Woman and the New Race | Page 8

recognize the terrible lesson
taught by the innumerable centuries of infanticide and foeticide. If
these abhorrent practices could have been ended by punishment and
suppression, they would have ceased long ago. But to continue
suppression and punishment, and let the matter rest there, is only to
miss the lesson--only to permit conditions to go from bad to worse.
What is that lesson? It is this: woman's desire for freedom is born of the
feminine spirit, which is the absolute, elemental, inner urge of
womanhood. It is the strongest force in her nature; it cannot be
destroyed; it can merely be diverted from its natural expression into
violent and destructive channels.
The chief obstacles to the normal expression of this force are undesired
pregnancy and the burden of unwanted children. These obstacles have
always been and always will be swept aside by a considerable
proportion of women. Driven by the irresistible force within them, they
will always seek wider freedom and greater self-development,
regardless of the cost. The sole question that society has to answer is,
how shall women be permitted to attain this end?
Are you horrified at the record set down in this chapter? It is well that
you should be. You cannot help society to apply the fundamental
remedy unless you know these facts and are conscious of their fullest
significance.
Society, in dealing with the feminine spirit, has its choice of clearly
defined alternatives. It can continue to resort to violence in an effort to
enslave the elemental urge of womanhood, making of woman a mere
instrument of reproduction and punishing her when she revolts. Or, it
can permit her to choose whether she shall become a mother and how

many children she will have. It can go on trying to crush that which is
uncrushable, or it can recognize woman's claim to freedom, and cease
to impose diverting and destructive barriers. If we choose the latter
course, we must not only remove all restrictions upon the use of
scientific contraceptives, but we must legalize and encourage their use.
This problem comes home with peculiar force to the people of America.
Do we want the millions of abortions performed annually to be
multiplied? Do we want the precious, tender qualities of womanhood,
so much needed for our racial development, to perish in these sordid,
abnormal experiences? Or, do we wish to permit woman to find her
way to fundamental freedom through safe, unobjectionable, scientific
means? We have our choice. Upon our answer to these questions
depends in a tremendous degree the character and the capabilities of the
future American race.

CHAPTER III
THE MATERIALS OF THE NEW RACE
Each of us has an ideal of what the American of the future should be.
We have been told times without number that out of the mixture of
stocks, the intermingling of ideas and aspirations, there is to come a
race greater than any which has contributed to the population of the
United States. What is the basis for this hope that is so generally
indulged in? If the hope is founded upon realities, how may it be
realized? To understand the difficulties and the obstacles to be
overcome before the dream of a greater race in America can be attained,
is to understand something of the task before the women who shall give
birth to that race.
What material is there for a greater American race? What elements
make up our present millions? Where do they live? How do they live?
In what direction does our national civilization bend their ideals? What
is the effect of the "melting pot" upon the foreigner, once he begins to
"melt"? Are we now producing a freer, juster, more intelligent, more
idealistic, creative people out of the varied ingredients here?

Before we can answer these questions, we must consider briefly the
races which have contributed to American population.
Among our more than 100,000,000 population are Negroes, Indians,
Chinese and other colored people to the number of 11,000,000. There
are also 14,500,000 persons of foreign birth. Besides these there are
14,000,000 children of foreign-born parents and 6,500,000 persons
whose fathers or mothers were born on foreign soil, making a total of
46,000,000 people of foreign stock. Fifty per cent of our population is
of the native white strain.
Of the foreign stock in the United States, the last general census,
compiled in 1910, shows that 25.7 per cent was German, 14 per cent
was Irish, 8.5 per cent was Russian or Finnish, 7.2 was English, 6.5 per
cent Italian and 6.2 per cent Austrian. The Abstract of the same census
points out several significant facts. The Western European strains in
this country are represented by a majority of native-born children of
foreign-born or mixed parentage. This is because the immigration from
those sources has