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. | ||||
| Amsterdam (Malthusian 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[[1]] | 〃 〃 |
| Infantile Mortality (deaths in first year) | 203 | 90 | 64[[1]] | per 1,000 living births. |
| The Hague (now the headquarters of the Neo-Malthusian 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[[1]] | 〃 〃 |
| Infantile Mortality (deaths in first year) | 214 | 99 | 66[[1]] | per 1,000 living births. |
| Rotterdam. | ||||
| 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 | 〃 〃 |
| Infantile Mortality | 209 | 105 | 79 | per 1,000 living births. |
[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.
FERTILITY AND ILLEGITIMACY RATES.
| 1880–2. | 1890–2. | 1900–2. | ||
| Legitimate Fertility | 306·4 | 296·5 | 252·7 | Legitimate Births 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[[2]] |
| Rotterdam. | |||
| 1880–2. | 1890–2. | 1900–2. | |
| Legitimate Fertility | 331·4 | 312·0 | 299·0 |
| Illegitimate Fertility | 17·4 | 16·5 | 13·1 |
[2]. Lowest figure for the Continent.
The Neo-Malthusian propaganda in Holland is founded on feministic and economic grounds. Birth Control is the pivot around which both of these important movements must swing. Mr. S. Van Houten, late Minister of the Interior of the Netherlands, says: “Wage-slavery exists as a consequence of the carelessness with which the former generation produced wage-slaves; and this slavery will continue so long as the adult children of these wage-slaves have nothing better to do than to reproduce wage-slaves.”