expectation that instincts and structures which have had survival value
in the past will continue to have such value in the future. But during
moments of crisis, at those turning points in the history of living
things when new forms appear, such a presumption is quite unjustified.
Thus if we picture to ourselves, allegorically, an event which probably
took many thousands of years to accomplish, we might imagine the
comments of a conservative piscine critic upon the emergence of the
first Dipnoid from some muddy river on to land.
The development of fore and hind limbs from fins, of lung from
swim-bladder, and of instincts appropriate to the new medium, would
strike all conservative fishes as highly immoral deviations from that
biological tradition which had given stability to the glorious race
of fishes. Nothing could seem more a-biological. Similarly with the
development of fur and feathers and of the parental instinct, all of
which were probably, in part at any rate, invested with survival value
by the spell of cold which followed the Secondary period, and which
perhaps conditioned the substitution of birds and mammals for the
hitherto ubiquitous reptile as dominant vertebrates on the earth. From
the point of view of the conservative reptile such changes would appear
highly anti-biological. In moments of racial crisis, therefore, it is
dangerous to generalize as to what is biologically good from past
experience alone. In the past a high degree of fertility has been, for
most species, a biologically valuable asset. It does not follow that
it will continue to be so for the human race. In fact there are good
reasons for supposing that it will not.
The human race is now passing through a biological crisis unprecedented
in the history of life. It has achieved a mastery over nature such
that mankind is now economically unified throughout the world by the
astounding feats of intercommunication and transport. But as yet the
human race has achieved little ethical unification. It is directly in
the interests of the race that such unification should take place, and
all things which promote it may therefore be considered biologically
good. And of those things a restriction of human fertility is one of
the most important.
What then is to be our biological criterion of racial fitness and our
standard for judging of a nation’s merit?
It is clear that our biological criterion must be racial rather than
individual. Division of labour and differentiation of function are
carried to such lengths in civilized societies that it does not seem
possible to hold up any individual type as an ideal of biological
fitness. Qualities which, to the solitary animal, would irrevocably
spell extinction may for the gregarious animal have the highest
survival value. Thus no attribute would be more irremediably fatal to
a non-social animal than sterility. Yet the sterility of 999 out of
1000 female bees in the community of the hive has endowed the species
with a vitality and a biological importance such that it has largely
conditioned the appearance on the planet of many kinds of entomophilous
flowers. Our biological criterion must therefore, with our standard
of merit, be social rather than individual, and the following general
outline is suggested.
The population of each country should be proportionate to its
resources. The numerical adjustment should be such that there be no
unemployment and that individual productivity be highest without idlers
at either end of the social scale. The physical average of the race
should be good with no congenital diseases of mind or body and with
the minimum of other diseases, and of crime. There should be a high
average standard of comfort, self-respect and happiness, and a high
moral standard of honesty, tolerance, and kindliness. One would hope
for a wide prevalence of that ‘joie de vivre’ and contentment which is
doubtless largely temperamental in origin and which contributes more
to an individual’s happiness than any number of worldly possessions
can ever do. And the social cleavage between classes, and the now
stupendous discrepancies between the very rich and the very poor should
be reduced to a minimum. Such conditions all would wish generally
distributed. It is a question whether a uniformly high degree of
intelligence should be equally ubiquitous. In every community,
primitive or civilized, an immense amount of crude physical labour has
to be done. The soil has to be tilled, someone has to dig coal and iron
out of the ground, and endless other kinds of manual work have to be
performed. It is doubtful whether the possession of a very high degree
of intelligence would make such workers happier or more efficient. But
whatever we may individually feel about this point, we would all wish
such workers to be healthy, happy, well housed, contented with their
lot, fond of their children, and both appreciated by, and on good terms
with, the rest of the community.
And obviously it is a condition of this sort which an enlightened Birth
Control could help to achieve.
The above is intended both to be a criterion of biological fitness for
the human race, and a more satisfactory standard of national evaluation
than the one that is in vogue to-day. It will be noted that there is
nothing in it about capacity for wars. If we could substitute some such
standard in place of the armament standard by which to grade countries
in an order of merit, we should be in a better position to avert the
catastrophe of another world war than we are at present. According to
such a standard the country most deserving of admiration, respect and
imitation to-day would probably be Switzerland. Knowing that she cannot
defend herself against her powerful neighbours, she does not aspire
to large armies. When other countries can, by a simultaneous control
of population, realize a similar security, it will be open to them to
follow in her footsteps. The ideal may not appeal to the romantic, but
much that passes for romance is frequently pernicious nonsense, like
the sentiment by which war is glorified in the eyes of many women and
elderly men who have never participated in it.
