By Dr. Arthur Gütt
Head of the National Hygiene Department in the Ministry of the Interior
In most countries, neither the governments nor the peoples have so far paid much attention to the circumstances that account for the alternation of growth and decay in the history of civilised nations. The rulers of ancient Greece and Imperial Rome did not realise the need for a constructive population policy until the signs of decay and degeneration were too patent to be ignored. The position is exactly the same to-day. Statesmen everywhere have occupied themselves far too little with the valuable racial assets inherited from an untold number of past generations. They have been content to interest themselves in the promotion of material and cultural assets without appreciating the fact that there is always a close relationship between these latter and the hereditary racial characteristics of the nation. Moreover, the real value of those assets will be much impaired if the nation contains too small a number of thoroughly healthy individuals. If that number is subject to a continuous decrease because of the tendency on the part of married couples to remain childless or, at the best, to be satisfied with one or two children, the nation must renounce all hope of progressive development. Its civilisation will be doomed to ultimate destruction. It is not however, sufficient merely to realise the danger thus impending. What is wanted is an active policy consistently aiming at the preservation of racial health. Practical steps must be taken to prevent the further decline in the number of births.
