guilty of exaggeration: the poorer the
condition of a proletarian stratum, the more numerous also is its
average blessing of children, conceding exceptions here and there. Even
Virchow confirms this. He says: "As the English workingman in his
deepest degradation, in the utter vacancy of the mind, finally knows but
two sources of enjoyment, drunkenness and coition, so did the population
of Upper Silesia, until recent years, concentrate all its wishes, all
its desires upon these two things. Liquor and the gratification of
sexual cravings had become sovereign with it. Hence it is easy to
understand that its population gained as rapidly in numbers as it lost
in physical vigor and moral fibre." Karl Marx expresses himself
similarly when he says in "Capital:" "As a matter of fact, not only the
number of births and deaths but the absolute size of families is in
reverse ratio to the height of wages, i. e., to the means of subsistence
which the various categories of workmen have at their disposal. _This
law of capitalist society would sound absurd among savages, or even
civilized colonists._ It reminds us of the enormous power of
reproduction among animals that are individually weak and much hunted
down;" and Marx furthermore quotes Laing, who says: "If all the world
were in comfortable circumstances, the earth would soon be depopulated."
We see Laing's views are opposed to Malthus: he is of the opinion that a
good living is not conducive to the increase but to the decrease of
births. In the same vein says Herbert Spencer: "Always and everywhere
progress and procreative capacity are opposed to each other. It follows
that the higher development, that mankind looks forward to, will
probably have as a result a decline in procreation."

Thus we see men, who otherwise differ, absolutely at one on this head,
and their views coincide wholly with ours.

The whole question of population could be practically disposed of off
hand with the observation that there is no danger of over-population
within sight: we find ourselves in front of such a superabundance of
food, which even threatens to increase, that the greatest worry, now
afflicting the producers of means of subsistence, is to furnish this
wealth of food at tolerable prices. A rapid increase of consumers would
even be the most desirable thing for producers. But our Malthusians are
tireless in the raising of objections: thus we are forced to meet these,
lest they have the excuse that