The Fertility of the Unfit

by W. A. Chapple

Year.	Number of Members at the beginning of each year.	Number of Cases of lying-in Benefit paid during year.	Percentage of cases paid to total Membership at beginning of year.	England and Wales: births per 1000 of the total population.
1866	10,571	2,300	21.76	35.2
1867	12,051	2,853	23.68	35.4
1868	13,568	3,075	22.66	35.8
1869	15,903	3,509	22.07	34.8
1870	18,369	4,173	22.72	35.2
1871	21,484	4,685	21.81	35.0
1872	26,510	6,156	23.22	35.6
1873	32,837	7,386	22.49	35.4
1874	40,740	9,603	23.57	36.0
1875	51,144	13,103	23.66	35.4
1876	64,421	15,473	24.02	36.3
1877	76,369	18,423	24.11	36.0
1878	84,471	20,409	24.16	35.5
1879	90,603	22,057	24.34	34.7
1880	91,986	22,740	24.72	34.2
1881	93,615	21,950	23.45	33.9
1882	96,006	21,860	22.77	33.8
1883	98,873	21,577	21.82	33.5
1884	104,339	21,375	20.51	33.6
1885	105,622	21,277	20.14	32.9
1886	109,074	21,856	20.04	32.8
1887	111,937	20,590	18.39	31.9
1888	115,803	20,244	17.48	31.2
1889	123,223	20,503	16.64	31.1
1890	131,057	20,402	15.57	30.2
1891	141,269	22,500	15.93	31.4
1892	153,595	23,471	15.28	30.5
1893	169,344	25,430	15.02	30.8
1894	184,629	27,000	14.08	29.6
1895	201,075	29,263	14.55	30.4
1896	206,673	30,313	14.67	...

In this remarkable table the percentage of births to total membership gradually rose from 21.76, in 1866, to 24.72, in 1880, and then gradually declined to 14.67 in 1896.

This is a striking instance of the fact that the decrease in the total birth-rate is due more to a decrease in the fecundity of marriage, than to a decrease of the marriage-rate.

Mr. Webb adds:—"The well-known actuary, Mr. R.P. Hardy, watching the statistics year by year, and knowing intimately all the circumstances of the organisation, attributes this startling reduction in the number of births of children to these specially prosperous and specially thrifty artisans entirely to their deliberate desire to limit the size of their families."

The marriage-rate in England and Wales commenced to decline about three years before the sudden change in the birth-rate of 1877, and continued to fall till about 1880, but has maintained a fairly uniform standard since then, rising slightly in fact, the birth-rate, meanwhile, descending rapidly.

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CHAPTER IV.

Means Adopted.

Family Responsibility—Natural fertility undiminished.—Voluntary prevention and physiological knowledge.—New Zealand experience.—Diminishing influence of delayed marriage.—Practice of abortion.—Popular sympathy in criminal cases.—Absence of complicating issues in New Zealand.—Colonial desire for comfort and happiness.