The Eugenic Marriage Volume I Part 2

Motherhood, in its every aspect is not, and has not in the past, been elevated to the plane which a true estimate of its supreme importance to the race justifies.

Heredity as a scientific principle is undeveloped, and because of maladministration in past generations, the present generation is endeavoring to do the work, the fruits of which it should be enjoying.

Environment in its highest sense is impossible because of inadequate laws, imperfect hygienic and sanitary knowledge, incomplete education, vice and disease.

If there was not some supremely important, cardinal error somewhere, it is reasonable to suppose that in one or other of the departments of human effort we would have reached the summit of idealism. The State, as an inst.i.tution, would have evolved a perfection which would enable it to exist as an independent mechanism, complete and ideal in all its ramifications.

We have had no such state, however. The highest type of empire has been ludicrously dependent upon the minor exigencies of individual human existence.

Science would have evolved the superman, but history, as we have seen, has persistently deprived science of the material wherewith to contribute him.

The inst.i.tution of marriage would have been a fixed and an inviolable guarantee of the happiness of the home, but human wisdom has erred and the solution is as yet apparently undiscovered.

Investigation into every field of human effort shows that the ultimate aim in view, if any, was something other than the welfare of the race, as a race or as individuals.

[9]

CHAPTER II

"The public health is the foundation on which reposes the happiness of the people and the power of a country. The care of the public health is the first duty of a statesman."

LORD BEACONSFIELD.

THE EUGENIC IDEA

THE VALUE OF HUMAN LIFE--THE EUGENIC PRINCIPLE--"THE FIT ONLY SHALL LIVE"--EUGENICS AND MARRIAGE--THE VENEREAL DISEASES--THE UTILITY OF MARRIAGE CERTIFICATES--THE MARRIAGE CERTIFICATES AND VICE--EUGENICS AND PARENTHOOD--THE PRINCIPLE OF HEREDITY--EUGENICS AND MOTHERHOOD--EUGENICS AND THE HUSBAND.

The eugenist believes the cardinal error of the past has been a failure to recognize the worth or value of human life. In the past human lives have counted for absolutely nothing. As we have seen, each generation has practically deprived posterity of the best of its breed, and we shall see, when we consider the facts which affect the present vitality of the race, that the same preposterous conditions still exist.

It is not necessary to waste the reader's time in an effort to prove, simply from an argumentative standpoint, the logic of the eugenic idea.

There is no existing economic problem that has established itself so firmly in the hearts of the people who understand it, as has the study of race culture. It is not the subject, but its scope of application, that is new.

Biologically, we see the manifestations of eugenics on every side. In the flower garden we breed for beauty, in the orchard for quality. In the poultry yard and on the stock farm the same process weeds out the unfit and cultivates the desirable. The value of the eugenic idea is most strikingly ill.u.s.trated in the cultivation, or breeding, of the horse from a primitive creature into the splendid animals which represent the various types of equine present-day perfection. It has taken generations of the most [10]

painstaking intelligence to understand the traits which had to be evolved in scientific mating to reach the present standard. If the same rules, or lack of rules, applied to the mating of horses as applied to ourselves, there would be few, if any, "thoroughbreds" among them. The principle which we must recognize is that "Life is the only wealth."

Progress and efficiency will be ensured and of an enduring character, when all human effort is consecrated to this fundamental principle as a basic law, and not till then.

To cultivate the human race on prescribed scientific principles will be the supreme science of all the future, the object and the final goal of all honest governmental jurisprudence, and the ultimate judge of all true constructive legislation.

THE EUGENIC PRINCIPLE

The eugenic principle is, that "the fit only shall live." This does not mean that the unfit must die, but that only the fit shall be born.

Occasionally, as a product of bad environment, or faulty training, or eccentricity, a horse gives evidence of vicious traits, but the scientific breeder never mates him. He is allowed to die out. If he were permitted to father a race, his progeny would develop murderous characteristics that would r.e.t.a.r.d the type for generations.

