"There is but one hope. Ignorance, poverty, and vice
must stop populating the world. This cannot be done by
moral suasion. This cannot be done by talk or example.
This cannot be done by religion or by law, by priest
or by hangman. This cannot be done by force, physical
or moral. To accomplish this there is but one way.
Science must make woman the owner, the mistress of herself.
Science, the only possible savior of mankind, must put it
in the power of woman to decide for herself whether she will
or will not become a mother."
Robert G. Ingersoll
"Science is the great instrument of social change," wrote A. J.
Balfour in 1908; "all the greater because its object is not change but
knowledge, and its silent appropriation of this dominant function, amid
the din of religious and political strife, is the most vital of all
revolutions which have marked the development of modern civilization."
The Birth Control movement has allied itself with science, and no small
part of its present propaganda is to awaken the interest of scientists
to the pivotal importance to civilization of this instrument. Only with
the aid of science is it possible to perfect a practical method that
may be universally taught. As Dean Inge recently admitted: "We should be
ready to give up all our theories if science proved that we were on the
wrong lines."
One of the principal aims of the American Birth Control League has been
to awaken the interest of scientific investigators and to point out
the rich field for original research opened up by this problem. The
correlation of reckless breeding with defective and delinquent strains,
has not, strangely enough, been subjected to close scientific scrutiny,
nor has the present biological unbalance been traced to its root. This
is a crying necessity of our day, and it cannot be accomplished without
the aid of science.
Secondary only to the response of women themselves is the awakened
interest of scientists, statisticians, and research workers in every
field. If the clergy and the defenders of traditional morality have
opposed the movement for Birth Control, the response of enlightened
scientists and physicians has been one of the most encouraging aids in
our battle.
Recent developments in the realm of science,--in psychology, in
physiology, in chemistry and physics--all tend to emphasize the
immediate necessity for human control over the great forces of nature.
The new ideas published by contemporary science are of the utmost
fascination and illumination even to the layman. They perform the
invaluable task of making us look at life in a new light, of searching
close at hand for the solution to heretofore closed mysteries of life.
In this brief chapter, I can touch these ideas only as they have proved
valuable to me. Professor Soddy's "Science and Life" is one of the most
inspiring of recent publications in this field; for this great authority
shows us how closely bound up is science with the whole of Society, how
science must help to solve the great and disastrous unbalance in human
society.
As an example: a whole literature has sprung into being around the
glands, the most striking being "The Sex Complex" by Blair Bell. This
author advances the idea of the glandular system as an integral whole,
the glands forming a unity which might be termed the generative system.
Thus is reasserted the radical importance of sexual health to every
individual. The whole tendency of modern physiology and psychology, in a
word, seems gradually coming to the truth that seemed intuitively to be
revealed to that great woman, Olive Schreiner, who, in "Woman and Labor"
wrote: "... Noble is the function of physical reproduction of humanity by
the union of man and woman. Rightly viewed, that union has in it latent,
other and even higher forms of creative energy and life-dispensing
power, and... its history on earth has only begun; as the first wild rose
when it hung from its stem with its center of stamens and pistils and
its single whorl of pale petals had only begun its course, and was
destined, as the ages passed, to develop stamen upon stamen and petal
upon petal, till it assumed a hundred forms of joy and beauty.
"And it would indeed almost seem, that, on the path toward the higher
development of sexual life on earth, as man has so often had to lead
in other paths, that here it is perhaps woman, by reason of those very
sexual conditions which in the past have crushed and trammeled her, who
is bound to lead the way and man to follow. So that it may be at last
that sexual love--that tired angel who through the ages has presided
over the march of humanity, with distraught eyes, and feather-shafts
broken and wings drabbled in the mires of lust and greed, and golden
locks caked over with the dust of injustice and oppression--till those
looking at him have sometimes cried in terror, `He is the Evil and
not the Good of life': and have sought if it were not possible, to
exterminate him--shall yet, at last, bathed from the mire and dust of
ages in the streams of friendship and freedom, leap upwards, with white
wings spread, resplendent in the sunshine of a distant future--the
essentially Good and Beautiful of human existence."
