[279] Rodbertus: “An Elucidation of the Social Question.”
[280] This is especially true of Germany also. Notwithstanding the steady increase of the population, emigration has steadily decreased. In 1891, 120,089 persons emigrated; in 1907, only 31,696. On the other hand, immigration has increased, because there was a scarcity of labor power in several branches of industry. In 1900, 757,151 persons immigrated, in 1905, 1,007,149.
[281] Kaerger estimates the harvests in Anatolia, even when the crops are poor, at 26.40 to 30 cwt. The average is 26.40 to 39 cwt.; on well fertilized and irrigated soil, 66 cwt. (International Agricultural Competition, a Capitalistic Problem, by Professor Dr. Gustave Ruhland. Berlin, 1901.)
[282] Even at the time of St. Basil (died 379), similar conditions must have existed, for he calls out to the rich: “wretches, what reply will you make to the divine Judge? You cover the nakedness of your walls with tapestry, but you do not cover with clothes the nakedness of man. You deck your horses with costly, soft blankets, but you despise your brother who is clad in rags. You suffer your grain in the barns and granaries to rot and to be eaten by rats, and do not even cast a glance at those who have no bread.”
Moralizing has never yet availed with the ruling classes and never will. Let the social institutions be changed so that no one can act unfairly toward his fellowmen, and the world will be well off.
[5.—Social Conditions and Reproductive Ability.]
The other side of the question is: do people multiply indefinitely, and do they wish to? In order to prove the enormous reproductive ability of man, the Malthusians like to point to the abnormal cases of some families or peoples. But these examples do not prove anything. There are other cases where, regardless of favorable conditions of existence, complete sterility sets in, or the reproductive ability is very slight. It is surprising how quickly wealthy families often die out. Altho the conditions for an increase of the population are more favorable in the United States than in any other country, and hundreds of thousands of persons in the prime of life emigrate into the United States every year, the population doubles only once in thirty years. The claim that populations double once in twelve or twenty years is not born out by the facts anywhere.
As has already been indicated by the quotations from Virchow and Marx, the population multiplies most rapidly where it is poorest, because, as Virchow correctly says, beside drink, sexual intercourse forms their only enjoyment. When Gregory VII forced celibacy upon the clergy, the clergy of lower rank of the Diocese of Mayence,—as previously mentioned,—complained that they did not have all kinds of enjoyments like the prelates, but that their only joy was woman. Lack of a variety of occupations may also account for it that the marriages of the rural clergy are usually so richly blessed with children. It cannot be disputed, furthermore, that the poorest districts in Germany, the Silesian Eulengebirge, the Lausitz, the Erzgebirge and Fichtelgebirge, the Forest of Thuringia, the Harz, etc.—districts in which the potato constitutes the chief article of food, are at the same time the most densely populated. It is furthermore certain that the sexual impulse is particularly strongly developed with persons afflicted with consumption, and such persons often beget children in a stage of physical decline in which this seems almost impossible.
It is a law of nature, as expressed in the utterances of Herbert Spencer and Laing, which we have quoted, to supply in quantity what is lacking in quality. The most highly developed and strongest animals, lion, elephant, camel, etc., our domestic animals, as horse, donkey, cow bring forth but few young, while animals of a lower order multiply in inverse ratio, as all kinds of insects, most fish, etc., and also the smaller mammals, like rabbits, rats, mice, etc. Darwin has shown that certain species of animals, for instance the elephant, lose their fecundity when they are captured and tamed by man. All this proves that altered conditions of existence and the resulting changed mode of life have a decisive influence on reproductive ability.
Strange to say, the Darwinians share the fear of over-population, and our modern Malthusians lean on their authority. The Darwinians seem to be unfortunate as soon as they seek to apply their theories to man, because they employ roughly empirical methods and do not take into consideration that man, altho the most highly developed animal, is distinguished from animals by the fact that he has learned to understand the laws of nature, and may consciously and intelligently apply these laws.