Mr. Lovejoy does not regard the falling birth rate as a wholly undesirable phenomenon. He says: “Children should be born when the parents are in good health, at intervals that will allow the mother to recover her strength, and only as many should be born as the parents can care for. There is no deeper sorrow than to know that a child has died for causes that might have been prevented if the parents had had more wisdom and foresight. The ideals of care and education which we have for our own children should be our ideals for all children. I shall not consider it a calamity if the birth rate falls to a point where every child is so precious to the nation that not one will be allowed to work in a factory or workshop or mine or store under the age of sixteen, and up to that time every one will have proper food and clothes and education. Our race-suicide danger is a danger, nor of quantity, but of quality.” _LATEST OFFICIAL FIGURES ON CHILD LABOR. From United States Census of Occupations, 1910. New York State._ Age 10 to 13 14 to 15 years years Manufacturing and mechanical 518 18,502 Extraction of Minerals 3 47 Agriculture 1,566 5,034 All other occupations 2,765 36,659 Total in all gainful occupations New York State 4,852 60,242 Total in all gainful occupations United States of 895,976 1,094,249 America Total child laborers in the United States of 1,990,225 America _WAGES AND THE COST OF LIVING. Together with its relation to Prevention of Conception. Compiled by C. V. Drysdale, D.Sc._ Apart from the special problems of experts, the great economic question of the day is that of the remuneration of labor and its relation to the cost of living. In Parliament and the press the questions of a minimum or living wage and of the purchasing power of existing wages are continually debated; and it is perfectly evident from the tone of these debates that we are confronted with a most serious difficulty, for which none of the political parties or economic authorities has any satisfactory solution. The recognition of this difficulty is due not to the fact that any new phenomena are present, or that the workers are worse off than at many periods in the past; but to the fact that the compilation of more accurate and official statistics during recent years has brought to light facts which were formerly only surmised, and has made two important conclusions practically indisputable. These are as follows: A. That the wages of a large fraction of the working classes are insufficient, even when most skilfully employed, for the adequate support of a normal family.