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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Pivot of Civilization + +Author: Margaret Sanger + +Release Date: November 8, 2008 [EBook #1689] +Last Updated: February 6, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PIVOT OF CIVILIZATION *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer, Dan Muller, and David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h1> + THE PIVOT OF CIVILIZATION + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Margaret Sanger + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + Contents + </h2> + <h4> + <a href="#link2H_INTR"> INTRODUCTION </a><br /> <br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0003"> THE PIVOT OF CIVILIZATION </a> + </h4> + <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto"> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I:</a> + </td> + <td> + A New Truth Emerges + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II: </a> + </td> + <td> + Conscripted Motherhood + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III: </a> + </td> + <td> + "Children Troop Down From Heaven...." + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV: </a> + </td> + <td> + The Fertility of the Feeble-Minded + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V: </a> + </td> + <td> + The Cruelty of Charity + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI: </a> + </td> + <td> + Neglected Factors of the World Problem + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII: </a> + </td> + <td> + Is Revolution the Remedy? + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII: </a> + </td> + <td> + Dangers of Cradle Competition + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX: </a> + </td> + <td> + A Moral Necessity + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X: </a> + </td> + <td> + Science the Ally + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI: </a> + </td> + <td> + Education and Expression + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII: </a> + </td> + <td> + Woman and the Future + </td> + </tr> + </table> + <p> + <a href="#link2H_APPE"> APPENDIX </a><br /> <br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0017"> + PRINCIPLES AND AIMS OF THE AMERICAN BIRTH CONTROL LEAGUE </a> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + To Alice Drysdale Vickery + </h2> + <h3> + Whose prophetic vision of liberated womanhood has been an inspiration + </h3> + <p> + "I dream of a world in which the spirits of women are flames stronger than + fire, a world in which modesty has become courage and yet remains modesty, + a world in which women are as unlike men as ever they were in the world I + sought to destroy, a world in which women shine with a loveliness of + self-revelation as enchanting as ever the old legends told, and yet a + world which would immeasurably transcend the old world in the + self-sacrificing passion of human service. I have dreamed of that world + ever since I began to dream at all." + </p> + <p> + —Havelock Ellis + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_INTR" id="link2H_INTR"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + INTRODUCTION + </h2> + <p> + Birth Control, Mrs. Sanger claims, and claims rightly, to be a question of + fundamental importance at the present time. I do not know how far one is + justified in calling it the pivot or the corner-stone of a progressive + civilization. These terms involve a criticism of metaphors that may take + us far away from the question in hand. Birth Control is no new thing in + human experience, and it has been practised in societies of the most + various types and fortunes. But there can be little doubt that at the + present time it is a test issue between two widely different + interpretations of the word civilization, and of what is good in life and + conduct. The way in which men and women range themselves in this + controversy is more simply and directly indicative of their general + intellectual quality than any other single indication. I do not wish to + imply by this that the people who oppose are more or less intellectual + than the people who advocate Birth Control, but only that they have + fundamentally contrasted general ideas,—that, mentally, they are + DIFFERENT. Very simple, very complex, very dull and very brilliant persons + may be found in either camp, but all those in either camp have certain + attitudes in common which they share with one another, and do not share + with those in the other camp. + </p> + <p> + There have been many definitions of civilization. Civilization is a + complexity of countless aspects, and may be validly defined in a great + number of relationships. A reader of James Harvey Robinson's MIND IN THE + MAKING will find it very reasonable to define a civilization as a system + of society-making ideas at issue with reality. Just so far as the system + of ideas meets the needs and conditions of survival or is able to adapt + itself to the needs and conditions of survival of the society it + dominates, so far will that society continue and prosper. We are beginning + to realize that in the past and under different conditions from our own, + societies have existed with systems of ideas and with methods of thought + very widely contrasting with what we should consider right and sane + to-day. The extraordinary neolithic civilizations of the American + continent that flourished before the coming of the Europeans, seem to have + got along with concepts that involved pedantries and cruelties and a kind + of systematic unreason, which find their closest parallels to-day in the + art and writings of certain types of lunatic. There are collections of + drawings from English and American asylums extraordinarily parallel in + their spirit and quality with the Maya inscriptions of Central America. + Yet these neolithic American societies got along for hundreds and perhaps + thousands of years, they respected seed-time and harvest, they bred and + they maintained a grotesque and terrible order. And they produced quite + beautiful works of art. Yet their surplus of population was disposed of by + an organization of sacrificial slaughter unparalleled in the records of + mankind. Many of the institutions that seemed most normal and respectable + to them, filled the invading Europeans with perplexity and horror. + </p> + <p> + When we realize clearly this possibility of civilizations being based on + very different sets of moral ideas and upon different intellectual + methods, we are better able to appreciate the profound significance of the + schism in our modern community, which gives us side by side, honest and + intelligent people who regard Birth Control as something essentially + sweet, sane, clean, desirable and necessary, and others equally honest and + with as good a claim to intelligence who regard it as not merely + unreasonable and unwholesome, but as intolerable and abominable. We are + living not in a simple and complete civilization, but in a conflict of at + least two civilizations, based on entirely different fundamental ideas, + pursuing different methods and with different aims and ends. + </p> + <p> + I will call one of these civilizations our Traditional or Authoritative + Civilization. It rests upon the thing that is, and upon the thing that has + been. It insists upon respect for custom and usage; it discourages + criticism and enquiry. It is very ancient and conservative, or, going + beyond conservation, it is reactionary. The vehement hostility of many + Catholic priests and prelates towards new views of human origins, and new + views of moral questions, has led many careless thinkers to identify this + old traditional civilization with Christianity, but that identification + ignores the strongly revolutionary and initiatory spirit that has always + animated Christianity, and is untrue even to the realities of orthodox + Catholic teaching. The vituperation of individual Catholics must not be + confused with the deliberate doctrines of the Church which have, on the + whole, been conspicuously cautious and balanced and sane in these matters. + The ideas and practices of the Old Civilization are older and more + widespread than and not identifiable with either Christian or Catholic + culture, and it will be a great misfortune if the issues between the Old + Civilization and the New are allowed to slip into the deep ruts of + religious controversies that are only accidentally and intermittently + parallel. + </p> + <p> + Contrasted with the ancient civilization, with the Traditional + disposition, which accepts institutions and moral values as though they + were a part of nature, we have what I may call—with an evident bias + in its favour—the civilization of enquiry, of experimental + knowledge, Creative and Progressive Civilization. The first great outbreak + of the spirit of this civilization was in republican Greece; the martyrdom + of Socrates, the fearless Utopianism of Plato, the ambitious + encyclopaedism of Aristotle, mark the dawn of a new courage and a new + wilfulness in human affairs. The fear of set limitations, of punitive and + restrictive laws imposed by Fate upon human life was visibly fading in + human minds. These names mark the first clear realization that to a large + extent, and possibly to an illimitable extent, man's moral and social life + and his general destiny could be seized upon and controlled by man. But—he + must have knowledge. Said the Ancient Civilization—and it says it + still through a multitude of vigorous voices and harsh repressive acts: + "Let man learn his duty and obey." Says the New Civilization, with + ever-increasing confidence: "Let man know, and trust him." + </p> + <p> + For long ages, the Old Civilization kept the New subordinate, apologetic + and ineffective, but for the last two centuries, the New has fought its + way to a position of contentious equality. The two go on side by side, + jostling upon a thousand issues. The world changes, the conditions of life + change rapidly, through that development of organized science which is the + natural method of the New Civilization. The old tradition demands that + national loyalties and ancient belligerence should continue. The new has + produced means of communication that break down the pens and separations + of human life upon which nationalist emotion depends. The old tradition + insists upon its ancient blood-letting of war; the new knowledge carries + that war to undreamt of levels of destruction. The ancient system needed + an unrestricted breeding to meet the normal waste of life through war, + pestilence, and a multitude of hitherto unpreventable diseases. The new + knowledge sweeps away the venerable checks of pestilence and disease, and + confronts us with the congestions and explosive dangers of an + over-populated world. The old tradition demands a special prolific class + doomed to labor and subservience; the new points to mechanism and to + scientific organization as a means of escape from this immemorial + subjugation. Upon every main issue in life, there is this quarrel between + the method of submission and the method of knowledge. More and more do men + of science and intelligent people generally realize the hopelessness of + pouring new wine into old bottles. More and more clearly do they grasp the + significance of the Great Teacher's parable. + </p> + <p> + The New Civilization is saying to the Old now: "We cannot go on making + power for you to spend upon international conflict. You must stop waving + flags and bandying insults. You must organize the Peace of the World; you + must subdue yourselves to the Federation of all mankind. And we cannot go + on giving you health, freedom, enlargement, limitless wealth, if all our + gifts to you are to be swamped by an indiscriminate torrent of progeny. We + want fewer and better children who can be reared up to their full + possibilities in unencumbered homes, and we cannot make the social life + and the world-peace we are determined to make, with the ill-bred, + ill-trained swarms of inferior citizens that you inflict upon us." And + there at the passionate and crucial question, this essential and + fundamental question, whether procreation is still to be a superstitious + and often disastrous mystery, undertaken in fear and ignorance, + reluctantly and under the sway of blind desires, or whether it is to + become a deliberate creative act, the two civilizations join issue now. It + is a conflict from which it is almost impossible to abstain. Our acts, our + way of living, our social tolerance, our very silences will count in this + crucial decision between the old and the new. + </p> + <p> + In a plain and lucid style without any emotional appeals, Mrs. Margaret + Sanger sets out the case of the new order against the old. There have been + several able books published recently upon the question of Birth Control, + from the point of view of a woman's personal life, and from the point of + view of married happiness, but I do not think there has been any book as + yet, popularly accessible, which presents this matter from the point of + view of the public good, and as a necessary step to the further + improvement of human life as a whole. I am inclined to think that there + has hitherto been rather too much personal emotion spent upon this + business and far too little attention given to its broader aspects. Mrs. + Sanger with her extraordinary breadth of outlook and the real scientific + quality of her mind, has now redressed the balance. She has lifted this + question from out of the warm atmosphere of troubled domesticity in which + it has hitherto been discussed, to its proper level of a predominantly + important human affair. + </p> + <p> + H.G. Wells + </p> + <p> + Easton Glebe, Dunmow, + </p> + <p> + Essex., England + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + THE PIVOT OF CIVILIZATION + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER I: A New Truth Emerges + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Be not ashamed, women, your privilege encloses the + rest, and is the exit of the rest, + You are the gates of the body, and you are the gates of + the soul. + + —Walt Whitman +</pre> + <p> + This book aims to be neither the first word on the tangled problems of + human society to-day, nor the last. My aim has been to emphasize, by the + use of concrete and challenging examples and neglected facts, the need of + a new approach to individual and social problems. Its central challenge is + that civilization, in any true sense of the word, is based upon the + control and guidance of the great natural instinct of Sex. Mastery of this + force is possible only through the instrument of Birth Control. + </p> + <p> + It may be objected that in the following pages I have rushed in where + academic scholars have feared to tread, and that as an active propagandist + I am lacking in the scholarship and documentary preparation to undertake + such a stupendous task. My only defense is that, from my point of view at + least, too many are already studying and investigating social problems + from without, with a sort of Olympian detachment. And on the other hand, + too few of those who are engaged in this endless war for human betterment + have found the time to give to the world those truths not always hidden + but practically unquarried, which may be secured only after years of + active service. + </p> + <p> + Of late, we have been treated to accounts written by well-meaning ladies + and gentlemen who have assumed clever disguises and have gone out to work—for + a week or a month—among the proletariat. But can we thus learn + anything new of the fundamental problems of working men, working women, + working children? Something, perhaps, but not those great central problems + of Hunger and Sex. We have been told that only those who themselves have + suffered the pangs of starvation can truly understand Hunger. You might + come into the closest contact with a starving man; yet, if you were + yourself well-fed, no amount of sympathy could give you actual insight + into the psychology of his suffering. This suggests an objective and a + subjective approach to all social problems. Whatever the weakness of the + subjective (or, if you prefer, the feminine) approach, it has at least the + virtue that its conclusions are tested by experience. Observation of facts + about you, intimate subjective reaction to such facts, generate in your + mind certain fundamental convictions,—truths you can ignore no more + than you can ignore such truths as come as the fruit of bitter but + valuable personal experience. + </p> + <p> + Regarding myself, I may say that my experience in the course of the past + twelve or fifteen years has been of a type to force upon me certain + convictions that demand expression. For years I had believed that the + solution of all our troubles was to be found in well-defined programmes of + political and legislative action. At first, I concentrated my whole + attention upon these, only to discover that politicians and law-makers are + just as confused and as much at a loss in solving fundamental problems as + anyone else. And I am speaking here not so much of the corrupt and + ignorant politician as of those idealists and reformers who think that by + the ballot society may be led to an earthly paradise. They may honestly + desire and intend to do great things. They may positively glow—before + election—with enthusiasm at the prospect they imagine political + victory may open to them. Time after time, I was struck by the change in + their attitude after the briefest enjoyment of this illusory power. Men + are elected during some wave of reform, let us say, elected to legislate + into practical working existence some great ideal. They want to do big + things; but a short time in office is enough to show the political + idealist that he can accomplish nothing, that his reform must be debased + and dragged into the dust, so that even if it becomes enacted, it may be + not merely of no benefit, but a positive evil. It is scarcely necessary to + emphasize this point. It is an accepted commonplace of American politics. + So much of life, so large a part of all our social problems, moreover, + remains untouched by political and legislative action. This is an old + truth too often ignored by those who plan political campaigns upon the + most superficial knowledge of human nature. + </p> + <p> + My own eyes were opened to the limitations of political action when, as an + organizer for a political group in New York, I attended by chance a + meeting of women laundry-workers who were on strike. We believed we could + help these women with a legislative measure and asked their support. "Oh! + that stuff!" exclaimed one of these women. "Don't you know that we women + might be dead and buried if we waited for politicians and lawmakers to + right our wrongs?" This set me to thinking—not merely of the + immediate problem—but to asking myself how much any male politician + could understand of the wrongs inflicted upon poor working women. + </p> + <p> + I threw the weight of my study and activity into the economic and + industrial struggle. Here I discovered men and women fired with the + glorious vision of a new world, of a proletarian world emancipated, a + Utopian world,—it glowed in romantic colours for the majority of + those with whom I came in closest contact. The next step, the immediate + step, was another matter, less romantic and too often less encouraging. In + their ardor, some of the labor leaders of that period almost convinced us + that the millennium was just around the corner. Those were the pre-war + days of dramatic strikes. But even when most under the spell of the new + vision, the sight of the overburdened wives of the strikers, with their + puny babies and their broods of under-fed children, made us stop and think + of a neglected factor in the march toward our earthly paradise. It was + well enough to ask the poor men workers to carry on the battle against + economic injustice. But what results could be expected when they were + forced in addition to carry the burden of their ever-growing families? + This question loomed large to those of us who came into intimate contact + with the women and children. We saw that in the final analysis the real + burden of economic and industrial warfare was thrust upon the frail, + all-too-frail shoulders of the children, the very babies—the coming + generation. In their wan faces, in their undernourished bodies, would be + indelibly written the bitter defeat of their parents. + </p> + <p> + The eloquence of those who led the underpaid and half-starved workers + could no longer, for me, at least, ring with conviction. Something more + than the purely economic interpretation was involved. The bitter struggle + for bread, for a home and material comfort, was but one phase of the + problem. There was another phase, perhaps even more fundamental, that had + been absolutely neglected by the adherents of the new dogmas. That other + phase was the driving power of instinct, a power uncontrolled and + unnoticed. The great fundamental instinct of sex was expressing itself in + these ever-growing broods, in the prosperity of the slum midwife and her + colleague the slum undertaker. In spite of all my sympathy with the dream + of liberated Labor, I was driven to ask whether this urging power of sex, + this deep instinct, was not at least partially responsible, along with + industrial injustice, for the widespread misery of the world. + </p> + <p> + To find an answer to this problem which at that point in my experience I + could not solve, I determined to study conditions in Europe. Perhaps there + I might discover a new approach, a great illumination. Just before the + outbreak of the war, I visited France, Spain, Germany and Great Britain. + Everywhere I found the same dogmas and prejudices among labor leaders, the + same intense but limited vision, the same insistence upon the purely + economic phases of human nature, the same belief that if the problem of + hunger were solved, the question of the women and children would take care + of itself. In this attitude I discovered, then, what seemed to me to be + purely masculine reasoning; and because it was purely masculine, it could + at best be but half true. Feminine insight must be brought to bear on all + questions; and here, it struck me, the fallacy of the masculine, the + all-too-masculine, was brutally exposed. I was encouraged and strengthened + in this attitude by the support of certain leaders who had studied human + nature and who had reached the same conclusion: that civilization could + not solve the problem of Hunger until it recognized the titanic strength + of the sexual instinct. In Spain, I found that Lorenzo Portet, who was + carrying on the work of the martyred Francisco Ferrer, had reached this + same conclusion. In Italy, Enrico Malatesta, the valiant leader who was + after the war to play so dramatic a role, was likewise combating the + current dogma of the orthodox Socialists. In Berlin, Rudolph Rocker was + engaged in the thankless task of puncturing the articles of faith of the + orthodox Marxian religion. It is quite needless to add that these men who + had probed beneath the surface of the problem and had diagnosed so much + more completely the complex malady of contemporary society were intensely + disliked by the superficial theorists of the neo-Marxian School. + </p> + <p> + The gospel of Marx had, however, been too long and too thoroughly + inculcated into the minds of millions of workers in Europe, to be + discarded. It is a flattering doctrine, since it teaches the laborer that + all the fault is with someone else, that he is the victim of + circumstances, and not even a partner in the creation of his own and his + child's misery. Not without significance was the additional discovery that + I made. I found that the Marxian influence tended to lead workers to + believe that, irrespective of the health of the poor mothers, the earning + capacity of the wage-earning fathers, or the upbringing of the children, + increase of the proletarian family was a benefit, not a detriment to the + revolutionary movement. The greater the number of hungry mouths, the + emptier the stomachs, the more quickly would the "Class War" be + precipitated. The greater the increase in population among the + proletariat, the greater the incentive to revolution. This may not be + sound Marxian theory; but it is the manner in which it is popularly + accepted. It is the popular belief, wherever the Marxian influence is + strong. This I found especially in England and Scotland. In speaking to + groups of dockworkers on strike in Glasgow, and before the communist and + co-operative guilds throughout England, I discovered a prevailing + opposition to the recognition of sex as a factor in the perpetuation of + poverty. The leaders and theorists were immovable in their opposition. But + when once I succeeded in breaking through the surface opposition of the + rank and file of the workers, I found that they were willing to recognize + the power of this neglected factor in their lives. + </p> + <p> + So central, so fundamental in the life of every man and woman is this + problem that they need be taught no elaborate or imposing theory to + explain their troubles. To approach their problems by the avenue of sex + and reproduction is to reveal at once their fundamental relations to the + whole economic and biological structure of society. Their interest is + immediately and completely awakened. But always, as I soon discovered, the + ideas and habits of thought of these submerged masses have been formed + through the Press, the Church, through political institutions, all of + which had built up a conspiracy of silence around a subject that is of no + less vital importance than that of Hunger. A great wall separates the + masses from those imperative truths that must be known and flung wide if + civilization is to be saved. As currently constituted, Church, Press, + Education seem to-day organized to exploit the ignorance and the + prejudices of the masses, rather than to light their way to + self-salvation. + </p> + <p> + Such was the situation in 1914, when I returned to America, determined, + since the exclusively masculine point of view had dominated too long, that + the other half of the truth should be made known. The Birth Control + movement was launched because it was in this form that the whole relation + of woman and child—eternal emblem of the future of society—could + be more effectively dramatized. The amazing growth of this movement dates + from the moment when in my home a small group organized the first Birth + Control League. Since then we have been criticized for our choice of the + term "Birth Control" to express the idea of modern scientific + contraception. I have yet to hear any criticism of this term that is not + based upon some false and hypocritical sense of modesty, or that does not + arise out of a semi-prurient misunderstanding of its aim. On the other + hand: nothing better expresses the idea of purposive, responsible, and + self-directed guidance of the reproductive powers. + </p> + <p> + Those critics who condemn Birth Control as a negative, destructive idea, + concerned only with self-gratification, might profitably open the nearest + dictionary for a definition of "control." There they would discover that + the verb "control" means to exercise a directing, guiding, or restraining + influence;—to direct, to regulate, to counteract. Control is + guidance, direction, foresight. It implies intelligence, forethought and + responsibility. They will find in the Standard Dictionary a quotation from + Lecky to the effect that, "The greatest of all evils in politics is power + without control." In what phase of life is not "power without control" an + evil? Birth Control, therefore, means not merely the limitation of births, + but the application of intelligent guidance over the reproductive power. + It means the substitution of reason and intelligence for the blind play of + instinct. + </p> + <p> + The term "Birth Control" had the immense practical advantage of + compressing into two short words the answer to the inarticulate demands of + millions of men and women in all countries. At the time this slogan was + formulated, I had not yet come to the complete realization of the great + truth that had been thus crystallized. It was the response to the + overwhelming, heart-breaking appeals that came by every mail for aid and + advice, which revealed a great truth that lay dormant, a truth that seemed + to spring into full vitality almost over night—that could never + again be crushed to earth! + </p> + <p> + Nor could I then have realized the number and the power of the enemies who + were to be aroused into activity by this idea. So completely was I + dominated by this conviction of the efficacy of "control," that I could + not until later realize the extent of the sacrifices that were to be + exacted of me and of those who supported my campaign. The very idea of + Birth Control resurrected the spirit of the witch-hunters of Salem. Could + they have usurped the power, they would have burned us at the stake. + Lacking that power, they used the weapon of suppression, and invoked + medieval statutes to send us to jail. These tactics had an effect the very + opposite to that intended. They demonstrated the vitality of the idea of + Birth Control, and acted as counter-irritant on the actively intelligent + sections of the American community. Nor was the interest aroused confined + merely to America. The neo-Malthusian movement in Great Britain with its + history of undaunted bravery, came to our support; and I had the comfort + of knowing that the finest minds of England did not hesitate a moment in + the expression of their sympathy and support. + </p> + <p> + In America, on the other hand, I found from the beginning until very + recently that the so-called intellectuals exhibited a curious and almost + inexplicable reticence in supporting Birth Control. They even hesitated to + voice any public protest against the campaign to crush us which was + inaugurated and sustained by the most reactionary and sinister forces in + American life. It was not inertia or any lack of interest on the part of + the masses that stood in our way. It was the indifference of the + intellectual leaders. + </p> + <p> + Writers, teachers, ministers, editors, who form a class dictating, if not + creating, public opinion, are, in this country, singularly inhibited or + unconscious of their true function in the community. One of their first + duties, it is certain, should be to champion the constitutional right of + free speech and free press, to welcome any idea that tends to awaken the + critical attention of the great American public. But those who reveal + themselves as fully cognizant of this public duty are in the minority, and + must possess more than average courage to survive the enmity such an + attitude provokes. + </p> + <p> + One of the chief aims of the present volume is to stimulate American + intellectuals to abandon the mental habits which prevent them from seeing + human nature as a whole, instead of as something that can be pigeonholed + into various compartments or classes. Birth Control affords an approach to + the study of humanity because it cuts through the limitations of current + methods. It is economic, biological, psychological and spiritual in its + aspects. It awakens the vision of mankind moving and changing, of humanity + growing and developing, coming to fruition, of a race creative, flowering + into beautiful expression through talent and genius. + </p> + <p> + As a social programme, Birth Control is not merely concerned with + population questions. In this respect, it is a distinct step in advance of + earlier Malthusian doctrines, which concerned themselves chiefly with + economics and population. Birth Control concerns itself with the spirit no + less than the body. It looks for the liberation of the spirit of woman and + through woman of the child. To-day motherhood is wasted, penalized, + tortured. Children brought into the world by unwilling mothers suffer an + initial handicap that cannot be measured by cold statistics. Their lives + are blighted from the start. To substantiate this fact, I have chosen to + present the conclusions of reports on Child Labor and records of defect + and delinquency published by organizations with no bias in favour of Birth + Control. The evidence is before us. It crowds in upon us from all sides. + But prior to this new approach, no attempt had been made to correlate the + effects of the blind and irresponsible play of the sexual instinct with + its deep-rooted causes. + </p> + <p> + The duty of the educator and the intellectual creator of public opinion + is, in this connection, of the greatest importance. For centuries official + moralists, priests, clergymen and teachers, statesmen and politicians have + preached the doctrine of glorious and divine fertility. To-day, we are + confronted with the world-wide spectacle of the realization of this + doctrine. It is not without significance that the moron and the imbecile + set the pace in living up to this teaching, and that the intellectuals, + the educators, the archbishops, bishops, priests, who are most insistent + on it, are the staunchest adherents in their own lives of celibacy and + non-fertility. It is time to point out to the champions of unceasing and + indiscriminate fertility the results of their teaching. + </p> + <p> + One of the greatest difficulties in giving to the public a book of this + type is the impossibility of keeping pace with the events and changes of a + movement that is now, throughout the world, striking root and growing. The + changed attitude of the American Press indicates that enlightened public + opinion no longer tolerates a policy of silence upon a question of the + most vital importance. Almost simultaneously in England and America, two + incidents have broken through the prejudice and the guarded silence of + centuries. At the church Congress in Birmingham, October 12, 1921, Lord + Dawson, the king's physician, in criticizing the report of the Lambeth + Conference concerning Birth Control, delivered an address defending this + practice. Of such bravery and eloquence that it could not be ignored, this + address electrified the entire British public. It aroused a storm of + abuse, and yet succeeded, as no propaganda could, in mobilizing the forces + of progress and intelligence in the support of the cause. + </p> + <p> + Just one month later, the First American Birth Control Conference + culminated in a significant and dramatic incident. At the close of the + conference a mass meeting was scheduled in the Town Hall, New York City, + to discuss the morality of Birth Control. Mr. Harold Cox, editor of the + Edinburgh Review, who had come to New York to attend the conference, was + to lead the discussion. It seemed only natural for us to call together + scientists, educators, members of the medical profession, and theologians + of all denominations, to ask their opinion upon this uncertain and + important phase of the controversy. Letters were sent to eminent men and + women in different parts of the world. In this letter we asked the + following questions:— + </p> + <p> + 1. Is over-population a menace to the peace of the world? + </p> + <p> + 2. Would the legal dissemination of scientific Birth Control information, + through the medium of clinics by the medical profession, be the most + logical method of checking the problem of over-population? + </p> + <p> + 3. Would knowledge of Birth Control change the moral attitude of men and + women toward the marriage bond, or lower the moral standards of the youth + of the country? + </p> + <p> + 4. Do you believe that knowledge which enables parents to limit their + families will make for human happiness, and raise the moral, social and + intellectual standards of population? + </p> + <p> + We sent this questionnaire not only to those who we thought might agree + with us, but we sent it also to our known opponents. + </p> + <p> + When I arrived at the Town Hall the entrance was guarded by policemen. + They told me there would be no meeting. Before my arrival our executives + had been greeted by Monsignor Dineen, secretary of Archbishop Hayes, of + the Roman Catholic archdiocese, who informed them that the meeting would + be prohibited on the ground that it was contrary to public morals. The + police had closed the doors. When they opened them to permit the exit of + the large audience which had gathered, Mr. Cox and I entered. I attempted + to exercise my constitutional right of free speech, but was prohibited and + arrested. Miss Mary Winsor, who protested against this unwarranted arrest, + was likewise dragged off to the police station. The case was dismissed the + following morning. The ecclesiastic instigators of the affair were + conspicuous by their absence from the police court. But the incident was + enough to expose the opponents of Birth Control and the extreme methods + they used to combat our progress. The case was too flagrant, too gross an + affront, to pass unnoticed by the newspapers. The progress of our movement + was indicated in the changed attitude of the American Press, which had + perceived the danger to the public of the unlawful tactics used by the + enemies of Birth Control in preventing open discussion of a vital + question. + </p> + <p> + No social idea has inspired its advocates with more bravery, tenacity, and + courage than Birth Control. From the early days of Francis Place and + Richard Carlile, to those of the Drysdales and Edward Trulove, of + Bradlaugh and Mrs. Annie Besant, its advocates have faced imprisonment and + ostracism. In the whole history of the English movement, there has been no + more courageous figure than that of the venerable Alice Drysdale Vickery, + the undaunted torch-bearer who has bridged the silence of forty-four years—since + the Bradlaugh-Besant trial. She stands head and shoulders above the + professional feminists. Serenely has she withstood jeers and jests. + To-day, she continues to point out to the younger generation which is + devoted to newer palliatives the fundamental relation between Sex and + Hunger. + </p> + <p> + The First American Birth Control Conference, held at the same time as the + Washington Conference for the Limitation of Armaments, marks a + turning-point in our approach to social problems. The Conference made + evident the fact that in every field of scientific and social endeavour + the most penetrating thinkers are now turning to the consideration of our + problem as a fundamental necessity to American civilization. They are + coming to see that a QUALITATIVE factor as opposed to a QUANTITATIVE one + is of primary importance in dealing with the great masses of humanity. + </p> + <p> + Certain fundamental convictions should be made clear here. The programme + for Birth Control is not a charity. It is not aiming to interfere in the + private lives of poor people, to tell them how many children they should + have, nor to sit in judgment upon their fitness to become parents. It + aims, rather, to awaken responsibility, to answer the demand for a + scientific means by which and through which each human life may be + self-directed and self-controlled. The exponent of Birth Control, in + short, is convinced that social regeneration, no less than individual + regeneration, must come from within. Every potential parent, and + especially every potential mother, must be brought to an acute realization + of the primary and individual responsibility of bringing children into + this world. Not until the parents of this world are given control over + their reproductive faculties will it be possible to improve the quality of + the generations of the future, or even to maintain civilization at its + present level. Only when given intelligent mastery of the procreative + powers can the great mass of humanity be aroused to a realization of + responsibility of parenthood. We have come to the conclusion, based on + widespread investigation and experience, that education for parenthood + must be based upon the needs and demands of the people themselves. An + idealistic code of sexual ethics, imposed from above, a set of rules + devised by high-minded theorists who fail to take into account the living + conditions and desires of the masses, can never be of the slightest value + in effecting change in the customs of the people. Systems so imposed in + the past have revealed their woeful inability to prevent the sexual and + racial chaos into which the world has drifted. + </p> + <p> + The universal demand for practical education in Birth Control is one of + the most hopeful signs that the masses themselves to-day possess the + divine spark of regeneration. It remains for the courageous and the + enlightened to answer this demand, to kindle the spark, to direct a + thorough education in sex hygiene based upon this intense interest. + </p> + <p> + Birth Control is thus the entering wedge for the educator. In answering + the needs of these thousands upon thousands of submerged mothers, it is + possible to use their interest as the foundation for education in + prophylaxis, hygiene and infant welfare. The potential mother can then be + shown that maternity need not be slavery but may be the most effective + avenue to self-development and self-realization. Upon this basis only may + we improve the quality of the race. + </p> + <p> + The lack of balance between the birth-rate of the "unfit" and the "fit," + admittedly the greatest present menace to the civilization, can never be + rectified by the inauguration of a cradle competition between these two + classes. The example of the inferior classes, the fertility of the + feeble-minded, the mentally defective, the poverty-stricken, should not be + held up for emulation to the mentally and physically fit, and therefore + less fertile, parents of the educated and well-to-do classes. On the + contrary, the most urgent problem to-day is how to limit and discourage + the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective. Possibly + drastic and Spartan methods may be forced upon American society if it + continues complacently to encourage the chance and chaotic breeding that + has resulted from our stupid, cruel sentimentalism. + </p> + <p> + To effect the salvation of the generations of the future—nay, of the + generations of to-day—our greatest need, first of all, is the + ability to face the situation without flinching; to cooperate in the + formation of a code of sexual ethics based upon a thorough biological and + psychological understanding of human nature; and then to answer the + questions and the needs of the people with all the intelligence and + honesty at our command. If we can summon the bravery to do this, we shall + best be serving the pivotal interests of civilization. + </p> + <p> + To conclude this introduction: my initiation, as I have confessed, was + primarily an emotional one. My interest in Birth Control was awakened by + experience. Research and investigation have followed. Our effort has been + to raise our program from the plane of the emotional to the plane of the + scientific. Any social progress, it is my belief, must purge itself of + sentimentalism and pass through the crucible of science. We are willing to + submit Birth Control to this test. It is part of the purpose of this book + to appeal to the scientist for aid, to arouse that interest which will + result in widespread research and investigation. I believe that my + personal experience with this idea must be that of the race at large. We + must temper our emotion and enthusiasm with the impersonal determination + of science. We must unite in the task of creating an instrument of steel, + strong but supple, if we are to triumph finally in the war for human + emancipation. