Los Angeles herald., 1907-08-09
BOSTON DOCTOR WOULD
LIMIT ALL MARRIAGES
OPPOSES UNION OF UNFIT AND
DISEASED
Says Medical Examination Should
Precede All Weddings and Lie
censes Be Issued Only to
the Healthy
Special to The Herald.

Special to The Herald.
BOSTON, Aug. S-The theory of the
survival of the flttest has new cham
plon. One who carries it to such de-
gree that the believer can well see the
perfect race of the future becoming pos
sible. A race where there are no imbe-
Giles, no idiots, no criminals, no deformed
people-only men and women that are
built after the fashion of the Greek gods
who are superb animals with superb
minds and souls that are Incompetent
sble to the present day generation.
DIR. Andrew Christian of 401 Marlboro
street is the exponent of this idea-the
man who has conceived it clearly and
believes that 1t is possible of attainment.
1t means that a great number of the
worlds population should die loveless;
that some part of them should be quietly
aborted in infancy. 1t means that no man
can wed a maid unless her ancestors have
been clean-lived people, and his also, so
that there will be no fear of an inherited
taint.
1t means that every family shall have
a genealogical tree, but the tree will tell
of lives and tendencies and diseases, in
stead of titles; and it means band OF
men who will have charge of the records
and decide whether a loving pair may
marry or whether one or both shall be
placed in an institution where they shall
be cared for, but kept apart.
The Originator of The Idea
The conception is so stupendously
overwhelming in its newness and It's
breadth that it makes one breathless-
And yet there are gerat possibilities for
good which become evident as DR..
Christian expands his ideas.
He himself is big and athletie-a
- o1,A Txrh
thought along new lines, who talks of
it all convincingly, and whose very per-
sonality carries conviction of what he
says.
"a board of overseers of marriages.
that is what we want" said he, as ne
sat in his study on Marlboro street
"The race is degenersting, and some
radical change must be MADE soon OF
we will in time have only idiots ana
imbeciles.
Just take for example what Luther
Burbank has accomplished with the
flowers. Even more can be done with
human beings and greater results OBJ
tanned.
"Only the fit should marry-only
those who are mentally and physlcally
normal and sane-those whose ances-
tors were clean of life and well-bal-
anced mentally
"These are not things that the people
themselves can determine
"a man would very likely not have
the will power to leave the woman that
he loved because her parents might
have given her tendencies toward In
sanity or immortality or physical dis
ability. and it is more than possible
that at the present value of things
there are few people in the world, men
or women, who would not run their
chances on coming out all right.
THAT is the selfish standpoint. Every
child has the right to be born under
right conditions, with as nearly per1ect
mother and father, mentally and physl-
cally. as possible. 1t is the heritage
of every child; and the man or the wo-
man who cheats their children of that
heritage is committing double crime
one against the child and one against
society.
But as long as people are weak
and those who need reaching are the
weakest of alive should have board
of overseers for marriages 1T should
be composed of men who understand
thoroughly physiology psychology ana
sociology. | should think that board
of doctors, who were appointed by the
state, would be best. These DOCTORS
would have lists of the people IN that
state and SO far as possible, OIL tne an
cestry of the people.
eft would take some time to get these
lists made out and at first it would be
best to let this board have certain
period of time to look the individuals
up before deciding whether they were MT
to marry
1.-TWO things would be taken into con-
sideration, heredity and personal habits.
| If it was found that one or more of the
ancestors had diseases which could be
| inherited. or tendencies to insanity, these
| two persons applying for permission to
marry would be refused.
physical diseases in the parent often
result in mental diseases in the child.
The physical disease in the parent often
causes a foreign growth to appear on the
brain of child, and that child is de-
generate or has criminal tendencies be-
cause it can't help itself.
There is more than one way of guard
ing these persons who are unfit for mar
riage. One would be to have them put
in some sort of an institution and kept