The age-herald., 1902-02-09
"Too Many Babies in the World
 SAYS SUSAN B. ANTHONY.

Ocean.
 Rochester, N Y.-According to Miss Susan B. Anthony. the welfare of the American people demands that thye shall have fewer children and better bred ones. Miss Anthony is firmly convinced that many of the miseries of life arise from the reckless propagation of humanity. II men and women had a better perception of the criminality of bringing children into the world whom they are unable to care for and educate as they should Miss Anthony thinks they would limit their offsprings in number. The venerable champion of woman suffrage also con demns large families on the ground that 1t is cruelty to woman to condemn her to the bearing and rearing of children for years during the flower of her life. She says that men have no right to marry unless they are fulyl capable of support ing a wife and thinks divorce is good thing as offering a chance for women to escape from bonds that are intolerable and that they should never have assum- ed.
 These expressions of opinion were pro-
  of a woman caller the other day who told her as an alarming piece of news that the statistics of the city showed mark ed falling off in the number of marriages.
 "WeI, what If they do?" quered Miss Anthony, and without waiting TOT an answer she continued I'm glad of 1t. There ought to be fewer marriages and fewer children.
 Look at the jails and the almshouse and asylums," Miss Anthony continued l .sand tell me if there are not people there l whom we could have spared! 1T there are fewer marriages being made and fewer children being born, I say it is well that it should be so until we shall have learn | ed to avoid these mistakes which take 1 the form of human monstrosities morally, mentally, and physically. s. szt-
 '.They are raising a great hue and cry | the length and breadth of the land,, see, l that college women do not marry. IT | education does have a. deterrent enect 1 on matrimony, l am glad or t-under l existing conditions; but let me tell you l fl Is not the fault of the women. College 1 women would marry just like other wo- men if there were men fit for them to 1 marry. The men have only themselves to blame It lies with them to correct the condition of which they complain. l The trouble is that they are not the equal | of college women in morals and decency.
 "To many of thme are not worthy to be husbands and fathers and the intelligent women of the present day are finding 1t out Girls today know more than they used to- Their eyes are open; that Is all 1 They realize that 1t Is better not to marry at all than to not marry we'll.
 And when they do marry, intelligent men and women both are coming to know that it isn't by bringing baby into the world every year that they are doing society the greatest service The young marired people of good sense whom know are now limiting their families to two and three children. They ought to. It's a sin for men and women to have more children than they can properly care for. John Stuart Miu it was who said, Better have one and that one lion, than to have a score of jackasses."
 Look at the forlorn little creatures that run the streets and alleys of the big cities.'' Miss Anthony went on in an earnest voice, "The tensments teem with children where children can lease be afforded. I, wicked. I say. that they should be brought into the world like that to starve and steal and turn criminals, This problem of too many children i
 largely a problem of the slums. Edu- cated people, for the most part, now know better and do better.
 Miss Anthony further maintained that too large families are not only wrong to the children, but wrong as well to | the mothers who must spend the prime l of their life in toll and worry that make them old before their time. If you want to know the effect of overmuch child bearing on the health of women, she points out, just look back to the day of the Pilgrim aFthers and the Puritans Nearly all of them had two or three wives apiece in the course of their lives, because the women who furnished them with families of ten and thirteen children l died one after another. The chief diff l ference between them and the Mormons, | as Ben Butler said. was that they drove l their wives tandem. while the Mormons l drive theirs abreast.
 A great advance has been made, Miss 1 Anthony thinks, now that even part of society has some to realize that the pro- pagation of the human species should Dc inteligently directed Less than twenty five years ago 1t was subject that was tabooed in conversation and drowned upon by the clergy. Men took the greatest pains in the breeding of their horses. their dogs and their hogs but their children were left to chance. Fortunately today she says, there is an increasing proportion of intelligent people who are coming to believe otherwise.
 People who haven't got good health have no right to marry" declares Miss Anthony, "and people who haven't the money to support a family have no bus mess to marry A woman's a fool to become the wife of a man who can't take carel of her. Yet women who ought to know better do that thing. There Is an eminent literary woman of my acquaint- ance who paid for her husbands wedding | coat Then she bore him four children | and supported them all by her own exer- | tions.
 | Marriages aren't made in heaven. | There are too many of them made In the l other place that's the antipodes of heav- | en, if you judge by the results. And for | this kind, divorce is the only remedy. I | believe in divorce. It's the same salvation to women that Canada was to the fugi- | tive slaves. But don't think I oppose marriage. I believe in it. but I believe | that the relation should be wisely regl- lated. Let men learn to be ruled by their | judgment.
 q know there are people who will say I'm unscriptural, and who will quote the 1 Bible to uphold their theory of the more | babies the better I expect they may even call my advice blasphemy. " ell, let thme. Some time the world will see the error of that. Once upon a time public opinion lifted its hands in horror at the practice of vaccination to prevent smallpox. It was interfering with Di- vine will, the people said, and Lady Mary MonfaQ1la uh ipfroducad uocct-