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II: Conscripted Motherhood + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Their poor, old ravaged and stiffened faces, their poor, + old bodies dried up with ceaseless toil, their patient souls + made me weep. They are our conscripts. They are the venerable + ones whom we should reverence. All the mystery of womanhood + seems incarnated in their ugly being—the Mothers! the Mothers! + Ye are all one!" + + —From the Letters of William James +</pre> + <p> + Motherhood, which is not only the oldest but the most important profession + in the world, has received few of the benefits of civilization. It is a + curious fact that a civilization devoted to mother-worship, that publicly + professes a worship of mother and child, should close its eyes to the + appalling waste of human life and human energy resulting from those dire + consequences of leaving the whole problem of child-bearing to chance and + blind instinct. It would be untrue to say that among the civilized nations + of the world to-day, the profession of motherhood remains in a barbarous + state. The bitter truth is that motherhood, among the larger part of our + population, does not rise to the level of the barbarous or the primitive. + Conditions of life among the primitive tribes were rude enough and severe + enough to prevent the unhealthy growth of sentimentality, and to + discourage the irresponsible production of defective children. Moreover, + there is ample evidence to indicate that even among the most primitive + peoples the function of maternity was recognized as of primary and central + importance to the community. + </p> + <p> + If we define civilization as increased and increasing responsibility based + on vision and foresight, it becomes painfully evident that the profession + of motherhood as practised to-day is in no sense civilized. Educated + people derive their ideas of maternity for the most part, either from the + experience of their own set, or from visits to impressive hospitals where + women of the upper classes receive the advantages of modern science and + modern nursing. From these charming pictures they derive their complacent + views of the beauty of motherhood and their confidence for the future of + the race. The other side of the picture is revealed only to the trained + investigator, to the patient and impartial observer who visits not merely + one or two "homes of the poor," but makes detailed studies of town after + town, obtains the history of each mother, and finally correlates and + analyzes this evidence. Upon such a basis are we able to draw conclusions + concerning this strange business of bringing children into the world. + </p> + <p> + Every year I receive thousands of letters from women in all parts of + America, desperate appeals to aid them to extricate themselves from the + trap of compulsory maternity. Lest I be accused of bias and exaggeration + in drawing my conclusions from these painful human documents, I prefer to + present a number of typical cases recorded in the reports of the United + States Government, and in the evidence of trained and impartial + investigators of social agencies more generally opposed to the doctrine of + Birth Control than biased in favor of it. + </p> + <p> + A perusal of the reports on infant mortality in widely varying industrial + centers of the United States, published during the past decade by the + Children's Bureau of the United States Department of Labor, forces us to a + realization of the immediate need of detailed statistics concerning the + practice and results of uncontrolled breeding. Some such effort as this + has been made by the Galton Laboratory of National Eugenics in Great + Britain. The Children's Bureau reports only incidentally present this + impressive evidence. They fail to coordinate it. While there is always the + danger of drawing giant conclusions from pigmy premises, here is + overwhelming evidence concerning irresponsible parenthood that is ignored + by governmental and social agencies. + </p> + <p> + I have chosen a small number of typical cases from these reports. Though + drawn from widely varying sources, they all emphasize the greatest crime + of modern civilization—that of permitting motherhood to be left to + blind chance, and to be mainly a function of the most abysmally ignorant + and irresponsible classes of the community. + </p> + <p> + Here is a fairly typical case from Johnstown, Pennsylvania. A woman of + thirty-eight years had undergone thirteen pregnancies in seventeen years. + Of eleven live births and two premature stillbirths, only two children + were alive at the time of the government agent's visit. The second to + eighth, the eleventh and the thirteenth had died of bowel trouble, at ages + ranging from three weeks to four months. The only cause of these deaths + the mother could give was that "food did not agree with them." She + confessed quite frankly that she believed in feeding babies, and gave them + everything anybody told her to give them. She began to give them at the + age of one month, bread, potatoes, egg, crackers, etc. For the last baby + that died, this mother had bought a goat and gave its milk to the baby; + the goat got sick, but the mother continued to give her baby its milk + until the goat went dry. Moreover, she directed the feeding of her + daughter's baby until it died at the age of three months. "On account of + the many children she had had, the neighbors consider her an authority on + baby care." + </p> + <p> + Lest this case be considered too tragically ridiculous to be accepted as + typical, the reader may verify it with an almost interminable list of + similar cases.(1) Parental irresponsibility is significantly illustrated + in another case: + </p> + <p> + A mother who had four live births and two stillbirths in twelve years lost + all of her babies during their first year. She was so anxious that at + least one child should live that she consulted a physician concerning the + care of the last one. "Upon his advice," to quote the government report, + "she gave up her twenty boarders immediately after the child's birth, and + devoted all her time to it. Thinks she did not stop her hard work soon + enough; says she has always worked too hard, keeping boarders in this + country, and cutting wood and carrying it and water on her back in the old + country. Also says the carrying of water and cases of beer in this country + is a great strain on her." But the illuminating point in this case is that + the father was furious because all the babies died. To show his disrespect + for the wife who could only give birth to babies that died, he wore a red + necktie to the funeral of the last. Yet this woman, the government agent + reports, would follow and profit by any instruction that might be given + her. + </p> + <p> + It is true that the cases reported from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, do not + represent completely "Americanized" families. This lack does not prevent + them, however, by their unceasing fertility from producing the Americans + of to-morrow. Of the more immediate conditions surrounding child-birth, we + are presented with this evidence, given by one woman concerning the birth + of her last child: + </p> + <p> + On five o'clock on Wednesday evening she went to her sister's house to + return a washboard, after finishing a day's washing. The baby was born + while she was there. Her sister was too young to aid her in any way. She + was not accustomed to a midwife, she confessed. She cut the cord herself, + washed the new-born baby at her sister's house, walked home, cooked supper + for her boarders, and went to bed by eight o'clock. The next day she got + up and ironed. This tired her out, she said, so she stayed in bed for two + whole days. She milked cows the day after the birth of the baby and sold + the milk as well. Later in the week, when she became tired, she hired + someone to do that portion of her work. This woman, we are further + informed, kept cows, chickens, and lodgers, and earned additional money by + doing laundry and charwork. At times her husband deserted her. His + earnings amounted to $1.70 a day, while a fifteen-year-old son earned + $1.10 in a coal mine. + </p> + <p> + One searches in vain for some picture of sacred motherhood, as depicted in + popular plays and motion pictures, something more normal and encouraging. + Then one comes to the bitter realization that these, in very truth, are + the "normal" cases, not the exceptions. The exceptions are apt to + indicate, instead, the close relationship of this irresponsible and chance + parenthood to the great social problems of feeble-mindedness, crime and + syphilis. + </p> + <p> + Nor is this type of motherhood confined to newly arrived immigrant + mothers, as a government report from Akron, Ohio, sufficiently indicates. + In this city, the government agents discovered that more than five hundred + mothers were ignorant of the accepted principles of infant feeding, or, if + familiar with them, did not practise them. "This ignorance or indifference + was not confined to foreign-born mothers.... A native mother reported that + she gave her two-weeks-old baby ice cream, and that before his sixth + month, he was sitting at the table `eating everything."' This was in a + town in which there were comparatively few cases of extreme poverty. + </p> + <p> + The degradation of motherhood, the damnation of the next generation before + it is born, is exposed in all its catastrophic misery, in the reports of + the National Consumers' League. In her report of living conditions among + night-working mothers in thirty-nine textile mills in Rhode Island, based + on exhaustive studies, Mrs. Florence Kelley describes the "normal" life of + these women: + </p> + <p> + "When the worker, cruelly tired from ten hours' work, comes home in the + early morning, she usually scrambles together breakfast for the family. + Eating little or nothing herself, and that hastily, she tumbles into bed—not + the immaculate bed in an airy bed-room with dark shades, but one still + warm from its night occupants, in a stuffy little bed-room, darkened + imperfectly if at all. After sleeping exhaustedly for an hour perhaps she + bestirs herself to get the children off to school, or care for insistent + little ones, too young to appreciate that mother is tired out and must + sleep. Perhaps later in the forenoon, she again drops into a fitful sleep, + or she may have to wait until after dinner. There is the midday meal to + get, and, if her husband cannot come home, his dinner-pail to pack with a + hot lunch to be sent or carried to him. If he is not at home, the lunch is + rather a makeshift. The midday meal is scarcely over before supper must be + thought of. This has to be eaten hurriedly before the family are ready, + for the mother must be in the mill at work, by 6, 6:30 or 7 P.M.... Many + women in their inadequate English, summed up their daily routine by, 'Oh, + me all time tired. TOO MUCH WORK, TOO MUCH BABY, TOO LITTLE SLEEP!'" + </p> + <p> + "Only sixteen of the 166 married women were without children; thirty-two + had three or more; twenty had children one year old or under. There were + 160 children under school-age, below six years, and 246 of school age." + </p> + <p> + "A woman in ordinary circumstances," adds this impartial investigator, + "with a husband and three children, if she does her own work, feels that + her hands are full. How these mill-workers, many of them frail-looking, + and many with confessedly poor health, can ever do two jobs is a mystery, + when they are seen in their homes dragging about, pale, hollow-eyed and + listless, often needlessly sharp and impatient with the children. These + children are not only not mothered, never cherished, they are nagged and + buffeted. The mothers are not superwomen, and like all human beings, they + have a certain amount of strength and when that breaks, their nerves + suffer." + </p> + <p> + We are presented with a vivid picture of one of these slave-mothers: a + woman of thirty-eight who looks at least fifty with her worn, furrowed + face. Asked why she had been working at night for the past two years, she + pointed to a six-months old baby she was carrying, to the five small + children swarming about her, and answered laconically, "Too much + children!" She volunteered the information that there had been two more + who had died. When asked why they had died, the poor mother shrugged her + shoulders listlessly, and replied, "Don't know." In addition to bearing + and rearing these children, her work would sap the vitality of any + ordinary person. "She got home soon after four in the morning, cooked + breakfast for the family and ate hastily herself. At 4.30 she was in bed, + staying there until eight. But part of that time was disturbed for the + children were noisy and the apartment was a tiny, dingy place in a + basement. At eight she started the three oldest boys to school, and + cleaned up the debris of breakfast and of supper the night before. At + twelve she carried a hot lunch to her husband and had dinner ready for the + three school children. In the afternoon, there were again dishes and + cooking, and caring for three babies aged five, three years, and six + months. At five, supper was ready for the family. The mother ate by + herself and was off to work at 5:45." + </p> + <p> + Another of the night-working mothers was a frail looking Frenchwoman of + twenty-seven years, with a husband and five children ranging from eight + years to fourteen months. Three other children had died. When visited, she + was doing a huge washing. She was forced into night work to meet the + expenses of the family. She estimated that she succeeded in getting five + hours' sleep during the day. "I take my baby to bed with me, but he cries, + and my little four-year-old boy cries, too, and comes in to make me get + up, so you can't call that a very good sleep." + </p> + <p> + The problem among unmarried women or those without family is not the same, + this investigator points out. "They sleep longer by day than they normally + would by night." We are also informed that pregnant women work at night in + the mills, sometimes up to the very hour of delivery. "It's queer," + exclaimed a woman supervisor of one of the Rhode Island mills, "but some + women, both on the day and the night shift, will stick to their work right + up to the last minute, and will use every means to deceive you about their + condition. I go around and talk to them, but make little impression. We + have had several narrow escapes.... A Polish mother with five children had + worked in a mill by day or by night, ever since her marriage, stopping + only to have her babies. One little girl had died several years ago, and + the youngest child, says Mrs. Kelley, did not look promising. It had none + of the charm of babyhood; its body and clothing were filthy; and its lower + lip and chin covered with repulsive black sores." + </p> + <p> + It should be remembered that the Consumers' League, which publishes these + reports on women in industry, is not advocating Birth Control education, + but is aiming "to awaken responsibility for conditions under which goods + are produced, and through investigation, education and legislation, to + mobilize public opinion in behalf of enlightened standards for workers and + honest products for all." Nevertheless, in Miss Agnes de Lima's report of + conditions in Passaic, New Jersey, we find the same tale of penalized, + prostrate motherhood, bearing the crushing burden of economic injustice + and cruelty; the same blind but overpowering instincts of love and hunger + driving young women into the factories to work, night in and night out, to + support their procession of uncared for and undernourished babies. It is + the married women with young children who work on the inferno-like shifts. + They are driven to it by the low wages of their husbands. They choose + night work in order to be with their children in the daytime. They are + afraid of the neglect and ill-treatment the children might receive at the + hands of paid caretakers. Thus they condemn themselves to eighteen or + twenty hours of daily toil. Surely no mother with three, four, five or six + children can secure much rest by day. + </p> + <p> + "Take almost any house"—we read in the report of conditions in New + Jersey—"knock at almost any door and you will find a weary, tousled + woman, half-dressed, doing her housework, or trying to snatch an hour or + two of sleep after her long night of work in the mill. ... The facts are + there for any one to see; the hopeless and exhausted woman, her cluttered + three or four rooms, the swarm of sickly and neglected children." + </p> + <p> + These women claimed that night work was unavoidable, as their husbands + received so little pay. This in spite of all our vaunted "high wages." + Only three women were found who went into the drudgery of night work + without being obliged to do so. Two had no children, and their husbands' + earnings were sufficient for their needs. One of these was saving for a + trip to Europe, and chose the night shift because she found it less + strenuous than the day. Only four of the hundred women reported upon were + unmarried, and ninety-two of the married women had children. Of the four + childless married women, one had lost two children, and another was + recovering from a recent miscarriage. There were five widows. The average + number of children was three in a family. Thirty-nine of the mothers had + four or more. Three of them had six children, and six of them had seven + children apiece. These women ranged between the ages of twenty-five and + forty, and more than half the children were less than seven years of age. + Most of them had babies of one, two and three years of age. + </p> + <p> + At the risk of repetition, we quote one of the typical cases reported by + Miss De Lima with features practically identical with the individual cases + reported from Rhode Island. It is of a mother who comes home from work at + 5:30 every morning, falls on the bed from exhaustion, arises again at + eight or nine o'clock to see that the older children are sent off to + school. A son of five, like the rest of the children, is on a diet of + coffee,—milk costs too much. After the children have left for + school, the overworked mother again tries to sleep, though the small son + bothers her a great deal. Besides, she must clean the house, wash, iron, + mend, sew and prepare the midday meal. She tries to snatch a little sleep + in the afternoon, but explains: "When you got big family, all time work. + Night-time in mill drag so long, so long; day-time in home go so quick." + By five, this mother must get the family's supper ready, and dress for the + night's work, which begins at seven. The investigator further reports: + "The next day was a holiday, and for a diversion, Mrs. N. thought she + would go up to the cemetery: `I got some children up there,' she + explained, `and same time I get some air. No, I don't go nowheres, just to + the mill and then home."' + </p> + <p> + Here again, as in all reports on women in industry, we find the prevalence + of pregnant women working on night-shifts, often to the very day of their + delivery. "Oh, yes, plenty women, big bellies, work in the night time," + one of the toiling mothers volunteered. "Shame they go, but what can do?" + The abuse was general. Many mothers confessed that owing to poverty they + themselves worked up to the last week or even day before the birth of + their children. Births were even reported in one of the mills during the + night shift. A foreman told of permitting a night-working woman to leave + at 6.30 one morning, and of the birth of her baby at 7.30. Several women + told of leaving the day-shift because of pregnancy and of securing places + on the night-shift where their condition was less conspicuous, and the + bosses more tolerant. One mother defended her right to stay at work, says + the report, claiming that as long as she could do her work, it was + nobody's business. In a doorway sat a sickly and bloodless woman in an + advanced stage of pregnancy. Her first baby had died of general debility. + She had worked at night in the mill until the very day of its birth. This + time the boss had told her she could stay if she wished, but reminded her + of what had happened last time. So she had stopped work, as the baby was + expected any day. + </p> + <p> + Again and again we read the same story, which varied only in detail: the + mother in the three black rooms; the sagging porch overflowing with pale + and sickly children; the over-worked mother of seven, still nursing her + youngest, who is two or three months old. Worn and haggard, with a + skeleton-like child pulling at her breast, the women tries to make the + investigator understand. The grandmother helps to interpret. "She never + sleeps," explains the old woman, "how can she with so many children?" She + works up to the last moment before her baby comes, and returns to work as + soon as they are four weeks old. + </p> + <p> + Another apartment in the same house; another of those night-working + mothers, who had just stopped because she is pregnant. The boss had kindly + given her permission to stay on, but she found the reaching on the heavy + spinning machines too hard. Three children, ranging in age from five to + twelve years, are all sickly and forlorn and must be cared for. There is a + tubercular husband, who is unable to work steadily, and is able to bring + in only $12 a week. Two of the babies had died, one because the mother had + returned to work too soon after its birth and had lost her milk. She had + fed him tea and bread, "so he died." + </p> + <p> + The most heartrending feature of it all—in these homes of the + mothers who work at night—is the expression in the faces of the + children; children of chance, dressed in rags, undernourished, + underclothed, all predisposed to the ravages of chronic and epidemic + disease. + </p> + <p> + The reports on infant mortality published under the direction of the + Children's Bureau substantiate for the United States of America the + findings of the Galton Laboratory for Great Britain, showing that an + abnormally high rate of fertility is usually associated with poverty, + filth, disease, feeblemindedness and a high infant mortality rate. It is a + commonplace truism that a high birth-rate is accompanied by a high + infant-mortality rate. No longer is it necessary to dissociate cause and + effect, to try to determine whether the high birth rate is the cause of + the high infant mortality rate. It is sufficient to know that they are + organically correlated along with other anti-social factors detrimental to + individual, national and racial welfare. The figures presented by Hibbs + (2) likewise reveal a much higher infant mortality rate for the later born + children of large families. + </p> + <p> + The statistics which show that the greatest number of children are born to + parents whose earnings are the lowest,(3) that the direst poverty is + associated with uncontrolled fecundity emphasize the character of the + parenthood we are depending upon to create the race of the future. + </p> + <p> + A distinguished American opponent of Birth Control some years ago spoke of + the "racial" value of this high infant mortality rate among the "unfit." + He forgot, however, that the survival-rate of the children born of these + overworked and fatigued mothers may nevertheless be large enough, aided + and abetted by philanthropies and charities, to form the greater part of + the population of to-morrow. As Dr. Karl Pearson has stated: "Degenerate + stocks under present social conditions are not short-lived; they live to + have more than the normal size of family." + </p> + <p> + Reports of charitable organizations; the famous "one hundred neediest + cases" presented every year by the New York Times to arouse the + sentimental generosity of its readers; statistics of public and private + hospitals, charities and corrections; analyses of pauperism in town and + country—all tell the same tale of uncontrolled and irresponsible + fecundity. The facts, the figures, the appalling truth are there for all + to read. It is only in the remedy proposed, the effective solution, that + investigators and students of the problem disagree. + </p> + <p> + Confronted with the "startling and disgraceful" conditions of affairs + indicated by the fact that a quarter of a million babies die every year in + the United States before they are one year old, and that no less than + 23,000 women die in childbirth, a large number of experts and enthusiasts + have placed their hopes in maternity-benefit measures. + </p> + <p> + Such measures sharply illustrate the superficial and fragmentary manner in + which the whole problem of motherhood is studied to-day. It seeks a + LAISSER FAIRE policy of parenthood or marriage, with an indiscriminating + paternalism concerning maternity. It is as though the Government were to + say: "Increase and multiply; we shall assume the responsibility of keeping + your babies alive." Even granting that the administration of these + measures might be made effective and effectual, which is more than + doubtful, we see that they are based upon a complete ignorance or + disregard of the most important fact in the situation—that of + indiscriminate and irresponsible fecundity. They tacitly assume that all + parenthood is desirable, that all children should be born, and that infant + mortality can be controlled by external aid. In the great world-problem of + creating the men and women of to-morrow, it is not merely a question of + sustaining the lives of all children, irrespective of their hereditary and + physical qualities, to the point where they, in turn, may reproduce their + kind. Advocates of Birth Control offer and accept no such superficial + solution. This philosophy is based upon a clearer vision and a more + profound comprehension of human life. Of immediate relief for the crushed + and enslaved motherhood of the world through State aid, no better + criticism has been made than that of Havelock Ellis: + </p> + <p> + "To the theoretical philanthropist, eager to reform the world on paper, + nothing seems simpler than to cure the present evils of child-rearing by + setting up State nurseries which are at once to relieve mothers of + everything connected with the men of the future beyond the pleasure—if + such it happens to be—of conceiving them, and the trouble of bearing + them, and at the same time to rear them up independently of the home, in a + wholesome, economical and scientific manner. Nothing seems simpler, but + from the fundamental psychological point of view nothing is falser.... A + State which admits that the individuals composing it are incompetent to + perform their most sacred and intimate functions, and takes it upon itself + to perform them itself instead, attempts a task that would be undesirable, + even if it were possible of achievement.(4)" It may be replied that + maternity benefit measures aim merely to aid mothers more adequately to + fulfil their biological and social functions. But from the point of view + of Birth Control, that will never be possible until the crushing + exigencies of overcrowding are removed—overcrowding of pregnancies + as well as of homes. As long as the mother remains the passive victim of + blind instinct, instead of the conscious, responsible instrument of the + life-force, controlling and directing its expression, there can be no + solution to the intricate and complex problems that confront the whole + world to-day. This is, of course, impossible as long as women are driven + into the factories, on night as well as day shifts, as long as children + and girls and young women are driven into industries to labor that is + physically deteriorating as a preparation for the supreme function of + maternity. + </p> + <p> + The philosophy of Birth Control insists that motherhood, no less than any + other human function, must undergo scientific study, must be voluntarily + directed and controlled with intelligence and foresight. As long as we + countenance what H. G. Wells has well termed "the monstrous absurdity of + women discharging their supreme social function, bearing and rearing + children, in their spare time, as it were, while they `earn their living' + by contributing some half-mechanical element to some trivial industrial + product" any attempt to furnish "maternal education" is bound to fall on + stony ground. Children brought into the world as the chance consequences + of the blind play of uncontrolled instinct, become likewise the helpless + victims of their environment. It is because children are cheaply conceived + that the infant mortality rate is high. But the greatest evil, perhaps the + greatest crime, of our so-called civilization of to-day, is not to be + gauged by the infant-mortality rate. In truth, unfortunate babies who + depart during their first twelve months are more fortunate in many + respects than those who survive to undergo punishment for their parents' + cruel ignorance and complacent fecundity. If motherhood is wasted under + the present regime of "glorious fertility," childhood is not merely + wasted, but actually destroyed. Let us look at this matter from the point + of view of the children who survive. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (1) U.S. Department of Labor: Children's Bureau. Infant + Mortality Series, + No. 3, pp. 81, 82, 83, 84. + + (2) Henry H. Hibbs, Jr. Infant Mortality: Its Relation to + Social and + Industrial Conditions, p. 39. Russell Sage Foundation, New + York, 1916. + + (3) Cf. U. S. Department of Labor. Children's Bureau: + Infant Mortality + Series, No. 11. p. 36. + + (4) Havelock Ellis, Sex in Relation to Society, p. 31. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III: "Children Troop Down From Heaven...." + </h2> + <p> + Failure of emotional, sentimental and so-called idealistic efforts, based + on hysterical enthusiasm, to improve social conditions, is nowhere better + exemplified than in the undervaluation of child-life. A few years ago, the + scandal of children under fourteen working in cotton mills was exposed. + There was muckraking and agitation. A wave of moral indignation swept over + America. There arose a loud cry for immediate action. Then, having more or + less successfully settled this particular matter, the American people + heaved a sigh of relief, settled back, and complacently congratulated + itself that the problem of child labor had been settled once and for all. + </p> + <p> + Conditions are worse to-day than before. Not only is there child labor in + practically every State in the Union, but we are now forced to realize the + evils that result from child labor, of child laborers now grown into + manhood and womanhood. But we wish here to point out a neglected aspect of + this problem. Child labor shows us how cheaply we value childhood. And + moreover, it shows us that cheap childhood is the inevitable result of + chance parenthood. Child labor is organically bound up with the problem of + uncontrolled breeding and the large family. + </p> + <p> + The selective draft of 1917—which was designed to choose for + military service only those fulfiling definite requirements of physical + and mental fitness—showed some of the results of child labor. It + established the fact that the majority of American children never got + beyond the sixth grade, because they were forced to leave school at that + time. Our over-advertised compulsory education does not compel—and + does not educate. The selective-draft, it is our duty to emphasize this + fact, revealed that 38 per cent. of the young men (more than a million) + were rejected because of physical ill-health and defects. And 25 per cent. + were illiterate. + </p> + <p> + These young men were the children of yesterday. Authorities tell us that + 75 per cent. of the school-children are defective. This means that no less + than fifteen million schoolchildren, out of 22,000,000 in the United + States, are physically or mentally below par. + </p> + <p> + This is the soil in which all sorts of serious evils strike root. It is a + truism that children are the chief asset of a nation. Yet while the United + States government allotted 92.8 per cent. of its appropriations for 1920 + toward war expenses, three per cent. to public works, 3.2 per cent. to + "primary governmental functions," no more than one per cent. is + appropriated to education, research and development. Of this one per + cent., only a small proportion is devoted to public health. The + conservation of childhood is a minor consideration. While three cents is + spent for the more or less doubtful protection of women and children, + fifty cents is given to the Bureau of Animal Industry, for the protection + of domestic animals. In 1919, the State of Kansas appropriated $25,000 to + protect the health of pigs, and $4,000 to protect the health of children. + In four years our Federal Government appropriated—roughly speaking—$81,000,000 + for the improvement of rivers; $13,000,000 for forest conservation; + $8,000,000 for the experimental plant industry; $7,000,000 for the + experimental animal industry; $4,000,000 to combat the foot and mouth + disease; and less than half a million for the protection of child life. + </p> + <p> + Competent authorities tell us that no less than 75 per cent. of American + children leave school between the ages of fourteen and sixteen to go to + work. This number is increasing. According to the recently published + report on "The Administration of the First Child Labor Law," in five + states in which it was necessary for the Children's Bureau to handle + directly the working certificates of children, one-fifth of the 25,000 + children who applied for certificates left school when they were in the + fourth grade; nearly a tenth of them had never attended school at all or + had not gone beyond the first grade; and only one-twenty-fifth had gone as + far as the eighth grade. But their educational equipment was even more + limited than the grade they attended would indicate. Of the children + applying to go to work 1,803 had not advanced further than the first grade + even when they had gone to school at all; 3,379 could not even sign their + own names legibly, and nearly 2,000 of them could not write at all. The + report brings automatically into view the vicious circle of child-labor, + illiteracy, bodily and mental defect, poverty and delinquency. And like + all reports on child labor, the large family and reckless breeding looms + large in the background as one of the chief factors in the problem. + </p> + <p> + Despite all our boasting of the American public school, of the equal + opportunity afforded to every child in America, we have the shortest + school-term, and the shortest school-day of any of the civilized + countries. In the United States of America, there are 106 illiterates to + every thousand people. In England there are 58 per thousand, Sweden and + Norway have one per thousand. + </p> + <p> + The United States is the most illiterate country in the world—that + is, of the so-called civilized countries. Of the 5,000,000 illiterates in + the United States, 58 per cent. are white and 28 per cent. native whites. + Illiteracy not only is the index of inequality of opportunity. It speaks + as well a lack of consideration for the children. It means either that + children have been forced out of school to go to work, or that they are + mentally and physically defective.(1) + </p> + <p> + One is tempted to ask why a society, which has failed so lamentably to + protect the already existing child life upon which its very perpetuation + depends, takes upon itself the reckless encouragement of indiscriminate + procreation. The United States Government has recently inaugurated a + policy of restricting immigration from foreign countries. Until it is able + to protect childhood from criminal exploitation, until it has made + possible a reasonable hope of life, liberty and growth for American + children, it should likewise recognize the wisdom of voluntary restriction + in the production of children. + </p> + <p> + Reports on child labor published by the National Child Labor Committee + only incidentally reveal the correlation of this evil with that of large + families. Yet this is evident throughout. The investigators are more bent + upon regarding child labor as a cause of illiteracy. + </p> + <p> + But it is no less a consequence of irresponsibility in breeding. A + sinister aspect of this is revealed by Theresa Wolfson's study of + child-labor in the beet-fields of Michigan.(2) As one weeder put it: "Poor + man make no money, make plenty children—plenty children good for + sugar-beet business." Further illuminating details are given by Miss + Wolfson: + </p> + <p> + "Why did they come to the beet-fields? Most frequently families with large + numbers of children said that they felt that the city was no place to + raise children—things too expensive and children ran wild—in + the country all the children could work." Living conditions are abominable + and unspeakably wretched. An old woodshed, a long-abandoned barn, and + occasionally a tottering, ramshackle farmer's house are the common types. + "One family of eleven, the youngest child two years, the oldest sixteen + years, lived in an old country store which had but one window; the wind + and rain came through the holes in the walls, the ceiling was very low and + the smoke from the stove filled the room. Here the family ate, slept, + cooked and washed." + </p> + <p> + "In Tuscola County a family of six was found living in a one-room shack + with no windows. Light and ventilation was secured through the open doors. + Little Charles, eight years of age, was left at home to take care of Dan, + Annie and Pete, whose ages were five years, four years, and three months, + respectively. In addition, he cooked the noonday meal and brought it to + his parents in the field. The filth and choking odors of the shack made it + almost unbearable, yet the baby was sleeping in a heap of rags piled up in + a corner." + </p> + <p> + Social philosophers of a certain school advocate the return to the land—it + is only in the overcrowded city, they claim, that the evils resulting from + the large family are possible. There is, according to this philosophy, no + overcrowding, no over-population in the country, where in the open air and + sunlight every child has an opportunity for health and growth. This + idyllic conception of American country life does not correspond with the + picture presented by this investigator, who points out: + </p> + <p> + "To promote the physical and mental development of the child, we forbid + his employment in factories, shops and stores. On the other hand, we are + prone to believe that the right kind of farm-work is healthful and the + best thing for children. But for a child to crawl along the ground, + weeding beets in the hot sun for fourteen hours a day—the average + workday—is far from being the best thing. The law of compensation is + bound to work in some way, and the immediate result of this agricultural + work is interference with school attendance." + </p> + <p> + How closely related this form of child-slavery is to the over-large + family, is definitely illustrated: "In the one hundred and thirty-three + families visited, there were six hundred children. A conversation held + with a 'Rooshian-German' woman is indicative of the size of most of the + families:" + </p> + <p> + "How many children have you?" inquired the investigator. + </p> + <p> + "Eight—Julius, und Rose, und Martha, dey is mine; Gottlieb und + Philip, und Frieda, dey is my husband's;—und Otto und Charlie—dey + are ours." + </p> + <p> + Families with ten and twelve children were frequently found, while those + of six and eight children are the general rule. The advantage of a large + family in the beet fields is that it does the most work. In the one + hundred thirty-three families interviewed, there were one hundred + eighty-six children under the age of six years, ranging from eight weeks + up; thirty-six children between the ages of six and eight, approximately + twenty-five of whom had never been to school, and eleven over sixteen + years of age who had never been to school. One ten-year-old boy had never + been to school because he was a mental defective; one child of nine was + practically blinded by cataracts. This child was found groping his way + down the beet-rows pulling out weeds and feeling for the beet-plants—in + the glare of the sun he had lost all sense of light and dark. Of the three + hundred and forty children who were not going or had never gone to school, + only four had reached the point of graduation, and only one had gone to + high school. These large families migrated to the beet-fields in early + spring. Seventy-two per cent. of them are retarded. When we realize that + feeble-mindedness is arrested development and retardation, we see that + these "beet children" are artificially retarded in their growth, and that + the tendency is to reduce their intelligence to the level of the + congenital imbecile. + </p> + <p> + Nor must it be concluded that these large "beet" families are always the + "ignorant foreigner" so despised by our respectable press. The following + case throws some light on this matter, reported in the same pamphlet: "An + American family, considered a prize by the agent because of the fact that + there were nine children, turned out to be a `flunk.' They could not work + in the beet-fields, they ran up a bill at the country-store, and one day + the father and the eldest son, a boy of nineteen, were seen running + through the railroad station to catch an out-going train. The grocer + thought they were `jumping' their bill. He telephoned ahead to the sheriff + of the next town. They were taken off the train by the sheriff and given + the option of going back to the farm or staying in jail. They preferred to + stay in jail, and remained there for two weeks. Meanwhile, the mother and + her eight children, ranging in ages form seventeen years to nine months, + had to manage the best way they could. At the end of two weeks, father and + son were set free.... During all of this period the farmers of the + community sent in provisions to keep the wife and children from starving." + Does this case not sum up in a nutshell the typical American intelligence + confronted with the problem of the too-large family—industrial + slavery tempered with sentimentality! + </p> + <p> + Let us turn to a young, possibly a more progressive state. Consider the + case of "California, the Golden" as it is named by Emma Duke, in her study + of child-labor in the Imperial Valley, "as fertile as the Valley of the + Nile."