RUSSIA'S RUBLEBABIES

...She is gojag to pay her gallant, courageous, un oinplaimng women to give up their new found freedom and become breeders for the state...

...robbing them of many of their magnificent churches and historical landmarks was also clearing awsy on* of their never ending sources of infection and tragedy...

...Babies and more babies are needed and there is no time to split hairs over the quality of the parents who produce them...

...What greater humiliation of motherhood la aeeaihle than te ask wesaea te have babies far the State, te have babiee for medals, te have babies for money...

...Sweden, whoee birthrate has been rising since 1933, has used planned parenthood as the foundation of ita pr gram for expansion...

...Sweden's birthrate has responded because her women knew that while the State was eager for m. re babies, it made it possible for its women to choose the best time to bear them...

...When I was in Russis in 1014 with my sea Grant, then a young medical student, we talked to leading doctor, and women of all age* and occanations...

...Actually in a family of five children the monthly allotment of 140 rubles amounts to about 16 cents a day for each child...

...The day ia asst whan industry cries far aa unlimited supply ef cheap labar la ha exhausted aad asst aside sad replaced f row a bottomless human reservoir...

...The children, of necc.ity, will all ho small and of aa age that requires the greatest amount of shoes, winter clothing, nourishing food and other eseen-tisl* for good health and proper development One cannot but feel that fifteen additional rents a day will provide little above the slum standards In tha way ef food, clothing aad ehsiter...

...But is this not the very time to be most concerned with the quality of the world's future citizens...

...To reinforce thia offer of greater glory the State is to make an outright gift of 400 rubles (approximately $80) upon the birth of the third child »nd increase this to 1,300 rubles upon the birth of the fourth child together with an allowance of $4 a month for each of the four children...

...No eewatry today, asms* it ia consciously planning far military conquest, asses the quantity of population which was once til llirsl neeeeeary far »ajthshal Ufa...

...But even if the government were prepared to lavish money upon the space for the children it wants te "buy" into the world, it cannot escape the fact that it ia rebuilding its postwar population from the bottom...

...Five families living in a live room apartment is not uncommon and a good deal more than an additional $4 a month, and a medal, will be needed if each family decides to heed the governments edict...

...nancy ¦sraShsni held aamer the aaspissa of the strutting Dace...

...From this point the gifts and monthly allowances increase up to 91,000 outright and $60 a month for the eleventh child, until the youngest reaches its fifth birthday...

...the fourth imposes a tax on single men and women and those with one or two children over 20 years of age...

...How many children can be crowded into sn already overcrowded home...

...Will rubles alone provide thee* necessities...

...This edict has scored one on the Vatican...

...The rebuilding of these populations should be done slowly and with care lest a ren*ratios hence we find ourselves just where we were at the outset of this war aad discover that In our hast* *» make up our losses we have broad from our morons aad erected the same oM human slums instead of the finer loftier structures we could have planned The day la past whan a man must have many asm to till his soil aad harvest hie crepe...

...Child bearing in Russia was placed apea the highest and truest hash...

...But the Russian doctorj showed little interest They said tl.at so long as the women had to depend upon them for abortions the population of Russia i ul<l be controlled...

...heritage of vigorous young men who could have fathered fine healthy children...

...On this cleared ground London's slums will not be rebuilt as they were, but will rise as modern housing project* designed for healthier and better living...

...Is this not the very time to start out with s clean slate and avoid the mistake which have cost us so much human suffering and misery in the past...

...The, intelligent women of today are unwilling to lend their bodies an their emotions to such a project even for the most lavish remuneration, and certainly the women of modern Russia cannot be expected to respond to the paltry $4 < r so s month that the Stste proposes to contribute to the support of each child in families numbering more than three...

...Coeducation haa been abolished became it interferes with military liaising which the hoys will undergo la thia article, Margaret Saager, inter-nationally haewa fighter for liberal rights aad the foremost advocate of birth control methods as a means of healthy family life, diecaesea Rnsaia'a Rahlehahies...

...Are provisions being made for increasing living quarters as the family increases...

...has specified militia of the Bssjflrlsm of -ring space and the eaasher who •hall inhabit each room...

...Six children makes her eligible for a First Class Medsl and with the birth of her seventh, eight and ninth babies she progresses through the three classes of the Order of the Glory of Motherhood, arriving upon the birth of her tenth aa a Mother Heroine, with a scroll duely inscribed by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR...

...A beet ef schools, the Saverov Military Training grhaala...

...The answer ia NO...

...In Russis I pleaded for the adoption of contraception to take the place of abortion as a more humane and lesa dangerous method of birth central...

...Much of the edict, namely the provisions for better maternal health care for working mothers, the granting of leaves of absence before and immediately after the birth of a baby and the increase in nursery facilities to car...

...and of coarse for a dictatorship and for fatare wars...

...A little mathematics will dispel the assumption that this is a generous and humane award...

...What tha future waa need ia mow and women esaai in body sad mind endowed with virion, charaeter...

...After that they are all on their own...

...In neither case waa it possible to achieve anything like the steady increase, which has characterised the Swed->h and Dutch birthrates where the emphasis has long bein placed upon intelligent, responsible parenthood...

...Swedish mothers are given ev.ry encouragement in the form of preferred housing accomodations for larger families, tax exemptions and other benefits, but they are also provided wit the best me heal advice on contraception and family planning...

...Every country has witnessed the loss of blood liaea it will be impossible to replace...

...Intelligent parents will doubtless prefer to pay the relatively small tax (6 per cent of their income if they have no children, 1 per cent if they have one child and Vs per cent if they have two children) rather than increase their family beyond their desires and ability to properly feed and house them...