To-day science is verifying the truth of this inspiring vision. Certain
fundamental truths concerning the basic facts of Nature and humanity
especially impress us. A rapid survey may indicate the main features of
this mysterious identity and antagonism.
Mankind has gone forward by the capture and control of the forces of
Nature. This upward struggle began with the kindling of the first fire.
The domestication of animal life marked another great step in the long
ascent. The capture of the great physical forces, the discovery of coal
and mineral oil, of gas, steam and electricity, and their adaptation to
the everyday uses of mankind, wrought the greatest changes in the course
of civilization. With the discovery of radium and radioactivity, with
the recognition of the vast stores of physical energy concealed in the
atom, humanity is now on the eve of a new conquest. But, on the other
side, humanity has been compelled to combat continuously those great
forces of Nature which have opposed it at every moment of this long
indomitable march out of barbarism. Humanity has had to wage war against
insects, germs, bacteria, which have spread disease and epidemics and
devastation. Humanity has had to adapt itself to those natural forces
it could not conquer but could only adroitly turn to its own ends.
Nevertheless, all along the line, in colonization, in agriculture, in
medicine and in industry, mankind has triumphed over Nature.
But lest the recognition of this victory lead us to self-satisfaction
and complacency, we should never forget that this mastery consists to
a great extent in a recognition of the power of those blind forces, and
our adroit control over them. It has been truly said that we attain
no power over Nature until we learn natural laws and conform and adapt
ourselves to them.
The strength of the human race has been its ability not merely to
subjugate the forces of Nature, but to adapt itself to those it could
not conquer. And even this subjugation, science tells us, has not
resulted from any attempt to suppress, prohibit, or eradicate these
forces, but rather to transform blind and undirected energies to our own
purposes.
These great natural forces, science now asserts, are not all external.
They are surely concealed within the complex organism of the human being
no less than outside of it. These inner forces are no less imperative,
no less driving and compelling than the external forces of Nature. As
the old conception of the antagonism between body and soul is broken
down, as psychology becomes an ally of physiology and biology, and
biology joins hands with physics and chemistry, we are taught to see
that there is a mysterious unity between these inner and outer forces.
They express themselves in accordance with the same structural, physical
and chemical laws. The development of civilization in the subjective
world, in the sphere of behavior, conduct and morality, has been
precisely the gradual accumulation and popularization of methods which
teach people how to direct, transform and transmute the driving power of
the great natural forces.
Psychology is now recognizing the forces concealed in the human
organism. In the long process of adaptation to social life, men have
had to harness the wishes and desires born of these inner energies,
the greatest and most imperative of which are Sex and Hunger. From
the beginning of time, men have been driven by Hunger into a thousand
activities. It is Hunger that has created "the struggle for existence."
Hunger has spurred men to the discovery and invention of methods and
ways of avoiding starvation, of storing and exchanging foods. It has
developed primitive barter into our contemporary Wall Streets. It has
developed thrift and economy,--expedients whereby humanity avoids the
lash of King Hunger. The true "economic interpretation of history" might
be termed the History of Hunger.
But no less fundamental, no less imperative, no less ceaseless in its
dynamic energy, has been the great force of Sex. We do not yet know the
intricate but certainly organic relationship between these two forces.
It is obvious that they oppose yet reinforce each other,--driving,
lashing, spurring mankind on to new conquests or to certain ruin.
Perhaps Hunger and Sex are merely opposite poles of a single great
life force. In the past we have made the mistake of separating them
and attempting to study one of them without the other. Birth Control
emphasizes the need of re-investigation and of knowledge of their
integral relationship, and aims at the solution of the great problem of
Hunger and Sex at one and the same time.
In the more recent past the effort has been made to control, civilize,
and sublimate the great primordial natural force of sex, mainly by
futile efforts at prohibition, suppression, restraint, and extirpation.