(3) Here, cotton is king, and rich ranchers, absentee landlords and + others exploit it. Less than ten years ago ranchers would bring in hordes + of laboring families, but refuse to assume any responsibility in housing + them, merely permitting them to sleep on the grounds of the ranch. + Conditions have been somewhat improved, but, sometimes, we read, "a one + roomed straw house with an area of fifteen by twenty feet will serve as a + home for an entire family, which not only cooks but sleeps in the same + room." Here, as in Michigan among the beets, children are "thick as bees." + All kinds of children pick, Miss Duke reports, "even those as young as + three years! Five-year-old children pick steadily all day.... Many white + American children are among them—pure American stock, who have + gradually moved from the Carolinas, Tennessee, and other southern states + to Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, and on into the Imperial Valley." + Some of these children, it seems, wanted to attend school, but their + fathers did not want to work; so the children were forced to become + bread-winners. One man whose children were working with him in the fields + said, "Please, lady, don't send them to school; let them pick a while + longer. I ain't got my new auto paid for yet." The native white American + mother of children working in the fields proudly remarked: "No; they ain't + never been to school, nor me nor their poppy, nor their granddads and + grandmoms. We've always been pickers!"—and she spat her tobacco over + the field in expert fashion. + </p> + <p> + "In the Valley one hears from townspeople," writes the investigator, "that + pickers make ten dollars a day, working the whole family. With that + qualification, the statement is ambiguous. One Mexican in the Imperial + Valley was the father of thirty-three children—`about thirteen or + fourteen living,' he said. If they all worked at cotton-picking, they + would doubtless altogether make more than ten dollars a day." + </p> + <p> + One of the child laborers revealed the economic advantage—to the + parents—in numerous progeny: "Us kids most always drag from forty to + fifty pounds of cotton before we take it to be weighed. Three of us pick. + I'm twelve years old and my bag is twelve feet long. I can drag nearly a + hundred pounds. My sister is ten years old, and her bag is eight feet + long. My little brother is seven and his bag is five feet long." + </p> + <p> + Evidence abounds in the publications of the National Child Labor Committee + of this type of fecund parenthood.(4) It is not merely a question of the + large family versus the small family. Even comparatively small families + among migratory workers of this sort have been large families. The high + infant mortality rate has carried off the weaker children. Those who + survive are merely those who have been strong enough to survive the most + unfavorable living conditions. No; it is a situation not unique, nor even + unusual in human history, of greed and stupidity and cupidity encouraging + the procreative instinct toward the manufacture of slaves. We hear these + days of the selfishness and the degradation of healthy and well-educated + women who refuse motherhood; but we hear little of the more sinister + selfishness of men and women who bring babies into the world to become + child-slaves of the kind described in these reports of child labor. + </p> + <p> + The history of child labor in the English factories in the nineteenth + century throws a suggestive light on this situation. These child-workers + were really called into being by the industrial situation. The population + grew, as Dean Inge has described it, like crops in a newly irrigated + desert. During the nineteenth century, the numbers were nearly quadrupled. + "Let those who think that the population of a country can be increased at + will, consider whether it is likely that any physical, moral, or + psychological change came over the nation co-incidentally with the + inventions of the spinning jenny and the steam engine. It is too obvious + for dispute that it was the possession of capital wanting employment, and + of natural advantages for using it, that called those multitudes of human + beings into existence, to eat the food which they paid for by their + labor."(5) + </p> + <p> + But when child labor in the factories became such a scandal and such a + disgrace that child-labor was finally forbidden by laws that possessed the + advantage over our own that they were enforced, the proletariat ceased to + supply children. Almost by magic the birth rate among the workers + declined. Since children were no longer of economic value to the + factories, they were evidently a drug in the home. This movement, it + should not be forgotten however, was coincident with the agitation and + education in Birth Control stimulated by the Besant-Bradlaugh trial. + </p> + <p> + Large families among migratory agricultural laborers in our own country + are likewise brought into existence in response to an industrial demand. + The enforcement of the child labor laws and the extension of their + restrictions are therefore an urgent necessity, not so much, as some of + our child-labor authorities believe, to enable these children to go to + school, as to prevent the recruiting of our next generation from the least + intelligent and most unskilled classes in the community. As long as we + officially encourage and countenance the production of large families, the + evils of child labor will confront us. On the other hand, the prohibition + of child labor may help, as in the case of English factories, in the + decline of the birth rate. + </p> + <p> + UNCONTROLLED BREEDING AND CHILD LABOR GO HAND IN HAND. And to-day when we + are confronted with the evils of the latter, in the form of widespread + illiteracy and defect, we should seek causes more deeply rooted than the + enslavement of children. The cost to society is incalculable, as the + National Child Labor Committee points out. "It is not only through the + lowered power, the stunting and the moral degeneration of its individual + members, but in actual expense, through the necessary provision for the + human junk, created by premature employment, in poor-houses, hospitals, + police and courts, jails and by charitable organizations." + </p> + <p> + To-day we are paying for the folly of the over-production—and its + consequences in permanent injury to plastic childhood—of yesterday. + To-morrow, we shall be forced to pay for our ruthless disregard of our + surplus children of to-day. The child-laborer of one or two decades ago + has become the shifting laborer of to-day, stunted, underfed, illiterate, + unskilled, unorganized and unorganizable. "He is the last person to be + hired and the first to be fired." Boys and girls under fourteen years of + age are no longer permitted to work in factories, mills, canneries and + establishments whose products are to be shipped out of the particular + state, and children under sixteen can no longer work in mines and + quarries. But this affects only one quarter of our army of child labor—work + in local industries, stores, and farms, homework in dark and unsanitary + tenements is still permitted. Children work in "homes" on artificial + flowers, finishing shoddy garments, sewing their very life's blood and + that of the race into tawdry clothes and gewgaws that are the most + unanswerable comments upon our vaunted "civilization." And to-day, we must + not forget, the child-laborer of yesterday is becoming the father or the + mother of the child-laborer of to-morrow. + </p> + <p> + "Any nation that works its women is damned," once wrote Woods Hutchinson. + The nation that works its children, one is tempted to add, is committing + suicide. Loud-mouthed defenders of American democracy pay no attention to + the strange fact that, although "the average education among all American + adults is only the sixth grade," every one of these adults has an equal + power at the polls. The American nation, with all its worship of + efficiency and thrift, complacently forgets that "every child defective in + body, education or character is a charge upon the community," as Herbert + Hoover declared in an address before the American Child Hygiene + Association (October, 1920): "The nation as a whole," he added, "has the + obligation of such measures toward its children... as will yield to them + an equal opportunity at their start in life. If we could grapple with the + whole child situation for one generation, our public health, our economic + efficiency, the moral character, sanity and stability of our people would + advance three generations in one." + </p> + <p> + The great irrefutable fact that is ignored or neglected is that the + American nation officially places a low value upon the lives of its + children. The brutal truth is that CHILDREN ARE CHEAP. When + over-production in this field is curtailed by voluntary restriction, when + the birth rate among the working classes takes a sharp decline, the value + of children will rise. Then only will the infant mortality rate decline, + and child labor vanish. + </p> + <p> + Investigations of child labor emphasize its evils by pointing out that + these children are kept out of school, and that they miss the advantages + of American public school education. They express the current confidence + in compulsory education and the magical benefits to be derived from the + public school. But we need to qualify our faith in education, and + particularly our faith in the American public school. Educators are just + beginning to wake up to the dangers inherent in the attempt to teach the + brightest child and the mentally defective child at the same time. They + are beginning to test the possibilities of a "vertical" classification as + well as a "horizontal" one. That is, each class must be divided into what + are termed Gifted, Bright, Average, Dull, Normal, and Defective. In the + past the helter-skelter crowding and over-crowding together of all classes + of children of approximately the same age, produced only a dull leveling + to mediocrity.(6) + </p> + <p> + An investigation of forty schools in New York City, typical of hundreds of + others, reveals deplorable conditions of overcrowding and lack of + sanitation.(7) The worst conditions are to be found in locations the most + densely populated. Thus of Public School No. 51, located almost in the + center of the notorious "Hell's Kitchen" section, we read: "The play space + which is provided is a mockery of the worst kind. The basement play-room + is dark, damp, poorly lighted, poorly ventilated, foul smelling, unclean, + and wholly unfit for children for purposes of play. The drainpipes from + the roof have decayed to such a degree that in some instances as little as + a quarter of the pipe remains. On rainy days, water enters the classrooms, + hallways, corridors, and is thrown against windows because the pipes have + rotted away. The narrow stairways and halls are similar to those of jails + and dungeons of a century ago. The classrooms are poorly lighted, + inadequately equipped, and in some cases so small that the desks of pupils + and teachers occupy almost all of the floor-space." + </p> + <p> + Another school, located a short distance from Fifth Avenue, the + "wealthiest street in the world," is described as an "old shell of a + structure, erected decades ago as a modern school building. Nearly two + thousand children are crowded into class-rooms having a total seating + capacity of scarcely one thousand. Narrow doorways, intricate hallways and + antiquated stairways, dark and precipitous, keep ever alive the danger of + disaster from fire or panic. Only the eternal vigilance of exceptional + supervision has served to lessen the fear of such a catastrophe. + Artificial light is necessary, even on the brightest days, in many of the + class-rooms. In most of the classrooms, it is always necessary when the + sky is slightly overcast." There is no ventilating system. + </p> + <p> + In the crowded East Side section conditions are reported to be no better. + The Public Education Association's report on Public School No. 130 points + out that the site at the corner of Hester and Baxter Streets was purchased + by the city years ago as a school site, but that there has been so much + "tweedledeeing and tweedleduming" that the new building which is to + replace the old, has not even yet been planned! Meanwhile, year after + year, thousands of children are compelled to study daily in dark and dingy + class-rooms. "Artificial light is continually necessary," declares the + report. "The ventilation is extremely poor. The fire hazard is naturally + great. There are no rest-rooms whatever for the teachers." Other schools + in the neighborhood reveal conditions even worse. In two of them, for + example; "In accordance with the requirements of the syllabus in hygiene + in the schools, the vision of the children is regularly tested. In a + recent test of this character, it was found in Public School 108, the rate + of defective vision in the various grades ranged from 50 to 64 per cent.! + In Public School 106, the rate ranged from 43 to 94 per cent.!" + </p> + <p> + The conditions, we are assured, are no exceptions to the rule of public + schools in New York, where the fatal effects of overcrowding in education + may be observed in their most sinister but significant aspects. + </p> + <p> + The forgotten fact in this case is that efforts for universal and + compulsory education cannot keep pace with the overproduction of children. + Even at the best, leaving out of consideration the public school system as + the inevitable prey and plundering-ground of the cheap politician and + job-hunter, present methods of wholesale and syndicated "education" are + not suited to compete with the unceasing, unthinking, untiring procreative + powers of our swarming, spawning populations. + </p> + <p> + Into such schools as described in the recent reports of the Public + Education Association, no intelligent parent would dare send his child. + They are not merely fire-traps and culture-grounds of infection, but of + moral and intellectual contamination as well. More and more are public + schools in America becoming institutions for subjecting children to a + narrow and reactionary orthodoxy, aiming to crush out all signs of + individuality, and to turn out boys and girls compressed into a + standardized pattern, with ready-made ideas on politics, religion, + morality, and economics. True education cannot grow out of such compulsory + herding of children in filthy fire-traps. + </p> + <p> + Character, ability, and reasoning power are not to be developed in this + fashion. Indeed, it is to be doubted whether even a completely successful + educational system could offset the evils of indiscriminate breeding and + compensate for the misfortune of being a superfluous child. In recognizing + the great need of education, we have failed to recognize the greater need + of inborn health and character. "If it were necessary to choose between + the task of getting children educated and getting them well born and + healthy," writes Havelock Ellis, "it would be better to abandon education. + There have been many great peoples who never dreamed of national systems + of education; there have been no great peoples without the art of + producing healthy and vigorous children. The matter becomes of peculiar + importance in great industrial states, like England, the United States and + Germany, because in such states, a tacit conspiracy tends to grow up to + subordinate national ends to individual ends, and practically to work for + the deterioration of the race."(8) + </p> + <p> + Much less can education solve the great problem of child labor. Rather, + under the conditions prevailing in modern society, child labor and the + failure of the public schools to educate are both indices of a more deeply + rooted evil. Both bespeak THE UNDERVALUATION OF THE CHILD. This + undervaluation, this cheapening of child life, is to speak crudely but + frankly the direct result of overproduction. "Restriction of output" is an + immediate necessity if we wish to regain control of the real values, so + that unimpeded, unhindered, and without danger of inner corruption, + humanity may protect its own health and powers. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (1) I am indebted to the National Child Labor Committee for + these statistics, as well as for many of the facts that + follow. + + (2) "People Who Go to Beets" Pamphlet No. 299, National + Child Labor Committee. + + (3) California the Golden, by Emma Duke. Reprinted from + The American Child, Vol. II, No. 3. November 1920. + + (4) Cf. Child Welfare in Oklahoma; Child Welfare in + Alabama; Child Welfare in North Carolina; Child Welfare in + Kentucky; Child Welfare in Tennessee. Also, Children in + Agriculture, by Ruth McIntire, and other studies. + + (5) W. R. Inge: Outspoken Essays: p. 92 + + (6) Cf. Tredgold: Inheritance and Educability. Eugenics + Review, Vol. Xiii, No. I, pp. 839 et seq. + + (7) Cf. New York Times, June 4, 1921. + + (8) "Studies in the Psychology of Sex," Vol. VI. p. 20. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV: The Fertility of the Feeble-Minded + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + What vesture have you woven for my year? + O Man and Woman who have fashioned it + Together, is it fine and clean and strong, + Made in such reverence of holy joy, + Of such unsullied substance, that your hearts + Leap with glad awe to see it clothing me, + The glory of whose nakedness you know? + + "The Song of the Unborn" + Amelia Josephine Burr +</pre> + <p> + There is but one practical and feasible program in handling the great + problem of the feeble-minded. That is, as the best authorities are agreed, + to prevent the birth of those who would transmit imbecility to their + descendants. Feeble-mindedness as investigations and statistics from every + country indicate, is invariably associated with an abnormally high rate of + fertility. Modern conditions of civilization, as we are continually being + reminded, furnish the most favorable breeding-ground for the mental + defective, the moron, the imbecile. "We protect the members of a weak + strain," says Davenport, "up to the period of reproduction, and then let + them free upon the community, and encourage them to leave a large progeny + of `feeble-minded': which in turn, protected from mortality and carefully + nurtured up to the reproductive period, are again set free to reproduce, + and so the stupid work goes on of preserving and increasing our socially + unfit strains." + </p> + <p> + The philosophy of Birth Control points out that as long as civilized + communities encourage unrestrained fecundity in the "normal" members of + the population—always of course under the cloak of decency and + morality—and penalize every attempt to introduce the principle of + discrimination and responsibility in parenthood, they will be faced with + the ever-increasing problem of feeble-mindedness, that fertile parent of + degeneracy, crime, and pauperism. Small as the percentage of the imbecile + and half-witted may seem in comparison with the normal members of the + community, it should always be remembered that feeble-mindedness is not an + unrelated expression of modern civilization. Its roots strike deep into + the social fabric. Modern studies indicate that insanity, epilepsy, + criminality, prostitution, pauperism, and mental defect, are all + organically bound up together and that the least intelligent and the + thoroughly degenerate classes in every community are the most prolific. + Feeble-mindedness in one generation becomes pauperism or insanity in the + next. There is every indication that feeble-mindedness in its protean + forms is on the increase, that it has leaped the barriers, and that there + is truly, as some of the scientific eugenists have pointed out, a + feeble-minded peril to future generations—unless the feeble-minded + are prevented from reproducing their kind. To meet this emergency is the + immediate and peremptory duty of every State and of all communities. + </p> + <p> + The curious situation has come about that while our statesmen are busy + upon their propaganda of "repopulation," and are encouraging the + production of large families, they are ignoring the exigent problem of the + elimination of the feeble-minded. In this, however, the politicians are at + one with the traditions of a civilization which, with its charities and + philanthropies, has propped up the defective and degenerate and relieved + them of the burdens borne by the healthy sections of the community, thus + enabling them more easily and more numerously to propagate their kind. + "With the very highest motives," declares Dr. Walter E. Fernald, "modern + philanthropic efforts often tend to foster and increase the growth of + defect in the community.... The only feeble-minded persons who now receive + any official consideration are those who have already become dependent or + delinquent, many of whom have already become parents. We lock the + barn-door after the horse is stolen. We now have state commissions for + controlling the gipsy-moth and the boll weevil, the foot-and-mouth + disease, and for protecting the shell-fish and wild game, but we have no + commission which even attempts to modify or to control the vast moral and + economic forces represented by the feeble-minded persons at large in the + community." + </p> + <p> + How the feeble-minded and their always numerous progeny run the gamut of + police, alms-houses, courts, penal institutions, "charities and + corrections," tramp shelters, lying-in hospitals, and relief afforded by + privately endowed religious and social agencies, is shown in any number of + reports and studies of family histories. We find cases of + feeble-mindedness and mental defect in the reports on infant mortality + referred to in a previous chapter, as well as in other reports published + by the United States government. Here is a typical case showing the + astonishing ability to "increase and multiply," organically bound up with + delinquency and defect of various types: + </p> + <p> + "The parents of a feeble-minded girl, twenty years of age, who was + committed to the Kansas State Industrial Farm on a vagrancy charge, lived + in a thickly populated Negro district which was reported by the police to + be the headquarters for the criminal element of the surrounding State.... + The mother married at fourteen, and her first child was born at fifteen. + In rapid succession she gave birth to sixteen live-born children and had + one miscarriage. The first child, a girl, married but separated from her + husband.... The fourth, fifth and sixth, all girls, died in infancy or + early childhood. The seventh, a girl, remarried after the death of her + husband, from whom she had been separated. The eighth, a boy who early in + life began to exhibit criminal tendencies, was in prison for highway + robbery and burglary. The ninth, a girl, normal mentally, was in + quarantine at the Kansas State Industrial Farm at the time this study was + made; she had lived with a man as his common-law wife, and had also been + arrested several times for soliciting. The tenth, a boy, was involved in + several delinquencies when young and was sent to the detention-house but + did not remain there long. The eleventh, a boy... at the age of seventeen + was sentenced to the penitentiary for twenty years on a charge of + first-degree robbery; after serving a portion of his time, he was paroled, + and later was shot and killed in a fight. The twelfth, a boy, was at + fifteen years of age implicated in a murder and sent to the industrial + school, but escaped from there on a bicycle which he had stolen; at + eighteen, he was shot and killed by a woman. The thirteenth child, + feeble-minded, is the girl of the study. The fourteenth, a boy was + considered by police to be the best member of the family; his mother + reported him to be much slower mentally than his sister just mentioned; he + had been arrested several times. Once, he was held in the detention-home + and once sent to the State Industrial school; at other times, he was + placed on probation. The fifteenth, a girl sixteen years old, has for a + long time had a bad reputation. Subsequent to the commitment of her sister + to the Kansas State Industrial Farm, she was arrested on a charge of + vagrancy, found to be syphilitic, and quarantined in a state other than + Kansas. At the time of her arrest, she stated that prostitution was her + occupation. The last child was a boy of thirteen years whose history was + not secured...."(1) + </p> + <p> + The notorious fecundity of feeble-minded women is emphasized in studies + and investigations of the problem, coming from all countries. "The + feeble-minded woman is twice as prolific as the normal one." Sir James + Crichton-Browne speaks of the great numbers of feeble-minded girls, wholly + unfit to become mothers, who return to the work-house year after year to + bear children, "many of whom happily die, but some of whom survive to + recruit our idiot establishments and to repeat their mothers' + performances." Tredgold points out that the number of children born to the + feeble-minded is abnormally high. Feeble-minded women "constitute a + permanent menace to the race and one which becomes serious at a time when + the decline of the birth-rate is... unmistakable." Dr. Tredgold points out + that "the average number of children born in a family is four," whereas in + these degenerate families, we find an average of 7.3 to each. Out of this + total only a little more than ONE-THIRD—456 out of a total of 1,269 + children—can be considered profitable members of the community, and + that, be it remembered, at the parents' valuation. + </p> + <p> + Another significant point is the number of mentally defective children who + survive. "Out of the total number of 526 mentally affected persons in the + 150 families, there are 245 in the present generation—an unusually + large survival."(2) + </p> + <p> + Speaking for Bradford, England, Dr. Helen U. Campbell touches another + significant and interesting point usually neglected by the advocates of + mothers' pensions, milk-stations, and maternity-education programs. + </p> + <p> + "We are also confronted with the problem of the actually mentally + deficient, of the more or less feeble-minded, and the deranged, + epileptic... or otherwise mentally abnormal mother," writes this + authority. "The `bad mothering' of these cases is quite unimprovable at an + infant welfare center, and a very definite if not relatively very large + percentage of our infants are suffering severely as a result of dependence + upon such `mothering."'(3) + </p> + <p> + Thus we are brought face to face with another problem of infant mortality. + Are we to check the infant mortality rate among the feeble-minded and aid + the unfortunate offspring to grow up, a menace to the civilized community + even when not actually certifiable as mentally defective or not obviously + imbecile? + </p> + <p> + Other figures and studies indicate the close relationship between + feeble-mindedness and the spread of venereal scourges. We are informed + that in Michigan, 75 per cent. of the prostitute class is infected with + some form of venereal disease, and that 75 per cent. of the infected are + mentally defective,—morons, imbeciles, or "border-line" cases most + dangerous to the community at large. At least 25 per cent. of the inmates + of our prisons, according to Dr. Fernald, are mentally defective and + belong either to the feeble-minded or to the defective-delinquent class. + Nearly 50 per cent. of the girls sent to reformatories are mental + defectives. To-day, society treats feeble-minded or "defective delinquent" + men or women as "criminals," sentences them to prison or reformatory for a + "term," and then releases them at the expiration of their sentences. They + are usually at liberty just long enough to reproduce their kind, and then + they return again and again to prison. The truth of this statement is + evident from the extremely large proportion in institutions of neglected + and dependent children, who are the feeble-minded offspring of such + feeble-minded parents. + </p> + <p> + Confronted with these shocking truths about the menace of + feeble-mindedness to the race, a menace acute because of the unceasing and + unrestrained fertility of such defectives, we are apt to become the + victims of a "wild panic for instant action." There is no occasion for + hysterical, ill-considered action, specialists tell us. They direct our + attention to another phase of the problem, that of the so-called "good + feeble-minded." We are informed that imbecility, in itself, is not + synonymous with badness. If it is fostered in a "suitable environment," it + may express itself in terms of good citizenship and useful occupation. It + may thus be transmuted into a docile, tractable, and peaceable element of + the community. The moron and the feeble-minded, thus protected, so we are + assured, may even marry some brighter member of the community, and thus + lessen the chances of procreating another generation of imbeciles. We read + further that some of our doctors believe that "in our social scale, there + is a place for the good feeble-minded." + </p> + <p> + In such a reckless and thoughtless differentiation between the "bad" and + the "good" feeble-minded, we find new evidence of the conventional + middle-class bias that also finds expression among some of the eugenists. + We do not object to feeble-mindedness simply because it leads to + immorality and criminality; nor can we approve of it when it expresses + itself in docility, submissiveness and obedience. We object because both + are burdens and dangers to the intelligence of the community. As a matter + of fact, there is sufficient evidence to lead us to believe that the + so-called "borderline cases" are a greater menace than the out-and-out + "defective delinquents" who can be supervised, controlled and prevented + from procreating their kind. The advent of the Binet-Simon and similar + psychological tests indicates that the mental defective who is glib and + plausible, bright looking and attractive, but with a mental vision of + seven, eight or nine years, may not merely lower the whole level of + intelligence in a school or in a society, but may be encouraged by church + and state to increase and multiply until he dominates and gives the + prevailing "color"—culturally speaking—to an entire community. + </p> + <p> + The presence in the public schools of the mentally defective children of + men and women who should never have been parents is a problem that is + becoming more and more difficult, and is one of the chief reasons for + lower educational standards. As one of the greatest living authorities on + the subject, Dr. A. Tredgold, has pointed out,(4) this has created a + destructive conflict of purpose. "In the case of children with a low + intellectual capacity, much of the education at present provided is for + all practical purposes a complete waste of time, money and patience.... On + the other hand, for children of high intellectual capacity, our present + system does not go far enough. I believe that much innate potentiality + remains undeveloped, even amongst the working classes, owing to the + absence of opportunity for higher education, to the disadvantage of the + nation. In consequence of these fundamental differences, the catchword + `equality of opportunity' is meaningless and mere claptrap in the absence + of any equality to respond to such opportunity. What is wanted is not + equality of opportunity, but education adapted to individual potentiality; + and if the time and money now spent in the fruitless attempt to make + silk-purses out of sows' ears, were devoted to the higher education of + children of good natural capacity, it would contribute enormously to + national efficiency." + </p> + <p> + In a much more complex manner than has been recognized even by students of + this problem, the destiny and the progress of civilization and of human + expression has been hindered and held back by this burden of the imbecile + and the moron. While we may admire the patience and the deep human + sympathy with which the great specialists in feeble-mindedness have + expressed the hope of drying up the sources of this evil or of rendering + it harmless, we should not permit sympathy or sentimentality to blind us + to the fact that health and vitality and human growth likewise need + cultivation. "A LAISSER FAIRE policy," writes one investigator, "simply + allows the social sore to spread. And a quasi LAISSER FAIRE policy wherein + we allow the defective to commit crime and then interfere and imprison + him, wherein we grant the defective the personal liberty to do as he + pleases, until he pleases to descend to a plane of living below the animal + level, and try to care for a few of his descendants who are so helpless + that they can no longer exercise that personal liberty to do as they + please,"—such a policy increases and multiplies the dangers of the + over-fertile feeble-minded.(5) + </p> + <p> + The Mental Survey of the State of Oregon recently published by the United + States Health Service, sets an excellent example and should be followed by + every state in the Union and every civilized country as well. It is + greatly to the credit of the Western State that it is one of the first + officially to recognize the primary importance of this problem and to + realize that facts, no matter how fatal to self-satisfaction, must be + faced. This survey, authorized by the state legislature, and carried out + by the University of Oregon, in collaboration with Dr. C. L. Carlisle of + the Public Health service, aided by a large number of volunteers, shows + that only a small percentage of mental defectives and morons are in the + care of institutions. The rest are widely scattered and their condition + unknown or neglected. They are docile and submissive, they do not attract + attention to themselves as do the criminal delinquents and the insane. + Nevertheless, it is estimated that they number no less than 75,000 men, + women, and children, out of a total population of 783,000, or about ten + per cent. Oregon, it is thought, is no exception to other states. Yet + under our present conditions, these people are actually encouraged to + increase and multiply and replenish the earth. + </p> + <p> + Concerning the importance of the Oregon survey, we may quote Surgeon + General H. C. Cumming: "the prevention and correction of mental defectives + is one of the great public health problems of to-day. It enters into many + phases of our work and its influence continually crops up unexpectedly. + For instance, work of the Public Health Service in connection with + juvenile courts shows that a marked proportion of juvenile delinquency is + traceable to some degree of mental deficiency in the offender. For years + Public Health officials have concerned themselves only with the disorders + of physical health; but now they are realizing the significance of mental + health also. The work in Oregon constitutes the first state-wide survey + which even begins to disclose the enormous drain on a state, caused by + mental defects. One of the objects of the work was to obtain for the + people of Oregon an idea of the problem that confronted them and the heavy + annual loss, both economic and industrial, that it entailed. Another was + to enable the legislators to devise a program that would stop much of the + loss, restore to health and bring to lives of industrial usefulness, many + of those now down and out, and above all, to save hundreds of children + from growing up to lives of misery." + </p> + <p> + It will be interesting to see how many of our State Legislatures have the + intelligence and the courage to follow in the footsteps of Oregon in this + respect. Nothing could more effectually stimulate discussion, and awaken + intelligence as to the extravagance and cost to the community of our + present codes of traditional morality. But we should make sure in all such + surveys, that mental defect is not concealed even in such dignified bodies + as state legislatures and among those leaders who are urging men and women + to reckless and irresponsible procreation. + </p> + <p> + I have touched upon these various aspects of the complex problem of the + feeble-minded, and the menace of the moron to human society, not merely + for the purpose of reiterating that it is one of the greatest and most + difficult social problems of modern times, demanding an immediate, stern + and definite policy, but because it illustrates the actual harvest of + reliance upon traditional morality, upon the biblical injunction to + increase and multiply, a policy still taught by politician, priest and + militarist. Motherhood has been held universally sacred; yet, as + Bouchacourt pointed out, "to-day, the dregs of the human species, the + blind, the deaf-mute, the degenerate, the nervous, the vicious, the + idiotic, the imbecile, the cretins and the epileptics—are better + protected than pregnant women." The syphilitic, the irresponsible, the + feeble-minded are encouraged to breed unhindered, while all the powerful + forces of tradition, of custom, or prejudice, have bolstered up the + desperate effort to block the inevitable influence of true civilization in + spreading the principles of independence, self-reliance, discrimination + and foresight upon which the great practice of intelligent parenthood is + based. + </p> + <p> + To-day we are confronted by the results of this official policy. There is + no escaping it; there is no explaining it away. Surely it is an amazing + and discouraging phenomenon that the very governments that have seen fit + to interfere in practically every phase of the normal citizen's life, dare + not attempt to restrain, either by force or persuasion, the moron and the + imbecile from producing his large family of feeble-minded offspring. + </p> + <p> + In my own experience, I recall vividly the case of a feeble-minded girl + who every year, for a long period, received the expert attention of a + great specialist in one of the best-known maternity hospitals of New York + City. The great obstetrician, for the benefit of interns and medical + students, performed each year a Caesarian operation upon this unfortunate + creature to bring into the world her defective, and, in one case at least, + her syphilitic, infant. "Nelly" was then sent to a special room and placed + under the care of a day nurse and a night nurse, with extra and special + nourishment provided. Each year she returned to the hospital. Such cases + are not exceptions; any experienced doctor or nurse can recount similar + stories. In the interest of medical science this practice may be + justified. I am not criticising it from that point of view. I realize as + well as the most conservative moralist that humanity requires that healthy + members of the race should make certain sacrifices to preserve from death + those unfortunates who are born with hereditary taints. But there is a + point at which philanthropy may become positively dysgenic, when charity + is converted into injustice to the self-supporting citizen, into positive + injury to the future of the race. Such a point, it seems obvious, is + reached when the incurably defective are permitted to procreate and thus + increase their numbers. + </p> + <p> + The problem of the dependent, delinquent and defective elements in modern + society, we must repeat, cannot be minimized because of their alleged + small numerical proportion to the rest of the population. The proportion + seems small only because we accustom ourselves to the habit of looking + upon feeble-mindedness as a separate and distinct calamity to the race, as + a chance phenomenon unrelated to the sexual and biological customs not + only condoned but even encouraged by our so-called civilization. The + actual dangers can only be fully realized when we have acquired definite + information concerning the financial and cultural cost of these classes to + the community, when we become fully cognizant of the burden of the + imbecile upon the whole human race; when we see the funds that should be + available for human development, for scientific, artistic and philosophic + research, being diverted annually, by hundreds of millions of dollars, to + the care and segregation of men, women, and children who never should have + been born. The advocate of Birth Control realizes as well as all + intelligent thinkers the dangers of interfering with personal liberty. Our + whole philosophy is, in fact, based upon the fundamental assumption that + man is a self-conscious, self-governing creature, that he should not be + treated as a domestic animal; that he must be left free, at least within + certain wide limits, to follow his own wishes in the matter of mating and + in the procreation of children. Nor do we believe that the community could + or should send to the lethal chamber the defective progeny resulting from + irresponsible and unintelligent breeding. + </p> + <p> + But modern society, which has respected the personal liberty of the + individual only in regard to the unrestricted and irresponsible bringing + into the world of filth and poverty an overcrowding procession of infants + foredoomed to death or hereditable disease, is now confronted with the + problem of protecting itself and its future generations against the + inevitable consequences of this long-practised policy of LAISSER-FAIRE. + </p> + <p> + The emergency problem of segregation and sterilization must be faced + immediately. Every feeble-minded girl or woman of the hereditary type, + especially of the moron class, should be segregated during the + reproductive period. Otherwise, she is almost certain to bear imbecile + children, who in turn are just as certain to breed other defectives. The + male defectives are no less dangerous. Segregation carried out for one or + two generations would give us only partial control of the problem. + Moreover, when we realize that each feeble-minded person is a potential + source of an endless progeny of defect, we prefer the policy of immediate + sterilization, of making sure that parenthood is absolutely prohibited to + the feeble-minded. + </p> + <p> + This, I say, is an emergency measure. But how are we to prevent the + repetition in the future of a new harvest of imbecility, the recurrence of + new generations of morons and defectives, as the logical and inevitable + consequence of the universal application of the traditional and widely + approved command to increase and multiply? + </p> + <p> + At the present moment, we are offered three distinct and more or less + mutually exclusive policies by which civilization may hope to protect + itself and the generations of the future from the allied dangers of + imbecility, defect and delinquency. No one can understand the necessity + for Birth Control education without a complete comprehension of the + dangers, the inadequacies, or the limitations of the present attempts at + control, or the proposed programs for social reconstruction and racial + regeneration. It is, therefore, necessary to interpret and criticize the + three programs offered to meet our emergency. These may be briefly + summarized as follows: + </p> + <p> + (1) Philanthropy and Charity: This is the present and traditional method + of meeting the problems of human defect and dependence, of poverty and + delinquency. It is emotional, altruistic, at best ameliorative, aiming to + meet the individual situation as it arises and presents itself. Its effect + in practise is seldom, if ever, truly preventive. Concerned with symptoms, + with the allaying of acute and catastrophic miseries, it cannot, if it + would, strike at the radical causes of social misery. At its worst, it is + sentimental and paternalistic. + </p> + <p> + (2) Marxian Socialism: This may be considered typical of many widely + varying schemes of more or less revolutionary social reconstruction, + emphasizing the primary importance of environment, education, equal + opportunity, and health, in the elimination of the conditions (i. e. + capitalistic control of industry) which have resulted in biological chaos + and human waste. I shall attempt to show that the Marxian doctrine is both + too limited, too superficial and too fragmentary in its basic analysis of + human nature and in its program of revolutionary reconstruction. + </p> + <p> + (3) Eugenics: Eugenics seems to me to be valuable in its critical and + diagnostic aspects, in emphasizing the danger of irresponsible and + uncontrolled fertility of the "unfit" and the feeble-minded establishing a + progressive unbalance in human society and lowering the birth-rate among + the "fit." But in its so-called "constructive" aspect, in seeking to + reestablish the dominance of healthy strain over the unhealthy, by urging + an increased birth-rate among the fit, the Eugenists really offer nothing + more farsighted than a "cradle competition" between the fit and the unfit. + They suggest in very truth, that all intelligent and respectable parents + should take as their example in this grave matter of child-bearing the + most irresponsible elements in the community. