5 per thousand of the population, France
had its death rate increased 11.4. From this it is plain that it is the
economic disturbances which accompany war, and particularly those which
are manifest among the defeated, which cause a very large part of the
higher death rate.
(2) As already implied, then, economic depression exercises a very
considerable influence upon death rate, particularly when economic
depression causes very high prices for the necessities of life and even
widespread scarcity of food. This cause produces far more deaths in
modern nations than war. The doubling of the price of bread in any
civilized country would be a far greater calamity than a great war.
While modern civilized peoples fear famine but little, there are many
classes in the great industrial nations that live upon such a narrow
margin of existence that the slightest increase in the cost of the
necessities of life means practically the same as a famine to these
classes. Statistics, therefore, of all modern countries, and
particularly of all great cities, show an enormous increase in sickness
and death among the poorer classes in times of economic depression.
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