THE FIT ONLY SHALL BE BORN.--This implies the exclusion of those, as parents, who are incapable of creating fit children. Fit children are children who are physically and mentally healthy. Parents who are unfit to create physically and mentally healthy children are those diseased in body or mind, especially if the disease is of the type which science has proved to be transmissible, or which directly affects the vitality of the child.

In such a category we place those who are deaf, dumb, blind, epileptic, feeble-minded, insane, criminal, consumptive, cancerous, haemophilic, syphilitic, or drunkards, and those known to be victims of disease of [11]

any other special type.

It must not be inferred that the above cla.s.sification is made arbitrarily.

There are many arguments which may be advanced limiting the eugenic applicability of certain of these diseased conditions. These, however, do not directly come within the province of the mother. They may be safely left to special state regulation. We simply make the a.s.sertion that no mother would willingly, or designedly, ally her offspring with any member of society afflicted with any of the diseases enumerated.

EUGENICS AND MARRIAGE.--The eugenic idea, practically applied to the inst.i.tution of marriage, means that no unfit person will be allowed to marry. It will be necessary for each applicant to pa.s.s a medical examination as to his, or her, physical and mental fitness. This is eminently a just decree. It will not only be a competent safeguard against marriage with those obviously diseased and incompetent, but it will render impossible marriage with those afflicted with undetected or secret disease.

Inasmuch as the latter type of disease is the foundation for most of the failures in marriage, and for most of the ills and tragedies in the lives of women, it is essential to devote special consideration to it in the interest of the mothers of the race.

It is estimated that there are more than ten million victims of venereal disease in the United States to-day. In New York City alone there are two million men and women--not including boys and girls from six to twelve years of age--actively suffering from gonorrhea and syphilis. Eight out of every ten young men, between seventeen and thirty years of age, are suffering directly or indirectly from the effects of these diseases, and a very large percentage of these cases will be conveyed to wife and children and will wreck their lives. No one but a physician can have the faintest conception of the far-reaching consequences of infection of this character.

The great White Plague is merely an incident compared to it. These diseases are largely responsible for our blind children, for the feeble-minded, for the degenerate and criminal, the incompetent and the insane. No other [12]

disease can approximate syphilis in its hideous influence upon parenthood and the future. The women of the race, and particularly the mothers, should fully appreciate the real significance of the situation as it applies to them individually. That they do not appreciate it is well known to every physician and surgeon.

It is first necessary to state certain medical facts regarding these diseases. They exist for years after all symptoms have disappeared; no evidences exist even to suggest to the patient that he, or she, is not entirely cured. After the germs have been in the patient for some time they lose a certain degree of their virility, and a condition of immunity is established. In other words the tissue ceases to be a favorable medium for the development, or activity, of the germs. If these germs, however, are conveyed to another person, who has never had the disease, or whose tissue is not immune, they will immediately resume their full activity and virulence, and will establish the disease, frequently in its most violent form, in the person so infected. The startling deduction which we must draw from these facts is, that a man may infect his wife, and may thereby be the direct cause of wrecking her entire life, and may, in addition, as a consequence of the infection, cause a child to be born blind, without even remotely suspecting that he is in any way responsible for it. In the light of this knowledge, what is the percentage risk a young girl takes when she selects a husband, remembering that eight out of every ten husbands bring these germs to the marriage bed? Reread the true story of the young woman on page five, accept my a.s.surance that there are thousands and thousands of such cases, and ask yourself, who is to blame? We may certainly a.s.sure ourselves that no man living would wilfully desecrate his bride. He did not know,--did not even suspect that the disease he had years ago was still in his system. Society is to blame--you and I--the laxity of the law is the culprit. Had he been compelled to pa.s.s a physical examination before marriage he would have been told the truth.

