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Credit: The human harvest / by David Starr Jordan. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![those at the bottom of the layers of society. There is degradation in all great cities, but the great cities are not the whole of France, they are not even typical ofthe lifeof France. It is claimed that the decadence is deep- seated, not individual. It is said that the birth-rate is steadily falling; that the aver- age stature of men is lower by two inches at least than it was a century ago ; that the physical force is less among the peasants at their homes. Legoyt tells us that “it will take long periods of peace and plenty before France can recover the tall statures mowed down in the wars of the republic and the first empire.” What is the cause of all this? Intemperence, vice, misdirected education, bureaucracy, and the rush toward ready- made careers? These may be symptoms. They are not causes. They are signs of in- herited deficiencies in the people themselves. Edmond Demolins asks in that clever vol- ume of his : “ In what constitutes the supe- riority of the Anglo-Saxon ? ” Before we answer this let us inquire in what consti- tutes the inferiority of the Latin races? If we admit this inferiority exists in any de- The Human Harvest [47]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28076850_0051.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
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