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (1) United States Public Health Service: Psychiatric + Studies of Delinquents. Reprint No. 598: pp. 64-65. + + (2) The Problem of the Feeble-Minded: An Abstract of the + Report of the Royal Commission on the Cure and Control of + the Feeble-Minded, London: P. S. King & Son. + + (3) Cf. Feeble-Minded in Ontario: Fourteenth Report for + the year ending October 31st, 1919. + + (4) Eugenics Review, Vol. XIII, p. 339 et seq. + + (5) Dwellers in the Vale of Siddem: A True Story of the + Social Aspect of Feeble-mindedness. By A. C. Rogers and + Maud A. Merrill; Boston (1919). +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER V: The Cruelty of Charity + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Fostering the good-for-nothing at the expense of the + good is an extreme cruelty. It is a deliberate storing + up of miseries for future generations. There is no greater + curse to posterity than that of bequeathing them an increasing + population of imbeciles." + + Herbert Spencer +</pre> + <p> + The last century has witnessed the rise and development of philanthropy + and organized charity. Coincident with the all-conquering power of + machinery and capitalistic control, with the unprecedented growth of great + cities and industrial centers, and the creation of great proletarian + populations, modern civilization has been confronted, to a degree hitherto + unknown in human history, with the complex problem of sustaining human + life in surroundings and under conditions flagrantly dysgenic. + </p> + <p> + The program, as I believe all competent authorities in contemporary + philanthropy and organized charity would agree, has been altered in aim + and purpose. It was first the outgrowth of humanitarian and altruistic + idealism, perhaps not devoid of a strain of sentimentalism, of an idealism + that was aroused by a desperate picture of human misery intensified by the + industrial revolution. It has developed in later years into a program not + so much aiming to succor the unfortunate victims of circumstances, as to + effect what we may term social sanitation. Primarily, it is a program of + self-protection. Contemporary philanthropy, I believe, recognizes that + extreme poverty and overcrowded slums are veritable breeding-grounds of + epidemics, disease, delinquency and dependency. Its aim, therefore, is to + prevent the individual family from sinking to that abject condition in + which it will become a much heavier burden upon society. + </p> + <p> + There is no need here to criticize the obvious limitations of organized + charities in meeting the desperate problem of destitution. We are all + familiar with these criticisms: the common indictment of "inefficiency" so + often brought against public and privately endowed agencies. The charges + include the high cost of administration; the pauperization of deserving + poor, and the encouragement and fostering of the "undeserving"; the + progressive destruction of self-respect and self-reliance by the + paternalistic interference of social agencies; the impossibility of + keeping pace with the ever-increasing multiplication of factors and + influences responsible for the perpetuation of human misery; the + misdirection and misappropriation of endowments; the absence of + interorganization and coordination of the various agencies of church, + state, and privately endowed institutions; the "crimes of charity" that + are occasionally exposed in newspaper scandals. These and similar + strictures we may ignore as irrelevant to our present purpose, as + inevitable but not incurable faults that have been and are being + eliminated in the slow but certain growth of a beneficent power in modern + civilization. In reply to such criticisms, the protagonist of modern + philanthropy might justly point to the honest and sincere workers and + disinterested scientists it has mobilized, to the self-sacrificing and + hard-working executives who have awakened public attention to the evils of + poverty and the menace to the race engendered by misery and filth. + </p> + <p> + Even if we accept organized charity at its own valuation, and grant that + it does the best it can, it is exposed to a more profound criticism. It + reveals a fundamental and irremediable defect. Its very success, its very + efficiency, its very necessity to the social order, are themselves the + most unanswerable indictment. Organized charity itself is the symptom of a + malignant social disease. + </p> + <p> + Those vast, complex, interrelated organizations aiming to control and to + diminish the spread of misery and destitution and all the menacing evils + that spring out of this sinisterly fertile soil, are the surest sign that + our civilization has bred, is breeding and is perpetuating constantly + increasing numbers of defectives, delinquents and dependents. My + criticism, therefore, is not directed at the "failure" of philanthropy, + but rather at its success. + </p> + <p> + These dangers inherent in the very idea of humanitarianism and altruism, + dangers which have to-day produced their full harvest of human waste, of + inequality and inefficiency, were fully recognized in the last century at + the moment when such ideas were first put into practice. Readers of + Huxley's attack on the Salvation Army will recall his penetrating and + stimulating condemnation of the debauch of sentimentalism which expressed + itself in so uncontrolled a fashion in the Victorian era. One of the most + penetrating of American thinkers, Henry James, Sr., sixty or seventy years + ago wrote: "I have been so long accustomed to see the most arrant deviltry + transact itself in the name of benevolence, that the moment I hear a + profession of good will from almost any quarter, I instinctively look + around for a constable or place my hand within reach of a bell-rope. My + ideal of human intercourse would be a state of things in which no man will + ever stand in need of any other man's help, but will derive all his + satisfaction from the great social tides which own no individual names. I + am sure no man can be put in a position of dependence upon another, + without the other's very soon becoming—if he accepts the duties of + the relation—utterly degraded out of his just human proportions. No + man can play the Deity to his fellow man with impunity—I mean, + spiritual impunity, of course. For see: if I am at all satisfied with that + relation, if it contents me to be in a position of generosity towards + others, I must be remarkably indifferent at bottom to the gross social + inequality which permits that position, and, instead of resenting the + enforced humiliation of my fellow man to myself in the interests of + humanity, I acquiesce in it for the sake of the profit it yields to my own + self-complacency. I do hope the reign of benevolence is over; until that + event occurs, I am sure the reign of God will be impossible." + </p> + <p> + To-day, we may measure the evil effects of "benevolence" of this type, not + merely upon those who have indulged in it, but upon the community at + large. These effects have been reduced to statistics and we cannot, if we + would, escape their significance. Look, for instance (since they are close + at hand, and fairly representative of conditions elsewhere) at the total + annual expenditures of public and private "charities and corrections" for + the State of New York. For the year ending June 30, 1919, the expenditures + of public institutions and agencies amounted to $33, 936,205.88. The + expenditures of privately supported and endowed institutions for the same + year, amount to $58,100,530.98. This makes a total, for public and private + charities and corrections of $92,036,736.86. A conservative estimate of + the increase for the year (1920-1921) brings this figure approximately to + one-hundred and twenty-five millions. These figures take on an eloquent + significance if we compare them to the comparatively small amounts spent + upon education, conservation of health and other constructive efforts. + Thus, while the City of New York spent $7.35 per capita on public + education in the year 1918, it spent on public charities no less than + $2.66. Add to this last figure an even larger amount dispensed by private + agencies, and we may derive some definite sense of the heavy burden of + dependency, pauperism and delinquency upon the normal and healthy sections + of the community. + </p> + <p> + Statistics now available also inform us that more than a million dollars + are spent annually to support the public and private institutions in the + state of New York for the segregation of the feeble-minded and the + epileptic. A million and a half is spent for the up-keep of state prisons, + those homes of the "defective delinquent." Insanity, which, we should + remember, is to a great extent hereditary, annually drains from the state + treasury no less than $11,985,695.55, and from private sources and + endowments another twenty millions. When we learn further that the total + number of inmates in public and private institutions in the State of New + York—in alms-houses, reformatories, schools for the blind, deaf and + mute, in insane asylums, in homes for the feeble-minded and epileptic—amounts + practically to less than sixty-five thousand, an insignificant number + compared to the total population, our eyes should be opened to the + terrific cost to the community of this dead weight of human waste. + </p> + <p> + The United States Public Health Survey of the State of Oregon, recently + published, shows that even a young community, rich in natural resources, + and unusually progressive in legislative measures, is no less subject to + this burden. Out of a total population of 783,000 it is estimated that + more than 75,000 men, women and children are dependents, feeble-minded, or + delinquents. Thus about 10 per cent. of the population is a constant drain + on the finances, health, and future of that community. These figures + represent a more definite and precise survey than the rough one indicated + by the statistics of charities and correction for the State of New York. + The figures yielded by this Oregon survey are also considerably lower than + the average shown by the draft examination, a fact which indicates that + they are not higher than might be obtained from other States. + </p> + <p> + Organized charity is thus confronted with the problem of feeble-mindedness + and mental defect. But just as the State has so far neglected the problem + of mental defect until this takes the form of criminal delinquency, so the + tendency of our philanthropic and charitable agencies has been to pay no + attention to the problem until it has expressed itself in terms of + pauperism and delinquency. Such "benevolence" is not merely ineffectual; + it is positively injurious to the community and the future of the race. + </p> + <p> + But there is a special type of philanthropy or benevolence, now widely + advertised and advocated, both as a federal program and as worthy of + private endowment, which strikes me as being more insidiously injurious + than any other. This concerns itself directly with the function of + maternity, and aims to supply GRATIS medical and nursing facilities to + slum mothers. Such women are to be visited by nurses and to receive + instruction in the "hygiene of pregnancy"; to be guided in making + arrangements for confinements; to be invited to come to the doctor's + clinics for examination and supervision. They are, we are informed, to + "receive adequate care during pregnancy, at confinement, and for one month + afterward." Thus are mothers and babies to be saved. "Childbearing is to + be made safe." The work of the maternity centers in the various American + cities in which they have already been established and in which they are + supported by private contributions and endowment, it is hardly necessary + to point out, is carried on among the poor and more docile sections of the + city, among mothers least able, through poverty and ignorance, to afford + the care and attention necessary for successful maternity. Now, as the + findings of Tredgold and Karl Pearson and the British Eugenists so + conclusively show, and as the infant mortality reports so thoroughly + substantiate, a high rate of fecundity is always associated with the + direst poverty, irresponsibility, mental defect, feeble-mindedness, and + other transmissible taints. The effect of maternity endowments and + maternity centers supported by private philanthropy would have, perhaps + already have had, exactly the most dysgenic tendency. The new government + program would facilitate the function of maternity among the very classes + in which the absolute necessity is to discourage it. + </p> + <p> + Such "benevolence" is not merely superficial and near-sighted. It conceals + a stupid cruelty, because it is not courageous enough to face unpleasant + facts. Aside from the question of the unfitness of many women to become + mothers, aside from the very definite deterioration in the human stock + that such programs would inevitably hasten, we may question its value even + to the normal though unfortunate mother. For it is never the intention of + such philanthropy to give the poor over-burdened and often undernourished + mother of the slum the opportunity to make the choice herself, to decide + whether she wishes time after to time to bring children into the world. It + merely says "Increase and multiply: We are prepared to help you do this." + Whereas the great majority of mothers realize the grave responsibility + they face in keeping alive and rearing the children they have already + brought into the world, the maternity center would teach them how to have + more. The poor woman is taught how to have her seventh child, when what + she wants to know is how to avoid bringing into the world her eighth. + </p> + <p> + Such philanthropy, as Dean Inge has so unanswerably pointed out, is kind + only to be cruel, and unwittingly promotes precisely the results most + deprecated. It encourages the healthier and more normal sections of the + world to shoulder the burden of unthinking and indiscriminate fecundity of + others; which brings with it, as I think the reader must agree, a dead + weight of human waste. Instead of decreasing and aiming to eliminate the + stocks that are most detrimental to the future of the race and the world, + it tends to render them to a menacing degree dominant. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, the program is an indication of a suddenly awakened + public recognition of the shocking conditions surrounding pregnancy, + maternity, and infant welfare prevailing at the very heart of our boasted + civilization. So terrible, so unbelievable, are these conditions of + child-bearing, degraded far below the level of primitive and barbarian + tribes, nay, even below the plane of brutes, that many high-minded people, + confronted with such revolting and disgraceful facts, lost that calmness + of vision and impartiality of judgment so necessary in any serious + consideration of this vital problem. Their "hearts" are touched; they + become hysterical; they demand immediate action; and enthusiastically and + generously they support the first superficial program that is advanced. + Immediate action may sometimes be worse than no action at all. The "warm + heart" needs the balance of the cool head. Much harm has been done in the + world by those too-good-hearted folk who have always demanded that + "something be done at once." + </p> + <p> + They do not stop to consider that the very first thing to be done is to + subject the whole situation to the deepest and most rigorous thinking. As + the late Walter Bagehot wrote in a significant but too often forgotten + passage: + </p> + <p> + "The most melancholy of human reflections, perhaps, is that on the whole + it is a question whether the benevolence of mankind does more good or + harm. Great good, no doubt, philanthropy does, but then it also does great + evil. It augments so much vice, it multiplies so much suffering, it brings + to life such great populations to suffer and to be vicious, that it is + open to argument whether it be or be not an evil to the world, and this is + entirely because excellent people fancy they can do much by rapid action, + and that they will most benefit the world when they most relieve their own + feelings; that as soon as an evil is seen, `something' ought to be done to + stay and prevent it. One may incline to hope that the balance of good over + evil is in favor of benevolence; one can hardly bear to think that it is + not so; but anyhow it is certain that there is a most heavy debt of evil, + and that this burden might almost all have been spared us if + philanthropists as well as others had not inherited from their barbarous + forefathers a wild passion for instant action." + </p> + <p> + It is customary, I believe, to defend philanthropy and charity upon the + basis of the sanctity of human life. Yet recent events in the world reveal + a curious contradiction in this respect. Human life is held sacred, as a + general Christian principle, until war is declared, when humanity indulges + in a universal debauch of bloodshed and barbarism, inventing poison gases + and every type of diabolic suggestion to facilitate killing and + starvation. Blockades are enforced to weaken and starve civilian + populations—women and children. This accomplished, the pendulum of + mob passion swings back to the opposite extreme, and the compensatory + emotions express themselves in hysterical fashion. Philanthropy and + charity are then unleashed. We begin to hold human life sacred again. We + try to save the lives of the people we formerly sought to weaken by + devastation, disease and starvation. We indulge in "drives," in campaigns + of relief, in a general orgy of international charity. + </p> + <p> + We are thus witnessing to-day the inauguration of a vast system of + international charity. As in our more limited communities and cities, + where self-sustaining and self-reliant sections of the population are + forced to shoulder the burden of the reckless and irresponsible, so in the + great world community the more prosperous and incidentally less populous + nations are asked to relieve and succor those countries which are either + the victims of the wide-spread havoc of war, of militaristic + statesmanship, or of the age-long tradition of reckless propagation and + its consequent over-population. + </p> + <p> + The people of the United States have recently been called upon to exercise + their traditional generosity not merely to aid the European Relief Council + in its efforts to keep alive three million, five hundred thousand starving + children in Central Europe, but in addition to contribute to that enormous + fund to save the thirty million Chinese who find themselves at the verge + of starvation, owing to one of those recurrent famines which strike often + at that densely populated and inert country, where procreative + recklessness is encouraged as a matter of duty. The results of this + international charity have not justified the effort nor repaid the + generosity to which it appealed. In the first place, no effort was made to + prevent the recurrence of the disaster; in the second place, philanthropy + of this type attempts to sweep back the tide of miseries created by + unrestricted propagation, with the feeble broom of sentiment. As one of + the most observant and impartial of authorities on the Far East, J. O. P. + Bland, has pointed out: "So long as China maintains a birth-rate that is + estimated at fifty-five per thousand or more, the only possible + alternative to these visitations would be emigration and this would have + to be on such a scale as would speedily overrun and overfill the habitable + globe. Neither humanitarian schemes, international charities nor + philanthropies can prevent widespread disaster to a people which + habitually breeds up to and beyond the maximum limits of its food supply." + Upon this point, it is interesting to add, Mr. Frank A. Vanderlip has + likewise pointed out the inefficacy and misdirection of this type of + international charity.(1) + </p> + <p> + Mr. Bland further points out: "The problem presented is one with which + neither humanitarian nor religious zeal can ever cope, so long as we fail + to recognize and attack the fundamental cause of these calamities. As a + matter of sober fact, the benevolent activities of our missionary + societies to reduce the deathrate by the prevention of infanticide and the + checking of disease, actually serve in the end to aggravate the pressure + of population upon its food-supply and to increase the severity of the + inevitably resultant catastrophe. What is needed for the prevention, or, + at least, the mitigation of these scourges, is an organized educational + propaganda, directed first against polygamy and the marriage of minors and + the unfit, and, next, toward such a limitation of the birth-rate as shall + approximate the standard of civilized countries. But so long as Bishops + and well meaning philanthropists in England and America continue to praise + and encourage `the glorious fertility of the East' there can be but little + hope of minimizing the penalties of the ruthless struggle for existence in + China, and Nature's law will therefore continue to work out its own + pitiless solution, weeding out every year millions of predestined + weaklings." + </p> + <p> + This rapid survey is enough, I hope, to indicate the manifold inadequacies + inherent in present policies of philanthropy and charity. The most serious + charge that can be brought against modern "benevolence" is that it + encourages the perpetuation of defectives, delinquents and dependents. + These are the most dangerous elements in the world community, the most + devastating curse on human progress and expression. Philanthropy is a + gesture characteristic of modern business lavishing upon the unfit the + profits extorted from the community at large. Looked at impartially, this + compensatory generosity is in its final effect probably more dangerous, + more dysgenic, more blighting than the initial practice of profiteering + and the social injustice which makes some too rich and others too poor. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (1) Birth Control Review. Vol. V. No. 4. p. 7. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI: Neglected Factors of the World Problem + </h2> + <p> + War has thrust upon us a new internationalism. To-day the world is united + by starvation, disease and misery. We are enjoying the ironic + internationalism of hatred. The victors are forced to shoulder the burden + of the vanquished. International philanthropies and charities are + organized. The great flux of immigration and emigration has recommenced. + Prosperity is a myth; and the rich are called upon to support huge + philanthropies, in the futile attempt to sweep back the tide of famine and + misery. In the face of this new internationalism, this tangled unity of + the world, all proposed political and economic programs reveal a woeful + common bankruptcy. They are fragmentary and superficial. None of them go + to the root of this unprecedented world problem. Politicians offer + political solutions,—like the League of Nations or the limitation of + navies. Militarists offer new schemes of competitive armament. Marxians + offer the Third Internationale and industrial revolution. Sentimentalists + offer charity and philanthropy. Coordination or correlation is lacking. + And matters go steadily from bad to worse. + </p> + <p> + The first essential in the solution of any problem is the recognition and + statement of the factors involved. Now in this complex problem which + to-day confronts us, no attempt has been made to state the primary facts. + The statesman believes they are all political. Militarists believe they + are all military and naval. Economists, including under the term the + various schools for Socialists, believe they are industrial and financial. + Churchmen look upon them as religious and ethical. What is lacking is the + recognition of that fundamental factor which reflects and coordinates + these essential but incomplete phases of the problem,—the factor of + reproduction. For in all problems affecting the welfare of a biological + species, and particularly in all problems of human welfare, two + fundamental forces work against each other. There is hunger as the driving + force of all our economic, industrial and commercial organizations; and + there is the reproductive impulse in continual conflict with our economic, + political settlements, race adjustments and the like. Official moralists, + statesmen, politicians, philanthropists and economists display an + astounding disregard of this second disorganizing factor. They treat the + world of men as if it were purely a hunger world instead of a hunger-sex + world. Yet there is no phase of human society, no question of politics, + economics, or industry that is not tied up in almost equal measure with + the expression of both of these primordial impulses. You cannot sweep back + overpowering dynamic instincts by catchwords. You can neglect and thwart + sex only at your peril. You cannot solve the problem of hunger and ignore + the problem of sex. They are bound up together. + </p> + <p> + While the gravest attention is paid to the problem of hunger and food, + that of sex is neglected. Politicians and scientists are ready and willing + to speak of such things as a "high birth rate," infant mortality, the + dangers of immigration or over-population. But with few exceptions they + cannot bring themselves to speak of Birth Control. Until they shall have + broken through the traditional inhibitions concerning the discussion of + sexual matters, until they recognize the force of the sexual instinct, and + until they recognize Birth Control as the PIVOTAL FACTOR in the problem + confronting the world to-day, our statesmen must continue to work in the + dark. Political palliatives will be mocked by actuality. Economic nostrums + are blown willy-nilly in the unending battle of human instincts. + </p> + <p> + A brief survey of the past three or four centuries of Western civilization + suggests the urgent need of a new science to help humanity in the struggle + with the vast problem of to-day's disorder and danger. That problem, as we + envisage it, is fundamentally a sexual problem. Ethical, political, and + economic avenues of approach are insufficient. We must create a new + instrument, a new technique to make any adequate solution possible. + </p> + <p> + The history of the industrial revolution and the dominance of + all-conquering machinery in Western civilization show the inadequacy of + political and economic measures to meet the terrific rise in population. + The advent of the factory system, due especially to the development of + machinery at the beginning of the nineteenth century, upset all the + grandiloquent theories of the previous era. To meet the new situation + created by the industrial revolution arose the new science of "political + economy," or economics. Old political methods proved inadequate to keep + pace with the problem presented by the rapid rise of the new machine and + industrial power. The machine era very shortly and decisively exploded the + simple belief that "all men are born free and equal." Political power was + superseded by economic and industrial power. To sustain their supremacy in + the political field, governments and politicians allied themselves to the + new industrial oligarchy. Old political theories and practices were + totally inadequate to control the new situation or to meet the complex + problems that grew out of it. + </p> + <p> + Just as the eighteenth century saw the rise and proliferation of political + theories, the nineteenth witnessed the creation and development of the + science of economics, which aimed to perfect an instrument for the study + and analysis of an industrial society, and to offer a technique for the + solution of the multifold problems it presented. But at the present + moment, as the outcome of the machine era and competitive populations, the + world has been thrown into a new situation, the solution of which is + impossible solely by political or economic weapons. + </p> + <p> + The industrial revolution and the development of machinery in Europe and + America called into being a new type of working-class. Machines were at + first termed "labor-saving devices." In reality, as we now know, + mechanical inventions and discoveries created unprecedented and + increasingly enormous demand for "labor." The omnipresent and still + existing scandal of child labor is ample evidence of this. Machine + production in its opening phases, demanded large, concentrated and + exploitable populations. Large production and the huge development of + international trade through improved methods of transport, made possible + the maintenance upon a low level of existence of these rapidly increasing + proletarian populations. With the rise and spread throughout Europe and + America of machine production, it is now possible to correlate the + expansion of the "proletariat." The working-classes bred almost + automatically to meet the demand for machine-serving "hands." + </p> + <p> + The rise in population, the multiplication of proletarian populations as a + first result of mechanical industry, the appearance of great centers of + population, the so-called urban drift, and the evils of overcrowding still + remain insufficiently studied and stated. It is a significant though + neglected fact that when, after long agitation in Great Britain, child + labor was finally forbidden by law, the supply of children dropped + appreciably. No longer of economic value in the factory, children were + evidently a drug in the "home." Yet it is doubly significant that from + this moment British labor began the long unending task of + self-organization.(1) + </p> + <p> + Nineteenth century economics had no method of studying the interrelation + of the biological factors with the industrial. Overcrowding, overwork, the + progressive destruction of responsibility by the machine discipline, as is + now perfectly obvious, had the most disastrous consequences upon human + character and human habits.(2) Paternalistic philanthropies and + sentimental charities, which sprang up like mushrooms, only tended to + increase the evils of indiscriminate breeding. From the physiological and + psychological point of view, the factory system has been nothing less than + catastrophic. + </p> + <p> + Dr. Austin Freeman has recently pointed out (3) some of the physiological, + psychological, and racial effects of machinery upon the proletariat, the + breeders of the world. Speaking for Great Britain, Dr. Freeman suggests + that the omnipresence of machinery tends toward the production of large + but inferior populations. Evidences of biological and racial degeneracy + are apparent to this observer. "Compared with the African negro," he + writes, "the British sub-man is in several respects markedly inferior. He + tends to be dull; he is usually quite helpless and unhandy; he has, as a + rule, no skill or knowledge of handicraft, or indeed knowledge of any + kind.... Over-population is a phenomenon connected with the survival of + the unfit, and it is mechanism which has created conditions favorable to + the survival of the unfit and the elimination of the fit." The whole + indictment against machinery is summarized by Dr. Freeman: "Mechanism by + its reactions on man and his environment is antagonistic to human welfare. + It has destroyed industry and replaced it by mere labor; it has degraded + and vulgarized the works of man; it has destroyed social unity and + replaced it by social disintegration and class antagonism to an extent + which directly threatens civilization; it has injuriously affected the + structural type of society by developing its organization at the expense + of the individual; it has endowed the inferior man with political power + which he employs to the common disadvantage by creating political + institutions of a socially destructive type; and finally by its reactions + on the activities of war it constitutes an agent for the wholesale + physical destruction of man and his works and the extinction of human + culture." + </p> + <p> + It is not necessary to be in absolute agreement with this diagnostician to + realize the menace of machinery, which tends to emphasize quantity and + mere number at the expense of quality and individuality. One thing is + certain. If machinery is detrimental to biological fitness, the machine + must be destroyed, as it was in Samuel Butler's "Erewhon." But perhaps + there is another way of mastering this problem. + </p> + <p> + Altruism, humanitarianism and philanthropy have aided and abetted + machinery in the destruction of responsibility and self-reliance among the + least desirable elements of the proletariat. In contrast with the previous + epoch of discovery of the New World, of exploration and colonization, when + a centrifugal influence was at work upon the populations of Europe, the + advent of machinery has brought with it a counteracting centripetal + effect. The result has been the accumulation of large urban populations, + the increase of irresponsibility, and ever-widening margin of biological + waste. + </p> + <p> + Just as eighteenth century politics and political theories were unable to + keep pace with the economic and capitalistic aggressions of the nineteenth + century, so also we find, if we look closely enough, that nineteenth + century economics is inadequate to lead the world out of the catastrophic + situation into which it has been thrown by the debacle of the World War. + Economists are coming to recognize that the purely economic interpretation + of contemporary events is insufficient. Too long, as one of them has + stated, orthodox economists have overlooked the important fact that "human + life is dynamic, that change, movement, evolution, are its basic + characteristics; that self-expression, and therefore freedom of choice and + movement, are prerequisites to a satisfying human state".(4) + </p> + <p> + Economists themselves are breaking with the old "dismal science" of the + Manchester school, with its sterile study of "supply and demand," of + prices and exchange, of wealth and labor. Like the Chicago Vice + Commission, nineteenth-century economists (many of whom still survive into + our own day) considered sex merely as something to be legislated out of + existence. They had the right idea that wealth consisted solely of + material things used to promote the welfare of certain human beings. Their + idea of capital was somewhat confused. They apparently decided that + capital was merely that part of capital used to produce profit. Prices, + exchanges, commercial statistics, and financial operations comprised the + subject matter of these older economists. It would have been considered + "unscientific" to take into account the human factors involved. They might + study the wear-and-tear and depreciation of machinery: but the + depreciation or destruction of the human race did not concern them. Under + "wealth" they never included the vast, wasted treasury of human life and + human expression. + </p> + <p> + Economists to-day are awake to the imperative duty of dealing with the + whole of human nature, with the relation of men, women, and children to + their environment—physical and psychic as well as social; of dealing + with all those factors which contribute to human sustenance, happiness and + welfare. The economist, at length, investigates human motives. Economics + outgrows the outworn metaphysical preconceptions of nineteenth century + theory. To-day we witness the creation of a new "welfare" or social + economics, based on a fuller and more complete knowledge of the human + race, upon a recognition of sex as well as of hunger; in brief, of + physiological instincts and psychological demands. The newer economists + are beginning to recognize that their science heretofore failed to take + into account the most vital factors in modern industry—it failed to + foresee the inevitable consequences of compulsory motherhood; the + catastrophic effects of child labor upon racial health; the overwhelming + importance of national vitality and well-being; the international + ramifications of the population problem; the relation of indiscriminate + breeding to feeble-mindedness, and industrial inefficiency. It speculated + too little or not at all on human motives. Human nature riots through the + traditional economic structure, as Carlton Parker pointed out, with + ridicule and destruction; the old-fashioned economist looked on helpless + and aghast. + </p> + <p> + Inevitably we are driven to the conclusion that the exhaustively economic + interpretation of contemporary history is inadequate to meet the present + situation. In his suggestive book, "The Acquisitive Society," R. H. + Tawney, arrives at the conclusion that "obsession by economic issues is as + local and transitory as it is repulsive and disturbing. To future + generations it will appear as pitiable as the obsession of the seventeenth + century by religious quarrels appears to-day; indeed, it is less rational, + since the object with which it is concerned is less important. And it is a + poison which inflames every wound and turns each trivial scratch into a + malignant ulcer. Society will not solve the particular problems of + industry until that poison is expelled, and it has learned to see industry + in its proper perspective. IF IT IS TO DO THAT IT MUST REARRANGE THE SCALE + OF VALUES. It must regard economic interests as one element in life, not + as the whole of life...."