V
Recruiting statistics have shown us the Damocles-sword of Decadence suspended by a hair above our heads; have shown us our great people so riddled with disease, defect and abnormality, that nearly half our manhood was declared unfitted for man's elementary duty of fighting for his country (55·9 per cent. only being classed in Grade I.). All that our centuries of evolutionary progress have achieved for us, all that the Race has achieved for itself by faculty and enterprise, integrity and industry, threatens now to be sacrificed to a Feminist fanaticism, which, denying to woman any more vital or tender human faculties or offices than those of man, has increasingly repudiated all else for her than rights to pit her wits and muscles against his.
England has long been, and has once again proved herself supreme among the nations. Because England, more than any other land, had freed her women from the more laborious industrial employments; leaving them, in consequence, more vital power to put into the making of a splendid Race, fine of body, stable of character; the men of it charged with virile energy and enterprise, the women house-proud, home-abiding; faithful wives and admirable mothers.
Recruiting statistics have valuably emphasised the truth that in those localities where women are most employed in labour, there disease and degeneracy are most rampant. Significantly it was shown that colliery-districts and the Universities (the latter with about 80 per cent. of Grade I. men), were conspicuous in providing the greatest number of men qualified for military service. Why? Because neither the mothers of men enrolled in Universities, nor, for the most part, those of colliery-districts, are employed industrially.
While, on the other hand, the health and physique of cotton-mill operatives proved so "alarmingly low" that of 184 weavers and spinners only 57 could even be passed for Army-training. Of 290 examined, only 57 men of one cotton-spinning town were graded I.; only 64 were graded II., while 169 were graded III. and IV.
Again, Why? Because, unlike colliery-districts where the standard of health was notably good, in cotton-towns where physique and health were "alarmingly low" the vast majority of wives and mothers are employed in factories. It is important, moreover, to note that in such gradings of men for military service, even those classed first were by no means necessarily normal or vigorous. On the contrary, many passed were later shown defective, by breakdown under stress of military discipline.
Further, that so many as 20 per cent. of the young manhood of our highest culture were disqualified for Grade I. is a serious circumstance.
Mr. Lloyd George has said regarding this most vital question: "The next great lesson of the war is that if Britain has to be thoroughly equipped to meet any emergencies, the State must take a more constant and a more intelligent interest in the health and fitness of the people. If the Empire is to be equal to its task, the men and women who make up the Empire must be equal to it. The number of B2 and C3 men is prodigious. I asked the Minister of National Service how many more men could we have put into the fighting ranks if the health of the country had been properly looked after. I staggered at the reply: 'At least a million.' A virile race has been wasted by neglect and want of forethought, and it is a danger to the State and to the Empire. I solemnly warn my fellow countrymen that you cannot maintain an A1 Empire with a C3 population."
This estimate of abnormality, by reason of a million of the nation's young manhood disqualified by definite disease, defect or degeneracy, is far below the mark. Because owing to the urgent need for fighting men, the standard of fitness was compulsorily low. And the estimate takes no account of the huge number of such low-grade "Fit," who succumbed in death or incapacitation to the strain of military training, or to the vicissitudes of active service.
The British Medical Journal has published figures showing that of 2,080,709 men examined by Medical Boards—the men constituting "a fair sample of the male population between the ages of 18 and 43, and a smaller proportion of the more fit between 43 and 51"—only 1 in 3 could be classed in Grade I. That is, out of every 150 members of our British manhood in its best years of life, only 50 were up to the mark in health and normality.