...For the Russian government, overlooking the fact that the desire and love of a child is in itself one of life's greatest glories, hss set about to "glorify the role of motherhood...

...The mass production of babies should never be an assembly line operation...

...the third introduces a system of medals and honorary titles to mothers of five or more living children...

...The gift of ruble...

...But many countries have also been relieved of tha pressure of over-population which existed before tat war and which In itself is one of the economic cause* for armed conflict...

...During the early phases of the war when London', disease and vermin infested slums were crumpled to du.t, Britishers realised that the war which w...

...Women who have stood shoulder to sbrulder with their m-n through the greatest crisis of Russian history, who have helped design bridges and run dynamos, who have assumed leadership of communes and been responsible foi tha food supplies tor thousands, women who have faced the enemy in hand-to-hand battle, are now being asked to breed babies as fast as possible in ret-irn for rash gifts and a medal to pin on their coats...

...It area one of their greatest boasts and sources of pride that R-iasia was the only country In the world where) a woman could fully and completely central her own biological destiny by choosing tha time of her pregnancy or by refusing te become a msthir an til aha really wanted to have children...

...Italy's birth-rale showed little response to Mussolini's baby bonuses, an J while Hitler wss sble to jack up the production if infant Nans, the peak which he achieved briefly in 1939 has quickly declined to below the 1933 level...

...have been eatablished which take boys eight or nine years old aad train them for "elite" positions in the Army...

...It seems absurdly ahsrtStghUn1 to advocate impressing numbers of babies without providing adaaeate apace, ream aad light far that 'arrases...

...aeanammamg^mmtSu^SItt^am Thh) today', babies, whether tfeSf he berTfer r*aem"er for love, are grown la asaa's estate The world need...

...The reason is eaite simpis, Banana mtoada to became the strong, eat military nation ea earth aad falling birth rate* or the private wishes ef m-dividaale become "enemies of the State...

...the desire of a woman la ha** • baby because aha wanted to create a new life and was prepared to love and care for it The love of children has and always will be the finest, the most noble, and certainly the moot civilised, reason for having them...

...Is III 11.11 ¦¦MIH< to be the an.wer la la iris shea nooda Of the mswsamg fasmry: but a* the number ef mfssnts asnlthjHai aad man and women return from fields of battle, the demand sat given1 wiH be loosened In value as the aea'retty o/reeon increases...

...The "babies campaign" ia only one pari ef thia widespread militsrizatien program...

...THE edict, a complete English tranalation of which appears in the July 26, 1944, edition of the Information Bulletin published by the Embassy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in Washington, D. C, is divided into five,parte: the first provides an increase in State aid to mothers of large families beginning with the third child...

...It is rebuilding it with subsidies, which, even under the most generous condition, are at best an artificial and makeahift measure...

...S wha wiigiha airaaraiil *a earn ee* wm ams« ha*nlast and gratifying ef life's reaaeaaaVilttiea...

...la there to be more space, more light, more room and comforts for the children or just more babies...

...for the children of employed mothers, is sound and someone in the Russian Government is to be congratulated on its far-sightedness...

...and the filth makes radical chsnges in the marriage and divorce laws and prohibits abortion...

...Unlike Russia, Sweden never subscribed to a program of wholesale abortion, recognising that adequate knowledge of contraception is by far the better, wiser and happier course...

...For housing is and will continue to be a problem in Russia...

...Moscow will reply that Ruasia's population has been decimated by the war and the urgent need is to replace it as quickly as possible by any means at hand...

...Apparently the time for such enforcement hss come, for the new edict specifically outlaws abortion and makes no mention of providing other means by which wemen may plan their families by choice instead of by chance...

...But the main provisions of the edict represent tha relocking of the chains of slavery which tha woman of Russia have aa recently aha ken loose...

...The offer of rubles tor babies is one of the most degrading waya of increasing the birth rate for it appeals only to mothers who are already ground down by poverty and poor living conditions and who will seize upon any device to augment the family income...

...RUSSIA'S RUBLEBABIES By Margaret Sanger RUSSIA, alarmed at bar tnnund.uo military ana civilian losses, has fallen prey to eae a/ the greatest fallacies in attempting te rebuild her population—she is going to pay her women to have babies...

...The aew edict, while ignoring this basic reason for childhearing, ironically provides for the preparation «f anyone feaad guilty of "humiliating the dignity of mothers...

...So too, should it be with the populations which this war has wiped out '.very country has lost a priceles...

...Once adequate knoiriedge of contraception tea* made oraiJ-a-e7e, tkt women tkemtelret mould hold loo much power and tkt State would he kelpies* to enforce its edielt...

...Almost every nation, particularly the warrior nations, have tried the artifu-al stimulation if their birth rates at one time or another and in every case their p >. ulation has shown little or no increase...

...Even tha "injtifi" Glasgow Municipality...

...the second increases the privileges of expectant and nursing mothers and offers expanded institutional facilities for the care of children whose parents are unable to raise them...

...Housing Project of thirty years ago had halt houses aad apartment limiting the number of people in each place, so as to insure space sad light aad warmth far these dweUhay there m. Oar ' own swing project ia U.S.A...

...net t. the rypt th» sak.^of adding a few rwbies a sat family mesas '¦•ult unborn generations as theee whoee rfaiw w me wanAwVmsaawfew SovlBT RUSSIA today la ¦¦hmhod en the meet eemacesamueve "more babies" campaign since the fantastic days of the preg...

...A woman with Ave Hying children is entitled to a Motherhood Medal, Second Class...