(5) + </p> + <p> + In neglecting or minimizing the great factor of sex in human society, the + Marxian doctrine reveals itself as no stronger than orthodox economics in + guiding our way to a sound civilization. It works within the same + intellectual limitations. Much as we are indebted to the Marxians for + pointing out the injustice of modern industrialism, we should never close + our eyes to the obvious limitations of their own "economic interpretation + of history." While we must recognize the great historical value of Marx, + it is now evident that his vision of the "class struggle," of the bitter + irreconcilable warfare between the capitalist and working classes was + based not upon historical analysis, but upon on unconscious dramatization + of a superficial aspect of capitalistic regime. + </p> + <p> + In emphasizing the conflict between the classes, Marx failed to recognize + the deeper unity of the proletariat and the capitalist. Nineteenth century + capitalism had in reality engendered and cultivated the very type of + working class best suited to its own purpose—an inert, docile, + irresponsible and submissive class, progressively incapable of effective + and aggressive organization. Like the economists of the Manchester school, + Marx failed to recognize the interplay of human instincts in the world of + industry. All the virtues were embodied in the beloved proletariat; all + the villainies in the capitalists. The greatest asset of the capitalism of + that age was, as a matter of fact, the uncontrolled breeding among the + laboring classes. The intelligent and self-conscious section of the + workers was forced to bear the burden of the unemployed and the + poverty-stricken. + </p> + <p> + Marx was fully aware of the consequences of this condition of things, but + shut his eyes tightly to the cause. He pointed out that capitalistic power + was dependent upon "the reserve army of labor," surplus labor, and a wide + margin of unemployment. He practically admitted that over-population was + the inevitable soil of predatory capitalism. But he disregarded the most + obvious consequence of that admission. It was all very dramatic and + grandiloquent to tell the workingmen of the world to unite, that they had + "nothing but their chains to lose and the world to gain." Cohesion of any + sort, united and voluntary organization, as events have proved, is + impossible in populations bereft of intelligence, self-discipline and even + the material necessities of life, and cheated by their desires and + ignorance into unrestrained and uncontrolled fertility. + </p> + <p> + In pointing out the limitations and fallacies of the orthodox Marxian + opinion, my purpose is not to depreciate the efforts of the Socialists + aiming to create a new society, but rather to emphasize what seems to me + the greatest and most neglected truth of our day:—Unless sexual + science is incorporated as an integral part of world-statesmanship and the + pivotal importance of Birth Control is recognized in any program of + reconstruction, all efforts to create a new world and a new civilization + are foredoomed to failure. + </p> + <p> + We can hope for no advance until we attain a new conception of sex, not as + a merely propagative act, not merely as a biological necessity for the + perpetuation of the race, but as a psychic and spiritual avenue of + expression. It is the limited, inhibited conception of sex that vitiates + so much of the thought and ideation of the Eugenists. + </p> + <p> + Like most of our social idealists, statesmen, politicians and economists, + some of the Eugenists suffer intellectually from a restricted and + inhibited understanding of the function of sex. This limited + understanding, this narrowness of vision, which gives rise to most of the + misconceptions and condemnations of the doctrine of Birth Control, is + responsible or the failure of politicians and legislators to enact + practical statutes or to remove traditional obscenities from the law + books. The most encouraging sign at present is the recognition by modern + psychology of the central importance of the sexual instinct in human + society, and the rapid spread of this new concept among the more + enlightened sections of the civilized communities. The new conception of + sex has been well stated by one to whom the debt of contemporary + civilization is well-nigh immeasurable. "Sexual activity," Havelock Ellis + has written, "is not merely a baldly propagative act, nor, when + propagation is put aside, is it merely the relief of distended vessels. It + is something more even than the foundation of great social institutions. + It is the function by which all the finer activities of the organism, + physical and psychic, may be developed and satisfied."(6) + </p> + <p> + No less than seventy years ago, a profound but neglected thinker, George + Drysdale, emphasized the necessity of a thorough understanding of man's + sexual nature in approaching economic, political and social problems. + "Before we can undertake the calm and impartial investigation of any + social problem, we must first of all free ourselves from all those sexual + prejudices which are so vehement and violent and which so completely + distort our vision of the external world. Society as a whole has yet to + fight its way through an almost impenetrable forest of sexual taboos." + Drysdale's words have lost none of their truth even to-day: "There are few + things from which humanity has suffered more than the degraded and + irreverent feelings of mystery and shame that have been attached to the + genital and excretory organs. The former have been regarded, like their + corresponding mental passions, as something of a lower and baser nature, + tending to degrade and carnalize man by their physical appetites. But we + cannot take a debasing view of any part of our humanity without becoming + degraded in our whole being."(7) + </p> + <p> + Drysdale moreover clearly recognized the social crime of entrusting to + sexual barbarians the duty of legislating and enforcing laws detrimental + to the welfare of all future generations. "They trust blindly to authority + for the rules they blindly lay down," he wrote, "perfectly unaware of the + awful and complicated nature of the subject they are dealing with so + confidently and of the horrible evils their unconsidered statements are + attended with. They themselves break through the most fundamentally + important laws daily in utter unconsciousness of the misery they are + causing to their fellows...." + </p> + <p> + Psychologists to-day courageously emphasize the integral relationship of + the expression of the sexual instinct with every phase of human activity. + Until we recognize this central fact, we cannot understand the + implications and the sinister significance of superficial attempts to + apply rosewater remedies to social evils,—by the enactment of + restrictive and superficial legislation, by wholesale philanthropies and + charities, by publicly burying our heads in the sands of sentimentality. + Self-appointed censors, grossly immoral "moralists," makeshift + legislators, all face a heavy responsibility for the miseries, diseases, + and social evils they perpetuate or intensify by enforcing the primitive + taboos of aboriginal customs, traditions, and outworn laws, which at every + step hinder the education of the people in the scientific knowledge of + their sexual nature. Puritanic and academic taboo of sex in education and + religion is as disastrous to human welfare as prostitution or the venereal + scourges. "We are compelled squarely to face the distorting influences of + biologically aborted reformers as well as the wastefulness of seducers," + Dr. Edward A. Kempf recently declared. "Man arose from the ape and + inherited his passions, which he can only refine but dare not attempt to + castrate unless he would destroy the fountains of energy that maintain + civilization and make life worth living and the world worth + beautifying.... We do not have a problem that is to be solved by making + repressive laws and executing them. Nothing will be more disastrous. + Society must make life worth the living and the refining for the + individual by conditioning him to love and to seek the love-object in a + manner that reflects a constructive effect upon his fellow-men and by + giving him suitable opportunities. The virility of the automatic apparatus + is destroyed by excessive gormandizing or hunger, by excessive wealth or + poverty, by excessive work or idleness, by sexual abuse or intolerant + prudishness. The noblest and most difficult art of all is the raising of + human thoroughbreds."(8) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (1) It may be well to note, in this connection, that the + decline in the birth rate among the more intelligent classes + of British labor followed upon the famous Bradlaugh-Besant + trial of 1878, the outcome of the attempt of these two + courageous Birth Control pioneers to circulate among the + workers the work of an American physician, Dr. Knowlton's + "The Fruits of Philosophy," advocating Birth Control, and + the widespread publicity resulting from his trial. + + (2) Cf. The Creative Impulse in Industry, by Helen Marot. + The Instinct of Workmanship, by Thorstein Veblen. + + (3) Social Decay and Regeneration. By R. Austin Freeman. + London 1921. + + (4) Carlton H. Parker: The Casual Laborer and other + essays: p. 30. + + (5) R. H. Tawney. The Acquisitive Society, p. 184. + + (6) Medical Review of Reviews: Vol. XXVI, p. 116. + + (7) The Elements of Social Science: London, 1854. + + (8) Proceedings of the International Conference of Women + Physicians. Vol. IV, pp. 66-67. New York, 1920. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VII: Is Revolution the Remedy? + </h2> + <p> + Marxian Socialism, which seeks to solve the complex problem of human + misery by economic and proletarian revolution, has manifested a new + vitality. Every shade of Socialistic thought and philosophy acknowledges + its indebtedness to the vision of Karl Marx and his conception of the + class struggle. Yet the relation of Marxian Socialism to the philosophy of + Birth Control, especially in the minds of most Socialists, remains hazy + and confused. No thorough understanding of Birth Control, its aims and + purposes, is possible until this confusion has been cleared away, and we + come to a realization that Birth Control is not merely independent of, but + even antagonistic to the Marxian dogma. In recent years many Socialists + have embraced the doctrine of Birth Control, and have generously promised + us that "under Socialism" voluntary motherhood will be adopted and + popularized as part of a general educational system. We might more + logically reply that no Socialism will ever be possible until the problem + of responsible parenthood has been solved. + </p> + <p> + Many Socialists to-day remain ignorant of the inherent conflict between + the idea of Birth Control and the philosophy of Marx. The earlier + Marxians, including Karl Marx himself, expressed the bitterest antagonism + to Malthusian and neo-Malthusian theories. A remarkable feature of early + Marxian propaganda has been the almost complete unanimity with which the + implications of the Malthusian doctrine have been derided, denounced and + repudiated. Any defense of the so-called "law of population" was enough to + stamp one, in the eyes of the orthodox Marxians, as a "tool of the + capitalistic class," seeking to dampen the ardor of those who expressed + the belief that men might create a better world for themselves. Malthus, + they claimed, was actuated by selfish class motives. He was not merely a + hidebound aristocrat, but a pessimist who was trying to kill all hope of + human progress. By Marx, Engels, Bebel, Karl Kautsky, and all the + celebrated leaders and interpreters of Marx's great "Bible of the working + class," down to the martyred Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, Birth + Control has been looked upon as a subtle, Machiavellian sophistry created + for the purpose of placing the blame for human misery elsewhere than at + the door of the capitalist class. Upon this point the orthodox Marxian + mind has been universally and sternly uncompromising. + </p> + <p> + Marxian vituperation of Malthus and his followers is illuminating. It + reveals not the weakness of the thinker attacked, but of the aggressor. + This is nowhere more evident than in Marx's "Capital" itself. In that + monumental effort, it is impossible to discover any adequate refutation or + even calm discussion of the dangers of irresponsible parenthood and + reckless breeding, any suspicion that this recklessness and + irresponsibility is even remotely related to the miseries of the + proletariat. Poor Malthus is there relegated to the humble level of a + footnote. "If the reader reminds me of Malthus, whose essay on Population + appeared in 1798," Marx remarks somewhat tartly, "I remind him that this + work in its first form is nothing more than a schoolboyish, superficial + plagiary of De Foe, Sir James Steuart, Townsend, Franklin, Wallace, etc., + and does not contain a single sentence thought out by himself. The great + sensation this pamphlet caused was due solely to party interest. The + French Revolution had passionate defenders in the United Kingdom.... `The + Principles of Population' was quoted with jubilance by the English + oligarchy as the great destroyer of all hankerings after human + development."(1) + </p> + <p> + The only attempt that Marx makes here toward answering the theory of + Malthus is to declare that most of the population theory teachers were + merely Protestant parsons.—"Parson Wallace, Parson Townsend, Parson + Malthus and his pupil the Arch-Parson Thomas Chalmers, to say nothing of + the lesser reverend scribblers in this line." The great pioneer of + "scientific" Socialism then proceeds to berate parsons as philosophers and + economists, using this method of escape from the very pertinent question + of surplus population and surplus proletariat in its relation to labor + organization and unemployment. It is true that elsewhere (2) he goes so + far as to admit that "even Malthus recognized over-population as a + necessity of modern industry, though, after his narrow fashion, he + explains it by the absolute over-growth of the laboring population, not by + their becoming relatively supernumerary." A few pages later, however, Marx + comes back again to the question of over-population, failing to realize + that it is to the capitalists' advantage that the working classes are + unceasingly prolific. "The folly is now patent," writes the unsuspecting + Marx, "of the economic wisdom that preaches to the laborers the + accommodation of their numbers to the requirements of capital. The + mechanism of capitalist production and accumulation constantly affects + this adjustment. The first work of this adaptation is the creation of a + relatively surplus population or industrial reserve army. Its last work is + the misery of constantly extending strata of the army of labor, and the + dead weight of pauperism." A little later he ventures again in the + direction of Malthusianism so far as to admit that "the accumulation of + wealth at one pole is... at the same time the accumulation of misery, + agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality and mental degradation at the + opposite pole." Nevertheless, there is no indication that Marx permitted + himself to see that the proletariat accommodates its numbers to the + "requirements of capital" precisely by breeding a large, docile, + submissive and easily exploitable population. + </p> + <p> + Had the purpose of Marx been impartial and scientific, this trifling + difference might easily have been overcome and the dangers of reckless + breeding insisted upon. But beneath all this wordy pretension and economic + jargon, we detect another aim. That is the unconscious dramatization of + human society into the "class conflict." Nothing was overlooked that might + sharpen and accentuate this "conflict." Marx depicted a great melodramatic + conflict, in which all the virtues were embodied in the proletariat and + all the villainies in the capitalist. In the end, as always in such + dramas, virtue was to be rewarded and villainy punished. The working class + was the temporary victim of a subtle but thorough conspiracy of tyranny + and repression. Capitalists, intellectuals and the BOURGEOISIE were all + "in on" this diabolic conspiracy, all thoroughly familiar with the plot, + which Marx was so sure he had uncovered. In the last act was to occur that + catastrophic revolution, with the final transformation scene of the + Socialist millennium. Presented in "scientific" phraseology, with all the + authority of economic terms, "Capital" appeared at the psychological + moment. The heaven of the traditional theology had been shattered by + Darwinian science, and here, dressed up in all the authority of the new + science, appeared a new theology, the promise of a new heaven, an earthly + paradise, with an impressive scale of rewards for the faithful and + ignominious punishments for the capitalists. + </p> + <p> + Critics have often been puzzled by the tremendous vitality of this work. + Its predictions have never, despite the claims of the faithful, been + fulfilled. Instead of diminishing, the spirit of nationalism has been + intensified tenfold. In nearly every respect Marx's predictions concerning + the evolution of historical and economic forces have been contradicted by + events, culminating in the great war. Most of his followers, the + "revolutionary" Socialists, were swept into the whirlpool of nationalistic + militarism. Nevertheless, this "Bible of the working classes" still enjoys + a tremendous authority as a scientific work. By some it is regarded as an + economic treatise; by others as a philosophy of history; by others as a + collection of sociological laws; and finally by others as a moral and + political book of reference. Criticized, refuted, repudiated and + demolished by specialists, it nevertheless exerts its influences and + retains its mysterious vitality. + </p> + <p> + We must seek the explanation of this secret elsewhere. Modern psychology + has taught us that human nature has a tendency to place the cause of its + own deficiencies and weaknesses outside of itself, to attribute to some + external agency, to some enemy or group of enemies, the blame for its own + misery. In his great work Marx unconsciously strengthens and encourages + this tendency. The immediate effect of his teaching, vulgarized and + popularized in a hundred different forms, is to relieve the proletariat of + all responsibility for the effects of its reckless breeding, and even to + encourage it in the perpetuation of misery. + </p> + <p> + The inherent truth in the Marxian teachings was, moreover, immediately + subordinated to their emotional and religious appeal. A book that could so + influence European thought could not be without merit. But in the process + of becoming the "Bible of the working classes," "Capital" suffered the + fate of all such "Bibles." The spirit of ecclesiastical dogmatism was + transfused into the religion of revolutionary Socialism. This dogmatic + religious quality has been noted by many of the most observant critics of + Socialism. Marx was too readily accepted as the father of the church, and + "Capital" as the sacred gospel of the social revolution. All questions of + tactics, of propaganda, of class warfare, of political policy, were to be + solved by apt quotations from the "good book." New thoughts, new schemes, + new programs, based upon tested fact and experience, the outgrowth of + newer discoveries concerning the nature of men, upon the recognition of + the mistakes of the master, could only be approved or admitted according + as they could or could not be tested by some bit of text quoted from Marx. + His followers assumed that Karl Marx had completed the philosophy of + Socialism, and that the duty of the proletariat thenceforth was not to + think for itself, but merely to mobilize itself under competent Marxian + leaders for the realization of his ideas. + </p> + <p> + From the day of this apotheosis of Marx until our own, the "orthodox" + Socialist of any shade is of the belief that the first essential for + social salvation lies in unquestioning belief in the dogmas of Marx. + </p> + <p> + The curious and persistent antagonism to Birth Control that began with + Marx and continues to our own day can be explained only as the utter + refusal or inability to consider humanity in its physiological and + psychological aspects—these aspects, apparently, having no place in + the "economic interpretation of history." It has remained for George + Bernard Shaw, a Socialist with a keener spiritual insight than the + ordinary Marxist, to point out the disastrous consequences of rapid + multiplication which are obvious to the small cultivator, the peasant + proprietor, the lowest farmhand himself, but which seem to arouse the + orthodox, intellectual Marxian to inordinate fury. "But indeed the more + you degrade the workers," Shaw once wrote,(3) "robbing them of all + artistic enjoyment, and all chance of respect and admiration from their + fellows, the more you throw them back, reckless, upon the one pleasure and + the one human tie left to them—the gratification of their instinct + for producing fresh supplies of men. You will applaud this instinct as + divine until at last the excessive supply becomes a nuisance: there comes + a plague of men; and you suddenly discover that the instinct is diabolic, + and set up a cry of `over-population.' But your slaves are beyond caring + for your cries: they breed like rabbits: and their poverty breeds filth, + ugliness, dishonesty, disease, obscenity, drunkenness." + </p> + <p> + Lack of insight into fundamental truths of human nature is evident + throughout the writings of the Marxians. The Marxian Socialists, according + to Kautsky, defended women in industry: it was right for woman to work in + factories in order to preserve her equality with man! Man must not support + woman, declared the great French Socialist Guesde, because that would make + her the PROLETAIRE of man! Bebel, the great authority on woman, famous for + his erudition, having critically studied the problem of population, + suggested as a remedy for too excessive fecundity the consumption of a + certain lard soup reputed to have an "anti-generative" effect upon the + agricultural population of Upper Bavaria! Such are the results of the + literal and uncritical acceptance of Marx's static and mechanical + conception of human society, a society perfectly automatic; in which + competition is always operating at maximum efficiency; one vast and + unending conspiracy against the blameless proletariat. + </p> + <p> + This lack of insight of the orthodox Marxians, long represented by the + German Social-Democrats, is nowhere better illustrated than in Dr. + Robinson's account of a mass meeting of the Social-Democrat party to + organize public opinion against the doctrine of Birth Control among the + poor.(4) "Another meeting had taken place the week before, at which + several eminent Socialist women, among them Rosa Luxemburg and Clara + Zetkin, spoke very strongly against limitation of offspring among the poor—in + fact the title of the discussion was GEGEN DEN GEBURTSTREIK! `Against the + birth strike!' The interest of the audience was intense. One could see + that with them it was not merely a dialectic question, as it was with + their leaders, but a matter of life and death. I came to attend a meeting + AGAINST the limitation of offspring; it soon proved to be a meeting very + decidedly FOR the limitation of offspring, for every speaker who spoke in + favor of the artificial prevention of conception or undesired pregnancies, + was greeted with vociferous, long-lasting applause; while those who tried + to persuade the people that a limited number of children is not a + proletarian weapon, and would not improve their lot, were so hissed that + they had difficulty going on. The speakers who were against the... idea + soon felt that their audience was against them.... Why was there such + small attendance at the regular Socialistic meetings, while the meetings + of this character were packed to suffocation? It did not apparently + penetrate the leaders' heads that the reason was a simple one. Those + meetings were evidently of no interest to them, while those which dealt + with the limitation of offspring were of personal, vital, present + interest.... What particularly amused me—and pained me—in the + anti-limitationists was the ease and equanimity with which they advised + the poor women to keep on bearing children. The woman herself was not + taken into consideration, as if she was not a human being, but a machine. + What are her sufferings, her labor pains, her inability to read, to attend + meetings, to have a taste of life? What does she amount to? The + proletariat needs fighters. Go on, females, and breed like animals. Maybe + of the thousands you bear a few will become party members...." + </p> + <p> + The militant organization of the Marxian Socialists suggests that their + campaign must assume the tactics of militarism of the familiar type. As + represented by militaristic governments, militarism like Socialism has + always encouraged the proletariat to increase and multiply. Imperial + Germany was the outstanding and awful example of this attitude. Before the + war the fall in the birth-rate was viewed by the Junker party with the + gravest misgivings. Bernhardi and the protagonists of + DEUTSCHLAND-UBER-ALLES condemned it in the strongest terms. The Marxians + unconsciously repeat the words of the government representative, Krohne, + who, in a debate on the subject in the Prussian Diet, February 1916, + asserted: "Unfortunately this view has gained followers amongst the German + women.... These women, in refusing to rear strong and able children to + continue the race, drag into the dust that which is the highest end of + women—motherhood. It is to be hoped that the willingness to bear + sacrifices will lead to a change for the better.... We need an increase in + human beings to guard against the attacks of envious neighbors as well as + to fulfil our cultural mission. Our whole economic development depends on + increase of our people." Today we are fully aware of how imperial Germany + fulfilled that cultural mission of hers; nor can we overlook the fact that + the countries with a smaller birth-rate survived the ordeal. Even from the + traditional militaristic standpoint, strength does not reside in numbers, + though the Caesars, the Napoleons and the Kaisers of the world have always + believed that large exploitable populations were necessary for their own + individual power. If Marxian dictatorship means the dictatorship of a + small minority wielding power in the interest of the proletariat, a + high-birth rate may be necessary, though we may here recall the answer of + the lamented Dr. Alfred Fried to the German imperialists: "It is madness, + the apotheosis of unreason, to wish to breed and care for human beings in + order that in the flower of their youth they may be sent in millions to be + slaughtered wholesale by machinery. We need no wholesale production of + men, have no need of the `fruitful fertility of women,' no need of + wholesale wares, fattened and dressed for slaughter What we do need is + careful maintenance of those already born. If the bearing of children is a + moral and religious duty, then it is a much higher duty to secure the + sacredness and security of human life, so that children born and bred with + trouble and sacrifice may not be offered up in the bloom of youth to a + political dogma at the bidding of secret diplomacy." + </p> + <p> + Marxism has developed a patriotism of its own, if indeed it has not yet + been completely crystallized into a religion. Like the "capitalistic" + governments it so vehemently attacks, it demands self-sacrifice and even + martyrdom from the faithful comrades. But since its strength depends to so + great a degree upon "conversion," upon docile acceptance of the doctrines + of the "Master" as interpreted by the popes and bishops of this new + church, it fails to arouse the irreligious proletariat. The Marxian + Socialist boasts of his understanding of "working class psychology" and + criticizes the lack of this understanding on the part of all dissenters. + But, as the Socialists' meetings against the "birth strike" indicate, the + working class is not interested in such generalities as the Marxian + "theory of value," the "iron law" of wages, "the value of commodities" and + the rest of the hazy articles of faith. Marx inherited the rigid + nationalistic psychology of the eighteenth century, and his followers, for + the most part, have accepted his mechanical and superficial treatment of + instinct.(5) Discontented workers may rally to Marxism because it places + the blame for their misery outside of themselves and depicts their + conditions as the result of a capitalistic conspiracy, thereby satisfying + that innate tendency of every human being to shift the blame to some + living person outside himself, and because it strengthens his belief that + his sufferings and difficulties may be overcome by the immediate + amelioration of his economic environment. In this manner, psychologists + tell us, neuroses and inner compulsions are fostered. No true solution is + possible, to continue this analogy, until the worker is awakened to the + realization that the roots of his malady lie deep in his own nature, his + own organism, his own habits. To blame everything upon the capitalist and + the environment produced by capitalism is to focus attention upon merely + one of the elements of the problem. The Marxian too often forgets that + before there was a capitalist there was exercised the unlimited + reproductive activity of mankind, which produced the first overcrowding, + the first want. This goaded humanity into its industrial frenzy, into + warfare and theft and slavery. Capitalism has not created the lamentable + state of affairs in which the world now finds itself. It has grown out of + them, armed with the inevitable power to take advantage of our swarming, + spawning millions. As that valiant thinker Monsieur G. Hardy has pointed + out (6) the proletariat may be looked upon, not as the antagonist of + capitalism, but as its accomplice. Labor surplus, or the "army of reserve" + which as for decades and centuries furnished the industrial background of + human misery, which so invariably defeats strikes and labor revolts, + cannot honestly be blamed upon capitalism. It is, as M. Hardy points out, + of SEXUAL and proletarian origin. In bringing too many children into the + world, in adding to the total of misery, in intensifying the evils of + overcrowding, the proletariat itself increases the burden of organized + labor; even of the Socialist and Syndicalist organizations themselves with + a surplus of the docilely inefficient, with those great uneducable and + unorganizable masses. With surprisingly few exceptions, Marxians of all + countries have docilely followed their master in rejecting, with + bitterness and vindictiveness that is difficult to explain, the principles + and teachings of Birth Control. + </p> + <p> + Hunger alone is not responsible for the bitter struggle for existence we + witness to-day in our over-advertised civilization. Sex, uncontrolled, + misdirected, over-stimulated and misunderstood, has run riot at the + instigation of priest, militarist and exploiter. Uncontrolled sex has + rendered the proletariat prostrate, the capitalist powerful. In this + continuous, unceasing alliance of sexual instinct and hunger we find the + reason for the decline of all the finer sentiments. These instincts tear + asunder the thin veils of culture and hypocrisy and expose to our gaze the + dark sufferings of gaunt humanity. So have we become familiar with the + everyday spectacle of distorted bodies, of harsh and frightful diseases + stalking abroad in the light of day; of misshapen heads and visages of + moron and imbecile; of starving children in city streets and schools. This + is the true soil of unspeakable crimes. Defect and delinquency join hands + with disease, and accounts of inconceivable and revolting vices are dished + up in the daily press. When the majority of men and women are driven by + the grim lash of sex and hunger in the unending struggle to feed + themselves and to carry the dead-weight of dead and dying progeny, when + little children are forced into factories, streets, and shops, education—including + even education in the Marxian dogmas—is quite impossible; and + civilization is more completely threatened than it ever could be by + pestilence or war. + </p> + <p> + But, it will be pointed out, the working class has advanced. Power has + been acquired by labor unions and syndicates. In the beginning power was + won by the principle of the restriction of numbers. The device of refusing + to admit more than a fixed number of new members to the unions of the + various trades has been justified as necessary for the upholding of the + standard of wages and of working conditions. This has been the practice in + precisely those unions which have been able through years of growth and + development to attain tangible strength and power. Such a principle of + restriction is necessary in the creation of a firmly and deeply rooted + trunk or central organization furnishing a local center for more extended + organization. It is upon this great principle of restricted number that + the labor unions have generated and developed power. They have acquired + this power without any religious emotionalism, without subscribing to + metaphysical or economic theology. For the millenium and the earthly + paradise to be enjoyed at some indefinitely future date, the union member + substitutes the very real politics of organization with its resultant + benefits. He increases his own independence and comfort and that of his + family. He is immune to superstitious belief in and respect for the + mysterious power of political or economic nostrums to reconstruct human + society according to the Marxian formula. + </p> + <p> + In rejecting the Marxian hypothesis as superficial and fragmentary, we do + so not because of its so-called revolutionary character, its threat to the + existing order of things, but rather because of its superficial, emotional + and religious character and its deleterious effect upon the life of + reason. Like other schemes advanced by the alarmed and the indignant, it + relies too much upon moral fervor and enthusiasm. To build any social + program upon the shifting sands of sentiment and feeling, of indignation + or enthusiasm, is a dangerous and foolish task. On the other hand, we + should not minimize the importance of the Socialist movement in so + valiantly and so courageously battling against the stagnating complacency + of our conservatives and reactionaries, under whose benign imbecility the + defective and diseased elements of humanity are encouraged "full speed + ahead" in their reckless and irresponsible swarming and spawning. + Nevertheless, as George Drysdale pointed out nearly seventy years ago; + </p> + <p> + "... If we ignore this and other sexual subjects, we may do whatever else + we like: we may bully, we may bluster, we may rage, We may foam at the + mouth; we may tear down Heaven with our prayers, we may exhaust ourselves + with weeping over the sorrows of the poor; we may narcotize ourselves and + others with the opiate of Christian resignation; we may dissolve the + realities of human woe in a delusive mirage of poetry and ideal + philosophy; we may lavish our substance in charity, and labor over + possible or impossible Poor Laws; we may form wild dreams of Socialism, + industrial regiments, universal brotherhood, red republics, or unexampled + revolutions; we may strangle and murder each other, we may persecute and + despise those whose sexual necessities force them to break through our + unnatural moral codes; we may burn alive if we please the prostitutes and + the adulterers; we may break our own and our neighbor's hearts against the + adamantine laws that surround us, but not one step, not one shall we + advance, till we acknowledge these laws, and adopt the only possible mode + in which they can be obeyed." These words were written in 1854. Recent + events have accentuated their stinging truth. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (1) Marx: "Capital." Vol. I, p. 675. + + (2) Op. cit. pp, 695, 707, 709. + + (3) Fabian Essays in Socialism. p. 21. + + (4) Uncontrolled Breeding, By Adelyne More. p. 84. + + (5) For a sympathetic treatment of modern psychological + research as bearing on Communism, by two convinced + Communists see "Creative Revolution," by Eden and Cedar + Paul. + + (6) Neo-Malthusianisme et Socialisme, p. 22. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VIII: Dangers of Cradle Competition + </h2> + <p> + Eugenics has been defined as "the study of agencies under social control + that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations, + either mentally or physically." While there is no inherent conflict + between Socialism and Eugenics, the latter is, broadly, the antithesis of + the former. In its propaganda, Socialism emphasizes the evil effects of + our industrial and economic system. It insists upon the necessity of + satisfying material needs, upon sanitation, hygiene, and education to + effect the transformation of society. The Socialist insists that healthy + humanity is impossible without a radical improvement of the social—and + therefore of the economic and industrial—environment. The Eugenist + points out that heredity is the great determining factor in the lives of + men and women. Eugenics is the attempt to solve the problem from the + biological and evolutionary point of view. You may bring all the changes + possible on "Nurture" or environment, the Eugenist may say to the + Socialist, but comparatively little can be effected until you control + biological and hereditary elements of the problem. Eugenics thus aims to + seek out the root of our trouble, to study humanity as a kinetic, dynamic, + evolutionary organism, shifting and changing with the successive + generations, rising and falling, cleansing itself of inherent defects, or + under adverse and dysgenic influences, sinking into degeneration and + deterioration. + </p> + <p> + "Eugenics" was first defined by Sir Francis Galton in his "Human Faculty" + in 1884, and was subsequently developed into a science and into an + educational effort. Galton's ideal was the rational breeding of human + beings. The aim of Eugenics, as defined by its founder, is to bring as + many influences as can be reasonably employed, to cause the useful classes + of the community to contribute MORE than their proportion to the next + generation. Eugenics thus concerns itself with all influences that improve + the inborn qualities of a race; also with those that develop them to the + utmost advantage. It is, in short, the attempt to bring reason and + intelligence to bear upon HEREDITY. But Galton, in spite of the immense + value of this approach and his great stimulation to criticism, was + completely unable to formulate a definite and practical working program. + He hoped at length to introduce Eugenics "into the national conscience + like a new religion.... I see no impossibility in Eugenics becoming a + religious dogma among mankind, but its details must first be worked out + sedulously in the study. Over-zeal leading to hasty action, would do harm + by holding out expectations of a new golden age, which will certainly be + falsified and cause the science to be discredited. The first and main + point is to secure the general intellectual acceptance of Eugenics as a + hopeful and most important study. Then, let its principles work into the + heart of the nation, who will gradually give practical effect to them in + ways that we may not wholly foresee."