File: B Birth Rate

Scope and Content

[Unclassified]

Australia

Austria

France

Germany

Great Britain

The file begins with a single cutting classified as B Birth Control - it refers to a woman imprisoned in the U.S.A. for distributing pamphlets on the subject of birth control and whowas being force fed because she was on hunger strike.

The rest of the file relates to the Birth Rate. The articles deal with the declining birth rate, especially in time of war, and there is some consideration of social and economic reasons forthe trend. Much is made of the need to turn the trend around and various methods to increase the birth rate are discussed. These range from moral and patriotic persuasion to financial incentives and polygamy.

The belief that, in time of war, nature compensates for the loss of men in battle by increasing the numbers of boys born, to the expense of the numbers of girls born, is shown to be based on dubious evidence. The file includes a `Special Review' of the British Birth-rate Commission Report in The Malthusian.

Language: includes 1 piece in French.

Arrangement

There is some overlap of subject matter with file IWSA/3/11.