This was the first and possibly is the only
statistical enquiry yet made on the subject, and although the number of
cases was minute in proportion to the population, the evidence afforded
by that sample was sufficient to be conclusive, that at any rate a
cause, and probably the chief cause, of the fall in the birth-rate was
voluntary limitation of families.
The method of publication presented some difficulty, and finally it was
decided, in order to secure the most generally impressive publicity, to
ask Sidney Webb to collect the other available evidence and to make an
article out of the whole, to be published over his name. It appeared as
two special articles in "The Times" for October 11th and 18th, 1906, and
was subsequently reprinted by us as Tract 131, "The Decline of the
Birth-rate."
Other Committees at this period discussed Agriculture, Poor Law, Local
Government Areas, Public Control of Electricity, and Feeding of School
Children. Reports on all these subjects were issued as tracts, some of
which have been mentioned already in connection with their authors, H.W.
Macrosty and Hubert Bland, whilst others will be referred to in a future
chapter.
[Illustration: _From a copyright photograph by Lambert Weston and Son,
Folkestone_
H.G. WELLS, IN 1908 At the door of his house at Sandgate]
FOOTNOTES:
[33] Born 1865. Clerk in the Exchequer and Audit Dept.
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