The Eugenic Marriage, Volume I. | Page 9

of these nations will actually be out of existence in a hundred years--unquestionably because we feel, at least we hope, that our methods will be so changed in that time that the necessary modification will ensure a continuance of the race, nevertheless, the fact remains that the inevitable result of continuing along present lines will be [xxiv] that, within the period of one hundred years, these peoples will cease to perpetuate themselves.
It is not necessary to enquire closely into the various causes for this unparalleled situation. The falling birth-rate in itself is not the prime cause. Even admitting that there are enough babies born, too many of them are born only to die in infancy. We need no further proof of the urgent need for conscientious inquiry, call it by what name you please. The science of common sense is all-sufficient. The seemingly intelligent individual who can only find material for ribaldry in this connection is a more serious buffoon than he imagines. It is apparent that our methods are wrong. Any constructive effort to correct them is commendable. When it is stated that 20 per cent. of the American women are unable to bear children, and that 25 per cent. of all the others are unwilling to assume the burden and responsibility of motherhood, we partly realize the gravity of the case.
On the other hand, statistics show that the majority of men have acquired disease before they marry, and that a very large percentage of these men convey contagion to their wives. This condition, to a very large extent, accounts for the inefficiency of women as mothers. It is responsible for at least 75 per cent. of the sterility that exists. The effect of this deplorable condition is directly responsible, also, for the ill health that afflicts women and that renders necessary the daily operations of a serious nature that are conducted in every hospital in every city in the civilized world. As a result of the dissemination of this poison, children are born blind, or are born to die, or, if they live, they are compelled to carry all through their helpless lives the stigma of disease and degeneration. It would surely seem that the individual to whom God has given intelligence and a conscience cannot think of these, the saddest facts in human experience, without resentment and humility. Surely the time has arrived when every boy should know, from his earliest youth, that there is here on earth an actual punishment for vicious living as frightful as any that the mind of man can conceive. [Page xxv]
When we inquire into the cause of this trend toward race degeneracy, we find that poverty and the inability of the workingman to support large families, luxurious living, and the life of ease and amusement on the part of the women of wealth; the fact that an increasingly large number of women have entered professions that prevent motherhood, and that the number of apartment-houses where children are not wanted are on the increase, all play their part. In this age of intense living, it is not to be wondered at that many shrink from the responsibility of rearing children, and the same conditions that contribute to this decadent ideal intensifies sex-hunger, and it is this dominating passion that tolerates and makes possible the most frightful crime of the age--infanticide. Greece and Rome paved the way for their ultimate annihilation when their beautiful women ceased to bear children and their men sought the companionship of courtesans.
Baby contests have demonstrated that only one child in ten was found to be good enough to justify a second examination. In a test examination in the public schools, only eight in five thousand were competent to qualify in all the tests. One of these eight was a Chinese boy and another an American-born son of a native Greek. Of the twenty million school-children in the United States, not less than 75 per cent. need immediate attention for physical defects.
While man has been assiduously improving everything else, he has neglected to better his own condition. Every animal that man has taken from its native haunts and domesticated, he has efficiently improved. He has even produced more marvelous results by the application of the same principles to the vegetable kingdom. In his haste to civilize himself, however, he has failed to apply the principles that are essential to self-preservation. It is regrettable, also, to know that, while the government has spent many thousands of dollars in sending out literature to the farmers, instructing them how to raise profitable crops and to breed prize horses and pigs, absolutely none of the public money has been used in instructing American mothers how to raise healthy children. [Page xxvi]
A distinguished insurance expert has proved that there was an increase of nearly