[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sin,—The problem of a diminishing birthrate is not a new one. It was known to the Greeks ; it was one of the main preoccupations of Augustus in the early days of the Roman Empire. Has not the time come for a careful study of his methods, and the use of such as proved themselves in any degree effectual ?
As things now stand, parenthood is desperately penalized by the heavily increased cost, not only of food and clothes, but of the whole process of education. The one relief is a trifling remission of Income Tax—on £36 for a first and £27 for each subsequent child. But what does this avail when each child's education costs anything from £100 to £250 ? The " larger families " which your contributor clearly thinks desirable will not return until some means is found of making parenthood a less costly luxury. A father might be immunis —exempt not only from taxes but also from rates, wholly or in part, according to the number of his children. What the Chancellor drops on the " swings " he could get back on the " roundabouts " (as Mr. Punch said last week in another connexion), by increasing taxation for the childless and making it almost prohibitive for the bachelor ! Will not Mr. Baldwin, who, as he told the Classical Association so delightfully last January, has gained much of the inspiration of his political life from the Classics, save the British Com- monwealth of Nations by a new Jus Trium Liberorum ?
I might follow a contemporary practice and subscribe this letter " A Father of Five," but I prefer to eschew anonymity, and therefore, am, Sir, &c.,
The School House, Monmouth. LIONEL JAMES.
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