In the year 1895 the League was given a royal decree of public utility, which again does not necessarily mean this propaganda is sanctioned by the Government; but the laws regarding the liberty of the individual and the freedom of the press uphold it, and it is thus that its advocates are not molested.
The League has thirty sub-divisions, which include all the large cities and towns and many of the smaller ones. Over 7,000 pamphlets of the kind printed herein are sent out in the Dutch language and several hundred in English and Esperanto each year. These are only sent when asked for by the applicant.
There is no doubt that the Neo-Malthusian League of Holland stands as the foremost in the world in organisation, and also as a practical example of the results to be obtained from Birth Control teaching. Aside from the spreading influence of these ideas in Belgium, Italy, and Germany, Holland presents to the world a statistical record which proves unmistakeably what the advocates of Birth Control have claimed for it.
The infantile mortality of Amsterdam and The Hague is the lowest of any cities in the world, while the general death rate and infantile mortality of Holland has fallen to be the lowest of any country in Europe. These statistics also refute the wild sayings of those who shout against Birth Control and claim it means race suicide. On the contrary, Holland proves that the practice of anti-conceptional methods leads to race improvement, for the increase of population has accelerated as the death rate has fallen. There has also been a rapid improvement in the general physique and health of the Dutch people, while that of the high birth rate countries, Russia and Germany, is said to be rapidly deteriorating.
The following figures will suffice to show some of the improvements which have been going on in Holland since 1881, the time the League became actively engaged in the work:—
Taken from Annual Summary of Marriages, Births, and Deaths in England and Wales, etc., for 1912.
AMSTERDAM (Malthusian League started 1881; Dr. Aletta Jacobs gave advice to poor women, 1885).
1881–85. 1906–10. 1912. Birth Rate 37·1 24·7 23·3 per 1,000 of population. Death Rate 25·1 13·1 11·2[1] 〃 〃 Infantile Mortality 203 90 64[1] per 1,000 living (deaths in first births. year)