A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT IN HOLLAND
Interest in the subject did not confine itself to England, for in 1878 at an International Medical Congress in Amsterdam the subject was discussed with great enthusiasm. A paper prepared and read by Mr. S. Van Houten (later Prime Minister) caused a wider interest in the matter and a year later the Neo-Malthusian (or Birth Control) League of Holland was organized. Charles R. Drysdale, then President of the English League, attended the conference.
As is usual in such causes, many of the better educated and intelligent classes adopted the practice at once, as did the better educated workers; but the movement had as yet no interest among the poorest and most ignorant. The League set to work at once to double its efforts in these quarters. Dr. Aletta Jacobs, the first woman physician in Holland, became a member of the League, and established a clinic where she gave information on the means of prevention of conception free to all poor women who applied for it.
All classes, especially the poor, welcomed the knowledge with open arms, and requests came thick and fast for the League’s assistance to obtain the necessary appliances free of charge. The consequence has been that for the past twelve years the League has labored chiefly among the people of the poorest districts. Dr. J. Rutgers and Madame Hoitsema Rutgers, two ardent advocates of these principles, have devoted their lives to this work. Dr. Rutgers says that where this knowledge is taught there is a reciprocal action to be observed: “In families where children are carefully procreated, they are reared carefully; and where they are reared carefully, they are carefully procreated.”
The Neo-Malthusian (or Birth Control) League of Holland has over 7,000 men and women in its membership, and more than fifty nurses whom it indorses.
These nurses are trained and instructed by Dr. Rutgers in the proper means and hygienic principles of the methods of Birth Control. They are established in practice in the various towns and cities throughout Holland. They advise women as to the best method to employ to prevent conception. They work mainly in the agricultural and industrial districts, or are located near them; and their teachings include not only the method of prevention of conception, but instruction in general and sexual hygiene, cleanliness, the uselessness of drugs, and the non-necessity of abortions. (The Council of the Neo-Malthusian or Birth Control League calls attention to the fact that it has for its sole object the Prevention of Conception, and not the causing of abortion.)
The clinic organized by Dr. Jacobs,—the first clinic in the world for the organized dissemination of information on Birth Control,—proved so efficient and beneficial to the standards of the community that others were opened and established until there are now more than fifty in operation.
There is no doubt that the establishment of these clinics is one of the most important parts of the work of a Birth Control League. The written word and written directions are very good, but the fact remains that even the best educated women have very limited knowledge of the construction of their generative organs or their physiology. What, then, can be expected of the less educated women, who have had less advantages and opportunities? It is consequently most desirable that there be practical teaching of the methods to be recommended, and women taught the physiology of their sex organs by those equipped with the knowledge and capable of teaching it.
It stands to the credit of Holland that it is perhaps the only country where the advocates of Birth Control have not been prosecuted or jailed; because the laws regarding the liberty of the individual and the freedom of the press uphold it, and protect its practise.
THE DUTCH NEO-MALTHUSIAN (BIRTH CONTROL) LEAGUE REPORT FOR 1914
Despite the outbreak of war, the progress of the League has been most satisfactory. The membership increased from 5,057 at the beginning of 1914 to 5,521 at the end; and branches now exist in twenty-eight towns in Holland. The list of officers and correspondents alone now occupies four pages of the Report, and comprises nearly two hundred names. As these are of persons in every part in the country, it will be realised how great are the facilities for everyone to obtain practical information. Besides the great amount of advice given by the trained workers, 7,200 copies of the League’s booklet giving practical advice on methods of family limitation (birth control) were supplied. It is instructive to see, in the reports from the various branches open statements that Mrs. X (full name given) helped 149 women and supplied seven gross of preventives, the kinds being clearly specified. The branch reports give particulars of nearly 1,300 women personally instructed in preventive methods by trained workers, but the war prevented the returns from being anything like complete. And this in a country of only six million inhabitants.—The Malthusian, London, July 15, 1915.
