[Sidenote: Society condemns illegitimacy.]
Most awful of all the results of the sexual mistakes of men and women
are the unmarried mothers and their illegitimate children. Of course, I
know that there are well-meaning people who argue that motherhood is
the supreme fact and that the formality of a marriage ceremony is
merely a medievalism in our laws and customs; but the inexorable truth
remains that our modern social system is centered around the home which
is strictly regulated by church and state and public opinion.[7]
Whatever may be the philosophical rights and wrongs of individual
freedom in sexual relationship, the facts of practical life are that an
overwhelming majority of the most intelligent people are united in
support of our established laws and customs demanding legitimacy of
motherhood and birthright. As a result of this age-old stand for
legitimacy, illegitimate mothers and children do not have a square deal
at the bar of public opinion. Everybody knows that the vast majority of
illegitimate children do not have a fair chance in the world's work.
Professor Cattell, in _Science_, March, 1914, points out that since
illegitimates occur one in every twenty-five births in the United
States, and since they are on the whole equal to other children in
mentality, there ought to be forty of them among the thousand leading
men of science designated in the directory of the "American Men of
Science;" but none are known. The conclusion must be that illegitimate
children do not have an equal chance at education which leads to
prominence in science. But it is not simply a matter of limited
education, for in every way the fate of most illegitimate children is
usually pitiful. Only now and then one born under a lucky star is
adopted and educated by large-minded foster parents who recognize that
the illegitimate is not responsible for having come into this world
under conditions opposed to the best interests of society.
[Sidenote: Ignorance the cause.]
It seems to be generally accepted that in the vast majority of cases,
unmarried mothers and illegitimate children are due to ignorance of the
women. Women who are professionally immoral do not bear many
children.[8] In fact, excepting the feeble-minded prostitutes, the
general rule is that those who are mothers have only one child and that
one the result of the first sexual errors. It is a safe general
conclusion that ignorance of sexual laws is responsible for the great
majority of cases of illegitimacy.
Edith Livingston Smith, of Boston, in an article on "Unmarried Mothers"
in _Harper's Weekly_ for September 6, 1913, expressed views of the
causes of illegitimacy that many a social worker will indorse heartily:
"I see shop girls and waitresses, factory girls and maids, chorus
girls, stenographers, and governesses, each with a different
story, each with the same terror of the consequences of their
folly. 'I never knew,' they tell me, 'I never knew there were such
temptations.'...
"Let us go back to the question of sex-education of the public.
Silence has been the policy in the past. We have taught our
children biology and natural history, we have taught them
physiology, carefully ignoring the organs of reproduction; we
have warned the young to make use of their senses and their
brains, but we have refused to recognize the very force that
guides all these instincts, the vital power of sex. Yet, in the
face of this stupidity, acknowledging the call of the age, girls
are sent out into the industrial world, where they fight shoulder
to shoulder with men. Here they find potential worth of their
individualities; here they meet with the same--no
greater--temptation than their brothers, but with no knowledge to
guide them, no traditions to give them poise, no ameliorating
factor of social tenderness or tolerance when inexperience fails
to temper their emotions and their femininity....
"A girl's protection must come from without, a boy's from within.
Every boy who reaches the age of adolescence knows his nature. It
asserts itself. His sex instincts are dominant, aggressive. He is
man, the father of the race, and the laws of procreation are to
him an open book. A girl stays innocent until she is awakened. It
is the kiss, the touch, the senses stirred, that make her, in the
glory of her womanhood or in her shame, acknowledge her sex.
"The very frailty of such a girl, her dependence upon her
intuitions and emotions, the triumph of feeling over intellect,
place her in greater danger than her brothers, even were their
responsibility to society the same. But, add to this the fact that
in yielding to sexual temptation she has the burden of
child-bearing--how much more necessary that she should have some
knowledge of what she is to meet in the world, or what she must
combat, lest her emotions forestall her intelligence as physical
development precedes mental appreciation."
[Sidenote: Men also ignorant.]
Illegitimacy is often due to ignorance of men as well as of women.
Prominent physicians have cited from their notebooks cases of
"protected" children in early adolescence who instinctively entered
into sexual relationship in utter ignorance of the natural result. Such
cases where the boy is entirely ignorant must be very rare; but there
are probably many boys who do not really understand that the sexual act
is very likely to lead to a ruined life for the girl companion and her
offspring. Arthur Donnithorne, in "Adam Bede," did not forecast that
his act would lead to the ruin of Hetty Sorrel and her condemnation for
infanticide.
[Sidenote: More than biology needed.]
It is obvious that something more than the ordinary biological facts of
reproduction must be included in sex-instruction that tries to prevent
such tragedies. In another lecture we shall consider moral teaching,
but here let us look at the cold facts of life that ought to be taught
at some appropriate time to young people. Not only should they know the
simple biological probability that sexual relationship will lead to
reproduction, but they should be led to consider the relentless
consequences of illegitimate propagation. On this latter point general
literature, _e.g._, "Adam Bede" and "The Scarlet Letter," teaches some
impressive lessons.
Another point needs emphasis with the numerous young people, especially
men, who are not controlled by moral laws, who know the probabilities
of illegitimacy occurring, but who have acquired the popular
impression that the order of nature is easily changed. Many physicians
and social workers know girls who have gone down because they were
persuaded to trust the efficiency of popular ways and means of avoiding
the natural outcome of the sexual act. Hence, young people of both
sexes should somehow learn that under the conditions that usually
attend illicit union there is always a strong probability that the ways
of nature cannot be easily circumvented. It is unlawful to explain,
except to medical audiences, why this is so; but much illegitimacy will
be prevented if it can be made widely known among young men and women
that, according to reliable physicians, tragedies of illegitimacy are
often due to misplaced confidence in popular methods of contraception.
[Sidenote: Criminal operations.]
There is yet another line of information that if widely known might
have some bearing on the problem of illicit sexual relations:
Physicians and social workers report that many young men and some women
know the possibility of illegitimate pregnancy, but feel safe because
they know the addresses of doctors and midwives who will perform
criminal operations. The great danger of the operation, especially at
the hands of such third-class doctors as would attempt to terminate
pregnancy criminally, should be widely known by the general public,
which only now and then gets a hint in the newspaper reports of a
tragedy involving some unfortunate girl.
[Sidenote: Relative passion of men and women.]
There is the widespread misunderstanding among young men that sexual
hunger is as insistent in virtuous young women as in themselves and
that therefore illicit gratification is a mutual gain and
responsibility. Some young men may be guided by the information that
there is much reliable evidence indicating that, while an innate
tendency towards general emotions of affection is strong in the average
young woman, there is general absence of the localized passions that
naturally and automatically develop in young men. In other words, the
first definite sexual temptation is likely to come to a young woman
from outside herself, and young men should be impressed with their
responsibility for allowing even the beginning of situations that may
arouse dormant but dangerous instincts.