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4. The greater the overcrowding, and the prevalence of
phthisis and pauper lunacy, the higher is the birth-rate.
5. Poverty, drunkenness, and absence of thrift are
associated with high infant mortality and high birth-rate.
6. About half of this difference in productivity between
the poor and the well-to-do is due to difference in age of the
wives; the other half to lesser fertility, or to a lessened
exercise or deliberate restraint of fertility on the part of the
well-to-do.
7. The association of undesirable social conditions and
high birth-rate has doubled in intensity during the last fifty
years.
8. Fifty years ago districts with the highest birth-rate
had the lowest infant mortality.
9. Fifty years ago the difference of birth-rate in districts
of different social status was accounted for by the difference in
mean age of wives.
During these fifty years the relation between low social
status and high birth-rate has doubled in intensity, and half
the difference between districts of different social status is now
due to a reduced nett fertility in the more cultured, more
prosperous, healthy and thrifty classes of the community.
Karl Pearson has shown that 25 per cent, of the married
population produce 50 per cent, of the next generation. It
follows, therefore, that in increasing degree our nation is being
stocked from its less prosperous classes. As prosperity is in
general the result of ability, and as heredity of character and
ability is beyond dispute, the nation is degenerating in the
quality as well as in the quantity of its birth rate."