(1) + </p> + <p> + Galton formulated a general law of inheritance which declared that an + individual receives one-half of his inheritance from his two parents, + one-fourth from his four grandparents, one-eighth from his + great-grandparents, one-sixteenth from his great-great grandparents, and + so on by diminishing fractions to his primordial ancestors, the sum of all + these fractions added together contributing to the whole of the inherited + make-up. The trouble with this generalization, from the modern Mendelian + point of view, is that it fails to define what "characters" one would get + in the one-half that came from one's parents, or the one-fourth from one's + grandparents. The whole of our inheritance is not composed of these + indefinitely made up fractional parts. We are interested rather in those + more specific traits or characters, mental or physical, which, in the + Mendelian view, are structural and functional units, making up a mosaic + rather than a blend. The laws of heredity are concerned with the precise + behavior, during a series of generations, of these specific unit + characters. This behavior, as the study of Genetics shows, may be + determined in lesser organisms by experiment. Once determined, they are + subject to prophecy. + </p> + <p> + The problem of human heredity is now seen to be infinitely more complex + than imagined by Galton and his followers, and the optimistic hope of + elevating Eugenics to the level of a religion is a futile one. Most of the + Eugenists, including Professor Karl Pearson and his colleagues of the + Eugenics Laboratory of the University of London and of the biometric + laboratory in University College, have retained the age-old point of view + of "Nature vs. Nurture" and have attempted to show the predominating + influence of Heredity AS OPPOSED TO Environment. This may be true; but + demonstrated and repeated in investigation after investigation, it + nevertheless remains fruitless and unprofitable from the practical point + of view. + </p> + <p> + We should not minimize the great outstanding service of Eugenics for + critical and diagnostic investigations. It demonstrates, not in terms of + glittering generalization but in statistical studies of investigations + reduced to measurement and number, that uncontrolled fertility is + universally correlated with disease, poverty, overcrowding and the + transmission of hereditable taints. Professor Pearson and his associates + show us that "if fertility be correlated with anti-social hereditary + characters, a population will inevitably degenerate." + </p> + <p> + This degeneration has already begun. Eugenists demonstrate that two-thirds + of our manhood of military age are physically too unfit to shoulder a + rifle; that the feeble-minded, the syphilitic, the irresponsible and the + defective breed unhindered; that women are driven into factories and shops + on day-shift and night-shift; that children, frail carriers of the torch + of life, are put to work at an early age; that society at large is + breeding an ever-increasing army of under-sized, stunted and dehumanized + slaves; that the vicious circle of mental and physical defect, delinquency + and beggary is encouraged, by the unseeing and unthinking sentimentality + of our age, to populate asylum, hospital and prison. + </p> + <p> + All these things the Eugenists sees and points out with a courage entirely + admirable. But as a positive program of redemption, orthodox Eugenics can + offer nothing more "constructive" than a renewed "cradle competition" + between the "fit" and the "unfit." It sees that the most responsible and + most intelligent members of society are the less fertile; that the + feeble-minded are the more fertile. Herein lies the unbalance, the great + biological menace to the future of civilization. Are we heading to + biological destruction, toward the gradual but certain attack upon the + stocks of intelligence and racial health by the sinister forces of the + hordes of irresponsibility and imbecility? This is not such a remote + danger as the optimistic Eugenist might suppose. The mating of the moron + with a person of sound stock may, as Dr. Tredgold points out, gradually + disseminate this trait far and wide until it undermines the vigor and + efficiency of an entire nation and an entire race. This is no idle fancy. + We must take it into account if we wish to escape the fate that has + befallen so many civilizations in the past. + </p> + <p> + "It is, indeed, more than likely that the presence of this impairment in a + mitigated form is responsible for no little of the defective character, + the diminution of mental and moral fiber at the present day," states Dr. + Tredgold.(2) Such populations, this distinguished authority might have + added, form the veritable "cultures" not only for contagious physical + diseases but for mental instability and irresponsibility also. They are + susceptible, exploitable, hysterical, non-resistant to external + suggestion. Devoid of stamina, such folk become mere units in a mob. "The + habit of crowd-making is daily becoming a more serious menace to + civilization," writes Everett Dean Martin. "Our society is becoming a + veritable babel of gibbering crowds."(3) It would be only the incorrigible + optimist who refused to see the integral relation between this phenomenon + and the indiscriminate breeding by which we recruit our large populations. + </p> + <p> + The danger of recruiting our numbers from the most "fertile stocks" is + further emphasized when we recall that in a democracy like that of the + United States every man and woman is permitted a vote in the government, + and that it is the representatives of this grade of intelligence who may + destroy our liberties, and who may thus be the most far-reaching peril to + the future of civilization. + </p> + <p> + "It is a pathological worship of mere number," writes Alleyne Ireland, + "which has inspired all the efforts—the primary, the direct election + of Senators, the initiative, the recall and the referendum—to cure + the evils of mob rule by increasing the size of the mob and extending its + powers."(4) + </p> + <p> + Equality of political power has thus been bestowed upon the lowest + elements of our population. We must not be surprised, therefore, at the + spectacle of political scandal and graft, of the notorious and universally + ridiculed low level of intelligence and flagrant stupidity exhibited by + our legislative bodies. The Congressional Record mirrors our political + imbecility. + </p> + <p> + All of these dangers and menaces are acutely realized by the Eugenists; it + is to them that we are most indebted for the proof that reckless spawning + carries with it the seeds of destruction. But whereas the Galtonians + reveal themselves as unflinching in their investigation and in their + exhibition of fact and diagnoses of symptoms, they do not on the other + hand show much power in suggesting practical and feasible remedies. + </p> + <p> + On its scientific side, Eugenics suggests the reestabilishment of the + balance between the fertility of the "fit" and the "unfit." The birth-rate + among the normal and healthier and finer stocks of humanity, is to be + increased by awakening among the "fit" the realization of the dangers of a + lessened birth-rate in proportion to the reckless breeding among the + "unfit." By education, by persuasion, by appeals to racial ethics and + religious motives, the ardent Eugenist hopes to increase the fertility of + the "fit." Professor Pearson thinks that it is especially necessary to + awaken the hardiest stocks to this duty. These stocks, he says, are to be + found chiefly among the skilled artisan class, the intelligent working + class. Here is a fine combination of health and hardy vigor, of sound body + and sound mind. + </p> + <p> + Professor Pearson and his school of biometrics here ignore or at least + fail to record one of those significant "correlations" which form the + basis of his method. The publications of the Eugenics Laboratory all tend + to show that a high rate of fertility is correlated with extreme poverty, + recklessness, deficiency and delinquency; similarly, that among the more + intelligent, this rate of fertility decreases. But the scientific + Eugenists fail to recognize that this restraint of fecundity is due to a + deliberate foresight and is a conscious effort to elevate standards of + living for the family and the children of the responsible—and + possibly more selfish—sections of the community. The appeal to enter + again into competitive child-bearing, for the benefit of the nation or the + race, or any other abstraction, will fall on deaf ears. + </p> + <p> + Pearson has done invaluable work in pointing out the fallacies and the + false conclusions of the ordinary statisticians. But when he attempts to + show by the methods of biometrics that not only the first child but also + the second, are especially liable to suffer from transmissible + pathological defects, such as insanity, criminality and tuberculosis, he + fails to recognize that this tendency is counterbalanced by the high + mortality rate among later children. If first and second children reveal a + greater percentage of heritable defect, it is because the later born + children are less liable to survive the conditions produced by a large + family. + </p> + <p> + In passing, we should here recognize the difficulties presented by the + idea of "fit" and "unfit." Who is to decide this question? The grosser, + the more obvious, the undeniably feeble-minded should, indeed, not only be + discouraged but prevented from propagating their kind. But among the + writings of the representative Eugenists one cannot ignore the distinct + middle-class bias that prevails. As that penetrating critic, F. W. Stella + Browne, has said in another connection, "The Eugenics Education Society + has among its numbers many most open-minded and truly progressive + individuals but the official policy it has pursued for years has been + inspired by class-bias and sex bias. The society laments with increasing + vehemence the multiplication of the less fortunate classes at a more rapid + rate than the possessors of leisure and opportunity. (I do not think it + relevant here to discuss whether the innate superiority of endowment in + the governing class really is so overwhelming as to justify the Eugenics + Education Society's peculiar use of the terms `fit' and `unfit'!) Yet it + has persistently refused to give any help toward extending the knowledge + of contraceptives to the exploited classes. Similarly, though the Eugenics + Review, the organ of the society, frequently laments the `selfishness' of + the refusal of maternity by healthy and educated women of the professional + classes, I have yet to learn that it has made any official pronouncement + on the English illegitimacy laws or any organized effort toward defending + the unmarried mother." + </p> + <p> + This peculiarly Victorian reticence may be inherited from the founder of + Eugenics. Galton declared that the "Bohemian" element in the Anglo-Saxon + race is destined to perish, and "the sooner it goes, the happier for + mankind." The trouble with any effort of trying to divide humanity into + the "fit" and the "unfit," is that we do not want, as H. G. Wells recently + pointed out,(5) to breed for uniformity but for variety. "We want + statesmen and poets and musicians and philosophers and strong men and + delicate men and brave men. The qualities of one would be the weaknesses + of the other." We want, most of all, genius. + </p> + <p> + Proscription on Galtonian lines would tend to eliminate many of the great + geniuses of the world who were not only "Bohemian," but actually and + pathologically abnormal—men like Rousseau, Dostoevsky, Chopin, Poe, + Schumann, Nietzsche, Comte, Guy de Maupassant,—and how many others? + But such considerations should not lead us into error of concluding that + such men were geniuses merely because they were pathological specimens, + and that the only way to produce a genius is to breed disease and defect. + It only emphasizes the dangers of external standards of "fit" and "unfit." + </p> + <p> + These limitations are more strikingly shown in the types of so-called + "eugenic" legislation passed or proposed by certain enthusiasts. + Regulation, compulsion and prohibitions affected and enacted by political + bodies are the surest methods of driving the whole problem under-ground. + As Havelock Ellis has pointed out, the absurdity and even hopelessness of + effecting Eugenic improvement by placing on the statute books prohibitions + of legal matrimony to certain classes of people, reveal the weakness of + those Eugenists who minimize or undervalue the importance of environment + as a determining factor. They affirm that heredity is everything and + environment nothing, yet forget that it is precisely those who are most + universally subject to bad environment who procreate most copiously, most + recklessly and most disastrously. Such marriage laws are based for the + most part on the infantile assumption that procreation is absolutely + dependent upon the marriage ceremony, an assumption usually coupled with + the complementary one that the only purpose in marriage is procreation. + Yet it is a fact so obvious that it is hardly worth stating that the most + fertile classes who indulge in the most dysgenic type of procreating—the + feeble-minded—are almost totally unaffected by marriage laws and + marriage-ceremonies. + </p> + <p> + As for the sterilization of habitual criminals, not merely must we know + more of heredity and genetics in general, but also acquire more certainty + of the justice of our laws and the honesty of their administration before + we can make rulings of fitness or unfitness merely upon the basis of a + respect for law. On this point the eminent William Bateson writes:(6) + "Criminals are often feeble-minded, but as regards those that are not, the + fact that a man is for the purposes of Society classified as a criminal, + tells me little as to his value, still less as to the possible value of + his offspring. It is a fault inherent in criminal jurisprudence, based on + non-biological data, that the law must needs take the nature of the + offenses rather than that of the offenders as the basis of classification. + A change in the right direction has begun, but the problem is difficult + and progress will be very slow.... We all know of persons convicted, + perhaps even habitually, whom the world could ill spare. Therefore I + hesitate to proscribe the criminal. Proscription... is a weapon with a + very nasty recoil. Might not some with equal cogency proscribe army + contractors and their accomplices, the newspaper patriots? The crimes of + the prison population are petty offenses by comparison, and the + significance we attach to them is a survival of other days. Felonies may + be great events, locally, but they do not induce catastrophies. The + proclivities of the war-makers are infinitely more dangerous than those of + the aberrant beings whom from time to time the law may dub as criminal. + Consistent and portentous selfishness, combined with dullness of + imagination is probably just as transmissible as want of self-control, + though destitute of the amiable qualities not rarely associated with the + genetic composition of persons of unstable mind." + </p> + <p> + In this connection, we should note another type of "respectable" + criminality noted by Havelock Ellis: "If those persons who raise the cry + of `race-suicide' in face of the decline of the birth-rate really had the + knowledge and the intelligence to realize the manifold evils which they + are invoking, they would deserve to be treated as criminals." + </p> + <p> + Our debt to the science of Eugenics is great in that it directs our + attention to the biological nature of humanity. Yet there is too great a + tendency among the thinkers of this school, to restrict their ideas of sex + to its expression as a purely procreative function. Compulsory legislation + which would make the inevitably futile attempt to prohibit one of the most + beneficent and necessary of human expressions, or regulate it into the + channels of preconceived philosophies, would reduce us to the unpleasant + days predicted by William Blake, when + </p> + <p> + "Priests in black gowns will be walking their rounds And binding with + briars our joys and desires." + </p> + <p> + Eugenics is chiefly valuable in its negative aspects. It is "negative + Eugenics" that has studied the histories of such families as the Jukeses + and the Kallikaks, that has pointed out the network of imbecility and + feeble-mindedness that has been sedulously spread through all strata of + society. On its so-called positive or constructive side, it fails to + awaken any permanent interest. "Constructive" Eugenics aims to arouse the + enthusiasm or the interest of the people in the welfare of the world + fifteen or twenty generations in the future. On its negative side it shows + us that we are paying for and even submitting to the dictates of an ever + increasing, unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never should + have been born at all—that the wealth of individuals and of states + is being diverted from the development and the progress of human + expression and civilization. + </p> + <p> + While it is necessary to point out the importance of "heredity" as a + determining factor in human life, it is fatal to elevate it to the + position of an absolute. As with environment, the concept of heredity + derives its value and its meaning only in so far as it is embodied and + made concrete in generations of living organisms. Environment and heredity + are not antagonistic. Our problem is not that of "Nature vs. Nurture," but + rather of Nature x Nurture, of heredity multiplied by environment, if we + may express it thus. The Eugenist who overlooks the importance of + environment as a determining factor in human life, is as short-sighted as + the Socialist who neglects the biological nature of man. We cannot + disentangle these two forces, except in theory. To the child in the womb, + said Samuel Butler, the mother is "environment." She is, of course, + likewise "heredity." The age-old discussion of "Nature vs. Nurture" has + been threshed out time after time, usually fruitlessly, because of a + failure to recognize the indivisibility of these biological factors. The + opposition or antagonism between them is an artificial and academic one, + having no basis in the living organism. + </p> + <p> + The great principle of Birth Control offers the means whereby the + individual may adapt himself to and even control the forces of environment + and heredity. Entirely apart from its Malthusian aspect or that of the + population question, Birth Control must be recognized, as the + Neo-Malthusians pointed out long ago, not "merely as the key of the social + position," and the only possible and practical method of human generation, + but as the very pivot of civilization. Birth Control which has been + criticized as negative and destructive, is really the greatest and most + truly eugenic method, and its adoption as part of the program of Eugenics + would immediately give a concrete and realistic power to that science. As + a matter of fact, Birth Control has been accepted by the most clear + thinking and far seeing of the Eugenists themselves as the most + constructive and necessary of the means to racial health.(7) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (1) Galton. Essays in Eugenics, p. 43. + + (2) Eugenics Review, Vol. XIII, p. 349. + + (3) Cf. Martin, The Behavior of Crowds, p. 6. + + (4) Cf. Democracy and the Human Equation. E. P. Dutton & + Co., 1921. + + (5) Cf. The Salvaging of Civilization. + + (6) Common Sense in Racial Problems. By W. Bateson, M. A. + A., F. R. S. + + (7) Among these are Dean W. R. Inge, Professor J. Arthur + Thomson, Dr. Havelock Ellis, Professor William Bateson, + Major Leonard Darwin and Miss Norah March. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IX: A Moral Necessity + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + I went to the Garden of Love, + And saw what I never had seen; + A Chapel was built in the midst, + Where I used to play on the green. + + And the gates of this Chapel were shut, + And "Thou shalt not" writ over the door; + So I turned to the Garden of Love + That so many sweet flowers bore. + + And I saw it was filled with graves, + And tombstones where flowers should be; + And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds, + And binding with briars my joys and desires. + + —William Blake +</pre> + <p> + Orthodox opposition to Birth Control is formulated in the official protest + of the National Council of Catholic Women against the resolution passed by + the New York State Federation of Women's Clubs which favored the removal + of all obstacles to the spread of information regarding practical methods + of Birth Control. The Catholic statement completely embodies traditional + opposition to Birth Control. It affords a striking contrast by which we + may clarify and justify the ethical necessity for this new instrument of + civilization as the most effective basis for practical and scientific + morality. "The authorities at Rome have again and again declared that all + positive methods of this nature are immoral and forbidden," states the + National Council of Catholic Women. "There is no question of the + lawfulness of birth restriction through abstinence from the relations + which result in conception. The immorality of Birth Control as it is + practised and commonly understood, consists in the evils of the particular + method employed. These are all contrary to the moral law because they are + unnatural, being a perversion of a natural function. Human faculties are + used in such a way as to frustrate the natural end for which these + faculties were created. This is always intrinsically wrong—as wrong + as lying and blasphemy. No supposed beneficial consequence can make good a + practice which is, in itself, immoral.... + </p> + <p> + "The evil results of the practice of Birth Control are numerous. Attention + will be called here to only three. The first is the degradation of the + marital relation itself, since the husband and wife who indulge in any + form of this practice come to have a lower idea of married life. They + cannot help coming to regard each other to a great extent as mutual + instruments of sensual gratification, rather than as cooperators with the + Creating in bringing children into the world. This consideration may be + subtle but it undoubtedly represents the facts. + </p> + <p> + "In the second place, the deliberate restriction of the family through + these immoral practices deliberately weakens self-control and the capacity + for self-denial, and increases the love of ease and luxury. The best + indication of this is that the small family is much more prevalent in the + classes that are comfortable and well-to-do than among those whose + material advantages are moderate or small. The theory of the advocates of + Birth Control is that those parents who are comfortably situated should + have a large number of children (SIC!) while the poor should restrict + their offspring to a much smaller number. This theory does not work, for + the reason that each married couple have their own idea of what + constitutes unreasonable hardship in the matter of bearing and rearing + children. A large proportion of the parents who are addicted to Birth + Control practices are sufficiently provided with worldly goods to be free + from apprehension on the economic side; nevertheless, they have small + families because they are disinclined to undertake the other burdens + involved in bringing up a more numerous family. A practice which tends to + produce such exaggerated notions of what constitutes hardship, which leads + men and women to cherish such a degree of ease, makes inevitably for + inefficiency, a decline in the capacity to endure and to achieve, and for + a general social decadence. + </p> + <p> + "Finally, Birth Control leads sooner or later to a decline in + population...." (The case of France is instanced.) But it is essentially + the moral question that alarms the Catholic women, for the statement + concludes: "The further effect of such proposed legislation will + inevitably be a lowering both of public and private morals. What the + fathers of this country termed indecent and forbade the mails to carry, + will, if such legislation is carried through, be legally decent. The + purveyors of sexual license and immorality will have the opportunity to + send almost anything they care to write through the mails on the plea that + it is sex information. Not only the married but also the unmarried will be + thus affected; the ideals of the young contaminated and lowered. The + morals of the entire nation will suffer. + </p> + <p> + "The proper attitude of Catholics... is clear. They should watch and + oppose all attempts in state legislatures and in Congress to repeal the + laws which now prohibit the dissemination of information concerning Birth + Control. Such information will be spread only too rapidly despite existing + laws. To repeal these would greatly accelerate this deplorable + movement.(1)" + </p> + <p> + The Catholic position has been stated in an even more extreme form by + Archbishop Patrick J. Hayes of the archdiocese of New York. In a + "Christmas Pastoral" this dignitary even went to the extent of declaring + that "even though some little angels in the flesh, through the physical or + mental deformities of their parents, may appear to human eyes hideous, + misshapen, a blot on civilized society, we must not lose sight of this + Christian thought that under and within such visible malformation, lives + an immortal soul to be saved and glorified for all eternity among the + blessed in heaven."(2) + </p> + <p> + With the type of moral philosophy expressed in this utterance, we need not + argue. It is based upon traditional ideas that have had the practical + effect of making this world a vale of tears. Fortunately such words carry + no weight with those who can bring free and keen as well as noble minds to + the consideration of the matter. To them the idealism of such an utterance + appears crude and cruel. The menace to civilization of such orthodoxy, if + it be orthodoxy, lies in the fact that its powerful exponents may be for a + time successful not merely in influencing the conduct of their adherents + but in checking freedom of thought and discussion. To this, with all the + vehemence of emphasis at our command, we object. From what Archbishop + Hayes believes concerning the future blessedness in Heaven of the souls of + those who are born into this world as hideous and misshapen beings he has + a right to seek such consolation as may be obtained; but we who are trying + to better the conditions of this world believe that a healthy, happy human + race is more in keeping with the laws of God, than disease, misery and + poverty perpetuating itself generation after generation. Furthermore, + while conceding to Catholic or other churchmen full freedom to preach + their own doctrines, whether of theology or morals, nevertheless when they + attempt to carry these ideas into legislative acts and force their + opinions and codes upon the non-Catholics, we consider such action an + interference with the principles of democracy and we have a right to + protest. + </p> + <p> + Religious propaganda against Birth Control is crammed with contradiction + and fallacy. It refutes itself. Yet it brings the opposing views into + vivid contrast. In stating these differences we should make clear that + advocates of Birth Control are not seeking to attack the Catholic church. + We quarrel with that church, however, when it seeks to assume authority + over non-Catholics and to dub their behavior immoral because they do not + conform to the dictatorship of Rome. The question of bearing and rearing + children we hold is the concern of the mother and the potential mother. If + she delegates the responsibility, the ethical education, to an external + authority, that is her affair. We object, however, to the State or the + Church which appoints itself as arbiter and dictator in this sphere and + attempts to force unwilling women into compulsory maternity. + </p> + <p> + When Catholics declare that "The authorities at Rome have again and again + declared that all positive methods of this nature are immoral and + forbidden," they do so upon the assumption that morality consists in + conforming to laws laid down and enforced by external authority, in + submission to decrees and dicta imposed from without. In this case, they + decide in a wholesale manner the conduct of millions, demanding of them + not the intelligent exercise of their own individual judgment and + discrimination, but unquestioning submission and conformity to dogma. The + Church thus takes the place of all-powerful parents, and demands of its + children merely that they should obey. In my belief such a philosophy + hampers the development of individual intelligence. Morality then becomes + a more or less successful attempt to conform to a code, instead of an + attempt to bring reason and intelligence to bear upon the solution of each + individual human problem. + </p> + <p> + But, we read on, Birth Control methods are not merely contrary to "moral + law," but forbidden because they are "unnatural," being "the perversion of + a natural function." This, of course, is the weakest link in the whole + chain. Yet "there is no question of the lawfulness of birth restriction + through abstinence"—as though abstinence itself were not unnatural! + For more than a thousand years the Church was occupied with the problem of + imposing abstinence on its priesthood, its most educated and trained body + of men, educated to look upon asceticism as the finest ideal; it took one + thousand years to convince the Catholic priesthood that abstinence was + "natural" or practicable.(3) Nevertheless, there is still this talk of + abstinence, self-control, and self-denial, almost in the same breath with + the condemnation of Birth Control as "unnatural." + </p> + <p> + If it is our duty to act as "cooperators with the Creator" to bring + children into the world, it is difficult to say at what point our behavior + is "unnatural." If it is immoral and "unnatural" to prevent an unwanted + life from coming into existence, is it not immoral and "unnatural" to + remain unmarried from the age of puberty? Such casuistry is unconvincing + and feeble. We need only point out that rational intelligence is also a + "natural" function, and that it is as imperative for us to use the + faculties of judgment, criticism, discrimination of choice, selection and + control, all the faculties of the intelligence, as it is to use those of + reproduction. It is certainly dangerous "to frustrate the natural ends for + which these faculties were created." This also, is always intrinsically + wrong—as wrong as lying and blasphemy—and infinitely more + devastating. Intelligence is as natural to us as any other faculty, and it + is fatal to moral development and growth to refuse to use it and to + delegate to others the solution of our individual problems. The evil will + not be that one's conduct is divergent from current and conventional moral + codes. There may be every outward evidence of conformity, but this + agreement may be arrived at, by the restriction and suppression of + subjective desires, and the more or less successful attempt at mere + conformity. Such "morality" would conceal an inner conflict. The fruits of + this conflict would be neurosis and hysteria on the one hand; or concealed + gratification of suppressed desires on the other, with a resultant + hypocrisy and cant. True morality cannot be based on conformity. There + must be no conflict between subjective desire and outward behavior. + </p> + <p> + To object to these traditional and churchly ideas does not by any means + imply that the doctrine of Birth Control is anti-Christian. On the + contrary, it may be profoundly in accordance with the Sermon on the Mount. + One of the greatest living theologians and most penetrating students of + the problems of civilization is of this opinion. In an address delivered + before the Eugenics Education Society of London,(4) William Ralph Inge, + the Very Reverend Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, pointed out that + the doctrine of Birth Control was to be interpreted as of the very essence + of Christianity. + </p> + <p> + "We should be ready to give up all our theories," he asserted, "if science + proved that we were on the wrong lines. And we can understand, though we + profoundly disagree with, those who oppose us on the grounds of + authority.... We know where we are with a man who says, `Birth Control is + forbidden by God; we prefer poverty, unemployment, war, the physical, + intellectual and moral degeneration of the people, and a high death rate, + to any interference with the universal command to be fruitful and + multiply'; but we have no patience with those who say that we can have + unrestricted and unregulated propagation without those consequences. It is + a great part of our work to press home to the public mind the alternative + that lies before us. Either rational selection must take the place of the + natural selection which the modern State will not allow to act, or we must + go on deteriorating. When we can convince the public of this, the + opposition of organized religion will soon collapse or become + ineffective." Dean Inge effectively answers those who have objected to the + methods of Birth Control as "immoral" and in contradiction and inimical to + the teachings of Christ. Incidentally he claims that those who are not + blinded by prejudices recognize that "Christianity aims at saving the soul—the + personality, the nature, of man, not his body or his environment. + According to Christianity, a man is saved, not by what he has, or knows, + or does, but by what he is. It treats all the apparatus of life with a + disdain as great as that of the biologist; so long as a man is inwardly + healthy, it cares very little whether he is rich or poor, learned or + simple, and even whether he is happy, or unhappy. It attaches no + importance to quantitative measurements of any kind. The Christian does + not gloat over favorable trade-statistics, nor congratulate himself on the + disparity between the number of births and deaths. For him... the test of + the welfare of a country is the quality of human beings whom it produces. + Quality is everything, quantity is nothing. And besides this, the + Christian conception of a kingdom of God upon the earth teaches us to turn + our eyes to the future, and to think of the welfare of posterity as a + thing which concerns us as much as that of our own generation. This + welfare, as conceived by Christianity, is of course something different + from external prosperity; it is to be the victory of intrinsic worth and + healthiness over all the false ideals and deep-seated diseases which at + present spoil civilization." + </p> + <p> + "It is not political religion with which I am concerned," Dean Inge + explained, "but the convictions of really religious persons; and I do not + think that we need despair of converting them to our views." + </p> + <p> + Dean Inge believes Birth Control is an essential part of Eugenics, and an + essential part of Christian morality. On this point he asserts: "We do + wish to remind our orthodox and conservative friends that the Sermon on + the Mount contains some admirably clear and unmistakable eugenic precepts. + `Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? A corrupt tree + cannot bring forth good fruit, neither can a good tree bring forth evil + fruit. Every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and + cast into the fire.' We wish to apply these words not only to the actions + of individuals, which spring from their characters, but to the character + of individuals, which spring from their inherited qualities. This + extension of the scope of the maxim seems to me quite legitimate. Men do + not gather grapes of thorns. As our proverb says, you cannot make a silk + purse out of a sow's ear. If we believe this, and do not act upon it by + trying to move public opinion towards giving social reform, education and + religion a better material to work upon, we are sinning against the light, + and not doing our best to bring in the Kingdom of God upon earth." + </p> + <p> + As long as sexual activity is regarded in a dualistic and contradictory + light,—in which it is revealed either as the instrument by which men + and women "cooperate with the Creator" to bring children into the world, + on the one hand; and on the other, as the sinful instrument of + self-gratification, lust and sensuality, there is bound to be an endless + conflict in human conduct, producing ever increasing misery, pain and + injustice. In crystallizing and codifying this contradiction, the Church + not only solidified its own power over men but reduced women to the most + abject and prostrate slavery. It was essentially a morality that would not + "work." The sex instinct in the human race is too strong to be bound by + the dictates of any church. The church's failure, its century after + century of failure, is now evident on every side: for, having convinced + men and women that only in its baldly propagative phase is sexual + expression legitimate, the teachings of the Church have driven sex + under-ground, into secret channels, strengthened the conspiracy of + silence, concentrated men's thoughts upon the "lusts of the body," have + sown, cultivated and reaped a crop of bodily and mental diseases, and + developed a society congenitally and almost hopelessly unbalanced. How is + any progress to be made, how is any human expression or education possible + when women and men are taught to combat and resist their natural impulses + and to despise their bodily functions? + </p> + <p> + Humanity, we are glad to realize, is rapidly freeing itself from this + "morality" imposed upon it by its self-appointed and self-perpetuating + masters. From a hundred different points the imposing edifice of this + "morality" has been and is being attacked. Sincere and thoughtful + defenders and exponents of the teachings of Christ now acknowledge the + falsity of the traditional codes and their malignant influence upon the + moral and physical well-being of humanity. + </p> + <p> + Ecclesiastical opposition to Birth Control on the part of certain + representatives of the Protestant churches, based usually on quotations + from the Bible, is equally invalid, and for the same reason. The attitude + of the more intelligent and enlightened clergy has been well and + succinctly expressed by Dean Inge, who, referring to the ethics of Birth + Control, writes: "THIS IS EMPHATICALLY A MATTER IN WHICH EVERY MAN AND + WOMAN MUST JUDGE FOR THEMSELVES, AND MUST REFRAIN FROM JUDGING OTHERS." We + must not neglect the important fact that it is not merely in the practical + results of such a decision, not in the small number of children, not even + in the healthier and better cared for children, not in the possibility of + elevating the living conditions of the individual family, that the ethical + value of Birth Control alone lies. Precisely because the practice of Birth + Control does demand the exercise of decision, the making of choice, the + use of the reasoning powers, is it an instrument of moral education as + well as of hygienic and racial advance. It awakens the attention of + parents to their potential children. It forces upon the individual + consciousness the question of the standards of living. In a profound + manner it protects and reasserts the inalienable rights of the + child-to-be. + </p> + <p> + Psychology and the outlook of modern life are stressing the growth of + independent responsibility and discrimination as the true basis of ethics. + The old traditional morality, with its train of vice, disease, promiscuity + and prostitution, is in reality dying out, killing itself off because it + is too irresponsible and too dangerous to individual and social + well-being. The transition from the old to the new, like all fundamental + changes, is fraught with many dangers. But it is a revolution that cannot + be stopped. + </p> + <p> + The smaller family, with its lower infant mortality rate, is, in more + definite and concrete manner than many actions outwardly deemed "moral," + the expression of moral judgment and responsibility. It is the assertion + of a standard of living, inspired by the wish to obtain a fuller and more + expressive life for the children than the parents have enjoyed. If the + morality or immorality of any course of conduct is to be determined by the + motives which inspire it, there is evidently at the present day no higher + morality than the intelligent practice of Birth Control. + </p> + <p> + The immorality of many who practise Birth Control lies in not daring to + preach what they practise. What is the secret of the hypocrisy of the + well-to-do, who are willing to contribute generously to charities and + philanthropies, who spend thousands annually in the upkeep and sustenance + of the delinquent, the defective and the dependent; and yet join the + conspiracy of silence that prevents the poorer classes from learning how + to improve their conditions, and elevate their standards of living? It is + as though they were to cry: "We'll give you anything except the thing you + ask for—the means whereby you may become responsible and + self-reliant in your own lives." + </p> + <p> + The brunt of this injustice falls on women, because the old traditional + morality is the invention of men. "No religion, no physical or moral + code," wrote the clear-sighted George Drysdale, "proposed by one sex for + the other, can be really suitable. Each must work out its laws for itself + in every department of life." In the moral code developed by the Church, + women have been so degraded that they have been habituated to look upon + themselves through the eyes of men. Very imperfectly have women developed + their own self-consciousness, the realization of their tremendous and + supreme position in civilization. Women can develop this power only in