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22
labour market for physical strength. The birth rate bears
a direct ratio to the density of an occupied area. When the
space allotted to each individual is contracted to the smallest
dimensions, the rate rises to its extreme altitude, but as that
space widens the rate falls. The phenomenal birth rate in
congested districts is due upon the one hand to the custom of
early marriage, and upon the other to a high average in the
number of the children resulting from that union. The
unhealthy and impoverished female adds a burden to her
resources at an annual period, whilst her more robust sister
seldom at an earlier interval than a biennial. This rule,
although by no means universal, generally obtains. Whether
or no its operation is determined by ability on the part of
the mothers to suckle the offspring, or from other causes, it is
out of place here to enter into an enquiry.
An unsatisfied demand in the labour market for physical
strength is a necessary outcome of the declension of that
quality in the district affected. Muscle and bone, in such a
locality is at a premium, and that which cannot be supplied
in its full development from within must be sought and
obtained from without. The contractor serves his own
interest by the importation of labour from a healthier district.
By means of this expedient a higher standard of bodily
strength is secured than could have been obtained had he
limited his field of operations to the quarter in which
perchance the work is about to be performed.
The unsatisfied demands of the labour market, and the
abnormal fecundity of the sex, are thus potentialities which
derive their origin from the unhealthy atmosphere of overcrowded
areas, and alike tend to the exaggeration of the evils
of the condition from which they spring.
Here, then, is a vicious circle of concurrent cause and
effect. Overcrowding is the cause of physical weakness;