Its revenge, as the psychoanalysts are showing us every day, has been
great. Insanity, hysteria, neuroses, morbid fears and compulsions,
weaken and render useless and unhappy thousands of humans who are
unconscious victims of the attempt to pit individual powers against this
great natural force. In the solution of the problem of sex, we should
bear in mind what the successful method of humanity has been in its
conquest, or rather its control of the great physical and chemical
forces of the external world. Like all other energy, that of sex is
indestructible. By adaptation, control and conscious direction, we may
transmute and sublimate it. Without irreparable injury to ourselves we
cannot attempt to eradicate it or extirpate it.
The study of atomic energy, the discovery of radioactivity, and the
recognition of potential and latent energies stored in inanimate matter,
throw a brilliant illumination upon the whole problem of sex and
the inner energies of mankind. Speaking of the discovery of radium,
Professor Soddy writes: "Tracked to earth the clew to a great secret
for which a thousand telescopes might have swept the sky forever and
in vain, lay in a scrap of matter, dowered with something of the same
inexhaustible radiance that hitherto has been the sole prerogative of
the distant stars and sun." Radium, this distinguished authority tells
us, has clothed with its own dignity the whole empire of common matter.
Much as the atomic theory, with its revelations of the vast treasure
house of radiant energy that lies all about us, offers new hope in the
material world, so the new psychology throws a new light upon human
energies and possibilities of individual expression. Social reformers,
like those scientists of a bygone era who were sweeping the skies
with their telescopes, have likewise been seeking far and wide for
the solution of our social problems in remote and wholesale panaceas,
whereas the true solution is close at hand,--in the human individual.
Buried within each human being lies concealed a vast store of energy,
which awaits release, expression and sublimation. The individual may
profitably be considered as the "atom" of society. And the solution of
the problems of society and of civilization will be brought about when
we release the energies now latent and undeveloped in the individual.
Professor Edwin Grant Conklin expresses the problem in another form;
though his analogy, it seems to me, is open to serious criticism. "The
freedom of the individual man," he writes,(1) "is to that of society as
the freedom of the single cell is to that of the human being. It is this
large freedom of society, rather than the freedom of the individual,
which democracy offers to the world, free societies, free states, free
nations rather than absolutely free individuals. In all organisms and in
all social organizations, the freedom of the minor units must be limited
in order that the larger unit may achieve a new and greater freedom, and
in social evolution the freedom of individuals must be merged more and
more into the larger freedom of society."
This analogy does not bear analysis. Restraint and constraint of
individual expression, suppression of individual freedom "for the good
of society" has been practised from time immemorial; and its failure
is all too evident. There is no antagonism between the good of the
individual and the good of society. The moment civilization is wise
enough to remove the constraints and prohibitions which now hinder the
release of inner energies, most of the larger evils of society will
perish of inanition and malnutrition. Remove the moral taboos that now
bind the human body and spirit, free the individual from the slavery
of tradition, remove the chains of fear from men and women, above all
answer their unceasing cries for knowledge that would make possible
their self-direction and salvation, and in so doing, you best serve
the interests of society at large. Free, rational and self-ruling
personality would then take the place of self-made slaves, who are
the victims both of external constraints and the playthings of the
uncontrolled forces of their own instincts.
Science likewise illuminates the whole problem of genius. Hidden in
the common stuff of humanity lies buried this power of self-expression.
Modern science is teaching us that genius is not some mysterious gift of
the gods, some treasure conferred upon individuals chosen by chance. Nor
is it, as Lombroso believed, the result of a pathological and degenerate
condition, allied to criminality and madness. Rather is it due to the
removal of physiological and psychological inhibitions and constraints
which makes possible the release and the channeling of the primordial
inner energies of man into full and divine expression. The removal of
these inhibitions, so scientists assure us, makes possible more rapid
and profound perceptions,--so rapid indeed that they seem to the
ordinary human being, practically instantaneous, or intuitive. The
qualities of genius are not, therefore, qualities lacking in the common
reservoir of humanity, but rather the unimpeded release and direction
of powers latent in all of us. This process of course is not necessarily
conscious.
This view is substantiated by the opposite problem of feeble-mindedness.