one + way; by the exercise of responsibility, by the exercise of judgment, + reason or discrimination. They need ask for no "rights." They need only + assert power. Only by the exercise of self-guidance and intelligent + self-direction can that inalienable, supreme, pivotal power be expressed. + More than ever in history women need to realize that nothing can ever come + to us from another. Everything we attain we must owe to ourselves. Our own + spirit must vitalize it. Our own heart must feel it. For we are not + passive machines. We are not to be lectured, guided and molded this way or + that. We are alive and intelligent, we women, no less than men, and we + must awaken to the essential realization that we are living beings, + endowed with will, choice, comprehension, and that every step in life must + be taken at our own initiative. + </p> + <p> + Moral and sexual balance in civilization will only be established by the + assertion and expression of power on the part of women. This power will + not be found in any futile seeking for economic independence or in the + aping of men in industrial and business pursuits, nor by joining battle + for the so-called "single standard." Woman's power can only be expressed + and make itself felt when she refuses the task of bringing unwanted + children into the world to be exploited in industry and slaughtered in + wars. When we refuse to produce battalions of babies to be exploited; when + we declare to the nation; "Show us that the best possible chance in life + is given to every child now brought into the world, before you cry for + more! At present our children are a glut on the market. You hold infant + life cheap. Help us to make the world a fit place for children. When you + have done this, we will bear you children,—then we shall be true + women." The new morality will express this power and responsibility on the + part of women. + </p> + <p> + "With the realization of the moral responsibility of women," writes + Havelock Ellis, "the natural relations of life spring back to their due + biological adjustment. Motherhood is restored to its natural sacredness. + It becomes the concern of the woman herself, and not of society nor any + individual, to determine the conditions under which the child shall be + conceived...." + </p> + <p> + Moreover, woman shall further assert her power by refusing to remain the + passive instrument of sensual self-gratification on the part of men. Birth + Control, in philosophy and practice, is the destroyer of that dualism of + the old sexual code. It denies that the sole purpose of sexual activity is + procreation; it also denies that sex should be reduced to the level of + sensual lust, or that woman should permit herself to be the instrument of + its satisfaction. In increasing and differentiating her love demands, + woman must elevate sex into another sphere, whereby it may subserve and + enhance the possibility of individual and human expression. Man will gain + in this no less than woman; for in the age-old enslavement of woman he has + enslaved himself; and in the liberation of womankind, all of humanity will + experience the joys of a new and fuller freedom. + </p> + <p> + On this great fundamental and pivotal point new light has been thrown by + Lord Bertrand Dawson, the physician of the King of England. In the + remarkable and epoch-making address at the Birmingham Church Congress + (referred to in my introduction), he spoke of the supreme morality of the + mutual and reciprocal joy in the most intimate relation between man and + woman. Without this reciprocity there can be no civilization worthy of the + name. Lord Dawson suggested that there should be added to the clauses of + marriage in the Prayer Book "the complete realization of the love of this + man and this woman one for another," and in support of his contention + declared that sex love between husband and wife—apart from + parenthood—was something to prize and cherish for its own sake. The + Lambeth Conference, he remarked, "envisaged a love invertebrate and + joyless," whereas, in his view, natural passion in wedlock was not a thing + to be ashamed of or unduly repressed. The pronouncement of the Church of + England, as set forth in Resolution 68 of the Lambeth Conference seems to + imply condemnation of sex love as such, and to imply sanction of sex love + only as a means to an end,—namely, procreation. The Lambeth + Resolution stated: + </p> + <p> + "In opposition to the teaching which under the name of science and + religion encourages married people in the deliberate cultivation of sexual + union as an end in itself, we steadfastly uphold what must always be + regarded as the governing considerations of Christian marriage. One is the + primary purpose for which marriage exists—namely, the continuation + of the race through the gift and heritage of children; the other is the + paramount importance in married life of deliberate and thoughtful + self-control." + </p> + <p> + In answer to this point of view Lord Dawson asserted: + </p> + <p> + "Sex love has, apart from parenthood, a purport of its own. It is + something to prize and to cherish for its own sake. It is an essential + part of health and happiness in marriage. And now, if you will allow me, I + will carry this argument a step further. If sexual union is a gift of God + it is worth learning how to use it. Within its own sphere it should be + cultivated so as to bring physical satisfaction to both, not merely to + one.... The real problems before us are those of sex love and child love; + and by sex love I mean that love which involves intercourse or the desire + for such. It is necessary to my argument to emphasize that sex love is one + of the dominating forces of the world. Not only does history show the + destinies of nations and dynasties determined by its sway—but here + in our every-day life we see its influence, direct or indirect, forceful + and ubiquitous beyond aught else. Any statesmanlike view, therefore, will + recognize that here we have an instinct so fundamental, so imperious, that + its influence is a fact which has to be accepted; suppress it you cannot. + You may guide it into healthy channels, but an outlet it will have, and if + that outlet is inadequate and unduly obstructed irregular channels will be + forced.... + </p> + <p> + "The attainment of mutual and reciprocal joy in their relations + constitutes a firm bond between two people, and makes for durability of + the marriage tie. Reciprocity in sex love is the physical counterpart of + sympathy. More marriages fail from inadequate and clumsy sex love than + from too much sex love. The lack of proper understanding is in no small + measure responsible for the unfulfillment of connubial happiness, and + every degree of discontent and unhappiness may, from this cause, occur, + leading to rupture of the marriage bond itself. How often do medical men + have to deal with these difficulties, and how fortunate if such + difficulties are disclosed early enough in married life to be rectified. + Otherwise how tragic may be their consequences, and many a case in the + Divorce Court has thus had its origin. To the foregoing contentions, it + might be objected, you are encouraging passion. My reply would be, passion + is a worthy possession—most men, who are any good, are capable of + passion. You all enjoy ardent and passionate love in art and literature. + Why not give it a place in real life? Why some people look askance at + passion is because they are confusing it with sensuality. Sex love without + passion is a poor, lifeless thing. Sensuality, on the other hand, is on a + level with gluttony—a physical excess—detached from sentiment, + chivalry, or tenderness. It is just as important to give sex love its + place as to avoid its over-emphasis. Its real and effective restraints are + those imposed by a loving and sympathetic companionship, by the privileges + of parenthood, the exacting claims of career and that civic sense which + prompts men to do social service. Now that the revision of the Prayer Book + is receiving consideration, I should like to suggest with great respect an + addition made to the objects of marriage in the Marriage Service, in these + terms, 'The complete realization of the love of this man and this woman, + the one for the other.'" + </p> + <p> + Turning to the specific problem of Birth Control, Lord Dawson declared, + "that Birth Control is here to stay. It is an established fact, and for + good or evil has to be accepted. Although the extent of its application + can be and is being modified, no denunciations will abolish it. Despite + the influence and condemnations of the Church, it has been practised in + France for well over half a century, and in Belgium and other Roman + Catholic countries is extending. And if the Roman Catholic Church, with + its compact organization, its power of authority, and its disciplines, + cannot check this procedure, it is not likely that Protestant Churches + will be able to do so, for Protestant religions depend for their strength + on the conviction and esteem they establish in the heads and hearts of + their people. The reasons which lead parents to limit their offspring are + sometimes selfish, but more often honorable and cogent." + </p> + <p> + A report of the Fabian Society (5) on the morality of Birth Control, based + upon a census conducted under the chairmanship of Sidney Webb, concludes: + "These facts—which we are bound to face whether we like them or not—will + appear in different lights to different people. In some quarters it seems + to be sufficient to dismiss them with moral indignation, real or + simulated. Such a judgment appears both irrelevant and futile.... If a + course of conduct is habitually and deliberately pursued by vast + multitudes of otherwise well-conducted people, forming probably a majority + of the whole educated class of the nation, we must assume that it does not + conflict with their actual code of morality. They may be intellectually + mistaken, but they are not doing what they feel to be wrong." + </p> + <p> + The moral justification and ethical necessity of Birth Control need not be + empirically based upon the mere approval of experience and custom. Its + morality is more profound. Birth Control is an ethical necessity for + humanity to-day because it places in our hands a new instrument of + self-expression and self-realization. It gives us control over one of the + primordial forces of nature, to which in the past the majority of mankind + have been enslaved, and by which it has been cheapened and debased. It + arouses us to the possibility of newer and greater freedom. It develops + the power, the responsibility and intelligence to use this freedom in + living a liberated and abundant life. It permits us to enjoy this liberty + without danger of infringing upon the similar liberty of our fellow men, + or of injuring and curtailing the freedom of the next generation. It shows + us that we need not seek in the amassing of worldly wealth, not in the + illusion of some extra-terrestrial Heaven or earthly Utopia of a remote + future the road to human development. The Kingdom of Heaven is in a very + definite sense within us. Not by leaving our body and our fundamental + humanity behind us, not by aiming to be anything but what we are, shall we + become ennobled or immortal. By knowing ourselves, by expressing + ourselves, by realizing ourselves more completely than has ever before + been possible, not only shall we attain the kingdom ourselves but we shall + hand on the torch of life undimmed to our children and the children of our + children. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (1) Quoted in the National Catholic Welfare Council + Bulletin: Vol. II, No. 5, p. 21 (January, 1921). + + (2) Quoted in daily press, December 19, 1921. + + (3) H. C. Lea: History of Sacerdotal Celibacy + (Philadelphia, 1967). + + (4) Eugenics Review, January 1921. + + (5) Fabian Tract No. 131. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER X: Science the Ally + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "There is but one hope. Ignorance, poverty, and vice + must stop populating the world. This cannot be done by + moral suasion. This cannot be done by talk or example. + This cannot be done by religion or by law, by priest + or by hangman. This cannot be done by force, physical + or moral. To accomplish this there is but one way. + Science must make woman the owner, the mistress of herself. + Science, the only possible savior of mankind, must put it + in the power of woman to decide for herself whether she will + or will not become a mother." + + Robert G. Ingersoll +</pre> + <p> + "Science is the great instrument of social change," wrote A. J. Balfour in + 1908; "all the greater because its object is not change but knowledge, and + its silent appropriation of this dominant function, amid the din of + religious and political strife, is the most vital of all revolutions which + have marked the development of modern civilization." The Birth Control + movement has allied itself with science, and no small part of its present + propaganda is to awaken the interest of scientists to the pivotal + importance to civilization of this instrument. Only with the aid of + science is it possible to perfect a practical method that may be + universally taught. As Dean Inge recently admitted: "We should be ready to + give up all our theories if science proved that we were on the wrong + lines." + </p> + <p> + One of the principal aims of the American Birth Control League has been to + awaken the interest of scientific investigators and to point out the rich + field for original research opened up by this problem. The correlation of + reckless breeding with defective and delinquent strains, has not, + strangely enough, been subjected to close scientific scrutiny, nor has the + present biological unbalance been traced to its root. This is a crying + necessity of our day, and it cannot be accomplished without the aid of + science. + </p> + <p> + Secondary only to the response of women themselves is the awakened + interest of scientists, statisticians, and research workers in every + field. If the clergy and the defenders of traditional morality have + opposed the movement for Birth Control, the response of enlightened + scientists and physicians has been one of the most encouraging aids in our + battle. + </p> + <p> + Recent developments in the realm of science,—in psychology, in + physiology, in chemistry and physics—all tend to emphasize the + immediate necessity for human control over the great forces of nature. The + new ideas published by contemporary science are of the utmost fascination + and illumination even to the layman. They perform the invaluable task of + making us look at life in a new light, of searching close at hand for the + solution to heretofore closed mysteries of life. In this brief chapter, I + can touch these ideas only as they have proved valuable to me. Professor + Soddy's "Science and Life" is one of the most inspiring of recent + publications in this field; for this great authority shows us how closely + bound up is science with the whole of Society, how science must help to + solve the great and disastrous unbalance in human society. + </p> + <p> + As an example: a whole literature has sprung into being around the glands, + the most striking being "The Sex Complex" by Blair Bell. This author + advances the idea of the glandular system as an integral whole, the glands + forming a unity which might be termed the generative system. Thus is + reasserted the radical importance of sexual health to every individual. + The whole tendency of modern physiology and psychology, in a word, seems + gradually coming to the truth that seemed intuitively to be revealed to + that great woman, Olive Schreiner, who, in "Woman and Labor" wrote: "... + Noble is the function of physical reproduction of humanity by the union of + man and woman. Rightly viewed, that union has in it latent, other and even + higher forms of creative energy and life-dispensing power, and... its + history on earth has only begun; as the first wild rose when it hung from + its stem with its center of stamens and pistils and its single whorl of + pale petals had only begun its course, and was destined, as the ages + passed, to develop stamen upon stamen and petal upon petal, till it + assumed a hundred forms of joy and beauty. + </p> + <p> + "And it would indeed almost seem, that, on the path toward the higher + development of sexual life on earth, as man has so often had to lead in + other paths, that here it is perhaps woman, by reason of those very sexual + conditions which in the past have crushed and trammeled her, who is bound + to lead the way and man to follow. So that it may be at last that sexual + love—that tired angel who through the ages has presided over the + march of humanity, with distraught eyes, and feather-shafts broken and + wings drabbled in the mires of lust and greed, and golden locks caked over + with the dust of injustice and oppression—till those looking at him + have sometimes cried in terror, `He is the Evil and not the Good of life': + and have sought if it were not possible, to exterminate him—shall + yet, at last, bathed from the mire and dust of ages in the streams of + friendship and freedom, leap upwards, with white wings spread, resplendent + in the sunshine of a distant future—the essentially Good and + Beautiful of human existence." + </p> + <p> + To-day science is verifying the truth of this inspiring vision. Certain + fundamental truths concerning the basic facts of Nature and humanity + especially impress us. A rapid survey may indicate the main features of + this mysterious identity and antagonism. + </p> + <p> + Mankind has gone forward by the capture and control of the forces of + Nature. This upward struggle began with the kindling of the first fire. + The domestication of animal life marked another great step in the long + ascent. The capture of the great physical forces, the discovery of coal + and mineral oil, of gas, steam and electricity, and their adaptation to + the everyday uses of mankind, wrought the greatest changes in the course + of civilization. With the discovery of radium and radioactivity, with the + recognition of the vast stores of physical energy concealed in the atom, + humanity is now on the eve of a new conquest. But, on the other side, + humanity has been compelled to combat continuously those great forces of + Nature which have opposed it at every moment of this long indomitable + march out of barbarism. Humanity has had to wage war against insects, + germs, bacteria, which have spread disease and epidemics and devastation. + Humanity has had to adapt itself to those natural forces it could not + conquer but could only adroitly turn to its own ends. Nevertheless, all + along the line, in colonization, in agriculture, in medicine and in + industry, mankind has triumphed over Nature. + </p> + <p> + But lest the recognition of this victory lead us to self-satisfaction and + complacency, we should never forget that this mastery consists to a great + extent in a recognition of the power of those blind forces, and our adroit + control over them. It has been truly said that we attain no power over + Nature until we learn natural laws and conform and adapt ourselves to + them. + </p> + <p> + The strength of the human race has been its ability not merely to + subjugate the forces of Nature, but to adapt itself to those it could not + conquer. And even this subjugation, science tells us, has not resulted + from any attempt to suppress, prohibit, or eradicate these forces, but + rather to transform blind and undirected energies to our own purposes. + </p> + <p> + These great natural forces, science now asserts, are not all external. + They are surely concealed within the complex organism of the human being + no less than outside of it. These inner forces are no less imperative, no + less driving and compelling than the external forces of Nature. As the old + conception of the antagonism between body and soul is broken down, as + psychology becomes an ally of physiology and biology, and biology joins + hands with physics and chemistry, we are taught to see that there is a + mysterious unity between these inner and outer forces. They express + themselves in accordance with the same structural, physical and chemical + laws. The development of civilization in the subjective world, in the + sphere of behavior, conduct and morality, has been precisely the gradual + accumulation and popularization of methods which teach people how to + direct, transform and transmute the driving power of the great natural + forces. + </p> + <p> + Psychology is now recognizing the forces concealed in the human organism. + In the long process of adaptation to social life, men have had to harness + the wishes and desires born of these inner energies, the greatest and most + imperative of which are Sex and Hunger. From the beginning of time, men + have been driven by Hunger into a thousand activities. It is Hunger that + has created "the struggle for existence." Hunger has spurred men to the + discovery and invention of methods and ways of avoiding starvation, of + storing and exchanging foods. It has developed primitive barter into our + contemporary Wall Streets. It has developed thrift and economy,—expedients + whereby humanity avoids the lash of King Hunger. The true "economic + interpretation of history" might be termed the History of Hunger. + </p> + <p> + But no less fundamental, no less imperative, no less ceaseless in its + dynamic energy, has been the great force of Sex. We do not yet know the + intricate but certainly organic relationship between these two forces. It + is obvious that they oppose yet reinforce each other,—driving, + lashing, spurring mankind on to new conquests or to certain ruin. Perhaps + Hunger and Sex are merely opposite poles of a single great life force. In + the past we have made the mistake of separating them and attempting to + study one of them without the other. Birth Control emphasizes the need of + re-investigation and of knowledge of their integral relationship, and aims + at the solution of the great problem of Hunger and Sex at one and the same + time. + </p> + <p> + In the more recent past the effort has been made to control, civilize, and + sublimate the great primordial natural force of sex, mainly by futile + efforts at prohibition, suppression, restraint, and extirpation. Its + revenge, as the psychoanalysts are showing us every day, has been great. + Insanity, hysteria, neuroses, morbid fears and compulsions, weaken and + render useless and unhappy thousands of humans who are unconscious victims + of the attempt to pit individual powers against this great natural force. + In the solution of the problem of sex, we should bear in mind what the + successful method of humanity has been in its conquest, or rather its + control of the great physical and chemical forces of the external world. + Like all other energy, that of sex is indestructible. By adaptation, + control and conscious direction, we may transmute and sublimate it. + Without irreparable injury to ourselves we cannot attempt to eradicate it + or extirpate it. + </p> + <p> + The study of atomic energy, the discovery of radioactivity, and the + recognition of potential and latent energies stored in inanimate matter, + throw a brilliant illumination upon the whole problem of sex and the inner + energies of mankind. Speaking of the discovery of radium, Professor Soddy + writes: "Tracked to earth the clew to a great secret for which a thousand + telescopes might have swept the sky forever and in vain, lay in a scrap of + matter, dowered with something of the same inexhaustible radiance that + hitherto has been the sole prerogative of the distant stars and sun." + Radium, this distinguished authority tells us, has clothed with its own + dignity the whole empire of common matter. + </p> + <p> + Much as the atomic theory, with its revelations of the vast treasure house + of radiant energy that lies all about us, offers new hope in the material + world, so the new psychology throws a new light upon human energies and + possibilities of individual expression. Social reformers, like those + scientists of a bygone era who were sweeping the skies with their + telescopes, have likewise been seeking far and wide for the solution of + our social problems in remote and wholesale panaceas, whereas the true + solution is close at hand,—in the human individual. Buried within + each human being lies concealed a vast store of energy, which awaits + release, expression and sublimation. The individual may profitably be + considered as the "atom" of society. And the solution of the problems of + society and of civilization will be brought about when we release the + energies now latent and undeveloped in the individual. Professor Edwin + Grant Conklin expresses the problem in another form; though his analogy, + it seems to me, is open to serious criticism. "The freedom of the + individual man," he writes,(1) "is to that of society as the freedom of + the single cell is to that of the human being. It is this large freedom of + society, rather than the freedom of the individual, which democracy offers + to the world, free societies, free states, free nations rather than + absolutely free individuals. In all organisms and in all social + organizations, the freedom of the minor units must be limited in order + that the larger unit may achieve a new and greater freedom, and in social + evolution the freedom of individuals must be merged more and more into the + larger freedom of society." + </p> + <p> + This analogy does not bear analysis. Restraint and constraint of + individual expression, suppression of individual freedom "for the good of + society" has been practised from time immemorial; and its failure is all + too evident. There is no antagonism between the good of the individual and + the good of society. The moment civilization is wise enough to remove the + constraints and prohibitions which now hinder the release of inner + energies, most of the larger evils of society will perish of inanition and + malnutrition. Remove the moral taboos that now bind the human body and + spirit, free the individual from the slavery of tradition, remove the + chains of fear from men and women, above all answer their unceasing cries + for knowledge that would make possible their self-direction and salvation, + and in so doing, you best serve the interests of society at large. Free, + rational and self-ruling personality would then take the place of + self-made slaves, who are the victims both of external constraints and the + playthings of the uncontrolled forces of their own instincts. + </p> + <p> + Science likewise illuminates the whole problem of genius. Hidden in the + common stuff of humanity lies buried this power of self-expression. Modern + science is teaching us that genius is not some mysterious gift of the + gods, some treasure conferred upon individuals chosen by chance. Nor is + it, as Lombroso believed, the result of a pathological and degenerate + condition, allied to criminality and madness. Rather is it due to the + removal of physiological and psychological inhibitions and constraints + which makes possible the release and the channeling of the primordial + inner energies of man into full and divine expression. The removal of + these inhibitions, so scientists assure us, makes possible more rapid and + profound perceptions,—so rapid indeed that they seem to the ordinary + human being, practically instantaneous, or intuitive. The qualities of + genius are not, therefore, qualities lacking in the common reservoir of + humanity, but rather the unimpeded release and direction of powers latent + in all of us. This process of course is not necessarily conscious. + </p> + <p> + This view is substantiated by the opposite problem of feeble-mindedness. + Recent researches throw a new light on this problem and the contrasting + one of human genius. Mental defect and feeble-mindedness are conceived + essentially as retardation, arrest of development, differing in degree so + that the victim is either an idiot, an imbecile, feeble-minded or a moron, + according to the relative period at which mental development ceases. + </p> + <p> + Scientific research into the functioning of the ductless glands and their + secretions throws a new light on this problem. Not long ago these glands + were a complete enigma, owing to the fact that they are not provided with + excretory ducts. It has just recently been shown that these organs, such + as the thyroid, the pituitary, the suprarenal, the parathyroid and the + reproductive glands, exercise an all-powerful influence upon the course of + individual development or deficiency. Gley, to whom we owe much of our + knowledge of glandular action, has asserted that "the genesis and exercise + of the higher faculties of men are conditioned by the purely chemical + action of the product of these secretions. Let psychologists consider + these facts." + </p> + <p> + These internal secretions or endocrines pass directly into the blood + stream, and exercise a dominating power over health and personality. + Deficiency in the thyroid secretion, especially during the years of + infancy and early childhood, creates disorders of nutrition and inactivity + of the nervous system. The particular form of idiocy known as cretinism is + the result of this deficiency, which produces an arrest of the development + of the brain cells. The other glands and their secretions likewise + exercise the most profound influence upon development, growth and + assimilation. Most of these glands are of very small size, none of them + larger than a walnut, and some—the parathyroids—almost + microscopic. Nevertheless, they are essential to the proper maintenance of + life in the body, and no less organically related to mental and psychic + development as well. + </p> + <p> + The reproductive glands, it should not be forgotten, belong to this group, + and besides their ordinary products, the germ and sperm cells (ova and + spermatozoa) form HORMONES which circulate in the blood and effect changes + in the cells of distant parts of the body. Through these HORMONES the + secondary sexual characters are produced, including the many differences + in the form and structure of the body which are the characteristics of the + sexes. Only in recent years has science discovered that these secondary + sexual characters are brought about by the agency of these internal + secretions or hormones, passed from the reproductive glands into the + circulating blood. These so-called secondary characters which are the sign + of full and healthy development, are dependent, science tells us, upon the + state of development of the reproductive organs. + </p> + <p> + For a clear and illuminating account of the creative and dynamic power of + the endocrine glands, the layman is referred to a recently published book + by Dr. Louis Berman.(2) This authority reveals anew how body and soul are + bound up together in a complex unity. Our spiritual and psychic + difficulties cannot be solved until we have mastered the knowledge of the + wellsprings of our being. "The chemistry of the soul! Magnificent phrase!" + exclaims Dr. Berman. "It's a long, long way to that goal. The exact + formula is as yet far beyond our reach. But we have started upon the long + journey, and we shall get there. + </p> + <p> + "The internal secretions constitute and determine much of the inherited + powers of the individual and their development. They control physical and + mental growth, and all the metabolic processes of fundamental importance. + They dominate all the vital functions of man during the three cycles of + life. They cooperate in an intimate relationship which may be compared to + an interlocking directorate. A derangement of their functions, causing an + insufficiency of them, an excess, or an abnormality, upsets the entire + equilibrium of the body, with transforming effects upon the mind and the + organs. In short, they control human nature, and whoever controls them, + controls human nature.... + </p> + <p> + "Blood chemistry of our time is a marvel, undreamed of a generation ago. + Also, these achievements are a perfect example of the accomplished fact + contradicting a prior prediction and criticism. For it was one of the + accepted dogmas of the nineteenth century that the phenomena of living + could never be subjected to accurate quantitative analysis." But the + ethical dogmas of the past, no less than the scientific, may block the way + to true civilization. + </p> + <p> + Physiologically as well as psychologically the development of the human + being, the sane mind in the sound body, is absolutely dependent upon the + functioning and exercise of all the organs in the body. The "moralists" + who preach abstinence, self-denial, and suppression are relegated by these + findings of impartial and disinterested science to the class of those + educators of the past who taught that it was improper for young ladies to + indulge in sports and athletics and who produced generations of feeble, + undeveloped invalids, bound up by stays and addicted to swooning and + hysterics. One need only go out on the street of any American city to-day + to be confronted with the victims of the cruel morality of self-denial and + "sin." This fiendish "morality" is stamped upon those emaciated bodies, + indelibly written in those emasculated, underdeveloped, undernourished + figures of men and women, in the nervous tension and unrelaxed muscles + denoting the ceaseless vigilance in restraining and suppressing the + expression of natural impulses. + </p> + <p> + Birth Control is no negative philosophy concerned solely with the number + of children brought into this world. It is not merely a question of + population. Primarily it is the instrument of liberation and of human + development. + </p> + <p> + It points the way to a morality in which sexual expression and human + development will not be in conflict with the interest and well-being of + the race nor of contemporary society at large. Not only is it the most + effective, in fact the only lever by which the value of the child can be + raised to a civilized point; but it is likewise the only method by which + the life of the individual can be deepened and strengthened, by which an + inner peace and security and beauty may be substituted for the inner + conflict that is at present so fatal to self-expression and + self-realization. + </p> + <p> + Sublimation of the sexual instinct cannot take place by denying it + expression, nor by reducing it to the plane of the purely physiological. + Sexual experience, to be of contributory value, must be integrated and + assimilated. Asceticism defeats its own purpose because it develops the + obsession of licentious and obscene thoughts, the victim alternating + between temporary victory over "sin" and the remorse of defeat. But the + seeker of purely physical pleasure, the libertine or the average + sensualist, is no less a pathological case, living as one-sided and + unbalanced a life as the ascetic, for his conduct is likewise based on + ignorance and lack of understanding. In seeking pleasure without the + exercise of responsibility, in trying to get something for nothing, he is + not merely cheating others but himself as well. + </p> + <p> + In still another field science and scientific method now emphasize the + pivotal importance of Birth Control. The Binet-Simon intelligence tests + which have been developed, expanded, and applied to large groups of + children and adults present positive statistical data concerning the + mental equipment of the type of children brought into the world under the + influence of indiscriminate fecundity and of those fortunate children who + have been brought into the world because they are wanted, the children of + conscious, voluntary procreation, well nourished, properly clothed, the + recipients of all that proper care and love can accomplish. + </p> + <p> + In considering the data furnished by these intelligence tests we should + remember several factors that should be taken into consideration. + Irrespective of other considerations, children who are underfed, + undernourished, crowded into badly ventilated and unsanitary homes and + chronically hungry cannot be expected to attain the mental development of + children upon whom every advantage of intelligent and scientific care is + bestowed. Furthermore, public school methods of dealing with children, the + course of studies prescribed, may quite completely fail to awaken and + develop the intelligence. + </p> + <p> + The statistics indicate at any rate a surprisingly low rate of + intelligence among the classes in which large families and uncontrolled + procreation predominate. Those of the lowest grade in intelligence are + born of unskilled laborers (with the highest birth rate in the community); + the next high among the skilled laborers, and so on to the families of + professional people, among whom it is now admitted that the birth rate is + voluntarily controlled.(3) + </p> + <p> + But scientific investigations of this type cannot be complete until + statistics are accurately obtained concerning the relation of unrestrained + fecundity and the quality, mental and physical, of the children produced. + The philosophy of Birth Control therefore seeks and asks the cooperation + of science and scientists, not to strengthen its own "case," but because + this sexual factor in the determination of human history has so long been + ignored by historians and scientists. If science in recent years has + contributed enormously to strengthen the conviction of all intelligent + people of the necessity and wisdom of Birth Control, this philosophy in + its turn opens to science in its various fields a suggestive avenue of + approach to many of those problems of humanity and society which at + present seem to enigmatical and insoluble. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (1) Conklin, The Direction of Human Evolution, pp. 125, + 126. + + (2) The Glands Regulating Personality: A study of the + glands of internal secretion in relation to the types of + human nature. By Louis Berman, M. D., Associate in + Biological Chemistry, Columbia University; Physician to the + Special Health Clinic. Lenox Hill Hospital. New York: + 1921. + + (3) Cf Terman: Intelligence of School Children. New York + 1919. p. 56. Also, "Is America Safe for Democracy?" Six + lectures given at the Lowell Institute of Boston, by William + McDougall, Professor of Psychology in Harvard College. New + York, 1921. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XI: Education and Expression + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Civilization is bound up with the success of that movement. + The man who rejoices in it and strives to further it is alive; + the man who shudders and raises impotent hands against it is + merely dead, even though the grave yet yawns for him in vain. + He may make dead laws and preach dead sermons and his sermons + may be great and his laws may be rigid. But as the wisest of + men saw twenty-five centuries ago, the things that are great + and strong and rigid are the things that stay below in the grave. + It is the things that are delicate and tender and supple that + stay above. At no point is life so tender and delicate and + supple as at the point of sex. There is the triumph of life." + + Havelock Ellis +</pre> + <p> + Our approach opens to us a fresh scale of values, a new and effective + method of testing the merits and demerits of current policies and + programs. It redirects our attention to the great source and fountainhead + of human life. It offers us the most strategic point of view from which to + observe and study the unending drama of humanity,—how the past, the + present and the future of the human race are all organically bound up + together. It coordinates heredity and environment. Most important of all, + it frees the mind of sexual prejudice and taboo, by demanding the frankest + and most unflinching reexamination of sex in its relation to human nature + and the bases of human society. In aiding to establish this mental + liberation, quite apart from any of the tangible results that might please + the statistically-minded, the study of Birth Control is performing an + invaluable task. Without complete mental freedom, it is impossible to + approach any fundamental human problem. Failure to face the great central + facts of sex in an impartial and scientific spirit lies at the root of the + blind opposition to Birth Control. + </p> + <p> + Our bitterest opponents must agree that the problem of Birth Control is + one of the most important that humanity to-day has to face. The interests + of the entire world, of humanity, of the future of mankind itself are more + at stake in this than wars, political institutions, or industrial + reorganization. All other projects of reform, of revolution or + reconstruction, are of secondary importance, even trivial, when we compare + them to the wholesale regeneration—or disintegration—that is + bound up with the control, the direction and the release of one of the + greatest forces in nature. The great danger at present does not lie with + the bitter opponents of the idea of Birth Control, nor with those who are + attempting to suppress our program of enlightenment and education. Such + opposition is always stimulating. It wins new adherents. It reveals its + own weakness and lack of insight. The greater danger is to be found in the + flaccid, undiscriminating interest of "sympathizers" who are "for it"—as + an accessory to their own particular panacea. "It even seems, sometimes," + wrote the late William Graham Sumner, "as if the primitive people were + working along better lines of effort in this direction than we are... when + our public organs of instruction taboo all that pertains to reproduction + as improper; and when public authority, ready enough to interfere with + personal liberty everywhere else, feels bound to act as if there were no + societal interest at stake in the begetting of the next generation."