The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-07-08
NO MORAL RIGHT
TO INSIST UPON
EUGEN|C MATING
Episcopal Ministers Ex-
plain Their Opposition
to New Idea.
UNSANCTIONED BY
CHURCH OR STATE
Dissenting Clergymen Believe
Provisions Will Prove Often
sive, Inquisitorial and HUI
initiating, and Suggest
Antivice Legislation
as Substitute.

Setting forth their reasons for de-
clining to join in the eugenic mar
riage program indorsed by brother min
listers In this city and by tho council
of the church In Virginia, eight Epis-
copal clergymen of Richmond. In a
statement to The Times Dispatch last
night, denounce the new movement as
unBound morally. offensive. inQuisito-
rial and humiliating.
The statement presents a side OF the
case which has been littlo heard in
the almost universal acclaim that has
been accorded the pure marriage move
ment by the press and public of Nir-
ginia. 1t questions the wisdom OF
adopting a practice which, II is claim
ed. Is sanctioned neither by the church
or State, however worthy may be its
cnd- and recommends as worthy sub
stitute corrective Legislation aimed at
publicly tolerated vice.
Statement by Ministers.
Tho statement in full follows:
We, clergymen of tho Episcopal
Church In tho city of Richmond, whose
names are signed below, desire TO mako
public our reasons for declining to in
dorse and be governed by the paper
recently put forth by certain OF our
clerical brethren, in which they declare
that after October l next they Will not
unite In marriage any couple unless
the man TO be married shall present
from the brides physician. or from one
certified to by him, a certificate de-
ella ring himself free from any communi-
cable disease OF immoral origin. We
declined to indorse our brethren's po-
sition because we do not believe any
body of clerRymen have a moral right to
bind themselves by any compact or
rule of action in regard to the sacred
right OF matrimony which has no sane
tion In the law OF either the church or
the State. however desirable may be
the end they have In View. We de-
clined because we believe their posi-
tion Is in its nature inQuisitorial in
that II assumes every man to be guilty
until he proves his Innocence In It's
application II would be humiliatng and
offensive to the point Of being Insult
ing to men who were pure and clean,
and that few of them would submit to
such an indiGnity In its effect as to
preventing the marriage OF single
tainted man II would he absolutely nil.
May Bc Worthless.
We protest against the demand for
a certificate because the certificate, II
obtained, will in the opinion of certain
prominent physicians be valueless. be-
cause such is the nature OF the disease
sought for that the man may have II
and yet IT oftener than otherwise es-
capes detection In spite of the most
rigid examination even by an expert.
To insist SO strenuously upon certif-
IL
rule, not be worth the paper II Is yrrit
ten on. seems to such an utterly
inadequate means of reaching the diff
hculty as to be simply unworthy OF our
approval.
In the next place. according to the
same physicians referred to above, the
examination. If properly made. will
cost something like s25. This Is to
put a kind OF embargo on religious
marriage; 1t Is to discourage rather
than to encourage 1t; it means that no
poor man shall receive upon his mar
rage the blessing of God as given by
The Episcopal Church. and 1t lays the
church open to the false charge OF being
a church only for the rich Then,
again. the details OF the examination.
IL thorough, are such as to be unit for
print, and as we have said, no clean,
self-respecting man Is going to sub
nit to what he must consider an In
dignity. and no woman who really
loves and trusts the man she IS going
to marry Will dream OF demanding it,
especially when they both realize how
little, IL any, good can come out of II,
and that IL is rather the compliance
with the injudicious demands of certain
clergymen.
Discredits Medical Fraternity.
Then further II casts discredit upon
the medical fraternity. and we are not
willing to subscribe to that even by
implication. Under the resolution re-
ferred to above. no physician is to be
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