Recent researches throw a new light on this problem and the contrasting
one of human genius. Mental defect and feeble-mindedness are conceived
essentially as retardation, arrest of development, differing in degree
so that the victim is either an idiot, an imbecile, feeble-minded or
a moron, according to the relative period at which mental development
ceases.
Scientific research into the functioning of the ductless glands and
their secretions throws a new light on this problem. Not long ago these
glands were a complete enigma, owing to the fact that they are not
provided with excretory ducts. It has just recently been shown that
these organs, such as the thyroid, the pituitary, the suprarenal,
the parathyroid and the reproductive glands, exercise an all-powerful
influence upon the course of individual development or deficiency. Gley,
to whom we owe much of our knowledge of glandular action, has asserted
that "the genesis and exercise of the higher faculties of men are
conditioned by the purely chemical action of the product of these
secretions. Let psychologists consider these facts."
These internal secretions or endocrines pass directly into the blood
stream, and exercise a dominating power over health and personality.
Deficiency in the thyroid secretion, especially during the years
of infancy and early childhood, creates disorders of nutrition and
inactivity of the nervous system. The particular form of idiocy known as
cretinism is the result of this deficiency, which produces an arrest
of the development of the brain cells. The other glands and their
secretions likewise exercise the most profound influence upon
development, growth and assimilation. Most of these glands are of
very small size, none of them larger than a walnut, and some--the
parathyroids--almost microscopic. Nevertheless, they are essential to
the proper maintenance of life in the body, and no less organically
related to mental and psychic development as well.
The reproductive glands, it should not be forgotten, belong to this
group, and besides their ordinary products, the germ and sperm cells
(ova and spermatozoa) form HORMONES which circulate in the blood and
effect changes in the cells of distant parts of the body. Through these
HORMONES the secondary sexual characters are produced, including the
many differences in the form and structure of the body which are
the characteristics of the sexes. Only in recent years has science
discovered that these secondary sexual characters are brought about by
the agency of these internal secretions or hormones, passed from
the reproductive glands into the circulating blood. These so-called
secondary characters which are the sign of full and healthy development,
are dependent, science tells us, upon the state of development of the
reproductive organs.
For a clear and illuminating account of the creative and dynamic power
of the endocrine glands, the layman is referred to a recently published
book by Dr. Louis Berman.(2) This authority reveals anew how body and
soul are bound up together in a complex unity. Our spiritual and psychic
difficulties cannot be solved until we have mastered the knowledge of
the wellsprings of our being. "The chemistry of the soul! Magnificent
phrase!" exclaims Dr. Berman. "It's a long, long way to that goal. The
exact formula is as yet far beyond our reach. But we have started upon
the long journey, and we shall get there.
"The internal secretions constitute and determine much of the inherited
powers of the individual and their development. They control physical
and mental growth, and all the metabolic processes of fundamental
importance. They dominate all the vital functions of man during the
three cycles of life. They cooperate in an intimate relationship which
may be compared to an interlocking directorate. A derangement of
their functions, causing an insufficiency of them, an excess, or
an abnormality, upsets the entire equilibrium of the body, with
transforming effects upon the mind and the organs. In short, they
control human nature, and whoever controls them, controls human
nature....
"Blood chemistry of our time is a marvel, undreamed of a generation ago.
Also, these achievements are a perfect example of the accomplished fact
contradicting a prior prediction and criticism. For it was one of the
accepted dogmas of the nineteenth century that the phenomena of living
could never be subjected to accurate quantitative analysis." But the
ethical dogmas of the past, no less than the scientific, may block the
way to true civilization.
Physiologically as well as psychologically the development of the human
being, the sane mind in the sound body, is absolutely dependent upon the
functioning and exercise of all the organs in the body. The "moralists"
who preach abstinence, self-denial, and suppression are relegated by
these findings of impartial and disinterested science to the class of
those educators of the past who taught that it was improper for young
ladies to indulge in sports and athletics and who produced generations
of feeble, undeveloped invalids, bound up by stays and addicted to
swooning and hysterics. One need only go out on the street of any
American city to-day to be confronted with the victims of the cruel
morality of self-denial and "sin." This fiendish "morality" is stamped
upon those emaciated bodies, indelibly written in those emasculated,
underdeveloped, undernourished figures of men and women, in the nervous
tension and unrelaxed muscles denoting the ceaseless vigilance in
restraining and suppressing the expression of natural impulses.