(1) + </p> + <p> + Slowly but surely we are breaking down the taboos that surround sex; but + we are breaking them down out of sheer necessity. The codes that have + surrounded sexual behavior in the so-called Christian communities, the + teachings of the churches concerning chastity and sexual purity, the + prohibitions of the laws, and the hypocritical conventions of society, + have all demonstrated their failure as safeguards against the chaos + produced and the havoc wrought by the failure to recognize sex as a + driving force in human nature,—as great as, if indeed not greater + than, hunger. Its dynamic energy is indestructible. It may be transmuted, + refined, directed, even sublimated, but to ignore, to neglect, to refuse + to recognize this great elemental force is nothing less than foolhardy. + </p> + <p> + Out of the unchallenged policies of continence, abstinence, "chastity" and + "purity," we have reaped the harvests of prostitution, venereal scourges + and innumerable other evils. Traditional moralists have failed to + recognize that chastity and purity must be the outward symptoms of + awakened intelligence, of satisfied desires, and fulfilled love. They + cannot be taught by "sex education." They cannot be imposed from without + by a denial of the might and the right of sexual expression. Nevertheless, + even in the contemporary teaching of sex hygiene and social prophylaxis, + nothing constructive is offered to young men and young women who seek aid + through the trying period of adolescence. + </p> + <p> + At the Lambeth Conference of 1920, the Bishops of the Church of England + stated in their report on their considerations of sexual morality: "Men + should regard all women as they do their mothers, sisters, and daughters; + and women should dress only in such a manner as to command respect from + every man. All right-minded persons should unite in the suppression of + pernicious literature, plays and films...." Could lack of psychological + insight and understanding be more completely indicated? Yet, like these + bishops, most of those who are undertaking the education of the young are + as ignorant themselves of psychology and physiology. Indeed, those who are + speaking belatedly of the need of "sexual hygiene" seem to be unaware that + they themselves are most in need of it. "We must give up the futile + attempt to keep young people in the dark," cries Rev. James Marchant in + "Birth-Rate and Empire," "and the assumption that they are ignorant of + notorious facts. We cannot, if we would, stop the spread of sexual + knowledge; and if we could do so, we would only make matters infinitely + worse. This is the second decade of the twentieth century, not the early + Victorian period.... It is no longer a question of knowing or not knowing. + We have to disabuse our middle-aged minds of that fond delusion. Our young + people know more than we did when we began our married lives, and + sometimes as much as we know, ourselves, even now. So that we need not + continue to shake our few remaining hairs in simulating feelings of + surprise or horror. It might have been better for us if we had been more + enlightened. And if our discussion of this problem is to be of any real + use, we must at the outset reconcile ourselves to the fact that the + birth-rate is voluntarily controlled.... Certain persons who instruct us + in these matters hold up their pious hands and whiten their frightened + faces as they cry out in the public squares against `this vice,' but they + can only make themselves ridiculous." + </p> + <p> + Taught upon the basis of conventional and traditional morality and + middle-class respectability, based on current dogma, and handed down to + the populace with benign condescension, sex education is a waste of time + and effort. Such education cannot in any true sense set up as a standard + the ideal morality and behavior of the respectable middle-class and then + make the effort to induce all other members of society, especially the + working classes, to conform to their taboos. Such a method is not only + confusing, but, in the creation of strain and hysteria and an unhealthy + concentration upon moral conduct, results in positive injury. To preach a + negative and colorless ideal of chastity to young men and women is to + neglect the primary duty of awakening their intelligence, their + responsibility, their self-reliance and independence. Once this is + accomplished, the matter of chastity will take care of itself. The + teaching of "etiquette" must be superseded by the teaching of hygiene. + Hygienic habits are built up upon a sound knowledge of bodily needs and + functions. It is only in the sphere of sex that there remains an unfounded + fear of presenting without the gratuitous introduction of non-essential + taboos and prejudice, unbiased and unvarnished facts. + </p> + <p> + As an instrument of education, the doctrine of Birth Control approaches + the whole problem in another manner. Instead of laying down hard and fast + laws of sexual conduct, instead of attempting to inculcate rules and + regulations, of pointing out the rewards of virtue and the penalties of + "sin" (as is usually attempted in relation to the venereal diseases), the + teacher of Birth Control seeks to meet the needs of the people. Upon the + basis of their interests, their demands, their problems, Birth Control + education attempts to develop their intelligence and show them how they + may help themselves; how to guide and control this deep-rooted instinct. + </p> + <p> + The objection has been raised that Birth Control only reaches the already + enlightened, the men and women who have already attained a degree of + self-respect and self-reliance. Such an objection could not be based on + fact. Even in the most unenlightened sections of the community, among + mothers crushed by poverty and economic enslavement, there is the + realization of the evils of the too-large family, of the rapid succession + of pregnancy after pregnancy, of the hopelessness of bringing too many + children into the world. Not merely in the evidence presented in an + earlier chapter but in other ways, is this crying need expressed. The + investigators of the Children's Bureau who collected the data of the + infant mortality reports, noted the willingness and the eagerness with + which these down-trodden mothers told the truth about themselves. So great + is their hope of relief from that meaningless and deadening submission to + unproductive reproduction, that only a society pruriently devoted to + hypocrisy could refuse to listen to the voices of these mothers. + Respectfully we lend our ears to dithyrambs about the sacredness of + motherhood and the value of "better babies"—but we shut our eyes and + our ears to the unpleasant reality and the cries of pain that come from + women who are to-day dying by the thousands because this power is withheld + from them. + </p> + <p> + This situation is rendered more bitterly ironic because the self-righteous + opponents of Birth Control practise themselves the doctrine they condemn. + The birth-rate among conservative opponents indicates that they restrict + the numbers of their own children by the methods of Birth Control, or are + of such feeble procreative energy as to be thereby unfitted to dictate + moral laws for other people. They prefer that we should think their small + number of children is accidental, rather than publicly admit the + successful practice of intelligent foresight. Or else they hold themselves + up as paragons of virtue and self-control, and would have us believe that + they have brought their children into the world solely from a high, stern + sense of public duty—an attitude which is about as convincing as it + would be to declare that they found them under gooseberry bushes. How else + can we explain the widespread tolerance and smug approval of the clerical + idea of sex, now reenforced by floods of crude and vulgar sentiment, which + is promulgated by the press, motion-pictures and popular plays? + </p> + <p> + Like all other education, that of sex can be rendered effective and + valuable only as it meets and satisfies the interests and demands of the + pupil himself. It cannot be imposed from without, handed down from above, + superimposed upon the intelligence of the person taught. It must find a + response within him, give him the power and the instrument wherewith he + may exercise his own growing intelligence, bring into action his own + judgment and discrimination and thus contribute to the growth of his + intelligence. The civilized world is coming to see that education cannot + consist merely in the assimilation of external information and knowledge, + but rather in the awakening and development of innate powers of + discrimination and judgment. The great disaster of "sex education" lies in + the fact that it fails to direct the awakened interests of the pupils into + the proper channels of exercise and development. Instead, it blunts them, + restricts them, hinders them, and even attempts to eradicate them. + </p> + <p> + This has been the great defect of sex education as it has been practised + in recent years. Based on a superficial and shameful view of the sexual + instinct, it has sought the inculcation of negative virtues by pointing + out the sinister penalties of promiscuity, and by advocating strict + adherence to virtue and morality, not on the basis of intelligence or the + outcome of experience, not even for the attainment of rewards, but merely + to avoid punishment in the form of painful and malignant disease. + Education so conceived carries with it its own refutation. True education + cannot tolerate the inculcation of fear. Fear is the soil in which are + implanted inhibitions and morbid compulsions. Fear restrains, restricts, + hinders human expression. It strikes at the very roots of joy and + happiness. It should therefore be the aim of sex education to avoid above + all the implanting of fear in the mind of the pupil. + </p> + <p> + Restriction means placing in the hands of external authority the power + over behavior. Birth Control, on the contrary, implies voluntary action, + the decision for one's self how many children one shall or shall not bring + into the world. Birth Control is educational in the real sense of the + word, in that it asserts this power of decision, reinstates this power in + the people themselves. + </p> + <p> + We are not seeking to introduce new restrictions but greater freedom. As + far as sex is concerned, the impulse has been more thoroughly subject to + restriction than any other human instinct. "Thou shalt not!" meets us at + every turn. Some of these restrictions are justified; some of them are + not. We may have but one wife or one husband at a time; we must attain a + certain age before we may marry. Children born out of wedlock are deemed + "illegitimate"—even healthy children. The newspapers every day are + filled with the scandals of those who have leaped over the restrictions or + limitations society has written in her sexual code. Yet the voluntary + control of the procreative powers, the rational regulation of the number + of children we bring into the world—this is the one type of + restriction frowned upon and prohibited by law! + </p> + <p> + In a more definite, a much more realistic and concrete manner, Birth + Control reveals itself as the most effective weapon in the spread of + hygienic and prophylactic knowledge among women of the less fortunate + classes. It carries with it a thorough training in bodily cleanliness and + physiology, a definite knowledge of the physiology and function of sex. In + refusing to teach both sides of the subject, in failing to respond to the + universal demand among women for such instruction and information, + maternity centers limit their own efforts and fail to fulfil what should + be their true mission. They are concerned merely with pregnancy, + maternity, child-bearing, the problem of keeping the baby alive. But any + effective work in this field must go further back. We have gradually come + to see, as Havelock Ellis has pointed out, that comparatively little can + be done by improving merely the living conditions of adults; that + improving conditions for children and babies is not enough. To combat the + evils of infant mortality, natal and pre-natal care is not sufficient. + Even to improve the conditions for the pregnant woman, is insufficient. + Necessarily and inevitably, we are led further and further back, to the + point of procreation; beyond that, into the regulation of sexual + selection. The problem becomes a circle. We cannot solve one part of it + without a consideration of the entirety. But it is especially at the point + of creation where all the various forces are concentrated. Conception must + be controlled by reason, by intelligence, by science, or we lose control + of all its consequences. + </p> + <p> + Birth Control is essentially an education for women. It is women who, + directly and by their very nature, bear the burden of that blindness, + ignorance and lack of foresight concerning sex which is now enforced by + law and custom. Birth Control places in the hands of women the only + effective instrument whereby they may reestablish the balance in society, + and assert, not only theoretically but practically as well, the primary + importance of the woman and the child in civilization. + </p> + <p> + Birth Control is thus the stimulus to education. Its exercise awakens and + develops the sense of self-reliance and responsibility, and illuminates + the relation of the individual to society and to the race in a manner that + otherwise remains vague and academic. It reveals sex not merely as an + untamed and insatiable natural force to which men and women must submit + hopelessly and inertly, as it sweeps through them, and then accept with + abject humility the hopeless and heavy consequences. Instead, it places in + their hands the power to control this great force; to use it, to direct it + into channels in which it becomes the energy enhancing their lives and + increasing self-expression and self-development. It awakens in women the + consciousness of new glories and new possibilities in motherhood. No + longer the prostrate victim of the blind play of instinct but the + self-reliant mistress of her body and her own will, the new mother finds + in her child the fulfilment of her own desires. In free instead of + compulsory motherhood she finds the avenue of her own development and + expression. No longer bound by an unending series of pregnancies, at + liberty to safeguard the development of her own children, she may now + extend her beneficent influence beyond her own home. In becoming thus + intensified, motherhood may also broaden and become more extensive as + well. The mother sees that the welfare of her own children is bound up + with the welfare of all others. Not upon the basis of sentimental charity + or gratuitous "welfare-work" but upon that of enlightened self-interest, + such a mother may exert her influence among the less fortunate and less + enlightened. + </p> + <p> + Unless based upon this central knowledge of and power over her own body + and her own instincts, education for woman is valueless. As long as she + remains the plaything of strong, uncontrolled natural forces, as long as + she must docilely and humbly submit to the decisions of others, how can + woman ever lay the foundations of self-respect, self-reliance and + independence? How can she make her own choice, exercise her own + discrimination, her own foresight? + </p> + <p> + In the exercise of these powers, in the building up and integration of her + own experience, in mastering her own environment the true education of + woman must be sought. And in the sphere of sex, the great source and root + of all human experience, it is upon the basis of Birth Control—the + voluntary direction of her own sexual expression—that woman must + take her first step in the assertion of freedom and self-respect. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (1) Folkways, p. 492. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XII: Woman and the Future + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + I saw a woman sleeping. In her sleep she dreamed Life stood + before her, and held in each hand a gift—in the one Love, in + the other Freedom. And she said to the woman, "Choose!" + + And the woman waited long: and she said, "Freedom!" + + And Life said, "Thou has well chosen. If thou hadst said, + `Love,' I would have given thee that thou didst ask for; and + I would have gone from thee, and returned to thee no more. + Now, the day will come when I shall return. In that day I + shall bear both gifts in one hand." + + I heard the woman laugh in her sleep. + + Olive Schreiner +</pre> + <p> + By no means is it necessary to look forward to some vague and distant date + of the future to test the benefits which the human race derives from the + program I have suggested in the preceding pages. The results to the + individual woman, to the family, and to the State, particularly in the + case of Holland, have already been investigated and recorded. Our + philosophy is no doctrine of escape from the immediate and pressing + realities of life, on the contrary, we say to men and women, and + particularly to the latter: face the realities of your own soul and body; + know thyself! And in this last admonition, we mean that this knowledge + should not consist of some vague shopworn generalities about the nature of + woman—woman as created in the minds of men, nor woman putting + herself on a romantic pedestal above the harsh facts of this workaday + world. Women can attain freedom only by concrete, definite knowledge of + themselves, a knowledge based on biology, physiology and psychology. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless it would be wrong to shut our eyes to the vision of a world + of free men and women, a world which would more closely resemble a garden + than the present jungle of chaotic conflicts and fears. One of the + greatest dangers of social idealists, to all of us who hope to make a + better world, is to seek refuge in highly colored fantasies of the future + rather than to face and combat the bitter and evil realities which to-day + on all sides confront us. I believe that the reader of my preceding + chapters will not accuse me of shirking these realities; indeed, he may + think that I have overemphasized the great biological problems of defect, + delinquency and bad breeding. It is in the hope that others too may + glimpse my vision of a world regenerated that I submit the following + suggestions. They are based on the belief that we must seek individual and + racial health not by great political or social reconstruction, but, + turning to a recognition of our own inherent powers and development, by + the release of our inner energies. It is thus that all of us can best aid + in making of this world, instead of a vale of tears, a garden. + </p> + <p> + Let us first of all consider merely from the viewpoint of business and + "efficiency" the biological or racial problems which confront us. As + Americans, we have of late made much of "efficiency" and business + organization. Yet would any corporation for one moment conduct its affairs + as we conduct the infinitely more important affairs of our civilization? + Would any modern stockbreeder permit the deterioration of his livestock as + we not only permit but positively encourage the destruction and + deterioration of the most precious, the most essential elements in our + world community—the mothers and children. With the mothers and + children thus cheapened, the next generation of men and women is + inevitably below par. The tendency of the human elements, under present + conditions, is constantly downward. + </p> + <p> + Turn to Robert M. Yerkes's "Psychological Examining in the United States + Army"(1) in which we are informed that the psychological examination of + the drafted men indicated that nearly half—47.3 per cent.—of + the population had the mentality of twelve-year-old children or less—in + other words that they are morons. Professor Conklin, in his recently + published volume "The Direction of Human Evolution"(2) is led, on the + findings of Mr. Yerkes's report, to assert: "Assuming that these drafted + men are a fair sample of the entire population of approximately + 100,000,000, this means that 45,000,000 or nearly one-half the entire + population, will never develop mental capacity beyond the stage + represented by a normal twelve-year-old child, and that only 13,500,000 + will ever show superior intelligence." + </p> + <p> + Making all due allowances for the errors and discrepancies of the + psychological examination, we are nevertheless face to face with a serious + and destructive practice. Our "overhead" expense in segregating the + delinquent, the defective and the dependent, in prisons, asylums and + permanent homes, our failure to segregate morons who are increasing and + multiplying—I have sufficiently indicated, though in truth I have + merely scratched the surface of this international menace—demonstrate + our foolhardy and extravagant sentimentalism. No industrial corporation + could maintain its existence upon such a foundation. Yet hardheaded + "captains of industry," financiers who pride themselves upon their + cool-headed and keen-sighted business ability are dropping millions into + rosewater philanthropies and charities that are silly at best and vicious + at worst. In our dealings with such elements there is a bland + maladministration and misuse of huge sums that should in all righteousness + be used for the development and education of the healthy elements of the + community. + </p> + <p> + At the present time, civilized nations are penalizing talent and genius, + the bearers of the torch of civilization, to coddle and perpetuate the + choking human undergrowth, which, as all authorities tell us, is escaping + control and threatens to overrun the whole garden of humanity. Yet men + continue to drug themselves with the opiate of optimism, or sink back upon + the cushions of Christian resignation, their intellectual powers + anaesthetized by cheerful platitudes. Or else, even those, who are fully + cognizant of the chaos and conflict, seek an escape in those pretentious + but fundamentally fallacious social philosophies which place the blame for + contemporary world misery upon anybody or anything except the indomitable + but uncontrolled instincts of living organisms. These men fight with + shadows and forget the realities of existence. Too many centuries have we + sought to hide from the inevitable, which confronts us at every step + throughout life. + </p> + <p> + Let us conceive for the moment at least, a world not burdened by the + weight of dependent and delinquent classes, a total population of mature, + intelligent, critical and expressive men and women. Instead of the inert, + exploitable, mentally passive class which now forms the barren substratum + of our civilization, try to imagine a population active, resistant, + passing individual and social lives of the most contented and healthy + sort. Would such men and women, liberated from our endless, unceasing + struggle against mass prejudice and inertia, be deprived in any way of the + stimulating zest of life? Would they sink into a slough of complacency and + fatuity? + </p> + <p> + No! Life for them would be enriched, intensified and ennobled in a fashion + it is difficult for us in our spiritual and physical squalor even to + imagine. There would be a new renaissance of the arts and sciences. + Awakened at last to the proximity of the treasures of life lying all about + them, the children of that age would be inspired by a spirit of adventure + and romance that would indeed produce a terrestrial paradise. + </p> + <p> + Let us look forward to this great release of creative and constructive + energy, not as an idle, vacuous mirage, but as a promise which we, as the + whole human race, have it in our power, in the very conduct of our lives + from day to day, to transmute into a glorious reality. Let us look forward + to that era, perhaps not so distant as we believe, when the great + adventures in the enchanted realm of the arts and sciences may no longer + be the privilege of a gifted few, but the rightful heritage of a race of + genius. In such a world men and women would no longer seek escape from + themselves by the fantastic and the faraway. They would be awakened to the + realization that the source of life, of happiness, is to be found not + outside themselves, but within, in the healthful exercise of their + God-given functions. The treasures of life are not hidden; they are close + at hand, so close that we overlook them. We cheat ourselves with a pitiful + fear of ourselves. Men and women of the future will not seek happiness; + they will have gone beyond it. Mere happiness would produce monotony. And + their lives shall be lives of change and variety with the thrills produced + by experiment and research. + </p> + <p> + Fear will have been abolished: first of all, the fear of outside things + and other people; finally the fear of oneself. And with these fears must + disappear forever all those poisons of hatreds, individual and + international. For the realization would come that there would be no + reason for, no value in encroaching upon, the freedom of one another. + To-day we are living in a world which is like a forest of trees too + thickly planted. Hence the ferocious, unending struggle for existence. + Like innumerable ages past, the present age is one of mutual destruction. + Our aim is to substitute cooperation, equity, and amity for antagonism and + conflict. If the aim of our country or our civilization is to attain a + hollow, meaningless superiority over others in aggregate wealth and + population, it may be sound policy to shut our eyes to the sacrifice of + human life,—unregarded life and suffering—and to stimulate + rapid procreation. But even so, such a policy is bound in the long run to + defeat itself, as the decline and fall of great civilizations of the past + emphatically indicate. Even the bitterest opponent of our ideals would + refuse to subscribe to a philosophy of mere quantity, of wealth and + population lacking in spiritual direction or significance. All of us hope + for and look forward to the fine flowering of human genius—of genius + not expending and dissipating its energy in the bitter struggle for mere + existence, but developing to a fine maturity, sustained and nourished by + the soil of active appreciation, criticism, and recognition. + </p> + <p> + Not by denying the central and basic biological facts of our nature, not + by subscribing to the glittering but false values of any philosophy or + program of escape, not by wild Utopian dreams of the brotherhood of men, + not by any sanctimonious debauch of sentimentality or religiosity, may we + accomplish the first feeble step toward liberation. On the contrary, only + by firmly planting our feet on the solid ground of scientific fact may we + even stand erect—may we even rise from the servile stooping posture + of the slave, borne down by the weight of age-old oppression. + </p> + <p> + In looking forward to this radiant release of the inner energies of a + regenerated humanity, I am not thinking merely of inventions and + discoveries and the application of these to the perfecting of the external + and mechanical details of social life. This external and scientific + perfecting of the mechanism of external life is a phenomenon we are to a + great extent witnessing today. But in a deeper sense this tendency can be + of no true or lasting value if it cannot be made to subserve the + biological and spiritual development of the human organism, individual and + collective. Our great problem is not merely to perfect machinery, to + produce superb ships, motor cars or great buildings, but to remodel the + race so that it may equal the amazing progress we see now making in the + externals of life. We must first free our bodies from disease and + predisposition to disease. We must perfect these bodies and make them fine + instruments of the mind and the spirit. Only thus, when the body becomes + an aid instead of a hindrance to human expression may we attain any + civilization worthy of the name. Only thus may we create our bodies a + fitting temple for the soul, which is nothing but a vague unreality except + insofar as it is able to manifest itself in the beauty of the concrete. + </p> + <p> + Once we have accomplished the first tentative steps toward the creation of + a real civilization, the task of freeing the spirit of mankind from the + bondage of ignorance, prejudice and mental passivity which is more + fettering now than ever in the history of humanity, will be facilitated a + thousand-fold. The great central problem, and one which must be taken + first is the abolition of the shame and fear of sex. We must teach men the + overwhelming power of this radiant force. We must make them understand + that uncontrolled, it is a cruel tyrant, but that controlled and directed, + it may be used to transmute and sublimate the everyday world into a realm + of beauty and joy. Through sex, mankind may attain the great spiritual + illumination which will transform the world, which will light up the only + path to an earthly paradise. So must we necessarily and inevitably + conceive of sex-expression. The instinct is here. None of us can avoid it. + It is in our power to make it a thing of beauty and a joy forever: or to + deny it, as have the ascetics of the past, to revile this expression and + then to pay the penalty, the bitter penalty that Society to-day is paying + in innumerable ways. + </p> + <p> + If I am criticized for the seeming "selfishness" of this conception it + will be through a misunderstanding. The individual is fulfiling his duty + to society as a whole by not self-sacrifice but by self-development. He + does his best for the world not by dying for it, not by increasing the sum + total of misery, disease and unhappiness, but by increasing his own + stature, by releasing a greater energy, by being active instead of + passive, creative instead of destructive. This is fundamentally the + greatest truth to be discovered by womankind at large. And until women are + awakened to their pivotal function in the creation of a new civilization, + that new era will remain an impossible and fantastic dream. The new + civilization can become a glorious reality only with the awakening of + woman's now dormant qualities of strength, courage, and vigor. As a great + thinker of the last century pointed out, not only to her own health and + happiness is the physical degeneracy of woman destructive, but to our + whole race. The physical and psychic power of woman is more indispensable + to the well-being and power of the human race than that even of man, for + the strength and happiness of the child is more organically united with + that of the mother. + </p> + <p> + Parallel with the awakening of woman's interest in her own fundamental + nature, in her realization that her greatest duty to society lies in + self-realization, will come a greater and deeper love for all of humanity. + For in attaining a true individuality of her own she will understand that + we are all individuals, that each human being is essentially implicated in + every question or problem which involves the well-being of the humblest of + us. So to-day we are not to meet the great problems of defect and + delinquency in any merely sentimental or superficial manner, but with the + firmest and most unflinching attitude toward the true interest of our + fellow beings. It is from no mere feeling of brotherly love or sentimental + philanthropy that we women must insist upon enhancing the value of child + life. It is because we know that, if our children are to develop to their + full capabilities, all children must be assured a similar opportunity. + Every single case of inherited defect, every malformed child, every + congenitally tainted human being brought into this world is of infinite + importance to that poor individual; but it is of scarcely less importance + to the rest of us and to all of our children who must pay in one way or + another for these biological and racial mistakes. We look forward in our + vision of the future to children brought into the world because they are + desired, called from the unknown by a fearless and conscious passion, + because women and men need children to complete the symmetry of their own + development, no less than to perpetuate the race. They shall be called + into a world enhanced and made beautiful by the spirit of freedom and + romance—into a world wherein the creatures of our new day, + unhampered and unbound by the sinister forces of prejudice and immovable + habit, may work out their own destinies. Perhaps we may catch fragmentary + glimpses of this new life in certain societies of the past, in Greece + perhaps; but in all of these past civilizations these happy groups formed + but a small exclusive section of the population. To-day our task is + greater; for we realize that no section of humanity can be reclaimed + without the regeneration of the whole. + </p> + <p> + I look, therefore, into a Future when men and women will not dissipate + their energy in the vain and fruitless search for content outside of + themselves, in far-away places or people. Perfect masters of their own + inherent powers, controlled with a fine understanding of the art of life + and of love, adapting themselves with pliancy and intelligence to the + milieu in which they find themselves, they will unafraid enjoy life to the + utmost. Women will for the first time in the unhappy history of this globe + establish a true equilibrium and "balance of power" in the relation of the + sexes. The old antagonism will have disappeared, the old ill-concealed + warfare between men and women. For the men themselves will comprehend that + in this cultivation of the human garden they will be rewarded a thousand + times. Interest in the vague sentimental fantasies of extra-mundane + existence, in pathological or hysterical flights from the realities of our + earthliness, will have through atrophy disappeared, for in that dawn men + and women will have come to the realization, already suggested, that here + close at hand is our paradise, our everlasting abode, our Heaven and our + eternity. Not by leaving it and our essential humanity behind us, nor by + sighing to be anything but what we are, shall we ever become ennobled or + immortal. Not for woman only, but for all of humanity is this the field + where we must seek the secret of eternal life. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (1) Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences. Volume + XV. + + (2) Conklin, The Direction of Human Evolution. "When it is + remembered that mental capacity is inherited, that parents + of low intelligence generally produce children of low + intelligence, and that on the average they have more + children than persons of high intelligence, and furthermore, + when we consider that the intellectual capacity or `mental + age' can be changed very little by education, we are in a + position to appreciate the very serious condition which + confronts us as a nation." p. 108. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPE" id="link2H_APPE"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PRINCIPLES AND AIMS OF THE AMERICAN BIRTH CONTROL LEAGUE + </h2> + <p> + PRINCIPLES: + </p> + <p> + The complex problems now confronting America as the result of the practice + of reckless procreation are fast threatening to grow beyond human control. + </p> + <p> + Everywhere we see poverty and large families going hand in hand. Those + least fit to carry on the race are increasing most rapidly. People who + cannot support their own offspring are encouraged by Church and State to + produce large families. Many of the children thus begotten are diseased or + feeble-minded; many become criminals. The burden of supporting these + unwanted types has to be bourne by the healthy elements of the nation. + Funds that should be used to raise the standard of our civilization are + diverted to the maintenance of those who should never have been born. + </p> + <p> + In addition to this grave evil we witness the appalling waste of women's + health and women's lives by too frequent pregnancies. These unwanted + pregnancies often provoke the crime of abortion, or alternatively multiply + the number of child-workers and lower the standard of living. + </p> + <p> + To create a race of well born children it is essential that the function + of motherhood should be elevated to a position of dignity, and this is + impossible as long as conception remains a matter of chance. + </p> + <p> + We hold that children should be + </p> + <p> + 1. Conceived in love; + </p> + <p> + 2. Born of the mother's conscious desire; + </p> + <p> + 3. And only begotten under conditions which render possible the heritage + of health. + </p> + <p> + Therefore we hold that every woman must possess the power and freedom to + prevent conception except when these conditions can be satisfied. + </p> + <p> + Every mother must realize her basic position in human society. She must be + conscious of her responsibility to the race in bringing children into the + world. + </p> + <p> + Instead of being a blind and haphazard consequence of uncontrolled + instinct, motherhood must be made the responsible and self-directed means + of human expression and regeneration. + </p> + <p> + These purposes, which are of fundamental importance to the whole of our + nation and to the future of mankind, can only be attained if women first + receive practical scientific education in the means of Birth Control. + That, therefore, is the first object to which the efforts of this League + will be directed. + </p> + <p> + AIMS: + </p> + <p> + The American Birth Control League aims to enlighten and educate all + sections of the American public in the various aspects of the dangers of + uncontrolled procreation and the imperative necessity of a world program + of Birth Control. + </p> + <p> + The League aims to correlate the findings of scientists, statisticians, + investigators, and social agencies in all fields. To make this possible, + it is necessary to organize various departments: + </p> + <p> + RESEARCH: To collect the findings of scientists, concerning the relation + of reckless breeding to the evils of delinquency, defect and dependence. + </p> + <p> + INVESTIGATION: To derive from these scientifically ascertained facts and + figures, conclusions which may aid all public health and social agencies + in the study of problems of maternal and infant mortality, child-labor, + mental and physical defects and delinquence in relation to the practice of + reckless parentage. + </p> + <p> + HYGIENIC AND PHYSIOLOGICAL instruction by the Medical profession to + mothers and potential mothers in harmless and reliable methods of Birth + Control in answer to their requests for such knowledge. + </p> + <p> + STERILIZATION of the insane and feebleminded and the encouragement of this + operation upon those afflicted with inherited or transmissible diseases, + with the understanding that sterilization does not deprive the individual + of his or her sex expression, but merely renders him incapable of + producing children. + </p> + <p> + EDUCATIONAL: The program of education includes: The enlightenment of the + public at large, mainly through the education of leaders of thought and + opinion—teachers, ministers, editors and writers—to the moral + and scientific soundness of the principles of Birth Control and the + imperative necessity of its adoption as the basis of national and racial + progress. + </p> + <p> + POLITICAL AND LEGISLATIVE: To enlist the support and cooperation of legal + advisers, statesmen and legislators in effecting the removal of state and + federal statutes which encourage dysgenic breeding, increase the sum total + of disease, misery and poverty and prevent the establishment of a policy + of national health and strength. + </p> + <p> + ORGANIZATION: To send into the various States of the Union field workers + to enlist the support and arouse the interest of the masses, to the + importance of Birth Control so that laws may be changed and the + establishment of clinics made possible in every State. + </p> + <p> + INTERNATIONAL: This department aims to cooperate with similar + organizations in other countries to study Birth Control in its relations + to the world population problem, food supplies, national and racial + conflicts, and to urge upon all international bodies organized to promote + world peace, the consideration of these aspects of international amity. + </p> + <p> + THE AMERICAN BIRTH CONTROL LEAGUE proposes to publish in its official + organ "The Birth Control Review," reports and studies on the relationship + of controlled and uncontrolled populations to national and world problems. + </p> + <p> + The American Birth Control League also proposes to hold an annual + Conference to bring together the workers of the various departments so + that each worker may realize the inter-relationship of all the various + phases of the problem to the end that National education will tend to + encourage and develop the powers of self-direction, self-reliance, and + independence in the individuals of the community instead of dependence for + relief upon public or private charities. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Pivot of Civilization, by Margaret Sanger + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PIVOT OF CIVILIZATION *** + +***** This file should be named 1689-h.htm or 1689-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/8/1689/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer, Dan Muller, and David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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