TOO MANY CHILDREN.
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.