A number of years later, when the German army surrounded Paris during the Franco-Prussian War the besieged inhabitants of the capital suffered from hunger and disease. The death rate of the adult population increased enormously while the death rate of the infants dropped markedly.
The explanation of this curious phenomenon was simply that while times were normal the women labored outside of their homes and as a consequence the babies were not fed regularly and when fed were not fed mothers' milk. It demonstrated a truth that we are apt to lose sight of, that mothers' milk, even the milk from badly-nourished, poverty-stricken mothers is infinitely better than an abundant supply of artificial food combined with neglect. In view of the fact that there is a distinct tendency to evade this maternal duty these facts should be suggestive and important. It is the duty of the mother with any eugenic sense to preach and to practise this gospel. [53] Paris learned the lesson of the siege because though she has the smallest birth-rate to-day, she nevertheless has the smallest infant death-rate of any large city in Europe.
The writer believes that in eugenics the women of the race have the instrument wherewith to save the world. He is assured that it is the supreme potential agency for the betterment of the race, and that mankind will never be inspired with a holier cause. He believes that through all the ages the human race has been growing better, coming nearer the truth, and that as a result of this patient progress, there has been evolved the eugenic idea that is to solve the problems of the human family. If the "fit only are born" think of the possibilities of education and of environment. Each child is born with a great potential promise, and endowed with a reasonably good heredity, the whole effort of that child will be toward a higher moral attainment. If the effort of the individuals of the race is to achieve a high moral success, the quality of the civilization of future generations will be far superior to the type with which we are familiar.
Eugenics gives to women the supreme civilizing instrument of the future. It places the burden of the morality of the home and of the race on their shoulders. If we deny the writing on the wall it does not render the warning negative. The signs of the times are epochal. The great political parties are realizing, for the first time in history, that new and important issues concerning the family, the home, and the children, in other words the nation's manhood and womanhood, must be considered and included in their platforms. They know that the time has gone when statesmen will exclusively decide what shall be done with the sons and daughters which women bring into the world. They know that the mothers of the race must have a voice in deciding for peace or war since they create every soldier that will lie dead when war is over. Women will help decide the question of taxation by government and by trusts, because they know that it comes out of their incomes and they need it all for their children. Women know that their cause is the cause of freedom, and freedom is the[54] cause of the eugenist. They know that the function of government should be justice and no code of justice can have higher ethics than the ethics of eugenism.