It is a notorious fact, that in every civilized city in the world, the number of operations that are daily performed on women, is increasing [13]

appallingly. Every surgeon knows that nine-tenths of these operations are caused, directly or indirectly, by these diseases, and in almost every case in married women, they are obtained innocently from their own husbands. It is rare to find a married woman who is not suffering from some ovarian or uterine trouble, or some obscure nervous condition, which is not amenable to the ordinary remedies, and a very large percentage of these cases are primarily caused by infection obtained in the same way.

When a girl marries she does not know what fate has in store for her, nor is there any possible way of knowing under the present marriage system. If she begets a sickly, puny child,--a.s.suming she herself has providentially escaped immediate disease,--she devotes all her mother love and devotion to it, but she is fighting a hopeless fight, as I previously explained when I stated that one-half of the total effort of one-third of the race is expended in combating conditions against which no successful effort is possible. Even her prayers are futile, because the wrong is implanted in the const.i.tution of the child, and the remedy is elsewhere. These are the tragedies of life, which no words can adequately describe, and compared to which the incidental troubles of the world are as nothing.

So long as these conditions exist need we not tremble for the future of the race? Is not this future welfare a personal issue, or can we trust the future of our daughters to the same indiscriminate fate that has written the pages of history in the past?

This problem has been debated from every possible angle without our reaching any seemingly practical solution. The promise of emanc.i.p.ation, however, came with the dawn of eugenics. It is the only solution that gives promise of immediate and reasonable success. For that reason alone it should receive the active support of every good mother in all lands.

THE UTILITY OF MARRIAGE CERTIFICATES.--There would seem to be no question as to the utility of marriage certificates. We must remember, however, that there is a distinction between marriage and parenthood, and that [14]

eugenics is concerned only with parenthood. It is interested in the inst.i.tution of marriage to the extent only that it may, by some system of regulation, be a positive and fixed factor in the production of exclusively healthy children. The eugenist demands fit children. If society can ensure fit children, as a consequence of any marriage system which may or may not include medical certification, the eugenic aim is fully met. At the present time the giving of a marriage certificate, which is really a permit to marry, would seem to be the most practical way promptly to accomplish the eugenic purpose. We should promptly question the honor of any prospective husband disposed to evade the examination simply because he was not compelled to obey by a legislative enactment.

We believe that when the public is educated to the truth and intent of eugenics, there need be no compulsory examination. Men and women will, of their own accord, desire to know if their marriage will jeopardize the race. There will be questions of heredity to elucidate, questions of inherited insanity, poison taints, of blindness and deafness, or it may be of drunkenness.

Further, marriage certificates, or permits, must be considered in regard to the future conduct of those to whom we refuse permits to marry. A refusal of the permission to marry will not change the desire to marry. Many, of course, to whom a permit is refused, will accept the situation, will be thankful to be possessed of the knowledge of their incompetency in order that they may seek medical aid. These individuals will remain under medical supervision until their ailments are cured and their competency established. In this way the eugenic aim is materially furthered. Others may not abide by the decree which forbids marriage. It would wholly defeat the eugenic idea if the unfit children were to continue to be born illegitimately. These individuals will comprise the few--probably the present unfit members of society--and the final solution of the matter must remain a question of education and evolution. When public opinion is educated to the degree necessary to establish a system of eugenic self-protection, we shall be provided with a race of children whose [15]

culture will achieve the ideal of parenthood by a process of education rather than legislation.

THE MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE AND VICE.--If a prenuptial examination were made compulsory there is no doubt of the very prompt and salutory effect it would have on present-day vice. It has often been said that "You cannot legislate virtue or sobriety into a people." We are familiar too with the maxim that "You can lead a horse to the well, but you cannot make him drink." You can lead a horse to the well, however, and lo! he drinks. If you lead him at the right time he will always drink. If we legislate at the psychological moment we can legislate virtue and sobriety into a people.

A very large percentage of existing vice is the immediate product of ignorance, and the larger percentage of the remainder is the result of propinquity and the idea that it will never be found out. Very little of it is the outcome of innate degeneracy. It is an acquired degeneracy we must guard against, and that is the special educational motive of eugenics.

