimy, a former minister of war, providing for the payment of a bounty of $100 for every child above the