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THE MAROON TIGER
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ulation, there was an excess of 0.8 a thousand of deaths
over births, while Paris, with a low birth rate showed
an excess of 0.5 a thousand of births over deaths, al
though its population had diminished by 35,043. New
York had a birth surplus of 9.9 per thousand between
1923 and 1925, with an increase in population of 54,
269. Rome had a surplus of 8 per thousand with a
population increase of 75,088 and Chicago a surplus
of 9 per thousand with 293,534 in creased population.
It is true, Dr. Boess said, that Berlin’s population has
grown by influx rather than by birth. Recent statis
tics, moreover, show that there are more marriages than
legitimate births. Also Berlin has a relatively greater
surplus of women over men, the ratio being 1,177 to
1,000 men. This is only exceeded by Paris with 1,210
women to 1,000 men. Rome has 971 and Chicago 972
women to 1,000 men. In this and in the fact that Berlin
women are engaged in trades and professions in greater
proportions than those of other capitals, Dr. Boess saw
contributing causes as regard the natal deficiency.
Two-fifths of Berlin’s trade and business population are
women, compared to only one-quarter in Chicago. He
added that 75 per cent of Berlin’s brides were in busi
ness up to the day of their marriage.
As for Premier Mussolini’s contention that Berlin is
a city of old people, Dr. Boess said that only 7.8 per
hundred inhabitants were 60 or over, whereas the pro
portion in Rome is 10.1, in Paris 10.4; and in London,
9.2, although in Chicago the figure is as low as 5.3.
Summing up, the Lord Mayor said that the decline
in births in Berlin “need not and must not continue.”
He believed that the downward movement would cease
as soon as Berlin had money to build homes, give its
population more air and sunlight and more work and
bread. All of which we think quite natural and sane.
Recall the saying of the old French workingman,
who said, “We know that we must earn our bread by
the sweat of our brow; but it has not been written that
we must eat our bread with breaking hearts.”
Richter, a countryman of Dr. Boess, wrote: “God may
forgive you for not giving children bread which costs
money, but He will not forgive you for depriving them
of sunlight which costs nothing.”
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Greetings
To students and friends and all—Greetings of the
Season! Whatever the sum or the product or the deficit
of the past year, each has made its leavetaking, and a
new page in Life’s Ledger has finished its onturning.
Write thereon whatever you will. The moving hand
having written moves on; nor all your tears or sighs
or cries can undo what you have done. But, better
still, you CAN do more than shed idle tears. You CAN
take the mistakes and thoughtlessness and wreckage of
the past and build upon them the rich experiences of
the future, rich because the stuff of their make-up has
been refined in the mill that grinds slowly, yet grinds
exceedingly fine. Another chance, another chance is
yours! The days, the weeks, the months,—and then
another year is gone! Yet not without its toll. The
hours, the days, the weeks, the months, are hurdles to
be cleared in the race of the year. Each one clear
well.
“The race is not always to the swift or faster man
But sooner or later the man who wins is the
man who thinks he can.”
And so let us then with freshness and full hearts and
vigor and vim greet the dawn of the New Year—another
chance! And may our good deeds, when a year’s
processes of the sun are done, be as “thick as autumnal
leaves that strow the brooks in Vallambrosa.”
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