Young men will be taught the truth about vice, and if they have been victims in the past, they will willingly submit themselves to a _competent_ investigation of their fitness for marriage. If they are still pure, the desire to remain so, in order to be eligible for parenthood, will guard them against the risk of contamination. This will not only result in a distinct improvement of the moral tone, but the potential possibilities to posterity will be incalculable. Legislation might therefore be the vehicle through which eugenic education could enlighten and evolve a fit race.

EUGENICS AND PARENTHOOD

If the supreme end is a better race we must recognize that the great need for society to-day is to educate for parenthood. History teaches that a civilization that dissipates its virility in profligacy or spends its energy in political and commercial trickery, and gives no thought to the character of the men and women it produces, is destined to total failure.

Parenthood and birth--in these we have the eugenic instruments of the [16]

future. The only permanent way to cure the ills of the world is to prevent the multiplication of people below a certain standard. The elevation and the actual preservation of the race depends upon rendering it impossible for the unfit coming into existence at all. In other words the unfit or unworthy must be rejected, not necessarily as individuals, but as parents.

Eugenics is allied to the principle of heredity,--the principle that enables us to modify conditions so as to ensure the right children being born. The propaganda against infant mortality is directed only toward the provision of a good environment,--so that children, when born, may survive and attain the maximum of their hereditary promise. The two campaigns are essentially complementary. The one applies only before birth, the other after birth. The statistics of infant mortality unfortunately show that it is not a process that extinguishes the unfit only. The healthy succ.u.mb to unfavorable environment and it was to amend this condition that the campaign against infant mortality was undertaken. The two campaigns appeal to the same creed: that parenthood is the supreme function of the race, that it must not be indifferently undertaken; that it demands the most careful preparation; that it is a duty which can only be carried out eugenically by the highest attainable health of body and mind and emotions.

EUGENICS AND MOTHERHOOD.--Any plan or scheme which has for its object race regeneration must concern itself with the health, the education, and the psychology of woman; the environment which shall surround her period of motherhood, and her selection of the fathers of the future. Society must safeguard her in all her relations. The race to-morrow are the babies of to-day. The wealth of a nation therefore is the type of baby that will const.i.tute its civilization from generation to generation, and absolutely nothing else counts. We hear much about race suicide, but is it not monstrous to cry for more babies when we do not know how to keep alive those we have? It is a fact that everywhere the birth rate of the Caucasian people is on the decline. Our birth rate as a whole, however, is ample;[17]

it is the death rate that is significant and appalling. When we remember that one-third of all the babies born die before they reach the age of five years; and that the deaths of babies under one year of age comprise about one-fourth of the total death-roll; and that fully one-half of all these deaths are needless and unnecessary, wherein is the wisdom of working for a higher birth rate if it is merely that more may die?

The majority of babies are born physically healthy, but because of our destructive process, we proceed to annihilate hundreds of thousands of them yearly, and because of defective environment and education we render thousands of others, including the fit and unfit, inefficient and incompetent as propagating factors. It is to remove this disastrous stigma on our intelligence that we have been forced to study the conditions which the eugenic idea represents. When these principles are understood and believed, and when they are acted upon, infant mortality will cease to exist.

It was the design of the Creator that human motherhood should be an exalted occupation. He placed in her care to nurture and to love, the most helpless living thing. Few have regarded a baby from this viewpoint and fewer still understand its supreme significance. That it is the most utterly helpless thing possessing life is a self-evident fact, and that it should be destined to be King of all mammalian tribes as well as Lord of all the earth is a superlative paradox. Because of its utter inability to care for itself it is more in need of care than any other representative of the animal world. It is not only in need of immediate care, but it demands care longer than the young of any other species.

It stands to reason, therefore, that the function of motherhood must be reckoned with in any scheme of race regeneration; that it must be provided with the most favorable environment; and that it must be relieved of any condition which would materially r.e.t.a.r.d the meeting of the obligation to its fullest possible extent. In an ideal eugenic sense the state must ensure sustenance to those deprived of ample food and raiment, and [18]