Birth Control is no negative philosophy concerned solely with the number
of children brought into this world. It is not merely a question of
population. Primarily it is the instrument of liberation and of human
development.
It points the way to a morality in which sexual expression and human
development will not be in conflict with the interest and well-being of
the race nor of contemporary society at large. Not only is it the most
effective, in fact the only lever by which the value of the child can be
raised to a civilized point; but it is likewise the only method by which
the life of the individual can be deepened and strengthened, by which
an inner peace and security and beauty may be substituted for the
inner conflict that is at present so fatal to self-expression and
self-realization.
Sublimation of the sexual instinct cannot take place by denying it
expression, nor by reducing it to the plane of the purely physiological.
Sexual experience, to be of contributory value, must be integrated and
assimilated. Asceticism defeats its own purpose because it develops the
obsession of licentious and obscene thoughts, the victim alternating
between temporary victory over "sin" and the remorse of defeat. But
the seeker of purely physical pleasure, the libertine or the average
sensualist, is no less a pathological case, living as one-sided and
unbalanced a life as the ascetic, for his conduct is likewise based on
ignorance and lack of understanding. In seeking pleasure without the
exercise of responsibility, in trying to get something for nothing, he
is not merely cheating others but himself as well.
In still another field science and scientific method now emphasize the
pivotal importance of Birth Control. The Binet-Simon intelligence tests
which have been developed, expanded, and applied to large groups of
children and adults present positive statistical data concerning the
mental equipment of the type of children brought into the world under
the influence of indiscriminate fecundity and of those fortunate
children who have been brought into the world because they are wanted,
the children of conscious, voluntary procreation, well nourished,
properly clothed, the recipients of all that proper care and love can
accomplish.
In considering the data furnished by these intelligence tests we should
remember several factors that should be taken into consideration.
Irrespective of other considerations, children who are underfed,
undernourished, crowded into badly ventilated and unsanitary homes and
chronically hungry cannot be expected to attain the mental development
of children upon whom every advantage of intelligent and scientific
care is bestowed. Furthermore, public school methods of dealing with
children, the course of studies prescribed, may quite completely fail to
awaken and develop the intelligence.
The statistics indicate at any rate a surprisingly low rate of
intelligence among the classes in which large families and uncontrolled
procreation predominate. Those of the lowest grade in intelligence
are born of unskilled laborers (with the highest birth rate in the
community); the next high among the skilled laborers, and so on to the
families of professional people, among whom it is now admitted that the
birth rate is voluntarily controlled.(3)
But scientific investigations of this type cannot be complete
until statistics are accurately obtained concerning the relation of
unrestrained fecundity and the quality, mental and physical, of the
children produced. The philosophy of Birth Control therefore seeks and
asks the cooperation of science and scientists, not to strengthen its
own "case," but because this sexual factor in the determination of
human history has so long been ignored by historians and scientists.
If science in recent years has contributed enormously to strengthen
the conviction of all intelligent people of the necessity and wisdom
of Birth Control, this philosophy in its turn opens to science in its
various fields a suggestive avenue of approach to many of those problems
of humanity and society which at present seem to enigmatical and
insoluble.
(1) Conklin, The Direction of Human Evolution, pp. 125,
126.
(2) The Glands Regulating Personality: A study of the
glands of internal secretion in relation to the types of
human nature. By Louis Berman, M. D., Associate in
Biological Chemistry, Columbia University; Physician to the
Special Health Clinic. Lenox Hill Hospital. New York:
1921.
(3) Cf Terman: Intelligence of School Children. New York
1919. p. 56. Also, "Is America Safe for Democracy?" Six
lectures given at the Lowell Institute of Boston, by William
McDougall, Professor of Psychology in Harvard College. New
York, 1921.