1. LESSENING PAUPERISM.--Many of the agencies for lessening pauperism
are afraid of tracing back its growth to the frequency of births under
wretched conditions. One begins to question whether after all sweet
charity or dignified philanthropy has not acted with an unwise
reticence. Among the problems which defy practical handling this is
the most complicated. The pauperism which arises from marriage is the
result of the worst elements of character legalized. In America,
where the boundaries of wedlock are practically boundless, it is
not desirable, even were it possible, that the state should regulate
marriage much further than it now does; therefore must the sociologist
turn for aid to society in his struggle with pauperism.
2. RIGHT PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL CONDITIONS OF BIRTH.--Society should
insist upon the right spiritual and physical conditions for birth.
It should be considered more than "a pity" when another child is born
into a home too poor to receive it. The underlying selfishness of such
an event should be recognized, for it brings motherhood under wrong
conditions of health and money. Instead of each birth being the result
of mature consideration and hallowed loves children are too often born
as animals are born. To be sure the child has a father whom he can
call by name. Better that there had never been a child.
3. WRONG RESULTS.--No one hesitates to declare that if is want of
self-respect and morality which brings wrong results outside of
marriage, but it is also the want of them which begets evil inside the
marriage relation. Though there is nothing more difficult than to
find the equilibrium between self-respect and self-sacrifice, yet on
success in finding it depends individual and national preservation.
The fact of being wife and mother or husband and father should imply
dignity and joyousness, no matter how humble the home.
4. DIFFERENCE OF OPINION AMONGST PHYSICIANS.--In regard to teaching,
the difficulties are great. As soon as one advances beyond the
simplest subjects of hygiene, one is met with the difference of
opinions among physicians. When each one has a different way of making
a mustard plaster, no wonder that each has his own notions about
everything else. One doctor recommends frequent births, another
advises against them.
5. DIFFERENT NATURES.--If physiological facts are taught to a large
class, there are sure to be some in it whose impressionable natures
are excited by too much plain speaking, while there are others who
need the most open teaching in order to gain any benefit. Talks to a
few persons generally are wiser than popular lectures. Especially are
talks needed by mothers and unmothered girls who come from everywhere
to the city.
6. BOYS AND YOUNG MEN.--It is not women alone who require the shelter
of organizations and instruction, but boys and young men. There is
no double standard of morality, though the methods of advocating it
depend upon the sex which is to be instructed. Men are more concerned
with the practical basis of morality than with its sentiment, and
with the pecuniary aspects of domestic life than with its physical
and mental suffering. We all may need medicine for moral ills, yet the
very intangibleness of purity makes us slow to formulate rules for its
growth. Under the guidance of the wise in spirit and knowledge, much
can be done to create a higher standard of marriage and to proportion
the number of births according to the health and income of parents.
7. FOR THE SAKE OF THE STATE.--If the home exists primarily for the
sake of the individual, it exists secondarily for the sake of the
state. Therefore, any home into which are continually born the
inefficient children of inefficient parents, not only is a discomfort
in itself, but it also furnishes members for the armies of the
unemployed, which are tinkering and hindering legislation and
demanding by the brute force of numbers that the state shall support
them.
8. OPINIONS FROM HIGH AUTHORITIES.--In the statements and arguments
made in the above we have not relied upon our own opinions and
convictions, but have consulted the best authorities, and we hereby
quote some of the highest authorities upon this subject.
9. REV. LEONARD DAWSON.--"How rapidly conjugal prudence might lift a
nation out of pauperism was seen in France.--Let them therefore
hold the maxim that the production of offspring with forethought and
providence is rational nature. It was immoral to bring children into
the world whom they could not reasonably hope to feed, clothe and
educate."
10. MRS. FAWCETT.--"Nothing will permanently offset pauperism while
the present reckless increase of population continues."
11. DR. GEORGE NAPHEYS.--"Having too many children unquestionably has
its disastrous effects on both mother and children as known to every
intelligent physician. Two-thirds of all cases of womb disease, says
Dr. Tilt, are traceable to child-bearing in feeble women. There are
also women to whom pregnancy is a nine months' torture, and others to
whom it is nearly certain to prove fatal. Such a condition cannot
be discovered before marriage--The detestable crime of abortion is
appallingly rife in our day. It is abroad in our land to an extent
which would have shocked the dissolute women of pagan RomeS--This
wholesale, fashionable murder, how are we to stop it? Hundreds of vile
men and women in our large cities subsist by this slaughter of the
innocent."
12. REV. H.R. HAWEIS.--"Until it is thought a disgrace in every rank
of society, from top to bottom of social scale, to bring into the
world more children than you are able to provide for, the poor man's
home, at least, must often be a purgatory--his children dinnerless,
his wife a beggar--himself too often drunk--here, then, are the real
remedies: first, control the family growth according to the family
means of support."
13. MONTAGUE COOKSON.--"The limitation of the number of the family--is
as much the duty of married persons as the observance of chastity is
the duty of those that are unmarried."
14. JOHN STUART MILL.--"Every one has aright to live. We will suppose
this granted. But no one has a right to bring children into life to
be supported by other people. Whoever means to stand upon the first
of these rights must renounce all pretension to the last. Little
improvement can be expected in morality until the production of a
large family is regarded in the same light as drunkenness or any other
physical excess."
15. DR. T.D. NICHOLLS.--"In the present social state, men and women
should refrain from having children unless they see a reasonable
prospect of giving them suitable nurture and education."
16. REV. M.J. SAVAGE.--"Some means ought to be provided for checking
the birth of sickly children."
17. DR. STOCKHAM.--"Thoughtful minds must acknowledge the great wrong
done when children are begotten under adverse conditions. Women must
learn the laws of life so as to protect themselves, and not be the
means of bringing sin-cursed, diseased children into the world. The
remedy is in the prevention of pregnancy, not in producing abortion."
* * * * *