From an international equilibrium based upon a modification of
religions as above suggested and upon an alteration in our standards
of national evaluation, social harmony would follow fairly readily.
It is unlikely that the antagonism between capital and labour will be
much affected by a control of population beyond removing that source
of social unrest which is furnished by a large body of unemployed.
It remains doubtful, however, if the essential political issue will
be much modified by a solution of the unemployment problem. The
psychological forces which give the Labour party its driving power are
not such as to produce the fullest economic prosperity in this country;
but none the less they demand and must ultimately receive satisfaction.
The best that can be hoped is that those forces will gradually be
appeased, and will not lead to bloodshed, too great a dislocation of
trade, or too drastic a loss of international status.
The gain to the individual following the general application of
knowledge of Birth Control will be twofold. In the first place parents
will be able to space their children in accordance with their physical
and financial resources; in the second they will feel more confident of
producing healthy well-balanced children, untainted by disease, than
they can feel at present. Their children would further be welcomed by
the community, and their future would be assured.
* * * * *
Such are the bearings of an enlightened Birth Control upon the
future. It is obvious that such advantages could only be gained by
slow and laborious degrees. The writer is far from the opinion that
the application of his views will immediately transform the world
into a Utopia. He is convinced however that if the existing form of
civilization is to have any permanence, the necessity for controlling
population will have to be realized and striven for by all educated
people.
In practice, the ‘plea,’ referred to in the sub-title, is that the
Ministry of Health should give the subject of contraception its
sanction. In May of 1924 a petition supported by twenty-two Labour
members of Parliament was presented to the Minister of Health by a
deputation of eighteen persons, some of them well known, requesting
that official permission be accorded to doctors in charge of Welfare
Centres to give information on Birth Control to such working women
as desired it and were considered fit for it. Though the existing
technique is not wholly satisfactory it is avowedly worth something,
having already proved of great help to many women.
This permission was refused in deference, it seems, to ecclesiastical
opinion, to certain reactionary political forces which, in the House,
were opposed to it, and to popular prejudice. It is possible that
by the time this book is published the Ministry of Health may have
changed its attitude. At present, however, information on contraception
can only be obtained from a few private organizations such as those
of the Malthusian League in Walworth and Kensington, of Dr Stopes in
Holloway, and from another centre in the Edgware Road. The Malthusian
League has worked quietly, unostentatiously, and, so far as its means
allow, with the utmost effectiveness in one of the poorest quarters of
London. For what it has done there can be nothing but praise.
But however valuable the work of these organizations, they cannot
possibly meet the requirements of our large slums, where such
information as exists is handed about by irresponsible midwives and
gamps, often with the worst results. It also seems desirable to the
writer to restrict the often vulgar publicity by which this subject
is frequently attended, and to which attention was drawn when the
objections to Birth Control were reviewed. After the first blast of
criticism which it would evoke from the baser organs of the press, such
a sanction from the Ministry of Health would render further newspaper
advertisement of Birth Control superfluous. If it does not cease of
its own accord steps should be taken to suppress it. How best can this
sanction be obtained?
Clearly through an appeal from the medical profession. An expression
of unanimity, or relative unanimity, from doctors in this country as
to the desirability of this sanction would constitute an argument
which the Ministry of Health could not easily ignore. If the sanction
were thus obtained it would be open to those medical men who had
approved the measure in this country to invite their colleagues in
other countries to follow in our footsteps. It would seem best to begin
with Germany and America, where there is reason to suppose that such
an appeal would meet with response. If support were forthcoming from
these countries, others might be approached――such as Japan, Italy and
perhaps India, in which last the suffering caused by an excessive birth
rate and a high early death rate is immense and almost wholly avoidable.
In this way the medical profession in whose hands the health of each
community lies would take the first step in the direction of an
international control of population, and would thereby lay the basis
for a genuine and permanent world-peace.
* * * * *
Transcriber’s Notes:
――Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
――Punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.
――Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.
――Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.