RESULTS OF BIRTH CONTROL TEACHING IN HOLLAND
There is no doubt that the Neo-Malthusian (Birth Control) League of Holland stands as the foremost in the world in organization, and also as a practical example of the results to be obtained from the teaching of the prevention of conception. Aside from the spreading influence of these ideas in Belgium, Italy, and Germany, Holland presents to the world a statistical record which proves unmistakably what the advocates of Birth Control have claimed for it.
The infantile mortality of Amsterdam and The Hague is the lowest of any cities in the world, while the general death rate and infantile mortality of Holland has fallen to be the lowest of any country in Europe. These statistics also refute the wild sayings of those who shout against Birth Control and claim it means race suicide. On the contrary, Holland proves that the practice of anti-conceptional methods leads to race improvement, for the increase of population has accelerated as the death rate has fallen. There has also been a rapid improvement in the general physique and health of the Dutch people, while that of the high birth rate countries, Russia and Germany, is said to be rapidly deteriorating.
The following figures will suffice to show some of the improvements which have been going on in Holland since 1881, the time the League became actively engaged in the work:—
VITAL STATISTICS OF CHIEF DUTCH TOWNS
Taken from Annual Summary of Marriages, Births, and Deaths in England and Wales, etc., for 1912.[[1]]
| Amsterdam (Malthusian (Birth Control) League started 1881; Dr. Aletta Jacobs gave advice to poor women, 1885.) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1881–85 | 1906–10 | 1912 | ||
| Birth Rate | 37.1 | 24.7 | 23.3 | per 1,000 of population |
| Death Rate | 25.1 | 13.1 | 11.2 | per 1,000 of population |
| Infantile Mortality: (Deaths in first year) | 203 | 90 | 64 | per thousand living births |
| The Hague (now headquarters of the Neo-Malthusian (Birth Control) League) | ||||
| 1881–85 | 1906–10 | 1912 | ||
| Birth Rate | 38.7 | 27.5 | 23.6 | per 1,000 of population |
| Death Rate | 23.3 | 13.2 | 10.9 | per 1,000 of population |
| Infantile Mortality: (Deaths in first year) | 214 | 99 | 66 | per thousand living births |
| Rotterdam.[[2]] | ||||
| 1881–85 | 1906–10 | 1912 | ||
| Birth Rate | 37.4 | 32.0 | 29.0 | per 1,000 of population |
| Death Rate | 24.2 | 13.4 | 11.3 | per 1,000 of population |
| Infantile Mortality (Deaths in first year) | 209 | 105 | 79 | per thousand living births |
| Fertility and Illegitimacy Rates. | ||||
| 1880–2 | 1890–2 | 1900–2 | ||
| Legitimate Fertility | 306.4 | 296.5 | 252.7 | Legitimate birth per 1,000 Married Women aged 15 to 45. |
| Illegitimate Fertility | 16.1 | 16.3 | 11.3 | Illegitimate births per 1,000 Unmarried Women, aged 15 to 45. |
| The Hague. | ||||
| 1880–2 | 1890–2 | 1900–2 | ||
| Legitimate Fertility | 346.5 | 303.9 | 255.0 | |
| Illegitimate Fertility | 13.4 | 13.6 | 7.7 | |
| Rotterdam. | ||||
| 1880–2 | 1890–2 | 1900–2 | ||
| Legitimate Fertility | 331.4 | 312.0 | 299.0 | |
| Illegitimate Fertility | 17.4 | 16.5 | 13.1 | |
[1]. These figures are the lowest in the whole list of death rates and infantile mortalities in the summary of births and deaths in cities in this Report.
[2]. Lowest figure for the Continent.
There has been a marked improvement in the labor conditions in Holland during these last ten years especially, wages having increased and hours of labor decreased, with the cost of living taking a comparatively very small rise.
There is no country in Europe where the educational advantages are so great as in Holland.
That the Birth Control propaganda has been a success in Holland any one travelling through that delightful, clean and cheerful country can testify.
In that enlightened country, Holland, the teaching by the medical profession of the most hygienic methods of birth limitation has enabled the poor to have small families which they could raise to be physically and morally better equipped than formerly, and what is most interesting to observe is that, whether as a result of this or for some other reason, the families among the well-to-do are not nearly as small as in other countries.—Dr. S. Adolphus Knopf, in The Survey for November, 1916.