WAGES AND THE COST OF LIVING. C. V. Drysdale, D.Sc.
Unlike those of other countries, who, in Lord Morley’s words, have shirked the population question, the statesmen of Holland have been fully alive to it, and have made their country the only one where facilities have been given to the poorer classes to freely obtain knowledge as to the best means of restricting families. The following strong statement by Heer S. van Houten, late Minister of the Interior in the Netherlands (Staats Kundige Brieven, 1899), leaves no doubt as to this difference of outlook:—
“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. The fault lies in our poorer classes themselves, and also in some clergymen and orthodox pedants who, in their preaching about morality, only permit a choice between an unnaturally lengthened celibacy or an ever-increasing family with the bonds of marriage, and who prevent the acceptance of the higher morality, which finds such easy acceptance among the better classes, of marriage and restriction of the family to the number which the parents can feed and comfortably rear.”
And Heer N. G. Pierson, late Dutch Minister of Finance, has expressed himself equally strongly in his Political Economy, which has just been translated into English:—
“No improvement in the economic situation can be hoped for if the number of births be not considerably diminished.”
Under the ægis of these gentlemen and of Heer Gerritsen, a prominent Councillor of Amsterdam, a Dutch Neo-Malthusianische Bond was formed in 1881, and has carried on an active propaganda among the working classes, with the help of a number of qualified medical men and trained midwives. So great has its success been that it now numbers over 5,000 members, and it was recognised by Royal Decree in 1895 as a society of public utility. An enormous number of practical brochures describing methods of limitation are sent out gratis annually, and poor men and women can get gratuitous advice in every important centre in Holland.
The result of this work, as indicated by the vital statistics, is clearly seen in Fig. [11]. The birth-rate has fallen from 37 in 1876 to 28 in 1912, and with especial regularity and rapidity during the last few years. The death-rate has fallen more regularly and rapidly than in any other country in the world (from a value averaging about 25 per 1,000 to only just over 12 per 1,000 in 1912), and the infantile mortality has similarly shown the most rapid fall on record. It will be observed that, far from this decline in the birth-rate having checked the increase of population, the rate of “natural increase” is now higher than at any previous period, and the highest in Western Europe. This indicates not only that social conditions are rapidly improving, but that the productive efficiency of the population is increasing, instead of diminishing, as in our own country, where the “natural increase” has fallen from 12 to 10 per 1,000. This is explainable on the eugenic ground that in Holland family restriction has taken place among the poor, and has thus tended to eliminate unfitness; while in this and other countries the poor are almost entirely ignorant of restrictive methods. And this view is strikingly confirmed by the paper read by Dr. Soren Hansen at the Eugenics Congress of 1912, in which he stated that the average stature of the Dutch people had increased by four inches within the last fifty years. An examination of the heights of the young men drawn for military service shows that since 1865 the proportion under 5 ft. 2½ in. in height has fallen from 25 per cent. to under 8 per cent., while that of those above 5 ft. 7 in. has increased from 24.5 per cent. to 47.5 per cent. This is a most decided evidence of increased well-being and elimination of unfitness. On the many occasions that I have been in Holland, I have never yet seen any cases of that terrible physical deterioration and economic misery which are so conspicuous in this country. Further, the emigration of the Dutch population is almost infinitesimal.
As regards wages and cost of living, Dutch statistics do not give weighted index numbers to compare with the other figures. But the unweighted mean of money wages of workers in the different government services show the most rapid increase recorded, being about 25 per cent. in Holland between 1894 and 1908, as against 18 per cent. in France and 10 per cent. in England and Wales. (Fig. [12]).
As to prices, it is not easy to come to a definite conclusion, as some articles have risen and some fallen in price; but there seems good ground for believing that the cost of living has risen comparatively little in Holland, and that real wages have therefore risen very materially during the period when they have been declining in this and other countries. It is certainly difficult in any case to see how the undoubtedly great advance in health and physique experienced by the Dutch population could have taken place without a great increase in real wages.
According to a diagram given in the Manchester Guardian of August 16th last the cost of living in Holland had gone up by 23 per cent. in 1912. An examination of detailed prices, however, showed a relatively small rise up to 1909.